Christ’s Birth Date
According to a Messianic Rabbi it’s not on December 25…
By de Andréa
December 23, 2014
December 23, 2014
The Bible teaches that in the end times the Jews will be the
Bible teachers. That became very clear
to me last year on my trip to Israel. I
discovered that no people on earth know better than the Jews what the meaning of
words and names are in the Hebrew Scriptures.
With Christmas
drawing near and in keeping with the article about Halloween published on October 29,
in which I pointed out that the enemy Satan wants to steal and control
everything, especially anything Christian, like Christian Holy Days. This teaching by a Messianic Rabbi, I thought
further shows that the enemy also, has for many years, controlled Christmas and
not just in the obvious ways such as changing it to Xmas or just happy holidays
instead of Merry Christmas taking Christ out of the celebration
altogether. But the date of Christ’s
birth was even linked
to an existing Roman pagan holiday called Saturnalia, (sculpture pictured) an ancient Roman festival in honor of the deity
Saturn, which was celebrated in the known world on the 25th of December. The holiday was celebrated with a
sacrifice at the Temple of Saturn, in the Roman Forum,
and a public banquet, followed by private gift-giving. Leaving the question: did Satan steal
Christmas or did Christians steal Saturnalia?
You decide!
“And the word became flesh and
dwelt among us.” -John 1:14
Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn best known
for his books, “The
Harbinger” and “The
Mystery of the Shemitah,” is now out with a new documentary film
called “The
Mishkan Clue.” In it, he sets out to solve two mysteries – the time
of Jesus’ birth (was it really on Dec. 25?) and’ does it matter.
Side Note: Rabbi Cahn likes to teach in the Socratic
Method, named after the classical
Greek philosopher Socrates. It is a form
of inquiry and discussion between individuals, based on asking and answering
questions to stimulate critical thinking and to illuminate ideas. It is a dialectical
method, often involving a discussion in which the defense of one point of view
is questioned; one participant may lead another to contradict himself in some
way, thus strengthening the inquirer's own point, presenting questions in the form of a mystery and then launching an
investigation that eventually turns up answers.
It is a very old teaching method which early on was used in America to
produce independent thought - that is before we began the robotic programing
method of indoctrination used so effectively by the USSR in mind control, today
it has all but completely destroyed the ability of independent critical thought.
Using
the Socratic Method and his knowledge of Hebrew and Jewish history, Cahn provides
a clue to the answer in his title – with the meaning of the Hebrew word “mishkan.”
As Cahn goes on an Indiana
Jones-style quest to solve the 2,000-year-old mystery of when Jesus was born.
The first day he rules out is Dec. 25. I
think you will find this very informative as well as interesting…
The following article is by Leo Hohmann a contributor to WorldNetDaily, he writes
about Rabbi Cahn’s new book, “The Mishkan Clue”:
“December
is probably the least likely time for a Jewish couple from Nazareth to be
traveling to Bethlehem for the Roman census while the young woman, Mary, was
pregnant.
Not
only would the weather be too cold and rainy that time of year for shepherds to
be “out in their fields,” as the gospels say, but the Romans would not have held
their census during the winter because it required families to travel back to
the father’s hometown to register. Joseph’s family hailed from Bethlehem.
In
the Church record, it’s hard to find a credible reference to Dec. 25 as
Christ’s birth date prior to the fourth century time of Emperor Constantine.
More than likely, this date was picked to line up with the Roman holiday of
Saturnalia, which was celebrated with a pagan sacrifice to Saturn and a public
banquet, followed by gift-giving and a carnival-like atmosphere.
Another
theory is that Jesus may have been born on Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights,
which would fit nicely with Him being the Light of the world. But Hanukkah is a
newer, minor Jewish holiday and comes with the same pitfall used to debunk the
Dec. 25 date – it’s too cold for shepherds to be out in the fields at night
gazing at the stars.
