Christmas: How it all Started, part 2

What Month?

Cold rains and occasional snow are common in Judea in the winter months of December to February, and it is very cold at night. The fact that Mary and Joseph were journeying to sign the census and that shepherds were tending their flocks out on the open hillside suggests September or October, as it was not practical to ask people to travel for a census in winter when the roads were wet and muddy -there is evidence of an earlier census being held at the same time as The Feast of Tabernacles- and sheep were not kept out in the open in winter either. It has also been suggested (see www.wildolive.co.uk) that September/October fits in with the timing of John the Baptist's conception and birth according to the date of his father's duty at the temple (as a member of the eighth division he would have served around June) and Mary's visit to John's mother, Elizabeth (see chapter one of Luke's gospel). Another possibility is that Jesus was born in March or April, but this idea is based largely on the astronomical evidence and the assumption that the Magi or "wise men" visited Jesus as soon as he was born, which is debatable, and some guess work that as the Jewish festival of Passover was held in April and many families would have come together to celebrate, this would have been an excellent time for a census (but see comment on census above).



richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK