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NASB | Galatians 4:4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Galatians 4:4 But when [in God's plan] the proper time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the [regulations of the] Law, |
Bible Question: CAN SOMEONE HELP ME. I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHERE IN THE BIBLE DOES IT REFER TO DECEMBER 25TH. BEING THE DAY THAT CHRIST WAS BORN. AND HOW DID IT COME ABOUT |
Bible Answer: THE DATE OF OUR LORD'S BIRTH In the sixth century the Church began to reckon time from the birth of our Lord, and fixed the date A.D. as it now stands; namely, 536 years after the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia. Whether they placed it correctly or not does not affect the chronology as just given, which shows that the six thousand years from the creation of Adam ended with A.D. 1872; because it is eighteen hundred and seventy-two years since the year designated A.D., and the first year of Cyrus was five hundred and thirty-six years before that year (A.D.), whether it was the year of our Lord's birth or not. The year A.D. was fixed upon as early as the sixth century by Dionysius Exiguus, and other scholars of that period, though it did not come into general use until two centuries later. We cannot, perhaps, explain this better than by the time-worn illustration of a line with a star upon it--thus: B.C._____________________-____________________A.D. Let the line represent the six thousand years of earth's history from the creation of Adam to 1873 A.D.; and let the star represent the turning point between B.C. and A.D. To move that point either way would not alter the length of the entire period, though it would alter the names of the years. To move the A.D. point backward one year would make the B.C. period one year less, and the A.D. period one year more, but the sum of the B.C. and A.D. years would still be the same; for the amount taken from the one is always an addition to the other. Nevertheless, let us briefly examine the date of our Lord's birth, as it will be found useful in our subsequent studies. It has become customary among scholars to concede that our commonly accepted A.D. is incorrect to the amount of four years--that our Lord was born four years previous to the year designated A.D., that is, in the year B.C. 4. And this theory has been followed by the publishers of the common version of the Bible. We cannot agree that B.C. 4 was the true date of our Lord's birth. On the contrary, we find that he was born only one year and three months before our common era, A.D., namely, in October of B.C. 2. The general reason with most of those who claim that A.D. should have been placed four years earlier to correctly mark the Savior's birth, is a desire to harmonize it with certain statements of the Jewish historian Josephus, relative to the length of the reign of Herod the Great. According to one of his statements, it would appear that Herod died three years before the year reckoned A.D. If this were true,it would certainly prove that our Lord was born in the year B.C. 4; for it was this Herod, that issued the decree for the slaying of the babes of Bethlehem, from whom the infant Jesus was delivered. (Matt. 2:14-16) But is this statement of Josephus reliable? Is it true that Herod died four years before the year A.D.? No, we answer: Josephus alone is not sufficient authority for such a decision, as he is known and admitted to be inaccurate in his record of dates. [Part 1, to be continued] |