One
other popular theory is that Jesus was born during the Feast of Tabernacles or
Sukkot, also called the “Feast of Booths,” which occurs in late September or
early October each year on the Hebrew calendar. Proponents of this theory say
Jesus was born in a sukkah or booth and that this temporary shelter was later
referred to as a manger.
While
this is “well meaning” and “sounds nice,” Cahn says it would have been
impossible for several reasons. First, Jesus was born in a manger, not a
sukkah, and a manger is a type of feeding trough.
Also,
the spiritual meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles lines up with the end times
and the closing of an era, not the opening or beginning of an era, Cahn says,
and Messiah’s birth, death, resurrection and second coming must come in the
proper chronological order.
Plus,
the Tabernacles theory puts Mary and Joseph in the wrong place. Jewish families
traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
“He
was born in Bethlehem not Jerusalem. It would have caused revolution to require
travel (for the census) at a time when Jews were supposed to be in Jerusalem,”
Cahn said.
Not
to mention, they would have had to have traveled back home during the onset of
winter, again not convenient or comfortable for a pregnant woman.
So
Cahn rules out winter and autumn for the birth of Jesus.
But
what about summer? That would have been difficult during Israel’s brutally hot,
dry summers but perhaps doable for a woman with child. The only problem is
there is no major Jewish feast day in the summer.
“There
are no holy days to fulfill, which is how God works,” Cahn said. Passover lines
up with Jesus’ death, He rose on the Feast of First Fruits, he created the
Church with the sending of his Holy Spirit on Shavuot or Pentecost, and the
Feast of Trumpets or Rosh Hashanah foretells the Messiah’s second coming.
“There
must be a time when travel is practical and comfortable, when shepherds would
be out with their flocks and a pregnant woman could travel,” Cahn says.
The
Lamb is born
That leaves only one option – spring. In Israel, this would have
been known as the “lambing” season.
“Only
in the lambing season do shepherds watch their flocks by night,” Cahn said, as
described in the gospels.
This
would have been in late March and into April when shepherds were out watching
for lambs to be born in the fields.
“So
here they are out looking for lambs to be born and who do they find? The Lamb
of God,” he said.
But
is there a holy day in the spring?
There
certainly was, but it’s been downplayed over the years. It’s called Nisan 1,
the historical first day on the Hebraic calendar. It falls in early April on
the Gregorian calendar.
The
birth, death, resurrection, and second coming of Jesus fulfill the Jewish holy
days, in the proper order, Cahn said, starting with Nisan 1 for his birth.
But
it gets even better if you look deeper.
“Messiah
fulfills the feasts but he also fulfills the theme of the feast,” Cahn said.
“Is there a day on the Hebrew calendar that would fulfill the theme of the
Messiah’s birth?”
If
there is, it would have to be Nisan 1. It represents a new beginning.
“Nissan
1 is the calendar changer. It breaks the calendar,” he said. “Every calendar
changed based on the birth of Messiah, from B.C. to A.D. So it would put us
back to Nisan 1.”
But
because the early Christian Church changed from being Jerusalem-centric to
Rome-centric, all of this history was lost to the Western believers in Jesus.
Besides
linking Christ’s birth to an existing Roman holiday, Saturnalia, the 25th of
December also linked it to the Roman New Year just one week later on Jan. 1.
“They
saw the birth of the Messiah and they linked it to another day on their
calendar that was similar. New Year’s Day, the Roman New Year,” Cahn said.
A
clue from the Talmud and early church father
Building his case further for Nisan 1 as Jesus’ birthday, Cahn looks
to an unlikely source — the Talmud, which contains ancient biblical
interpretations by Jewish rabbis. According to Talmudic teachings, Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob all were born and died during the month of Nissan. Isaac in
particular was a type of the coming Messiah.
“The
first commandment was to begin everything in Nisan. It’s been forgotten by modern
Judaism,” Cahn said. “It’s the real New Year. Not Rosh Hashana.”
In
Exodus 12:1-2 it says about the month of Nisan: “God said to Moses and Aaron in
the Land of Egypt. ‘This month shall be
for you the beginning of the months; it shall be for you the first of the
months of the year.’” In fact, the title “First of the Months” (“Rosh Hodashim”
in Hebrew) is reserved in the Torah for the month of Nisan.
His
writings are among the first that refer to Dec. 25 as the birth of Christ. But
because one page of Hippolytus’ writings still mentions springtime as the
proper birth date, some historians have speculated that his writings were later
doctored to reflect the new Dec. 25 date with the caveat that the one reference
to spring somehow got past the censors.
“There
is one manuscript left that actually gives us two different dates,” Cahn said.
“One says Messiah was born in the springtime. They forgot to put the Whiteout.”
In fact, the statue of Hippolytus
in Rome today still mentions April 2 as the month of Christ’s birth.
The
final clue
But beyond the physical, historical importance of nailing down the
accurate birth date for the most important man in the history of the world,
there is a spiritual reason that Cahn brings to our attention in “The Mishkan
Clue.”
Yes,
there’s more to this story than just setting the record straight.
It
has to do with the Hebrew words “Mishkan” and “Goel.”
God’s
instructions for the “goel” redeemer were given in the Torah. When a man died
his next closest male kin was allowed to marry the widow. He may “redeem” her
if he is not already married. This was the case when the widow Ruth was wedded
to Boaz, her “kinsman redeemer” by whom she had a son. Boaz is a type of the Father
God who brings the childless widow a redeemer. Boaz is the new father who
brings a son.
“There
is going to be one more Goel redemption,” Cahn says. “This time the Goel is
going to be God. God is going to intervene in the line of Judah, the line of
man. He comes to the virgin Merriam. God marries the creation. He fathers the
Child.”
And
that offspring is the Messiah. That matches up with the type of the Messiah in
the book of Ruth, whose son is conceived in Bethlehem at the end of the wheat
harvest. Go forward nine months and that ends up in the month of Nisan for his
birth.
The
last “clue” to Jesus’ birth lies in the mishkan and ties in with John 1:14 “and
the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
In
Hebrew, the translation for the word dwelling is something similar to a tent or
“tabernacle,” which was a temporary dwelling place for God’s glory. The
incarnation, God coming in the form of a temporary human body, also fits the
theme of a tent, as Peter explain in his letter 2 Peter 1:13-14: “Yes, I think
it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you,
knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ
showed me.”
“He
pitched his tent among us or tabernacled with us,” Cahn said of the Messiah.
“It wasn’t a sukkah it was a tent, a mishkan. The glory of God was in that
tabernacle. Messiah’s incarnation is foreshadowed in God’s glory coming into
the tent…the tabernacle.
The conclusion
is that, through a deeper understanding of the birth of Messiah, Christians can
experience the new birth every day, not just once a year, Cahn said.
“The
real point is…It’s about God joining himself to your life,” Cahn says. “Being
intimately joined with God through his Messiah. Every day in Christ should be
like Nisan 1. A new birth. A new beginning. You cannot have life without that
union. You cannot have new life. Your soul is waiting to get close with God. We
need to get rid of the distractions. Nisan 1 is the day that everything is made
new again. Your life was meant to be like this tabernacle, filled with the
glory of God. In that place is the fullness of your healing, in that place
comes your emotional healing, your joy, your shalom, your destiny.”
END
THE BOTTOM LINE: Leaving
the question of who stole who’s holy day to history, now the question is,
should we take back Christmas by letting Satan have his Saturn day, or Xmas, or
happy holiday, or whatever, on December 25, and move Christmas, Christ birthday
to April 2, in the spring of new life or leave it as it is, because it doesn’t
make any difference what the date is, as Rabbi Cahn said: “The real point is…It’s about God
joining himself to your life, being intimately joined with God through his Messiah.”
Thanks for listening – de Andréa
If you agree please pass this article on to everyone on your
email list. It may be the only chance
for them to hear the truth.
If this was helpful in your quest for truth, you might be
interested in getting a teaching series by Rabbi Cahn:
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