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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1985-12-23, Page 21ib i ,�i J ill: Len was j rsus horn? There have been many attempts to exactly date the birth of Christ. However, absolute certainty about the year of Jesus' birth has never, been _ obtained. We only know that the na- ' tivity did not occur in the year 1 A.D., the first year of our Christian era. We know that Christ was born before Herod the Great died in the year 4 B.C. During the Passover festival of that year, 4 B.C., Archelaus was al- ready ruling over Judea, for his troops. slew a great number of rebellious Jews during.. the festivities in Jerusa- lem. Herod must have died early in the same year, at any rate before the Passover season., It is obvious from Matthew 2, that Herod was in Jerusa- lem (see especially verse 30 when the wise men from the East came looking for the newborn King of the Jews. When Herod heard the reason for the trip to his capital by the travellers frunr the East he was arently' up- set. The city must have, buzzed with rumors about the birth of some future prince or leader who would lead the Jews, at the appointed time, into the ways of freedom and independence and-libe< a te_them from* the -yoke of Rome and its Idumean puppet king. The people of Jerusalem must have taken heart. Herod's suspicious nature always prompted .him t� react outrageously .n ..r Yf'i to reports of disaffection among his subjects and relatives alike. Soon after the inquiries made by the appar- _ ently aristocratic visitors 'from the., East regarding the birth of an infant prince, the king swung into action in his ususal, merciless manner and em- barked on the well-known Bethlehem massacre. One might be tempted to place Jesus' birth in the year 5 B.C.., the year immediately preceding the year of Herod's death, although if we want to do this, neither the month nor the exact date can be given. The king apparently interviewed the wise men in Jerusalem. He also called together the chief priests and scribes of the people to hear them out about the Jewish prophecies regard- ing the Messiah or future governor of Israel. It seems then that Herod was in power at the time of the arrival of - -e- wttl-i—ise men in Jerusalem. • The traditional date of the visit of the wise men is January 6'. We would however, do well to remember that it makes eminent sense, assuming that Christ was indeed born in 5 B.C., to place The Nativity in ffie-eaa-flier part - of that year. The same would seem to , apply to the coming of the wise men and their audience with Herod. With Herod apparently residing in his palace in Jerusalem during these »r. two events, it would seem that, al- though perhaps ill, the king was still in full control of the affairs of state. This __..impression_is...rein.for-ced-by his-eallingL--- together the . Jewish priests and scribes. Everything points to the king being in control of his mental faculties and in tolerable health at this time. However, historians emphatically agree he was not in normal health during the months immediately pre- ceding his death, which fell before the Passover of 4 B.C., early in the year. In the early months of 4 B.C. the King, then could hardly have acted as is described in Matthew 2, due to his progressively deteriorating physical" and mental condition. The description of his behavior as we read it in this Bible chapter,.seems to refer to events as they happened in the preceding year, in 5 B.C. or per- haps even late in 6 B.C,_when the king was -Siff capable of taking things in hand, although in his own high-handed way. On account of all this information, Jesus' birth is often placed in the year 5 B.C. probably in the early_ months,,..., or even in the latter part of 6 B.C. This would give the king tithe to think things over and plot his course of ac- tion, after consultation with the Jew- ish theologians. In this way the king, to put it bluntly, would have had bg Julin M. Martens 9a aatt Crit amos..^7.M. ample time to become sick unto death. It is hardly possible that all these' happenings - the birth of Jesus, the _-._-arr-ivaa1-of-the- wise- nen-ir -Jer-usa1ern- the calling together of the Jewish reli- gious leaders, the Bethlehem mass- - acre, Herod's becoming critically ill, his removal to -Jericho where he died and the gathering of the Jewish rebels, leading to the massacre by Archelaus' troops at the Passover feast, of 4 B.C. I could have occurred in the course of three or four months be- fore Easter in 4 B.C. We don't know, of course, when in this context the Bethlehem murder of the innocents took place nor when the wise men rettfrned to the East. Neither do we know when the flight in- to Egypt occurred. If Jesus was born in 5 B.C. it follows that these events can be dated to the same year. Many, questions remain unansweE_ ed, especially about the enact date of Jesus' birth.. We read in St. Luke, 2:1, that Quirinus was governor of Syria, when Caesar Augustus ordered that a general census was to be held throu out the empire. Itis known _ from historical sources that Quirinus, mentioned above, conducted a census in Palestine in the year 6 or 7 A.D. This cannot have been the census mentioned in Luke 2, for it fell 11 or 12 years after Jesus' birth. This is not to say that Jesus' parents did not travel to Bethlehem in connection with what the Bible scalls in )the King James -translation; "a taxing"; -fa -ll urnTg Quirinus governorship of Syria. Not a few learned men agree with'St. Luke. They suggest that there is evidence that Quirinus held the office of gover- nor of Syria twice, the first time dur- ing Jesus' birth in Bethlehem and that during, this term of office by Quirinus an earlier census was held about 6 B.C. or early 5 B.C. Throughout the early centuries of Christianity Christ- mas has been celebrated on different dates. There certainly was no agree- ment on the specific day of Christ's birth nor do we have any knowledge of it in our day: We can only mention what earlier Christians held to be His day of birth. Dates have been given as April 19, Ma_x20_and-November-1-2r-Du-ra -the_._..-_ ----_ second .century the eastern Christians celebrated the Nativity on January 6. Two hundred years later, western Christianity, including the Church. of Rome, commemorated the event on December-25_.and_-this day ..-has-since-....-. been universally adopted throughout Christendom, as well as in Eastern Christendom, since the end of the Fourth Century. Crossroads --Dec. 23, 1985 z p Laa4;.. ..:*:...rw:"i.7:X'_"•174.i'G:1.7.317;:.k,..a.=.".'`:c.:.