When Should We Celebrate the Messiah’s Birth?

Which of the following three options would you choose as the most befitting day to celebrate the birth of the Messiah of Yisrael and Savior of the world? The first is the most popular but least likely time of year. The second is the less popular but more likely time of year. And the third is the least popular, but most likely time of the year. These options follow respectively: (1) Christmas in the Winter; (2) Tabernacles in the Fall; (3) The Great Sabbath (before Passover) in the Spring.

If you want to choose the most popular least likely time for celebrating the birth of the King of the Universe, it would be Christmas in the Winter (December 25 to be exact). This day is the most popular time of year because it is steeped in a tradition with roots that go as far back as the birth of the Sun-god Tammuz (AKA: Ahura Mazda, Saturn, Zeus, Rah, Mythra, etc.) The reason that it is the least likely time is because shepherds don’t have sheep out in the fields at night north of Bethlehem in the Winter time; it’s too cold for sheep and shepherds alike at that time. The modern celebration of Christmas is the result of Constantine’s insistence on “Christianizing” the ancient child sacrifice rituals by associating them with the Christ. This is the broad gate that the Messiah Himself spoke about, the one that leads to destruction and many there be that go in thereat; so then, lets look at a less popular, more likely time for the birth of “Jesus” who I prefer to call by His rightful name Yeshua.

The less popular, more likely option to consider is the Fall Feast of Tabernacles. This view is less popular because it is more Jewish in nature and not quite so universal as Christmas. It is a little bit more likely because it does seem to have Scriptural support in one conclusion made by some scholars about Luke’s account of the timing Yeshua’s cousin John’s conception shortly after the ministry service of his father Zechariah during the scheduled session of Abijah (Heb., Abiyahu) as David the King had assigned. The conclusion, seemingly backed by Josephus, puts the conception of John in late Spring at or near the Feast of Shavuot which is better known as Pentecost and Yeshua’s conception six months later on or near the Winter HaNukkah; thus John’s birth would fall in early Spring before or on Passover and Yeshua’s birth on or near the Fall Feast of Tabernacles. However, there are other conclusions that can be drawn that take into account Josephus and Luke; so then, let’s look at the third least popular, yet most likely time to celebrate the birth of our dear Savior.

Before the very first Passover in Jewish history, on the 10 of Nisan in the Spring, the head of each household was to find a lamb one year old without defect and set it apart for slaughter to be eaten on Passover night four days later. Tradition has it that this was a Sabbath and the 10 of Nisan has been called Shabbat HaGadol or Great Sabbath before Passover. This is the least popular time for celebrating His birthday because it represents Yah fighting for Yisrael in a battle to free Jews from slavery in Egypt and denigrates the Egyptian gods which is a denigration of all other gods. It is the most likely time because is fits the Messianic pattern of the fulfillment of the Feasts of Yah. This timing allows Yeshua to be born before His dead, burial and resurrection fulfilling the Great Sabbath before Passover by His birth, whereas the Fall Feast of Tabernacles has His birth as the seventh of seven feasts, making the birth way after the death, burial and resurrection. What is wrong with this picture? I see the set-apart ones entering the New Jerusalem as the Messianic fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles, not the birth of the Messiah.

So in conclusion, your three options for the time to celebrate the birth of the lamb of Yah are the early Spring Nisan 10, the Great Sabbath before Passover, the Fall Feast of Tabernacles and the Winter Christmas. I see Nisan 10 as the most likely, least popular time because it fits the Messianic Pattern without doing damage to Josephus’ explanation of a compromise in the Priestly service schedule where the 2 weeks of service were split up. This may have been as a result of begun the schedule for Temple Service at the Babylonian head of the year or Fall Rosh HaShannah in lieu of David’s prescribed beginning in Nisan. Notice, David had never said to split up the two weeks of service as Josephus described. If you calculate eight two week ministry sessions from the first day of the 7th month, when Temple worship began after the return from Babylon, you have Abiyahu serving on and near HaNukkah in the Temple in the Winter, a great time for Gabriel to appear and announce the conception of John. That would put the conception of Yeshua at the or near the Feast of Shavuot (Pentecost). The birth of John would be on or near the time the Greek Orthodox celebrates John’s birth (September 29). That would put Yeshua’s birth six months later in early Spring, a little before Passover. The Fall Feast is less plausible, though more popular to celebrate. Christmas in the Winter is least credible, but most popular. I would like to think if Christopher Columbus, who argued the world was round when the consensus was that it was flat or that Galileo who challenged the status quo in science or Louis Pasteur who was called a fool by his colleagues in Medicine would choose the most likely, yet least popular timing-the Great Sabbath; what about you?