HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1985-12-23, Page 21ib
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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
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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
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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
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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
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