Tilling and Planting

Tag: God The Son

  • Jesus’ Suffering

    Jesus’ Suffering

    Intro

    Easter season is upon us. We all know what that means. Easter candy!!! Lol, in all seriousness, though, we know this as the time Jesus suffered and died a horrible death to pay the penalty for our sins. We’ve heard it said that Jesus’ suffering bought us right standing with Father God. Kind of crazy to think about, right? Just thinking about all that He endured humbles me. I don’t feel like I’m worth it. Do you? But that’s the love of God on full display right there. No matter how much any of us have messed up, He died for us. While we were still sinners (see Romans 5:8); still lost and not caring at all about knowing God.

    I do wonder, however, how many of us fully comprehend Jesus’ suffering. Or how many of us take this time of year for granted (guilty). Here I wish to open all of our eyes to His suffering in two distinct areas: His physical suffering and His spiritual suffering. But before I do, I’m first going to show you how Jesus fulfilled Scripture by going to the cross. (All Scripture here comes from the NIV.)

    Prophetic Suffering

    The Jewish people looked for a Messiah. However, the Messiah they searched for was a kingly Messiah. A conqueror who would free them from Roman oppression. That’s why no one expected Jesus. And when He hung on that cross, most of His followers thought they got it wrong. And it is true that Old Testament prophecies speak to a conquering, kingly Messiah. However, there are also many prophecies that point to a suffering Messiah. But because of all the oppression that the Jews went through, they all clung to the conquering Messiah. In another post I’ll reconcile the two and how Jesus did and will fulfill these.

    But for now, I’ll focus on how Jesus’ suffering fulfilled the suffering servant Messianic prophecies found in the Old Testament. And these prophecies cover both the physical and the spiritual suffering. As well as some other details such as His betrayal.

    Betrayed By Friend

    These prophecies include the prediction and fulfillment of Jesus’ betrayal by a friend and the prophecy of the money the religious leaders paid said friend to betray Him.

    Prophecies

    Psalm 41:9, “Even my close friend, someone I trusted, one who shared my bread, has turned against me.”

    Zechariah 11:12-13, “I told them, “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the handsome price at which they valued me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the house of the Lord.”

    Fulfillment

    Matthew 26:14-15, “Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver.”

    Matthew 27:5-7, “So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself. The chief priests picked up the coins and said, “It is against the law to put this into the treasury, since it is blood money.” So they decided to use the money to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for foreigners.”

    Sham Trial

    These prophecies include the false witnesses that appeared as well as Jesus not responding to any accusations.

    Prophecies

    Psalm 27:12, “Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes, for false witnesses rise up against me, spouting malicious accusations.”

    Isaiah 53:7, “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.”

    Fulfillment

    Matthew 26:59-60, “The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death. But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward.”

    Mark 15:3-4, “The chief priests accused him of many things. So again Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.” But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.”

    Forsaken

    These cover the prediction of all who forsook Him in some way.

    Prophecies

    Zechariah 13:7, “‘Awake, sword, against my shepherd, against the man who is close to me!’ declares the Lord Almighty. ‘Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered, and I will turn my hand against the little ones.’”

    Psalm 22:1, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?”

    Fulfillment

    Mark 14:50, “Then everyone deserted him and fled.”

    Matthew 27:46, “About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).”

    Misunderstood

    These prophecies include the mocking Jesus endured and the fact that He was counted as a criminal rather than the Messiah.

    Prophecies

    Psalm 22:7-8, “All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads. ‘He trusts in the Lord,” they say, ‘let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.’”

    Isaiah 53:12, “Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”

    Fulfillment

    Matthew 27:39, 43 “Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads…’He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, “I am the Son of God.”‘”

    Luke 23:33, “When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left.”

    Lots Cast For Clothing

    Even what happened to His clothing was prophesied!

    Prophecy

    Psalm 22:18, “They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.”

    Fulfillment

    John 19:23-24, “When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. “Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.” This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said, “They divided my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.” So this is what the soldiers did.”

    Family & Friends Witnessed

    Have you ever considered that Jesus’ suffering was witnessed by His own family and closest friends (not just the 12 disciples)? Awful when you think about it.

    Prophecy

    Psalm 38:11, “My friends and companions avoid me because of my wounds; my neighbors stay far away.”

    Fulfillment

    Luke 23:49, “But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.”

    Physical Body

    A lot happened to Him physically. Whether it was the injuries or even just being given vinegar to drink. All these forms of Jesus’ suffering were prophesied centuries before.

    Prophecies

    Isaiah 50:6, “I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.”

    Isaiah 52:14, “Just as there were many who were appalled at him – his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness.”

    Psalm 22:16, “Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet.”

    Zechariah 12:10, “…They will look on me, the one they have pierced.”

    Psalm 34:20, “he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.”

    Psalm 69:21, “They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.”

    Fulfillment

    Matthew 27: 26b, 29a, 30, “But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified….and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head….They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again.”

    John 20:24-25, “Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.’”

    John 19:33-34, “But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.”

    John 19:29, “A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips.”

    Suffered for Sins

    Isaiah made clear that sin was the reason for Jesus’ suffering.

    Prophecy

    Isaiah 53:4-6, “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

    Fulfillment

    Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

    1 Peter 2:24, “‘He himself bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed.’”

    Spirit Committed & Burial

    Prophecies

    Psalm 31:5, “Into your hands I commit my spirit.”

    Isaiah 53:9, “He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death.”

    Fulfillment

    Luke 23:46, “Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.”

    Matthew 27:57-60, “As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away.”

    Physical Suffering

    I realize that this post is already getting pretty long. Bear with me a while longer. I now want to turn from the prophesies of Jesus’ suffering to what He actually endured physically. And not just restating what the Bible says He went through. I want to comment on what Roman Crucifixion actually did to the body and what the person went through. I’m using extra-Biblical sources in this research and I’m sure you’ll recognize many of them since the Bible directly references much of what the Romans actually did when crucifying people.

    Flogging

    Romans flogged every person slated for crucifixion – except for Roman senators, soldiers (except for desertion), and women. A typical flog consisted of a short whip with several single or braided leather thongs of variable lengths, in which small iron balls or sharp pieces of bones were tied at intervals. The iron balls and bones dug deep into the skin and underlying tissue and literally tore flesh off bone. People were flogged just short of death. Roman soldiers often taunted the people during and after the flogging took place. Per the law, Roman soldiers whipped a person at a maximum of 39 times, though it’s unknown how often they broke that law simply because they wanted to. Especially when the person was slated for execution anyway.

