The Jesus Bourne Files

When was Jesus born? According to our calendar, Jesus was born in Anno Domine or 1 A.D. Further according to tradition he was born on Christmas Eve in Bethlehem, Judea. According to the Gospel of Luke, however he had to have been born before 4 B.C. when Herod the Great was still alive. Also, there was a census that never occured. It must be a hint of something else. A hidden time reference would come in handy.

And what do you know. After the Babylonian exile, perhaps inspired by their astrology and calendars, the Torah was basically turned into an elaborate calendar with weekly, and even daily parts or Parasha in the five books of Moses, so that if you read a new parashat every Shabbath you would complete the Law in one year. One of these parasha is called Parashat Ki-Tisa. The portion of the bible that is read is Exodus 30:11-34:35 (see www.chabad.org...), the census God ordered Israel to complete in order to make all the things of the Tabernacle. Looking up Ki-Tisa at chabad.org, you get the following:

The portion discusses the census of the Israelites, the washbasin of the Tabernacle, the anointing oils for the priests and kings, the incense offering, and the Sabbath. The Torah then relates the story of theGolden Calf, G‑d's anger at the Jewish nation, Moses successfully arguing for Divine forgiveness for the sin, the subsequent breaking of the tablets, and the giving of the second tablets.

Source: www.chabad.org...

Or to make it short: Census, gold, myrrh and incense and at the time when lambs are born… it’s how the story goes. Parashat Ki-Tisa, typically read around late February, early March. It is the 21st parashat and is typically referred to as ‘the Census’.

The Gospel is also quite clear that there was a peculiar astronomical event, a bright star, in the sky when Jesus was born that lasted at least the time it would take the magi to travel from Babylon, which has made many people look to spring 6 B.C. when the planets lined up like beads on a rosary, with several major conjunctions between the visible stars or planets known to the Babylonian magi, near the Sun at daybreak in mid-Pisces, complete with Jupiter in occultation with the Moon just as the Moon passes the Sun (also in Pisces of course). But 5 B.C. is also good candidate, because of a nova recorded by the Chinese, but this one hardly moved and didn’t last long enough, like the triple conjunction between Jupitere and Saturn.

And according to Wikipedia:

Jews also read the first part of the parashah, Exodus 30:11–16, regarding the half-shekel head tax, as the maftir Torah reading on the special Sabbath Shabbat Shekalim

My conclusion: Jesus was born on Shabbath Shekalim 6 B.C.

Let’s rumble!

So, Shabbath Shekalim 6 B.C is actually 1 AD?

BlastedCaddy
So, Shabbath Shekalim 6 B.C is actually 1 AD?

No, it's a saturday around the turn of March 6 B.C. I couldn't find out which, so I left it there, thought I'd provide that bit of information later. I would be very happy if anyone would know what date Shabbath Shekalim fell on in 6BC.

Edit: Did a bit more research, and according to www.abdicate.net... the given parashat Ki-tisa was read on Saturday February 11th in 6 B.C, which also happens to be Shabbath Shekalim. The hebrew date would be 25th Shevat year 3755. The reason why they were in Bethlehem and all the inns were full, could be due to the Purim festival kicking in

My conclusion: Jesus was born on Shabbath Shekalim 6 B.C. Let’s rumble!

reply to post by Utnapisjtim


Oh Utnapisjtim, how you love a good rumble I see. I myself am still catching my breath from the last battle of similar discussions.. However, I might be back later to throwdown..

Take care dude. And good luck with this go round. S&F

reply to post by Utnapisjtim


I don't know if you have seen this, but it is great information.

reply to post by C21H30O2I


Didn't turn out to the moshpit I intended. Guess the devil's late for some reason....

BlastedCaddy
So, Shabbath Shekalim 6 B.C is actually 1 AD?

In a way, but no more than Christmas being February 11th.

The placing of 'Anno Domini' (or 'Anno Domine' -- 1 A.D.) and the dating of Christmas at 25th December are prime examples of historical anachronisms, a kind of forgery favored by the Church, i.e. changing presens to forge history into fitting scripture, Church doctrine and -liturgy. In 525 some bloke decided to place Jesus' birth in 1 A.D. without further explanation, however we still use his system today:

The Anno Domini dating system was devised in 525 by Dionysius Exiguus to enumerate the years in his Easter table. His system was to replace the Diocletian era that had been used in an old Easter table because he did not wish to continue the memory of a tyrant who persecuted Christians. The last year of the old table, Diocletian 247, was immediately followed by the first year of his table, AD 532. When he devised his table, Julian calendar years were identified by naming the consuls who held office that year—he himself stated that the "present year" was "the consulship of Probus Junior", which was 525 years "since the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ". Thus Dionysius implied that Jesus' Incarnation occurred 525 years earlier, without stating the specific year during which his birth or conception occurred.

Source: en.wikipedia.org...

And 25th of December was when winter solstice and the Mithraist 'Dies Natalis Solis Invicti' ('Birthday of Sol Invictvs') was celebrated. Seeing the Church could not make people stop celebrating at 25th December, the Church decided to keep the feast day, but change it's contents. From celebrating Mithra's birthday, they changed it into the celebration of the birth of Christ.

