The following notes are meant to accompany the book, "The Birth of Messiah."
Two Genealogies of Jesus Christ
Matthew and Luke both provide genealogical evidence to demonstrate that Jesus is descended from Adam (He is human), Abraham (He is Jewish), and David (He is King). However, Luke follows Mary’s line through Nathan, and Matthew follows Joseph’s line through Solomon. This was necessary to prove His right to sit on David’s throne (through Solomon) but His freedom from the curse put on Jehoiakim’s line in Jeremiah 22:24-31. Because of this curse, nobody with descent from the last king could reign. Joseph, while in the kingly line, could never have ascended the throne. Only by his adoption of Jesus could the right to rule be restored. Jesus received his place in the Davidic dynastic line through his adoptive earthly Father and his un-cursed royal blood through his mother, who descended from David through a different son.
The Timeline of Jesus' Birth
In Luke 1, the author tells us the week Zechariah received the revelation of the future birth of his child, John the Baptist. This timeline is something that has been lost from modern, Gentile, retellings of the birth story. In the days of King David, the priests were divided into 24 divisions (1Chron 24). Each division served twice a year, and all divisions served on each of three pilgrimage feasts. Zechariah belongs to the priestly division of Abijah (Lk 1:5,8). We are also told (vs 8) that the revelation happened when Zechariah was serving in the “normal order of his priesthood,” so not during one of the three feast weeks. Abijah served in early June and in late November. If this was his fall service, then no special dates line up. However, if it was in his summer service, then the following timeline emerges (Safari, 1989 and Edersheim, 1987):
Early June: Zechariah’s revelation
December: Mary’s revelation of her carrying the Messiah happens 6 months and a few weeks later, during Hanukah (Luke 1:36).
March: John the Baptist is born nine months after Zechariah finished his service and journeyed home, on Passover.
September: Jesus is born nine months after Hanukah, on Sukkot.
Each of these feasts have symbols and shadows pointing toward the coming of Messiah which were perfectly fulfilled in the events recorded in Luke 1 and 2.
John The Baptist and Elijah at Passover
In every Jewish home during Passover, there is a stage of the meal when the door is opened and (usually the children) are sent to call for Elijah to come and join them at their table. It is the belief of those Jews who are looking for Messiah’s arrival that Elijah must come first. This is based on Malachi 3:1 and 4:5-6. Jews, celebrating the deliverance of their people from Egyptian bondage in the past during Passover look to a future and greater deliverance by Messiah. This deliverance cannot come until Elijah does, so they look carefully to see if the prophet has come back every year during Passover.
The disciples of Jesus even asked why, if He was Messiah, there had not been a preceding ministry by a resurrected Elijah. Jesus twice identifies John the Baptist as having fulfilled that prophecy (Matthew 11:14; 17:12). This is in fact exactly what Gabriel tells Zechariah during the revelation in Luke 1. His son, John The Baptist, will serve in the spirit and power of Elijah. How fitting, then, that he would be born on Passover, exactly when all Jewish families were anxiously expecting it (Chumney, n.d.)!
The Census of Luke 2:1
Luke 2 begins with a historical and temporal setting of the stage so that we the reader are able to identify exactly when this miracle birth happened. The problem is that the setting described is very hard to correlate with other historical accounts. Numerous solutions have been proposed. The following is the best, in the estimation of this author.
First, we know that the census happened while Herod the Great was still alive (Luke 1:5). He died in 4 B.C. After his rule, his kingdom was divided, and no citizen living in Nazareth would have paid taxes in Judea. Also, we know that this census was in (eventual) obedience to a command by Cesar Augustus. Cesar declared a census in 10 B.C., in 7 B.C., and then not again until 6 A.D. (Brindle,1984 and Taylor, 1933). Since Herod was dead by 6 A.D., we are left looking at the 7 B.C. census as the one in question.
However, most English versions of the Bible read that this census was the “First census while Quirinius was governor of Syria.” There’s the problem. Quirinius wasn’t governor of Syria until A.D. 6, when he definitely presided over a census that resulted in rebellion and bloodshed in Judea. This event is recorded in Acts 5:37. Since Luke also wrote Acts, it is unlikely that he confused the two events. The best solution is to take the Greek word protos, translated “first” in Luke 2:2 not to mean the first in a series but to mean “before.” It is translated in this way numerous times in the New Testament, and there is nothing in the context here that would preclude that translation (Wright, 2014).
There is also good evidence to suggest that Herod resisted a commanded Census and was disciplined for it just before his death (Wiseman, 1987). Putting all of this together, it is likely that a Census was commanded in B.C. 7 but was delayed until 5 B.C., when it happened at the demand of Cesar Augustus within two years of Herod’s death and well “before” the one under Quirinius in 6 A.D. Lastly, it makes sense for Herod to perform the census during Sukkot. All Jewish males had to journey to Jerusalem for Sukkot, and all Jews living in Herod’s kingdom at the time were members of the tribes of Judah or Benjamin, with ancestral homes near Jerusalem.
They would be close to home when they went to worship. It made a very inconvenient event less cumbersome, which is likely why this census did not result in rebellion, but Quirinius’ in 6 A.D. did.