    The Art of Crucifixion

    Odd heading, I know. But truthfully, the Romans perfected crucifixion. They didn’t invent it, but man did they perfect it to maximize pain and suffering while delivering a slow death. The Romans couldn’t have selected a worse way to bring about Jesus’ suffering and death.

    The physical cross consisted of a vertical post with a horizontal crossbeam. The condemned man carried the crossbeam from the flogging site to the crucifixion site outside the city. (So all the images/movies of Jesus carrying both parts…probably not accurate.) The upright posts outside the city were permanent structures and reused from person to person. The posts often had a crude seat-like thing for the sole purpose of prolonging the person’s death.

    The Romans affixed the victim’s arms to the crossbeam through either nailing or tying the wrists. Nailing seemed to be the preferred method. Once attached, the crossbeam and victim was raised up and attached to the vertical post. At which point the Romans nailed (or tied) the feet to the post. Above the head of the person, a soldier attached a sign with their name and charge(s) written on it. (Any of this sounding familiar?) Interestingly, law dictated that bitter wine mixed with myrrh (gall) be given to the victim as a mild pain reliever. In addition, the soldiers commonly divided the cloths of the victim amongst themselves.

    If the Romans desired to hasten the death of the victims, they would break their legs below the knees. And they used a spear to stab their victims through the heart to check to see if they were dead (and to ensure it if not).

    The Medical Side

    Any medical students, nurses, or doctors reading this? Ever thought about what Jesus’ body went through during the crucifixion process? Here’s a short list of different things I found when researching what Jesus’ body went through.

    • Hematidrosis, aka “sweating drops of blood”. This occurs through great stress, anxiety, and/or fear.
    • Flesh torn from his body as a result of the flogging. Not to mention the extreme pain here.
    • The crown of thorns brought even more bleeding around the scalp. Furthermore, the soldiers hit his head multiple times with a staff – driving the thorns deeper into him. And more pain.
    • The robe that the soldiers put on him likely stuck to clotting blood and when ripped back off opened those wounds back up and caused excruciating pain. (Are you seeing a painful theme here?)
    • Shock. The human body can endure only so much before going into shock. Jesus likely experienced it before the soldiers attached the crossbeam to his back.
    • Once on the cross, the shock lowered His blood pressure and increased His body’s demand for oxygen. Problem is that breathing caused intense stabbing pain throughout His body.
    • The blood and water. Blood and water-like fluid pouring out of Jesus’ side fits with rupturing the sac around the heart.
    • Likely cause of death: cardiac and respiratory arrest, due to shock, due to crucifixion.

    Spiritual Suffering

    Jesus’ suffering wasn’t limited to the physical. It extended to the spiritual as well. I promise to be brief here.

    • Jesus took on all the sins of the world for all time. That means all sin from every person since Adam & Eve. And all the people that have yet to be born.
    • Isaiah 53 says that Jesus paid for our healing. The word imagery here indicates He paid for our spiritual healing, our mental/emotional healing, and our physical healing. That means that Jesus took upon Himself all physical disease, mental disorders, emotional disorders, etc.
    • The wrath of God. God literally poured out His wrath upon Jesus. As painful as that was for Him to do, He had to in order to open the way for us to Him.
    • Lastly, and perhaps the worst thing of them all, separation from the Father. For the first time in His eternal life, Jesus experienced separation from His Father. The pain of such a separation must’ve been awful. Technically, God stayed by Jesus’ side through it all, but there had to be a short term spiritual separation once all sin and God’s wrath was placed on Him. I say that because the Bible says sin separates us from God (Isaiah 59:2) and it also says Jesus became sin so we could become righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21). Therefore, a separation between Father and Son must’ve occurred. Gut wrenching, but true.

    Jesus’ suffering encompassed body, soul, and spirit. It happened this way so Jesus could be the perfect sacrifice and could relate to us in every way. This enables Him to be the perfect High Priest for us.

    Wrapping Up

    Just researching for this post and writing it makes me more appreciative of Jesus’ suffering. I’m also once again humbled by it. I hope you are all too. I hope you see with new eyes what Jesus endured physically and spiritually. Let us all go through this season with a gratitude that we’ve never had before.

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!

  • Baptism in the Bible

    Baptism in the Bible

    Intro

    Reading through the four gospels and the book of Acts reveals that baptism was important to Jesus and the early church. As a result, baptism became a fundamental part of the church throughout the centuries. But despite that, some people question baptism and its importance. And others put a greater importance on it than the Bible does. Even though baptism is of great importance, there seems to be a growing lack of knowledge behind the “why” and some of the basic concepts of baptism. My goal in this post is to explain what baptism is and what it meant to Jesus and the early church. I plan to tackle the other end of the spectrum that gives greater importance to baptism than its due in a later post (or posts – there’s a lot of material to cover there).

    What is Baptism?

    At its core (notwithstanding the “dunking under water”), baptism identifies us with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.

    Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Romans 6:3-4 (NIV)

    For the Christian, baptism publicly announces to the world that we have a personal faith in Jesus Christ and commit to following Him. It also historically served as an initiation into the Christian faith. And this makes sense since in the early church (and a long time after), baptism occurred immediately after a person made that decision to confess Jesus as Lord. They didn’t schedule a time for people to come and witness it, they just grabbed the nearest body of water (public bathhouses included) and did it.

    Why is it Important?

    Because Jesus command it. End of story. Except…why? John baptized Jesus and Jesus commanded His followers to baptize people in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). John called people to repentance. Then he baptized them as a symbolic act. Baptized also serves as a test of our faith. Or at least it did back then when all baptisms were performed in a public setting. (Rich people with personal private water holes excepted.) People walking by the river would notice and could see all who got baptized. So, if you claimed faith and shied away from baptism, did you really believe in the first place? Because faith in Jesus would not fear what man may say. Jesus also said, “If you love me, keep my commands.” (John 14:15). So, by refusing baptism, you brought into question your claims to love Jesus.

    And the fact that Jesus allowed Himself to experience baptism should be enough. After all, He’s the creator of the universe who chose to become one of us and relate to sinful man in order to bring us back into right relationship with Him. That’s astounding. So, yes, it’s enough for me that Jesus commanded it.

