The Actual Birth Date of Jesus Revealed

The exact date of Jesus’ birth has eluded Biblical scholars for the past 2,000 years. The first mention of December 25th as being the date of His birth was circa 200 A.D. And the first celebration of December 25th as Christmas was sometime between 250A.D. - 300A. (Andrew McGowan, “How December 25th Became Christmas”, Biblical Archaeology Society, Dec. 2002). In the year 336 A.D., Emperor Constantine officially declared December the 25th as the day to celebrate the birth of Christ. There has always been conjecture that the date was simply picked by the early Church to countermand various pagan festivals that took place around this time. These pagan festivals were based on the winter solstice which always occurs on December 21st the shortest day of the year. However, research has yet to find any writings to confirm this theory. But it turns out there is an actual and logical reason why December 25th is celebrated as the birth date of Jesus.

Scripture gives us five clues to consider when trying to establish Jesus’ birth date. We know that Jesus was born during the reign of Caesar Augustus 63 B.C.-14 A.D. Scripture also tells us that a tax decree was issued when Quirinius was Governor of Syria. The problem with this notation is that Quirinius served in this office for 2 separate terms the last being in 1B.C. We know there were “…shepherds in the fields keeping watch over their flocks…” which would suggest His birth was during the spring, summer or fall. We know that Herod the Great 73 B.C- 1 B.C. was alive when Jesus was born. And finally, the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus 37 A.D.-100 A.D. tells us that Herod died during an eclipse of the moon. These clues narrow the time line of Jesus’ birth but cannot be reconciled by scholars in such a way as to establish an exact date that all can agree on. Thus we have two general sets of dates. The first is from scholars who try to reach the best conclusions they can working with the above mentioned facts. The second group goes with a range of dates believing that the actual date is most probably somewhere in the group. But neither of these sets of dating is satisfying. To which the scholars say, “Well, it the best we can do!”

But wait! We have one more reference and it is about an astronomical event… the Star! To date, the Star has always been dismissed by Biblical scholars because the ancients considered any light in the night sky a star. Maybe it was a comet or meteor passing by the earth or a supernova. Perhaps it was a one-off astronomical miracle by God in the form of a supernatural light that once existed for a brief time but is now gone forever without a trace. In fact, most of these possibilities could be one-time events gone for a long time if not forever. This is why scholars have dismissed the Star as being of no help at all in dating the birth of Jesus. After all, there is no way to go back in time 2,000 years and look up at the night sky over Bethlehem … right? Well, not so fast!

Over the past 100 years we have learned a wealth of knowledge about stars and planetary bodies. Today we know that the stars do not move, we move. The earth rotates on its axis while at the same time circling the sun. Our vantage point of the stars is from the earth which is a moving platform. Thus, it only appears as if the stars are moving when in fact, we are the ones that are on the go. In an everchanging world, the stars are constantly fixed in the sky. The planets, on the other hand, move through the night sky in regularly changing and repeating patterns. Sometimes they appear to move in one direction only to stop and move in another. But again, this is only an optical illusion due to the fact that the earth is moving. With the help of today’s powerful computers, anyone can purchase astronomical software that can accurately show where the stars and planets are today, where they have been at any time in the past and where they will be at any time in the future. And these calculations are accurate not only to the year and month but to the day, hour and minute! These astronomical programs can also be directed to look up into the sky from any point on the face of the earth. So, one would only need to look up at the night sky from Bethlehem and run the celestial clock backwards to the beginning of the first century and see what it shows. And wow does it show something!

We can now clearly see that in June of 2 B.C. Jupiter the king planet of power and Venus the mother planet of love came within two degrees of each other. This conjunction made them look to the human eye as the largest and brightest star ever seen in the night sky. We also see at this same time that the star Regulus or king star, appears to be circling around the top of the conjunction like a halo. But wait… it gets better! All this happens in the constellation of Leo the lion of Judah and the lion has his paw on the head of Hydra the serpent. And all of this took place in the night sky directly over, you guessed it, Bethlehem on June 17th, of 2 B.C.

In the Book of Genesis, God told Satan that the “the Seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent” (Genesis 3:15). In Genesis, Jacob prophesized on his death bed calling his son Judah a Lion’s whelp (Genesis 49:9). he Prophet Micah prophesized that the Messiah would come from the small village of Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). In Genesis God said “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven… and let them, be for signs and for seasons and for days and years” (Genesis 1:14). Biblical scholars are understandably at a lost to accurately declare the year, month and day of Jesus’ birth due to a lack of scriptural information. But God has declared His Son’s birth in a way that will remain accurately documented eternally. He declared His birth in the fixed and permanent stars of the heaven just as He said He would!

According to astronomical software, the exact same software that is used to launch the spacecraft of NASA, Jesus was born the month of June. This is a month when shepherds would be in the fields surrounding Bethlehem guarding their flocks in the night. They were told of the birth of the Messiah by Gabriel and went to see for themselves the greatest of all prophesied events (Luke 2:8). This birth date fits perfectly with the conception date of Jesus 9 months earlier, the taxation event, the death of Herod during and eclipse of the moon in 1 B.C., the date of the start of Jesus’ ministry and the death of Jesus on the Passover of 33.A.D. Please refer to this web sites menu to read the papers verifying the dates of these and other events in the life of Jesus.