Bible Question:
Hello, Taleb! I just logged on again (was on my way out when I read your post). I do not usually get involved with the dates (was Jesus born 6 BC or 6 AD, etc.) but I found your post most interesting. There has been a counsel about the shepherds being out on our Lord's birht day and some suggest that sheep hearding was not done in late December... Can you clarify this for me? I do not care to prove or disprove them, I'm just curious because you placed the Jewish calander with the Nov-Dec period of our present-day calander. Thansk for the info! Merry Christmas and God Bless! |
Bible Answer: JCrichton, like I wrote to Tess, "our" calendar was changed. December, now the 12th month, USED to be the 10th month of the Roman year, it's name actually comes from our word "decimal", like October comes from the number 8. Actually, when July and August were inserted into "our" present day calendar, all the other months moved up two. This hurried explanation might offer more questions than it answers, but here goes. The Jew's had two separate calendars. A civil one, which was the "official" one used for contracts, childbirths etc. and a sacred one, which was used to compute festivals. Every 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, and 19th year had an extra month (called "Ve-Adar) inserted into their year". It was added right after "Adar" - their (6th civil) 12th sacred month. Realizing "how" the Jews figured the passing of their time, and how it fluctuated from year to year, meant the "10th month of their year" wouldn't necessarily be the 10th month of our present day year. Stating that "December" as such is too cold for the shepherd’s to discount “December 25” as a possible date, doesn't mean it wasn’t the 10th month of the year which Jesus was born, as I spelled out above I heartily agree with what so many others have written, and written well. In effect, they have said, celebrating Dec. 25th doesn't add or subtract from the fact that Christ Jesus came as a baby to die as a man. The light of the world WAS born. So what if it happened to be at a time when the Jews celebrated the fact that they had light for eight days without needing to replenish their oil. So what that 8 days after Jesus was born, he was brought into the temple. So what that many Jews still celebrate the fact that the installation of their temple's foundation on the 25th month of their "DECember". “Let God arise and His enemies be scattered”. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Chanukah! Taleb |