    Why Jesus?

    A lot of people ask the question, why was Jesus baptized? After all, John’s message was one of repentance. Jesus had nothing to repent for. Jesus never sinned. Makes no sense. However, rest assured, Jesus’ reason isn’t as mysterious as it may look on the surface.

    Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. Matthew 3:15 (NIV)

    Jesus gave His reason for His baptism as “to fulfill all righteousness.” That’s great, but what does that even mean? What “righteousness” is Jesus trying to fulfill here? To answer that, let’s look at a couple more passages.

    Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:1-4 (NIV – emphasis mine)

    Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. Matthew 5:17 (NIV)

    Looking at these two verses, we see that God (and Jesus by extension) held the law as righteous. And Jesus came to fulfill the law – not abolish it. So, we can conclude that Jesus’ baptism fulfilled the righteous requirements of the law. But what part of the law did He fulfill? Searching the Torah (first five books of the Old Testament) leads me (and many others) to believe that He fulfilled the requirements of the High Priestly inauguration. I’m going to show the parallels below.

    The Priestly Requirements

    • Had to be 30 years old
      • OT Requirement: Numbers 4:3, “Count all the men from thirty to fifty years of age who come to serve in the work at the tent of meeting.” Admittedly this seems an odd passage for supporting this requirement, but if you had to be 30 simply to work in the tabernacle (precursor to the temple), it stands to reason that all priests were of that same age range.
      • NT Fulfillment: Luke 3:23, “Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry.”
    • Washed with water
      • OT Requirement: Exodus 29:4, “Then bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the tent of meeting and wash them with water.”
      • NT Fulfillment: Matthew 3:16, “As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water.”
    • Annointed with oil (an OT representation of Holy Spirit)
      • OT Requirement: Exodus 29:7, “Take the anointing oil and anoint him by pouring it on his head.”
      • NT Fulfillment: Matthew 3:16, “At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.”
    • Verbal Blessing/Confirmation
      • OT Requirement: I struggled to find concrete Scriptural basis for this one. Even though when I did my original research on this years ago, I found something that supported the idea that someone gave a verbal blessing or affirmation about the new high priest.
      • NT Fulfillment: Matthew 3:17, “And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

    Other Reasons

    While I think this gives enough reason for Jesus’ baptism, I also wish to point out a couple of other simple reasons. First, in all things, Jesus related to us. Tempted in every way, experienced hunger, experienced all the emotions, etc. Therefore, it makes sense to relate to us by water baptism. After all, if He’s commanding His followers to be baptized, then He should get baptized as well. Secondly, John the Baptist came from the lineage of Aaron. And preparing sacrifices was a big part of the priestly jobs. So, one could see this encounter as the initial preparation for Jesus’ sacrifice.

    What About Infant Baptism?

    Some denominations practice infant baptism (more like infant sprinkling, but I digress). Is this Biblical and should it be practiced? The short answer to the first question is “No”. The Bible doesn’t say anything about infant baptism. In fact, the Bible infers in multiple places that baptism takes place after one believes in Jesus and confesses Him as Lord. Obviously, infants can’t do that. For this reason alone, I question it.

    But should it be practiced? I don’t see a much of a problem with baptizing infants in the mindset that once that child makes up their own mind to follow Jesus, they’ll choose baptism in the traditional way. The problem comes from when the church in question teaches that infant baptism gives them a guaranteed ticket to Heaven. I’m aware of churches that teach that and it’s damaging. It creates false hope for people. Frankly, I lean toward avoiding it largely because of the roots in the belief of the necessity of baptism for salvation. Unless, as I mentioned earlier, the church correctly teaches that it does not save the child and is just tradition.

    Multiple Baptisms?

    Most people and churches see baptism as a one-time event. Just like Jesus’ death and resurrection occurred once for all time. After all, baptism symbolizes that event, so it makes sense. However, many churches these days believe that at times a second baptism makes sense. Some of those reasons I consider quite legitimate.

    • Infant baptism. After infant baptism, many people choose a second baptism later after making their personal decision to follow Jesus. This makes sense since the first time the person had no choice in the matter.
    • Rededication. Imagine a person chooses to follow Christ, but later strays far from God. And I mean far. Drugs, alcohol, the works. Now imagine that they repent and come back to God. And this person chooses a second baptism as a testimony to the radical life change that occurred.
    • A greater understanding. Some people get baptized pretty young before they fully grasp what baptism is. They treat it very flippantly and do it because “that’s just what Christians do”. After some years, they may come to a greater understanding and want to honor the symbolism and holiness of that moment.
    • Radical faith change. People who fall into this category would be those who switch denominations and feel that their previous baptism occurred out of ignorance or believing incorrect teachings of the Bible. So, they choose a second baptism to demonstrate their changes in their faith.

    I believe all of these reasons stand up to the Bible. The Bible doesn’t address this subject and doesn’t infer anything against it, so it really comes down to personal conviction. I know people who fall into a couple of these categories.

    Wrapping Up

    By now I hope you understand what exactly baptism is and why Jesus commanded it be performed for all of His followers. As mentioned earlier, there are people who put a greater emphasis on baptism that they should. This doctrine claims that baptism is required for salvation – called Baptismal Regeneration. I aim to talk about this in one or more future posts. I already have a lot of material covering this specific topic and it might bleed into multiple posts. If that’s the case, I intend to release them quicker than what my normal release cycle has been. So, please, if you have not subscribed to my email notifications, do so. That why you’ll know for sure when my next post comes out. It may be sooner than the 25th.

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!

  • The Star of Bethlehem

    The Star of Bethlehem

    Intro

    Wait just a minute, Christmas is over, why are you talking about “The Star of Bethlehem”? I know, what a horrible thing I’m doing by talking about Christmas out of season. But I’m going to do it anyway. The reason I’m doing it is because it fits well with the themes of my other Christmas posts this year. Dates and times and prophecies, etc. Next Christmas season, I want to talk about the different characters of the holiday, and the star doesn’t really fit that. So, let’s let the Christmas season extend just a wee bit longer and answer the questions What was the Star of Bethlehem? How did it move? Why did it move? It’s quite fascinating when you get into it. So, let’s do that.

    What Was the Star of Bethlehem?

