Most Christians by now are aware Jesus probably wasn’t born on December Twenty Fifth, year one. Certainly people from the Middle East get a giggle out of imagining shepherds comfortably napping in the fields if it were really in December. Palestinian evenings can drop to Forty Fahrenheit, sometimes dropping below freezing. The shepherds would not be comfortably relaxing with their animals in such a season as that.
Some investigation into Christmas reveals that its first official celebration on December Twenty Fifth was in the year Three Hundred and Thirty Six. Incidentally, this is the same year failed-bishop Arius died. Yes, the one who started Arianism - the belief that Christ is a mere creation. The same Arius who Santa Claus is noted to have sucker-punched, or slapped according to some sources, for heresy.
Now I find it of no coincidence that the first celebration of Christmas was mere months, perhaps even weeks, after Arius died. In fact it almost seems appropriate to celebrate Christ’s birth to contrast the great heretic’s death. But there’s quite a lot of curious happenings in the months between Three Thirty Six AD, and Three Thirty Seven AD. Within the span of a few months, not only did Arius die, but also Pope Mark, as well as Emperor Constantine. The only person to survive this large die-off of historic people was Pope Julius I. Pope Julius appears to have been the man to officiate the date of Christ’s Birth as December Twenty Fifth, and mere months later would receive Emperor Constantine into the faith as he lay dying. Now, I am not calling suspicion on Pope Julius, but it certainly is curious that a Pope, a Heretic, and an Emperor all died in the vicinity of his influence in the span of a few months.
But alas, late antiquity politics is not my purpose of writing this. My purpose is to present a perhaps colorful alternative to Christmas day. That Jesus Christ may very well have been born, instead, on the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. A holiday that is occurring as I write this. There’ certainly some imagery to it. The holiday of Sukkot involves spending a period of time away from your home in a common tent or shack for some time, much like how Jesus spent time away from his home in heaven in a humble ark of Mary’s womb. As well as perhaps literally being born in a shack, as well. There’s certainly some hints in the Bible that Jesus was likely born around some sort of holiday, as the “inn” was full, although this word for inn may more accurately be translated as a family’s member’s home instead of an inn. But let me go past these offhand moments to be more direct: The greatest evidence that Jesus was likely born around Sukkot isn’t from when he was born, but rather from the details surrounding John the Baptist’s birth.
Zechariah, John’s father, was for a time the High Priest of Israel. He is noted as being of the “Course of Abia”. Now, I will spare you most of this raw Biblical autism here. But to be brief, the priestly courses are one of those fine-print biblical details few ever bother reading into, as it’s a whole lot of spreadsheets for bean counter stuff. If you want to study it, it’s mentioned in First Chronicles, Twenty Three. It’s elaborated here and there as well. The priestly courses are one of David’s reforms to the priesthood that allowed a more functional religious rotation. The idea was to perhaps make everyone a bit more active in the religion, and hopefully less prone to whoredom and worse sins. In all, the consequences of this was that every course of priest was expected to serve at least two weeks of the year. Which is great. Because it means we can then identify the two weeks of the year Zechariah served, and in so doing know when John would be born, and then Jesus as a result. For we know Jesus was born Sis Months after John, in the First Chapter of Luke. Incidentally, the First Chapter of Luke also mentions that when Zechariah was up for priestly duties, he had to burn incense in the temple.
Now, as I said, I wish to spare you some of the finer autistic deep-think in this matter. If you really must, this blog explores some of those details far more than my brain can bother with:
https://pursiful.com/2006/12/18/when-was-jesus-born-zechariahs-priestly-service/
For my purposes, this seems to supplement many of the details of the night of Jesus’ birth not being cold, and likely being around a holiday.
But finally, for one last bit of detail, the stars. We know this is how the Magi found Jesus, after all. And if you carefully review the position of the stars, we find in the year one AD a most spectacular arrangement in the constellation Virgo, which translates to Virgin. We will also find Jupiter, often called the King, nestled in Virgo. Jupiter moves from Leo, the lion, into Virgo, and stays there for 9 months much like a pregnancy. Jupiter even enters a retrograde motion a la the turning a baby makes before it’s going to be born. And after, this planet heads to Libra, the scales of judgement. Right by Serpens, the serpent. We find here the likely sign the Magi saw in the sky: The King, the lion of Juduh, born to a Virgin, to be judged and slay the serpent. Quite a Christion iconography written in the heavens, conveniently happening the year of Christ’s birth, with Jupiter exiting the birth region of Virgo right in the fall.
Oh, and do note the below image…the Sun would have obstructed the view to ordinary people. Only a student of the stars would know what they look like while the sun obstructs them.
For me, these three points: The Signs in the Heavens for the Magi, the rotations of the priests for Zechariah, and the general descriptions of the night of the Birth, all indicate a likely fall birth date for Christ. And I do think God would have given the Jews the holiday of Sukkot to prepare that date of birth as well.
For myself, whenever Sukkot rolls around, I say Happy Birthday Jesus. Maybe I’m wrong. That blog post above offers alternatives to get to December as well if you’d like. But I find these days I want to be set apart from America’s culture more and more. So for me, Sukkot is Christmas…probably.