In other words, the Church has managed to turn Jesus into the least likely person to ever having lived: Born of a virgin outside on the darkest and coldest day of the year. They claim he was not married, had no offspring, and that he died young after heavy torture receiving a deadly wound, and magically came back to life after having been dead a couple of days. Just to make the story more magical, however sacrificing the very Truth in the process. The Church turned Mithras into Christ and Christ into Mithras.

Luke 1:5 There was in the days of Herod, the King of Judea, a certain priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah.
Luke 1:8-9 So it was, that while he was serving as priest before GOD in the order of his division, according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.

If you can take the time to go through 1 Chronicles 23-24, you will see the division of the priestly chores/ministering to GOD in the temple in cycles.
You have a perpetual cycle of ministry in the temple. Admittedly, broken during the exile, but the cycles continued to be counted and observed on calendar, hence how Zacharia knew it was his turn to minister to the LORD. Zechariah was of the division of Abijah.
Abijah's lot was the eight in the cycle (as found in 1 Chronicles 24:10).
There were 24 courses or cycles that each ran for 7 days, from Sabbath to Sabbath. The eighth lot or course when Zechariah was ministering was the week of Sivan 12 to 18. If Zechariah's son (John the Baptist,) was conceived soon after this, then Jesus' conception which was six months later (Luke 1:36) would've been late Chislev to early Tevt, near Hannukah (the Feast of Dedication). His birth would then be at mid Tishri, the Feast of Succoth (Tabernacles).
The apostle John tells us that the Word (of GOD) became flesh and dwelt ('tabernacled') among us.
It's interesting to note that if you go forward 40 weeks, for a normal pregnancy, you'll see that John the baptist was born on Passover. Interesting, because one of the rituals of Passover is to set a special place setting for Elijah! Jesus said John the Baptist was the Elijah who was to come!

John was born at Passover.
Jesus was born at Tabernacles.

Of course, you've taken into effect the days that changed when the western world switched calendars, right ? .....

Christmas was set to December 25th because it was supposed to be based on the Pagan Winter Solstice, which is Dec 21. It's the longest, darkest night of the year, and makes sense that MANY religions around the world have a festival of lights very close to this time.

It's not based on star charts, comets, or anything else. It's based on Pagan beliefs.

Lucius Driftwood
Luke 1:5 There was in the days of Herod, the King of Judea, a certain priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah.
Luke 1:8-9 So it was, that while he was serving as priest before GOD in the order of his division, according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.

If you can take the time to go through 1 Chronicles 23-24, you will see the division of the priestly chores/ministering to GOD in the temple in cycles.
You have a perpetual cycle of ministry in the temple. Admittedly, broken during the exile, but the cycles continued to be counted and observed on calendar, hence how Zacharia knew it was his turn to minister to the LORD. Zechariah was of the division of Abijah.
Abijah's lot was the eight in the cycle (as found in 1 Chronicles 24:10).
There were 24 courses or cycles that each ran for 7 days, from Sabbath to Sabbath. The eighth lot or course when Zechariah was ministering was the week of Sivan 12 to 18. If Zechariah's son (John the Baptist,) was conceived soon after this, then Jesus' conception which was six months later (Luke 1:36) would've been late Chislev to early Tevt, near Hannukah (the Feast of Dedication). His birth would then be at mid Tishri, the Feast of Succoth (Tabernacles).
The apostle John tells us that the Word (of GOD) became flesh and dwelt ('tabernacled') among us.
It's interesting to note that if you go forward 40 weeks, for a normal pregnancy, you'll see that John the baptist was born on Passover. Interesting, because one of the rituals of Passover is to set a special place setting for Elijah! Jesus said John the Baptist was the Elijah who was to come!

John was born at Passover.
Jesus was born at Tabernacles.

You might just have a case here. This, I must admit, I have never noticed before. Thanks

However, the text take use of the general term "a time after this" for the conception moment. The birth of Isaac which is somewhat similar, was one year after the Lord visited, we can then expect that the days Gabriel shows up are the actual birthdays of the two (only one year before birth).

Sivan 12 to 18 6BC would correspond May 27 - June 3. Six months later Gabriel shows up again, this time at an address in Nazareth: Kislev 9 to 16 or November 18 to 25 6BC. However, like I said in the former paragraph, the word 'a time' is used and it may refer to a month or a year or another fixed period, so let's say we add a month to November 25: Christmas eve 6BC. Hehe. Back at square one it seems. Given my calendar is correct, and that your placement of Abiah's turn is right of course. What is your source for dating of the 24 cycles?

Edit: Looking at this again, Luke says that Elisabeth got pregnant "a time after" Zecheriah's turn in the temple was over. This may either mean that "24 weeks later" (the cycle of 24 shifts) or "one year later" Elisabeth got pregnant, so now there is a bunch of different dates I have to work my way through. And given the timeframes, we need to rewind one year, do you have the dates for Abiah's divisions in 7BC?

And another thing, given each period was 7 days, Zacharijah would have two turns in 6BC, from Kislev 21 to 28 too, that also turns the table, with a couple possibilities supporting the OP actually. But it's all about how you calculate, I'd stand by my statement in the OP, but thanx for your input