    For centuries, people have debated what the Star of Bethlehem was. One thing that everyone agrees on is that the star was not an actual star. Stars remain in a pretty fixed position and from Earth, they don’t appear to move (except over incredibly long periods of time). And yet, the Magi claimed that they were able to follow the star, and they witnessed it “rise” and “stop”.

    After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. Matthew 2:9 (NIV)

    So, excluding a literal star, what else could this phenomenon been?

    Angel

    Something I found while researching this topic is this idea that the Star of Bethlehem was actually an angelic being, not a celestial body at all. The argument for this is that the Greek word for star is aster. This word is used 24 times in the New Testament and is mostly used to refer to a heavenly body. However, in Revelation 12:4 it’s used to describe angelic beings. So, there’s precedence to aster being used to describe angelic beings and not just celestial bodies. Furthermore, the way the star seems to move appears unnatural. Which could suggest that it was something else that can move about freely. And finally, it doesn’t appear like anybody except the Magi noticed the star. God selectively revealing an angel to specific people would explain why no one else noticed.

    It’s Weak

    Despite the evidence, the arguments are pretty weak. Every time the Greek word aster appears in the New Testament, it’s translated as “star”. Including the instance in Revelation. Using other clues, we extrapolate John saying “stars” in Revelation 12:4 is a poetic way of referring to angels. We don’t have enough clues to say the same about the Star of Bethlehem. Even the odd movement can’t save this theory. As you’ll see later, the way some heavenly bodies shift around and the way they look from Earth at different angles, etc. makes their movements seem quite bizarre. Ancient astronomers and astrologers certainly thought so. That’s why they were oftentimes attributed to signs from the gods.

    And lastly, just because the Bible makes no specific mention of it doesn’t mean that others didn’t notice it. It just means that no one thought much of it. And besides, people will not see what they don’t want to. After all, the Pharisees had access to all the Scriptures about the Messiah and missed Him. And some people are just spiritually blinded. The gospels record a time when God spoke from Heaven and some people heard words, while others said, “It’s just thunder”. So, Herod and the priests could have seen it and just said, “What an unusually bright object in the sky.” And then go on with their lives as if nothing happened.

    Celestial Phenomenon

    More probable than an angel, the Star of Bethlehem likely was a phenomenon that the Magi took note of and determined the significance of. In my first Christmas post of the season, I talked about the time period in which Jesus was born being the perfect time. Since God set the heavenly bodies up in motion, He could easily orchestrate the timing of an incredible astronomical event that would cause people to notice. Now within this theory of an astronomical event, there are two primary sub-theories I’m going to mention. If you followed along with my post about when Jesus was born, you’ll be able to quickly pick out which one I hold to.

    Jupiter and Saturn

    In this first theory, there was a series of unusual planetary conjunctions that occurred. It started on May 29, 7 B.C. with Saturn coming together with Jupiter in the constellation Pisces. (Note that Jupiter represents royalty in almost all cultures, and some say that Saturn represents Jerusalem with Pisces representing the nation of Israel – but I couldn’t find a good source for those two). Normally this conjunction would only take place every 804 years. However, this time it happened again on October 3 and December 4 of the same year! I can see why some would see that as a significant enough event for the Magi to really take notice. Especially when it happened once more in the Spring of 6 B.C.

    But then, to top it all off, in July of 5 B.C. a nova (an exploding star) lit up the sky. According to ancient Chinese astronomers, it was so bright it could be seen during the day. And if this were the Magi’s cue to start traveling, they would have arrived that fall and on October 5 of 5 B.C. the nova would have appeared as being above Bethlehem from the vantage point of Jerusalem. I understand why this theory appeals to people. Especially if they believe in the older dates of Jesus’ birth being between 7-5 B.C. However, as you might know from my earlier post, I don’t believe in those dates. So, as incredible as this series of events was, I don’t think it corresponds to the Star of Bethlehem. Although, it may have gotten the Magi’s attention to watch for something else.

    Jupiter and Venus

    The years 7-2 B.C. contained so many astronomical events that still amaze astronomers today. Case in point, after the nova in 5 B.C., another planetary conjunction occurred on August 12, 3 B.C. involving Jupiter (again) and Venus in the constellation Leo. Jupiter represents royalty, Venus has been known as the “morning star” for millennia (Jesus is called the bright and morning star in Revelation 22:16), and Leo is the lion, which fits with Jesus coming from the tribe of Judah since the lion was the symbol of Judah. Furthermore, another of Jesus’ names is the Lion of Judah. And it gets better from here. On September 14, 3 B.C. Jupiter came into conjunction with the star Regulus in the constellation Leo. Regulus was well known as the king star. Some scholars consider it to be the star of the Jewish Messiah.

    On February 17, 2 B.C. Jupiter and Regulus came together again in Leo. Then they did it again on May 8 of that same year. And then to make things better, on June 17, 2 B.C. Jupiter and Venus again came together in Leo, though this time they were so close that they would have appeared as one brilliant star. Things got a little more interesting in August. On the 27th of August, 2 B.C. four planets (Jupiter, Venus, Mars, and Mercury) came together in one brilliant display within Leo. Perhaps the Magi took their cue to start moving here. And of important note, on December 2 of 2 B.C., due to Jupiter’s retrograde movement, it would have appeared to “stop” in the sky above Bethlehem from the vantage point of Jerusalem. And not only stop but stopped inside the constellation Virgo – the Virgin – and remained there for several days.

    Coming to a Close

    Notice that in both theories, every single event involved Jupiter. As stated earlier, Jupiter represents royalty. The Messiah was to be of royal lineage. Furthermore, Jupiter in Hebrew means “righteousness” and Jesus is our righteousness. So, I do believe that the earlier ones (7-5 B.C.) caught the Magi’s attention, but not until 2 B.C. did they say “alright, it’s time to move”. After all, the four planets coming together in August is quite the event!

    Now, I want to mention that I concluded in another post that Jesus’ birth occurred in fall of 2 B.C. And I still hold to that. However, you’ll notice that none of the events described occurred in the fall of 2 B.C. In fact, the only fall-ish event would be in September of 3 B.C. Now that doesn’t negate a birth in the fall of 2 B.C. Nothing in the Bible suggests that the star first appeared on the night of Jesus’ birth. The star only guided the Magi to the place of His birth – Bethlehem. And besides, maybe I’m slightly off and his birth was late August. Perhaps when four planets joined together inside Leo. Not sure. What I am sure of, is that the event occurring on the night of Jesus’ birth is less important than the event announcing His birth in general.

