I received a lot of emails from readers who would like to share their thoughts on whether or not Jesus was born on December 25. Some say it is indeed December 25! Other say it is not; still, others say it does not really matter at all.

For the past few days, I have been researching and digging deeper on this matter. I have visited some sites proclaiming the validity of December 25 as Jesus’ actual birth, and I have also visited sites that say, December 25 is a hoax.

The text below from Mr. Jes Tirol, specifically pointed out the validity and authenticity of Christ’s birth on December 25.

The dictionary defines Christmas as a church festival observed annually on December 25 in memory of the birth of Jesus Christ.

But was Jesus Christ really born on December 25? Some would say that Christmas is just an imitation of the Roman festival of Saturnalia celebrated during the winter solstice. But the winder solstice is on December 21 or 22, why is Christmas on December 25? There must be a better explanation.

The Bible is a Jewish record so we must use the Jewish calendar. It is based on the lunar cycle from new moon to the next new moon. Twelve (12) lunar cycles will only amount to 354 days. It is 11 days short of the solar year of 365 days. In 3 years, the difference will be about 33 days, so a 13th month Adar II is added, making a leap year of 384 days. This enable the lunar calendar to "catch up" with the solar calendar even though is still 3 to 4 days shorter.

The Jewish calendar does not start on January 1 but on the month Tishri, which contains the autumnal equinox (September 21).

During the time of King David (c.a. 1,000 B.C.), the New Year started with the month that contained the vernal equinox (March 21). This happens on the Jewish month Nissan. It is the month when the Jewish Passover is celebrated.

Here is the rough equivalence of the Jewish calendar and the modern Gregorian calendar used today:

1. Tishri (Between September and October)
2. Marheshvan (Between October and November)
3. Kislev (Between November and December)
4. Tebeth (Between December and January)
5. Shebat (Between January and February)
6. Adar I (Between February and March)
7. Nissan (Between March and April)
8. Iyyar (Between April and May)
9. Sivan (Between May and June)
10. Tammuz (Between June and July)
11. Ab (Between July and August)
12. Ellul (Between August and September)

In a leap year, the month Adar II is inserted after Adar I.

Let us turn to the Bible for evidence. In Luke Chapter 1, verse 5, (Luke 1:5) it says; "There was in the days of Herod, the King of Judea, a certain priest named Zechariah, of the course of Abijah and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth." Luke 1:13 says, "…Fear not Zechariah, for thy prayer is heard, and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son and thou shalt call his name John."

The Levite Zechariah was a representative of the Abijah family. Their period of service as priest is found in 1 Chronicles 24:10, that says; "The seventh to Hakkoz; the eight to Abijah." Therefore Zechariah served as priest in the 8th month of the year. This was how King David divided the duties of the priests. But what is meant by the 8th month?

In the Bible, in Exodus 12:2, there is a statement regarding the Passover. It says, "This month shall be unto you the beginning of month; it shall be the first month of the year to you." It means that in the Jewish religious cycle, the first month shall be Nissan because it contains the Passover. Therefore, counting with Nissan as the first month, the 8th month is Marheshvan. It was the duty month of Zechariah and the starting month of pregnancy of Elizabeth.

Luke 1: 26-27 says; "And in the sixth month (of Elizabeth's pregnancy) the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary." Then in Luke 1: 31, it says; "And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shall call his name JESUS." Then in Luke 1:36, it says; "and behold, thy cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren."

Elizabeth conceived John the Baptist in the start of the month Marheshvan. Counting 6 months including Marheshvan we get the month Nissan.

The angel Gabriel said to Mary, "thou shalt conceive." We have therefore a leeway to include Nissan in counting or only start the next month of Iyyar as the start of the pregnancy of Mary.

If we start from Nissan the 9th month for a normal pregnancy is Kislev. It is between November and December in our modern calendar. If we start from Iyyar, the 9th month is Tebeth, which is between December and January. Either way, we have the month of December.

In early historic times there were so many calendars used. It was difficult to let it coincide with the reckoning of modern Christianity. The Christian calendar used was also in error.

In 1582, the Italian scholar Joseph Scaliger tried to correct the calendar for long periods of time. When he computed back to the birth of Jesus Christ, he got the year 4 B.C. as the year of birth of Jesus Christ. However, his computations were not very accurate. Modern computations will still push back the date to 8 or 7 B.C. Now, it is assumed that Jesus Christ was born between 8 B.C. to 4 B.C.

In Matthew 2:2, it says; "Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him." We usually refer to this star as the "Star of Bethlehem". What was that unusual star that appeared and disappeared?

Modern astronomers have already a computer program that can simulate the position of heavenly bodies as seen from a particular place at a particular date.

Nobody now is sure of the location of Jesus' Bethlehem. The researchers inputted the latitude and longitude of nearby Jerusalem for December 25, 7 B.C. It showed that the planets Venus and Mercury were in conjunction or aligned in an unusual manner. The two planets can be seen as one unusually big, bright star with a glow. This phenmenon is known as "Shekinah".

Due to the complexities of motions of heavenly bodies, the Shekinah may or may not happen approximately every 480 years. So there was really a "Star of Bethlehem" and it occurred on December 25, 7 B.C., which is within the corrected birth date of Jesus Christ. ("The Book of Hiram", by C. Knight & R. Lomas, Arrow Books, 2003. pp. 322-323).

So, whoever was responsible of selecting December 25 at Christmas during the Middle Ages must have known of the Holy Shekinah phenomenon. There were many brilliant astronomers and mathematicians during the Middle Ages capable of computing the date of the Holy Shekinah. They wrote secretly because they were afraid to be branded as heretic by the Roman Catholic Church. During the start of building King Solomon's temple the Holy Shekinah also appeared.

Detractors would say that it is not possible. Why would shepherds be out in the field if it were cold December? My answer is --- because of hospitality and business.

An imperial census was taken. It was necessary for many descendants of King David to be in Bethlehem. The time, houses, and stables were not enough to accommodate the visitors. The native residents were willing to vacate the stables and put the flocks in the field for money or hospitality to relatives. That was why Joseph and Mary were able to stay in a stable and place Jesus in a manger.

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