When was Jesus born?
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Today I wanted to write about something a bit more cheerful than my last two posts. We are in the middle of the holiday season, less than two weeks away from Christmas. I think we all know that that it is not possible that Jesus was born in December. I think we can get a better idea of His actual birth by examining John the Baptist for more is written about him in scripture in this respect than Jesus. I do not claim that this is completely accurate and in the end, it really does not matter when Jesus was born. The fact that He was born, died and resurrected is what is important. I just wanted to write about something a bit more cheerful and have some fun 
When was Jesus born?
John the Baptist’s mother, Elizabeth, did not conceive until after Zacharias completed his temple service. He belonged to the order of Abijah (Luke Chapter 1). It was during his service at the Temple when he was told by an angel of the Lord that he would have a child. After his time of service was over he returned home and his wife conceived. Here is where it gets a bit tricky because Luke does not tell us when his Temple service was completed. The clue really lies with Zacharias belonging to the order of Abijah. The Old Testament provides some answers. 1 Chronicles 24:10 lists Abijah as drawing lot number 8. All the divisions of the sons of Aaron were 24 and were divided as such. Zacharias according to Luke Chapter 1 is from Abijah.
Each group was required to serve from Sabbath to Sabbath consecutively. Now we’re going to get a bit trickier for we need to use the Jewish calendar, not ours. Here is a Jewish calendar which lists the number of days in the Jewish calendar and our corresponding months. This will make things a bit easier to understand. Nissan is the first month of the year.
Nissan (30 days) March-April
Iyar (29 days) April-May
Sivan (30 days) May-June
Tammuz (29 days) June-July
Av (30 days) July-August
Elul (29 days) August-September
Tishri (30 days) September-October
Cheshvan (29 or 30 days) October-November
Kislev (30 or 29 days) November-December
Tevet (29 days) December-January
Shevat (30 days) January-February
Adar I (leap years only, 30 days) February-March
Adar (called Adar Beit in leap years, 13 in leap years 29 days) February-March
The first priest would begin their temple service in Nissan. The length of service was seven days (Sabbath to Sabbath). By the time the eighth week rolled around, it was time for Abijah. There were twenty-four sons of Aaron so each order would serve twice a year. Not only that but they all served the major festivals. Their regular duties would be twice a year. Abijah’s time of service rolled around in the month of Sivan, the second shift or the second week.
Zacharias did not return until the end of the second week of Sivan which I guess is the end of our calendar month April. Now back to Luke, Chapter 1. In verse 26, Elizabeth is 6 months pregnant and it was at that time that Mary was told by Gabriel that she would conceive. We don’t know the time frame from when she was told to the time she conceived but what we do know from scripture is that Mary was pregnant when she went to see Elizabeth and she was already six months along in her pregnancy. Jesus was conceived no sooner than six months into the pregnancy of Elizabeth which puts it at Kislev (November/December) or when Mary was conceived Jesus. Now it’s simple arithmetic, just count nine months from Kislev. Jesus was likely born in Tishri as it is likely that it would have been later rather than sooner. We have to remember that Zacharias’s service was the eighth lot and he would have began and ended his service later in the month. It was after his service that Elizabeth conceived.
It seems likely, based on the dates of John the Baptist’s conception and birth that Jesus was born sometime towards the middle of Tishri which would make it late September or early October.
Lastly, Jesus was born in a manger because there was no room in any inn as all the people were traveling to register. They were an agricultural society and it is unlikely that they would have the people travel in the middle of winter when traveling would be extremely difficult for people. We can also get a gauge of the time of the year for there were shepherds out tending to their flock. This certainly lines up with Tishri which is September-October.
As I said at the beginning of my post, it really does not matter when He was born. If God wanted us to know, He would have told us. I wanted to have a little fun trying to figure out what essentially is unimportant in the scheme of things. But it is Christmas related since it deals with the birth of our Lord.
During this season, our reflection should be on Him who came to save that which is lost. The Word became flesh, took our penalty of sin upon Himself, died in our stead, and rose. He secured salvation for all that would believe on Him. Hallelujah.
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Great info,and it’s so helpful thanks for sharing and as you said it matters not when Jesus was born all that’s important is that Jesus suffered,died and rose again “Hallelujah” “Praise God” for his perfect gift to us that believe. Have a lovely day Trishrei.
Hi
I agree, it does not matter what time of year He was born. We can praise God that He was born, died and rose, thus securing salvation for those that put their faith in Him.
p.s. I really like your new avatar. It’s a great photo
Tishrei,
All the math boggles my mind!..
But, a few years ago, I read something else on the web that agrees with you on an approximate date of October….. However, their line of thought was a bit different….. From what I recall, they noted that all of our Christian celebrations fall on a day of Jewish celebration — Passover, Good Friday, Easter, Pentecost, etc….. The one Jewish festival that does not have a Christian correlation is the Feast of Tabernacles — in October, of course….. From there they lined up how a Feast of Tabernacles birth date would be biblically appropriate.
Now you can check this one out…..
Great thinking — and it’s always good to realize that Christ’s coming should be celebrated in our hearts year around.
Margaret
Hi Margaret, yeah, it was a bit technical. I didn’t come up with this all on my own from scratch. I had heard a sermon at church years ago so with that memory, I kind of had to reconstruct it which was a bit time consuming.
But I had fun doing this post.
And yes, yes, yes — Christ’s coming should be celebrated in our hearts year round!!!
Very interesting. I had never heard anyone use the timing of Zacharias’ service in the Temple to calculate the time of John the Baptist’s and Jesus’ birth, but the reasoning makes sense.
Obviously, like you said, it doesn’t really matter, but it is fascinating (to me, anyway), nonetheless.
Thanks for sharing this!
LOL, it was probably a very complicated way to go about it and I am sure there is an easier way. I heard a sermon at church many years ago that discussed it from this point of view (as I mentioned to Margaret) so I did not come up with this on my own. However it was so many years ago that I had to reconstruct the time-line and it took me forever to do it. I just remembered that the pastor talked about Zacharias and when he would have served in the temple and from there he was able to make a calculation when John the Baptist was conceived. Once I got to that point, it was not that difficult. Praise God for e-sword — that’s how I was able to do this. In any event, and like you said, it doesn’t matter when it He was born, just that He was and secured our redemption.
Tishrei,
Great article. It’s come into the public thinking that Jesus was born in the Spring. We just saw this referred to on a recent episode of “Bones” where one of the characters refused to celebrate Christmas until April. This never made sense to me but I hadn’t been moved to research it. Now I don’t have to
.
Thanks!
In Christ,
Kent
Hi Kent,
I’ve heard the spring timing as well. It does not really matter when He was born because He was born exactly when He was supposed to be born and it’s not important that we know otherwise it would be in scripture. The Jews didn’t celebrate birthdays at all back then. That is a day that came and went just like any other day. Since man has chosen December 25 as the day to honor His birth, that’s just fine, LOL. Christians corporately honor His birth on this day and it makes more sense than each of us doing it on different days when we think He was born.
Merry Christmas!