    Wrapping Up

    Whether the Star of Bethlehem was an angelic being or celestial bodies doing a dance through the heavens doesn’t matter, what matters is that it guided the Magi to Bethlehem where they met the King of kings and Lord of lords. Let us all remember to seek Jesus every day of the year.

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!

  • Prophecies Fulfilled

    Prophecies Fulfilled

    Intro

    When most people hear the word “prophecy”, they think of foretelling the future. And when you flip through the Old Testament, that’s a pretty accurate description of the word. The Old Testament contains hundreds of prophecies. The Messianic prophecies alone number well over 300! And Jesus fulfilled most of them already. The ones about His second coming haven’t been, but we’re getting there. And speaking of prophecies fulfilled by Jesus, what did the prophets foretell of the birth of Jesus? After all, it is Christmas so why not explore some of the prophecies about the birth of the Messiah. I won’t hit all of them, just the ones that are either the most known or else ones I deem the most important. Since I am including so many Scriptures, I’m going to say this once. I took all of the Scripture from the NIV Bible.

    Genealogical Prophecies

    The Old Testament records several prophecies about the lineage of the Messiah. I’m not even sure I’ve got them all listed here. But here are the major ones.

    The People and Prophecies

    Abraham

    Genesis 22:18, “and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me”. God promised Abraham that He would bless all the world through his offspring. Only the Messiah could fulfill such a calling.

    Isaac

    Genesis 26:4, “I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed”. Here we see God giving the same promise to Isaac that He did Abraham. This is very important, because we know that Abraham had other children. Everyone knows about Ishmael and how God chose Isaac over Ishmael. However, after the death of Sarah, Abraham took another wife (Keturah), and they had 6 sons together (Genesis 25:1-2). Thus, it was important that God affirm His promise with the one son of Abraham that He desired to bless and had already chosen.

    Bonus: One of Abraham and Keturah’s sons (Midian) became the father of the Midianites. Later we see Moses marrying a Midianite woman.

    Jacob

    Genesis 28:13-14, “There above it stood the Lord, and he said: ‘I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring’”. Here God promises Jacob the same promise He made to his father and grandfather. Not Esau, Jacob’s older brother. Again, this is a very important thing since in those days the eldest child got the blessing and a double portion of the inheritance. But here we see God giving the promise to Jacob.

    God had to make the same promise over and over in order to narrow it down for His coming people – the Israelites. That way they could better recognize the Messiah when He finally arrived.

    Judah

    Genesis 49:10, “The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his”. Here in Genesis 49, we see Jacob giving each of his sons a blessing. And these blessings are very prophetic in nature. To Judah, he prophesies that from his lineage will come a ruler that bring all nations to obedience. Jesus’ first coming fulfilled the first part, but the second part is yet to come. And now I will show that fulfillment to you.

    Jesse

    Isaiah 11:1, “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit”. Centuries later, God spoke through Isaiah to further narrow down the lineage of the Messiah. Here God announces that Jesse would be the forefather of the promised one.

    David

    2 Samuel 7:12-16, “Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever”. God promises David that his kingdom and through will last forever. A very clear reference to coming Messiah. Interestingly, this promise occurs before Isaiah’s prophecy about David’s father. However, not everyone would have necessarily interpreted the promise to David as a Messianic promise. Maybe God’s just saying that his lineage will rule over Israel forever. But in a strictly natural way.

    Fulfillment

    Abraham Through Judah

    Matthew 1:1-3, “This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram“. Right off the bat, Matthew declares that Jesus descends from Abraham – a necessary requirement to be the Messiah. Furthermore, he affirms Jesus’ descent from Issac, Jacob, and Judah. All very important to specify since all these men had other sons. But God specifically promised certain ones that the Messiah would come from them.

    Luke 3:23, 33-34, “He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph…the son of Amminadab, the son of Ram, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor”. And comparing to Luke’s genealogy, we see that he too shows that Jesus descends from all these same men.

    Jesse Through David

    Matthew 1:6, “and Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife.”. In order to further demonstrate the validity of Jesus’ claim as Messiah, Matthew continues in his lineage to show that Jesus comes from Jesse. And finally, we have David. Perhaps more than any other forefather, David was most important for Matthew to lay out for his Jewish audience.

    Luke 3:3132, “the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salmon, the son of Nahshon”. As you see here, Luke does the same in his own account.

    That’s it. I’m done with the genealogies. I know, they can be kind of boring to read. But the Jews find them important, so we must address it.

    And that’s it for the Genealogical Prophecies. God makes no more specific promises to any descendant of David. And as you can see from Matthew and Luke, there are two different ways to reckon Jesus’ lineage from David. This has caused some confusion and skepticism. Now, I don’t claim to know what the correct understanding is here. I have seen differing ideas on the subject and there are two that are most likely which I will briefly mention here.

    The Levirate Marriage

    In those days, if a man died without having any sons, it was tradition for the man’s brother to marry the widow and have a son who would carry on the deceased man’s name. This is known as a Levirate Marriage. In this viewpoint, Joseph’s legal father – Heli (seen in Matthew) – died without having kids and his brother, Jacob (found in Luke) married his widow and had Joseph. Thus, Matthew records the legal line of Joseph while Luke records the biological line. Now in order for this to work, Melchi (Luke) and Matthan (Matthew) would have had to been married to the same woman to get Heli and Jacob with different lineages back to David. This one is a little complicated, but it does work.

    Joseph Vs Mary

    The more modern and popular theory is that Matthew and Luke are recording the differing lineages of Jesus’ parents. In this theory, Matthew focuses on Joseph’s lineage – once again the legal lineage because Joseph was Jesus’ legal father. Luke, on the other hand, zeroed in on Mary’s lineage – again the biological lineage. Now, to make this one work, you have to explain why Luke says, “He was the son, it was thought, of Joseph” rather than saying “the son of Mary”. First off, he says “it was thought” thereby pointing out Jesus wasn’t truly the son of Joseph. Furthermore, the language of the day didn’t have a word for “son-in-law” so Luke couldn’t have said “Joseph the son-in-law of Heli”. Though that may have been Luke’s meaning all along. For that was the nature of marriage, you effectively become a child of your spouse’s parents.

    Humanity Prophecies

    Other prophecies concern the humanity of the Messiah, i.e. he wasn’t going to be some angelic being or a spirit that has no physical form.

