When Was Jesus Actually Born?

Matthew 1:23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”




I wanted to start my first post on this new blog discussing the true birth of Jesus Christ since Christmas has came and passed and now it's the new year. Throughout ages Christmas has been celebrated all over in many countries as the birth of Jesus Christ.  The story as we all know is that Joseph and a very pregnant Mary arrived in the city of Bethlehem where Mary would give birth to Jesus in a barn on the winter of December 25 which is now Christmas Day.  For the longest time I myself always recognized this date as the very birth of Jesus our Lord and Savior as I didn't know any different and never questioned it either.

 However, it might surprise many that December 25 is not the true birth of Jesus. In fact, the bible never mentions at all when Jesus was born and there is any actual documentation of Jesus's birthday.  So when was Jesus born and how and why did it come that December 25 was declared the day of his birth?  There are several facts that is known about Jesus' birth.

 First, there shepherds who lived nearby were out watching over their flock as mentioned in Luke 2:8-12 "And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.  This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger”. 

Jesus was conceived when Mary's cousin Elizabeth was six months pregnant with John the Baptist which is mentioned in Luke 1:26-31 "In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.  The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”  Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.  But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God.  You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.

According the Book of Luke, John the Baptist was conceived after Elizabeth's husband Zechariah, a priest returned from Jerusalem where he was serving in the temple for a week.   What is known is that the priests at that time were divided into 24 courses to serve twice a week in the temple of Jerusalem from Sabbath to Sabbath. In addition all the priests served in the temple for each week for three festivals which are Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles.  The Jewish calendar begins the spring and Zechariah who was a member of Abijah served the eighth course which would have been around the tenth week of the year. The Passover which was around March-April and the Pentecost was around May-June took place before his scheduled duty and places him serving during the second Sabbath of the third month around May-June.  With that, six months later Jesus would have been conceived between November-December.

There are the shepherds that were outside watching over their flock during Jesus' birth.  It is know that the shepherds had their flock out in the fields in the spring up until the fall in the month of October then they remove them from the fields and place them in pens as winter is too cold for them to be out in the fields.  Since Jesus was conceived between November-December, he would have been born between August-September with Many scholars placing it around September.

 In fact, according to Joseph Dumond who is author the book "The Sabbatical Years of 2016, 2023, 2030, 2037, 2044" Jesus's birthday is on September 11, 3 BC.  He bases this from the astronomical charts and the Hebrew calendar in which there is the Feast of Trumpets on September 1, the Feast of Atonement/Judgment on September  10, Year of the Jubilee on September 11 and the Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot on September 15-23.  Dumond claims the Book of Revelations hints that Jesus birthdate was on the September 11, Jubilee Year, predicted to be the day of Jesus second coming. 

He based this on the scripture Revelations 12:1-5 "A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.  She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.  Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads.  Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born.  She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 

Many of associated the woman mentioned in this scripture with the Virgin Mary. Pastor Mark Biltz founder of El Shaddai Ministries in Washington also supports this theory and that on the eighth day of the Fest of Tabernacles he was circumcised.  Other scholars have since also support this theory believing there is a elements of proof to this conclusion. I mentioned in my previous blog on the history of Christmas post(you can go back to read that post on that blog) that Pope Julius I declared December 25th Jesus's birthday in 350 AD.

There may never been any 100% actual knowledge of Jesus exact birthdate and Christians will continue to celebrate December 25th as his birth of Christ. However, what truly matters is that Jesus did come into the world as the son of God, became the messiah, performed miracles, led followers and taught them while he was alive and died for our sins on the cross.  What matters is that all who receive Christ now are all under His grace and are blessed since he shed blood for all of us and are sins all our sins are forgiven.