When were Jesus and John the Baptist born?

Summary

References

Remaining out of doors, under the open sky, with their flocks. This was commonly done. The climate was mild, and, to keep their flocks from straying, they spent the night with them. It is also a fact that the Jews sent out their flocks into the mountainious and desert regions during the summer months, and took them up in the latter part of October or the first of November, when the cold weather commenced. While away in these deserts and mountainous regions, it was proper that there should be some one to attend them to keep them from straying, and from the ravages of wolves and other wild beasts. It is probable from this that our Saviour was born before the 25th of December, or before what we call Christmas. At that time it is cold, and especially in the high and mountainous regions about Bethlehem.

It was a custom among the Jews to send out their sheep to the deserts, about the passover, and bring them home at the commencement of the first rain: during the time they were out, the shepherds watched them night and day. As the passover occurred in the spring, and the first rain began early in the month of Marchesvan, which answers to part of our October and November, we find that the sheep were kept out in the open country during the whole of the summer. And as these shepherds had not yet brought home their flocks, it is a presumptive argument that October had not yet commenced, and that, consequently, our Lord was not born on the 25th of December, when no flocks were out in the fields; nor could he have been born later than September, as the flocks were still in the fields by night. On this very ground the nativity in December should be given up. The feeding of the flocks by night in the fields is a chronological fact, which casts considerable light upon this disputed point.

From about passover time in April until autumn, the flocks pastured constantly in the open fields, the shepherds lodging there all that time. (From this it seems plain that the "traditional" church calendar assigned our Lord's birth too late).

... it is not likely that he was born, as is commonly received, at the latter end of December, in the depth of winter; since at this time, shepherds were out in the fields, where they lodged all night, watching their flocks: ... The first rain is in the month Marchesvan, which answers to the latter part of our October, and the former part of November; and of this sort, seem to be the flocks those shepherds were keeping by night, the time not being yet come, of their being brought into the city: from whence it appears, that Christ must be born before the middle of October, since the first rain was not yet come; ...

From many ancient writings, considerable is learned of this man, who started the great organized worldly apostasy from God that has dominated this world until now. Nimrod was so evil, it is said he married his own mother, whose name was Semiramis. After Nimrod's untimely death, his so-called mother-wife, Semiramis, propagated the evil doctrine of the survival of Nimrod as a spirit being. She claimed a full-grown evergreen tree sprang overnight from a dead tree stump, which symbolized the springing forth unto new life of the dead Nimrod. On each anniversary of his birth, she claimed, Nimrod would visit the evergreen tree and leave gifts upon it. December 25th, was the birthday of Nimrod. This is the real origin of the Christmas tree.

"Traditionally, a yule log was burned in the fireplace on Christmas Eve and during the night as the log's embers died, there appeared in the room, as if by magic, a Christmas tree surrounded by gifts. The yule log represented the sun-god Nimrod and the Christmas tree represented himself resurrected as his own son Tammuz." quote from "After Armageddon -Chapter 4 Where do we get our ideas? by John A. Sarkett"

Her new son was named Tammuz according to Ezekiel 8:14 or generically he was called "Ba'al" (which means Lord or husband). Each year on Tammuz's birthday on December 25th, the pagans were ordered by Semiramis to go into the groves (forests) and placed a gift on a tree to honor Nimrod who was "cut down" like a tree. They were also ordered to cut down an everygreen tree, take it into their homes and decorate it with silver and gold balls to symbolize Nimrod's testicles. quote from "The Two Babylons, by Alexander Hyslop"

The origin of the X-mas Tree (X or "the cross" is the symbol of Tammuz and the mark/monogram of Jesus Christ) is actually the Tammuz/Nimrod Tree and has absolutely nothing to do with The Messiah or The Truth found in The Bible. The X-mas Tree was a central figure in the Babylonian Religion with a snake wrapped around a tree trunk. We now, of course, don't have snakes around our tree we have garland! But let us not be so naive to think YHVH approves of such ignorance in worship founded in Babylonian paganism...

Christmas trees are really Asherah poles or sacred trees for honoring "Ba'al" and the ornaments represent Nimrod's testicles! Garland representing the serpent, Satan! Babylonian history records that Nimrod was cut into pieces and his body parts were sent to different provinces of Babylon to warn the people not to sacrifice babies to Moloch. His only body part which was never found was his penis. Semiramis, his mother/wife then decided to memorialize his penis by erecting a giant image of Nimrod's penis which today is called the obelisk. They adorn many Christian Churches today as steeples as I noted earlier in this chapter. We are COMMANDED by YHVH to destroy these very structures: Exodus 23:24, Exodus 34:13, Deuteronomy 7:5, Deuteronomy 12:3, Jeremiah 43:13, Hosea 10:2. Yet, we openly worship them as part of the Christian Religion. The Christmas Tree is also the symbol of Satan in the Garden of Eden, the garland wrapped around the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil" like a snake around the tree with the ornamental balls representing the forbidden fruit:

The yule log is in reality the "sun log." "Yule" means "wheel," a pagan symbol of the sun. Yet today professing Christians speak of the "sacred YULETIDE season!"

The Christmas log, is but the Saxon Yule-log burning on the English hearth, and the blazing holiday temples of Saturn shine again in the illuminated Christian churches.

Holly berries were also considered sacred to the sun-god.

Holly, ivy and mistletoe are the favorite decorations now, as they were in earlier times. To our ancestors they were strong life symbols, not only because they are evergreens, but also because, unlike most plants, they bear fruit in winter. By tradition, holly is masculine and ivy feminine, thus both are needed if all in the house are to share in the blessings they imply (i.e., fertility).

The priest was part of the division of Abijah. Abijah was one of twenty-four divisions of the Levitical priests. 1 Chronicles 23-24 lists all of the twenty-four divisions. Abijah is found in 1 Chronicles 24:10. King David had divided the Levitical priests into divisions when there were too many priests to perform the work at the temple. According to David's guidelines, each division served at the temple twice a year and at the major holidays. Fifty-six priests from one of the divisions served each day. It has been estimated that there were as many as 8,000 to 18,000 priests throughout Israel at that time. Consequently, the priest who offered incense at the Altar of Incense in the Holy Place each day was determined by a random lot as we will see shortly. However, a priest could only offer this service once in his lifetime.

Each group was responsible for one week of service in the Temple at a time, so in a given year they would serve a total of two weeks as well as the times of the festivals.

Abijah was the eighth priestly division. The priestly rotation began in the Hebrew month of Nissan (mid-March to mid-April), and therefore the division of Abijah would have served at the end of Iyyar (mid-April to mid-May) and again at the end of Marheshvan (mid-October to mid-November).

In obedience to your order, I met with two men, who said they were shepherds, and were watching their flocks near Bethlehem. They told me that while attending to their sheep, the night being cold and chilly, some of them had made fires to warm themselves, ...

... After this, when the shepherds came, and had made a fire and they were exceedingly rejoicing, the heavenly host appeared to them, praising and adoring the supreme God. ...

A Roman census (that began from Easter - spring time, which finishes around the season of summer time at the celebration of Bohemian groove or May pole-).

Further Readings