    Born as a Child

    Prophecy

    Isaiah 9:6-7, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace”. I think most people know this passage. This relates to the humanity prophecies in the simple statement that ‘a child is born’. Indicating that the Messiah would be born human.

    Fulfillment

    In many ways, the genealogical prophecies I gave earlier demonstrate the fulfillment of this prophecy. One additional passage I’d like to include is Luke 1:31, “You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.”

    His Virgin Birth

    Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel”. Isaiah declares that the Lord will do something that any sane person would call impossible. A virgin birth. But God is the God of the impossible. After all, He created the whole universe from nothing.

    Fulfillment

    Luke 1:26-35 contains the longest description of the fulfillment of this prophecy. For brevity’s sake, I’m not including the entire thing. The previous prophecy references Luke 1:31 and Mary responds to the angel with “How can this be since I am a virgin?” (v 34).

    Matthew 1:20-25 records the angel telling Joseph that Mary’s conception is of God. And in verse 22 we get a direct quotation of Isaiah’s prophecy. “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). Matthew kindly provides us with a meaning to the name “Immanuel” as well.

    Place And Time Prophecies

    Born in Bethlehem

    Prophecy

    Micah 5:2, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times”. Here Micah makes plain that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Nobody disputed this prophecy.

    Fulfillment

    Matthew 2:1, “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem”. Matthew records Jesus’ birth as occurring in Bethlehem. In fact, in verse 5 when Herod inquires of the scholars where the Messiah was to be born, they quote Micah.

    Luke 2:4-7, “So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them”. Luke records that Mary gave birth to Jesus while they stayed in Bethlehem during the census.

    Born During the Roman Empire

    Prophecy

    Daniel 2:40, 44, “Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron breaks and smashes everything—and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others….In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.”

    Here we see Daniel declare that God will set up a kingdom during the time of the fourth. One that will never fade away or be destroyed. Daniel further elaborates that the first of the kingdoms is the one he writes this, Babylon. So, after Babylon, there will be three more kingdoms – and the Mesiah will come during the third one after Babylon.

    Fulfillment

    Luke 2:1, “In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world”. Luke records that Jesus’s birth occurred during the Roman occupation of Jewish homeland. And the fourth kingdom recorded by Daniel, was the Roman Empire. We see from the records in the Bible that Persia (the second) followed Babylon (the first). However, that’s where the Bible leaves off until we get to the New Testament and Rome (the fourth). That makes it a bit harder to demonstrate from the Bible alone the fulfillment of this prophecy.

    Fortunately, we can see from history outside of the Bible that Jesus came during the fourth kingdom. Daniel lived during the reign of Babylon and Persia. Greece (the third) conquered the Persian Empire. And lastly, Rome overcame Greece to become the fourth kingdom to rule over Jerusalem and the Jewish people.

    Called Out of Egypt

    Prophecy

    Hosea 11:1, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son”. Now this verse has duel meaning here. God regarded Israel as a son, and He brought the Israelites out of their bondage in Egypt. So, what Hosea spoke here had a historical fact tied to it. However, there’s also a hidden Messianic prophecy here.

    Fulfillment

    Matthew 2:14-15, “So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘Out of Egypt I called my son’”. Here in Matthew, we see that Joseph took Mary and Jesus to Egypt to escape Herod’s wrath. In addition, we see that Matthew connects that with Hosea 11:1. Few probably caught Hosea 11:1 as a Messianic prophecy until after Matthew made the connection.

    The Prophecy of the Innocent

    Prophecy

    Jeremiah 31:15, “This is what the Lord says: ‘A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more’”. Jeremiah records a rather sad sounding prophecy. This idea of mourning and weeping because of the children.

    Fulfillment

    Matthew 2:16, “When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi”. If you continue reading, you find that Matthew quotes Jeremiah’s prophecy saying that this act fulfilled it.

    Probability

    During my quick research into prophecies about the Messiah’s birth, I found an interesting article about the probability of someone fulfilling 8 Messianic prophecies. I’m going to summarize the findings here and include a link to the full article.

    The story goes that a mathematics professor (Peter Stoner) conducted a class exercise on the probability of someone randomly fulfilling 8 of the 353 Messianic prophecies. The American Scientific Affiliation reviewed the work, and the processes used and concluded that everything was sound.

    The results? The students found that the probability for a person to randomly fulfill a mere eight of the prophecies was 1 in 100 quadrillion! To show off what that number looks like, that’s 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000.

    Professor Stoner illustrated it better as such. He said that if you lay down a 100 quadrillion silver dollar coins within the state of Texas, they would cover every square inch of the state and would pile up two feet across the state.

    Then imagine if you mark only one of them with a X on it, then you blindfold a man and drop him in the middle of the state. And then you tell him to walk in any direction for as far as he wishes, the prophecy probability previously calculated is expressed here as that man selecting the one and only silver dollar with a X marking on it! With only one chance to pick it up.

    And that’s only 8 prophecies. Out of 353! Clearly the chances of this happening randomly are astronomically impossible. These types of statistics strongly demonstrate the truth of what the gospels say. And personally, gives me a greater confidence in my own faith. Oh yeah, here’s that link.

    Wrapping Up

    Wow! Imagine being able to fulfill all these prophecies. Without even trying! After all, Jesus couldn’t control the circumstances of His birth. As an adult He might be able to manipulate a few circumstances to deliberately fulfill prophecies, He couldn’t do it as an unborn or infant. I love that because it gives us greater confidence that Jesus truly is the Messiah. The Son of God. Have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! And may God richly bless you each and every day as you seek Him.

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!

  • Birth of Jesus: The When

    Birth of Jesus: The When

    Intro

    After talking about why God chose the time He did for the birth of Jesus, I now wish to talk about the actual timing of His birth. There has been a common assumption that Jesus was born between 4-7 BC because of the prevailing belief that Herod died in 4 BC. However, I aim to demonstrate how that doesn’t actually fit the evidence. And you may ask, why talk about this? Well, it adds more evidence to the inerrancy of the Bible and shows how and where it fits in recorded history. This builds our faith in it and in everything else the Bible has to say about God and who He is.

    Roadmap

    In this post, I’m going to talk about the biggest clues to the year of Jesus’ birth. This includes the death of Herod the Great and the time that Luke says Jesus started His ministry. Another strong indicator of the timing is when the early church fathers claimed when Jesus was born. Finally, I will also mention the census that Luke talked about in order to clear up any concerns that he contradicts himself in dating Jesus’ birth.

    Early Church Fathers

    We have a lot of writings from the early church. Among those writings are a lot of claims on the year of Jesus’ birth. I’m honestly a bit impressed at the consensus among the writings. I shouldn’t be. After all they lived closer to the events and knew better when the different people reigned and occurrences of other significant events. Here’s a table adapted from Handbook of Biblical Chronology by Jack Finegan.

    Time of WritingsWriter(s)Year of Jesus’ Birth
    Late 100s/Early 200sSt. Irenaeus of Lyon2 BC or 3 BC
    Late 100s/Early 200sSt. Clement of Alexandria2 BC or 3 BC
    Late 100s/Early 200sTertullian of Carthage2 BC or 3 BC
    Late 100s/Early 200sJulius Africanus2 BC or 3 BC
    Late 100s/Early 200sSt. Hippolytus of Rome2 BC or 3 BC
    Late 100s/Early 200sOrigen of Alexandria2 BC or 3 BC
    200sThe Alogoi4 BC or AD 9
    Late 200s/Early 300sEusebius of Caesarea2 BC or 3 BC
    300sEpiphanius of Salamis2 BC or 3 BC
    354The Chronographer of the Year 354AD 1
    400sOrosius2 BC
    Late 400s/Early 500sDionysius Exiguus1 BC
    500sCassiodorus Senator3 BC
    Late 600s/Early 700s“Hippolytus of Thebes”2 BC or 3 BC

    From this table, it’s pretty easy to see that the majority of early church writers believed Jesus’ birth to be 2-3 BC. There are a few outliers, but for the most part, they all agree.

    So, if the early church writers retained that date of 2-3 BC, what about the death of Herod in 4 BC? Let’s take a look.

    Herod’s Death

    The gospel of Matthew indicates that Jesus was born during the reign of Herod the Great. Consequently, the timing of his death has been used to determine when Jesus was born. Makes sense since He would have to have been born before Herod died. We get the year 4 BC from a German scholar in the late 1800s, which caught on and went largely unchallenged since. The fact that Herod slaughtered children two years and younger means that Jesus was born no earlier than 6-7 BC. Logical, right? It is, if that date of 4 BC were correct. But before I demonstrate why that date is wrong, I’m first going to explain where it came from.

    The Reasons for 4 BC

    Advocates of the year 4 BC list several reasons why that year is correct.

    • Statements from the Jewish historian Josephus say that Herod was appointed king in 40 BC and reigned for 36 years. Simple math says 40-36=4, so he died in 4 BC.
    • Also from Josephus, Herod conquered Jerusalem in 37 BC and reigned there for 33 years. Again, this leads to 4 BC (37-33=4).
    • Once more from Josephus, Herod died between a lunar eclipse and Passover. In 4 BC there was a partial lunar eclipse 29 days before Passover.
    • Various lines of evidence suggest that Herod’s sons took over in 4 BC.

    Well, there you have it right? Herod had to have died in 4 BC based on this mountain of evidence. The fact that I already stated that 4 BC is wrong should tell you that last sentence reeked of sarcasm. Too bad I can’t make it audible, that would be fun.

    So, if Herod didn’t die in 4 BC, yet all this evidence suggests he did, then there must be some explanation for why the evidence says he did. And you’re right, there is. Let’s take a look at why these four arguments don’t hold up.

    Herod’s Appointment

    Statements made by Josephus point to Herod’s appointment in 40 BC. However, the BC/AD system hadn’t been invented so Josephus actually used other methods of dating. One of those methods was an Olympiad – a four-year period during which the Olympic Games ran. According to Josephus, Herod’s appointed occurred during the 184th Olympiad, which ran from July 1, 44 BC to June 30, 40 BC.

    However, he also states that Herod’s appointment came during the consulship of Calvinus and Pollio. These two guys began their consulship after October 2, 40 BC. That’s after the 184th Olympiad ended. In fact, that would be in the 185th Olympiad. So, what gives, Josephus? That’s not possible. One of the two statements by Josephus have to be wrong, but not necessarily both of them. Luckily, we have another source on this: the Roman historians Appian and Dio Cassius. According to them, Herod’s appointment occurred in 39 BC rather than 40 BC. This puts his appointment squarely in line with consulship of Calvinus and Pollio – just like Josephus said. If you take the aforementioned 36-year reign and do the math, you get 3 BC rather than 4 BC.

    However, Josephus would not have counted 39 BC as a full year of Herod’s reign because Josephus never counted partial first years for anyone else (political rulers, high priests, etc.). So, you’d have to count from 38 BC – which gives you 2 BC. One more thing, in a different quote from Josephus when describing Herod’s death, he claims his death was 37 years from his appointment. If you do the math here, you get 1 BC for the death of Herod.

    If you want to keep track, we now have 2 or 1 BC as strong candidates for Herod’s death.

    Jerusalem Conquered

    The second popular piece of evidence comes from Herod conquering Jerusalem in 37 BC and reigning there for 33 years. Again, going back to Josephus’s dating methods, he said it occurred in the 185th Olympiad during the consulship of Marcus Agrippa and Caninius Gallus. This strongly points to 37 BC. However, he also says that it occurred 27 years after Jerusalem fell to the Roman general Pompey. Unfortunately, that occurred in 63 BC and 27 years after that would’ve been 36 BC, not 37 BC. Furthermore, Josephus says elsewhere that Herod conquered it after it was held by the Hasmoneans for 126 years. And both the First Book of Maccabees (a historical record of the Jewish revolt against the Syrians) and Josephus say that the Hasmoneans started ruling Jerusalem in 162 BC (162-126=36). So, Josephus has another inconsistency.

    Josephus also states that Herod died 34 years after beginning his reign in Jerusalem. So, using the two dates (37/36) and keeping in mind that he did not count partial first years (which gives us 36/35), we get the dates 2 and 1 BC (36-34=2 and 35-34=1).

    Looks like we have yet even more evidence to back up a date of either 2 or 1 BC. Let’s keep going. It gets better.

    The Lunar Eclipse

    Josephus declares that Herod died between a lunar eclipse and the Passover. In 4 BC a lunar eclipse occurred 29 days before Passover. Slam dunk? I don’t think so. In 1 BC another lunar eclipse occurred 89 days before Passover. So, which one? There’s two major pieces of evidence that suggests the one in 1 BC is more likely.

    • The one in 4 BC was a partial eclipse while the one in 1 BC was a total eclipse. And Josephus’s description of the eclipse lends itself to being a full eclipse.
    • Herod did a lot of things after the eclipse and before his death that required significant travel time. Andrew E. Steinmann in his book From Abraham To Paul calculates that the minimum amount of time for everything Herod did, would be 40 days. But more likely 60-90.

    Based on that second reason alone, I’m convinced that the lunar eclipse in 1 BC was the one Josephus records.

    The evidence for Herod’s death in 1 BC has grown while 2 BC falls a bit behind (there was no lunar eclipse in 2 BC). At this point, 4 BC is on its deathbed.

    The Reigns of Herod’s Sons

    The last argument for 4 BC is that we have evidence that Herod’s sons began to rule in 4 BC. And this is all true. They did. However, this argument is perhaps the weakest. Ancient rulers frequently brought in their heirs to rule alongside them as co-regents when these rulers were aging. They knew their time of death was growing near and wanted a smooth transition of power. So, they brought in their heirs to rule with them. So, yes, Herod’s sons did begin reigning in 4 BC – alongside their still-living father.

    I now declare a year of 4 BC for the death of Herod to be dead in and of itself. RIP, you will not be missed. All hail the correct year based on the above evidence: 1 BC!

    In all seriousness, now that I’ve established the year of Herod’s death, in what year did Jesus’ birth occur?

    The Start of Jesus’ Ministry

    We can actually get a couple of strong contender years for the birth of Jesus based on Luke’s record of when Jesus started His ministry.

    In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar – when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Phillip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene – during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. Luke 3:1-2 (NIV)

    Continuing from here, you get to the story of Jesus’ baptism, after which he goes into the wilderness for 40 days and when He comes back, He starts His ministry. The fifteenth year of Tiberius is roughly AD 28/29. So, backing up 30 years (remember no year 0!) we get a year of 2/3 BC for Jesus’ birth. If you recall, these are the same dates overwhelmingly supported by early church writings. But can we get more specific than that? Actually, we can. But before I get to that, I wish to address something that people have claimed as a contradiction in Luke’s gospel as to the timing of Jesus’ birth.

    Luke’s Contradiction?

    Luke opens up his second chapter with an interesting bit of history.

    In those days Caesar Agustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) Luke 2:1-2 (NIV)

    There’s a bit of a problem here. Quirinius didn’t become governor of Syria until AD 6 after the son of Herod the Great, Archelaus, is removed as ruler of Judea. And Luke had already established that Jesus was born during the rule of Herod the Great (Luke 1:5). Scholars long looked for a solution to this apparent contradiction. And behold! A solution was found. To quote Anglican bishop N. T Wright:

    “The question of Quirinius and his census is an old chestnut, requiring a good knowledge of Greek. It depends on the meaning of the word protos, which usually means ‘first’.
     
    Thus most translations of Luke 2:2 read ‘this was the first [protos] census, when Quirinius was governor of Syria’, or something like that.
     
    But in the Greek of the time, as the standard major Greek lexicons point out, the word protos came sometimes to be used to mean ‘before’, when followed (as this is) by the genitive case.”

    Wright gives a couple of examples of where ‘protos’ is translated as ‘before’ in John 1:15 and 1:30.

    Wright then goes on to say that:

    “I suggest, therefore, that actually the most natural reading of the verse is: ‘This census took place before the time when Quirinius was governor of Syria.’”

    Why Bring it Up?

    Of course, the question is, why did Luke bring it up at all? There are at least three good reasons why.

    • The first I already mentioned, Luke later associates the start of Jesus ministry with the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius. Anyone at that time could do the math and figure it out. So, Luke wanted to be sure that there was no confusion.
    • Reason two was probably to avoid confusion of which census. The census of Quirinius was famous and Luke would’ve wanted his audience to know that was not the census he’s referring to. It was a different one that we don’t have historical records for unfortunately.
    • Lastly, Luke already established that Jesus’ birth occurred during the reign of Herod the Great, so (again) he wanted to prevent confusion among his readers.

    Given all that, I think we can all agree that rather than contradicting himself, Luke was taking extra care to eliminate any confusion about the timing of Jesus’ birth.

    Now we’re back to 2 BC vs 3 BC. We’ve seen lots of evidence that these two years are the best candidates. But there is one final piece of evidence that I neglected to mention I’d be covering. And I think this one nails down the year perfectly.

    Daniel’s Prophecy

    This last bit of evidence to nail down the birth of Jesus is the prophecy of Daniel mentioned in my last post (take a look here!). Though in that post, I used it in conjunction with the general idea of Him being on Earth during this timeframe. However, it can also be used to date the birth of Jesus.

    In that post, I mentioned that Daniel’s prophecy of the 69 weeks ended just days before the death of Jesus. The most accurate calculations of the year of Jesus’ death using that prophecy come out to spring of AD 33. (Jesus died during Passover, which is springtime.) And we know that Jesus’ ministry lasted roughly 3.5 years. So, if Jesus were 33.5 when he died, and keeping in mind there’s no year 0, we end up with the fall of 2 BC. Doing the math 33-33=0, but there’s no year 0, so 1 BC (the year of Herod’s death – incidentally shortly before Passover), then back up 6 months and you get 2 BC – since Jesus died in the spring (Passover), going back 6 months puts you in the fall of the previous year.

    Therefore, I declare that between the years 2 and 3 BC for Jesus’ birth, 2 BC has the better evidence. This puts Jesus’ time on Earth from 2 BC – AD 33.

    Wrapping Up

    Even though something like this isn’t necessary to fully understand to be a good Christian, it can be beneficial to demonstrate how much evidence there really is and how specific we can get with pinpointing the day of His birth. It makes the Bible more real and alive.

    I wish to give credit to where credit is due, most of my research here comes from four articles which I link here. If you choose to read them for the additional information given, read them in the order I have them linked. A lot of what I wrote is based on these, though in a more concise way.

    Final note: I do plan on releasing a post around Christmas. Rather than on Christmas day, it might be on Christmas Eve. Not sure yet but stay tuned! Merry Christmas one and all!

    Outro

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