God With Us
Sukkot symbolizes God among His people in numerous ways. While the Jews wandered in the wilderness, they lived in tents. God lived in a tent among them, called the Tabernacle. The feast of Tabernacles celebrates both of these facts. The tabernacle was indwelt by a local, physical manifestation of the infinite invisible God in the form of a pillar of fire and cloud (Ex 13:21). This pillar is described as being “The Angel of the Lord” (Ex 14:19), a character widely believed to be the second member of the Godhead, Jesus Christ, before His incarnation.
This manifestation of God filled a tabernacle made of skins of goats and porpoises. Literally, this was “God with skin on.” In John 1:14 we are told that this second member of the trinity once again put on flesh and “dwelt,” literally “tabernacled” among us. The holiday that celebrates the God who put skin on in the desert became the birthday of the Messiah, when God would, once and for all, add to his eternal divinity, the flesh of mankind.
Migdal Eder
In Bethlehem, there was a watch tower used by shepherds to watch over their flocks called, “The Tower of the Flock,” in Hebrew: “Migdal Eder” (Gen 35:16-21; 1 Sam 10:2). Archaeological studies in the area have failed to positively identify which of several possible sites represent the ruins of the tower today, but it was known positively as recently as the time of St. Jerome’s travels (Jerome, 1995). Two probable candidates have been identified in recent studies, one which predates the Hebrew invasion of Canaan, and looks to be the strongest candidate. It overlooked all the hills, canyons, and caves which would have been so useful to shepherds in the area. From this tower, if it were more than ten or so meters in height intact, one would have had a clear view of the city of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount (Mazar, 1990). In Micah 4:8, the prophet reveals that this location will be critical in the advent of the Messiah. This idea was actually incorporated into the story of Genesis 35 in the Targums, where it says, “And Jakob proceeded and spread his tent beyond the tower of Eder, the place from whence, it is to be, the King Messiah will be revealed at the end of the days” (Pseuo-Jonathan Gen 35).
The most important feature of this location as the birthplace of Christ is that it was the hub of the industry around raising temple animals for sacrifice. Animals were not allowed to openly graze in Israel except around this tower. Also, while managed flocks were kept in barns or shelters in the winter, these flocks were out all year (Abrams, 2004). All clean animals raised in the vicinity of Migdal Eder were considered bound for temple sacrifice. To this end, the shepherds who maintained these flocks were not ordinary shepherds. They were, rather, priestly shepherds, intimately aware of the ceremonial requirements for a sacrificial animal. Birthing caves were maintained in accordance with ceremonial cleanliness. Animals were immediately inspected upon birth for defects that would disqualify them for temple worship. Flocks and herds raised here, when driven to the markets outside the temple to be sold as sacrificial animals, were attested to by the priestly shepherds to be fit for sacrifice (Edersheim, 1888).
Migdal Eder stood as the center of all of this activity. It was the central headquarters for the production of animals fit for sacrifice, and it stood on land owned by Joseph’s family.
Manger or Sukkah?
The Hebrew word “Sukkah,” is usually translated as “booth” or “tabernacle” in English Bibles, but at it’s core is the idea of a ”lean-to.” Another synonym might be “shack.” It can be used for a temporary shelter for people, as in the wilderness wanderings, or it can be used for a similar structure meant to care for and protect animals, as it is in Genesis 33:17. The Greek word translated “manger” in Luke 2:7, 12, and 16 is similarly plastic. It can mean a feeding box or trough, as Christmas artists depict, but it can also mean a stall in a barn or even a temporary shelter for the animals, as it does in Luke 13:15. This overlap in meaning between “manger” and “sukkah” raises the strong possibility that what Jesus was placed in was not a feeding trough but a sukkah.
“No place in the Inn”
There has been much confusion and discussion on what it means that there was “no room in the inn.” The Greek word for “inn” is κατάλυμα, and it is used three times in the NT: Here, in Luke 2:7, and in Mark 14:14 and Luke 22:11, both of the latter occurrences are in reference to the “upper room” where Jesus was to celebrate his final Passover with His disciples before betrayal. In these two places, the ESV translates the word as “guest room.” It is this same meaning that we should read into the text in Luke 2:7. Bethlehem was not big enough, in the time of Christ, for a Hotel in any modern sense. Hospitality was a national virtue. Travelers were taken into the guest rooms of family, friends, and (if necessary), strangers. Joseph was going to his hometown, to his family members. There was no need to look for a commercial shelter. Interestingly, the definite article appears in reference to the guest room, and the noun is singular, meaning that there was a specific one Joseph had in mind, not an abstract expectation of hospitality somewhere.
The phrase “there was no room for them” can infer that the place was already occupied, which may have been true, but it is almost impossible to imagine a family member turning a pregnant young woman away. However, it can also imply that there was no appropriate place, as it does in Rev 12:8 and 20:11. The law states that a woman who has given birth is unclean for a week, and she makes anything she sits or lays on (and anyone who touches those things afterward) unclean as well. It makes more sense that Mary, who was about to give birth, did not want to defile the guest room and her hosts by doing so in their home, especially just before a major festival. This explains why she moved into the Sukkah with Joseph and why, after the ordeal was over, they had a place to stay for an extended period of time. Doubtless, It was in this guest room situation, that the Magi of Matthew’s account encountered the young Messiah.
Testimony of the Shepherds
Why did the angels come to shepherds? That question is asked by many who don’t understand the critical role these particular shepherds fulfilled in the worship life of Israel. The Levitical Shepherds had several roles. They had to inspect every animal born in their herds and make sure that it was fit for sacrifice, and they also had to testify to this fact at the point of sale or transfer to those who sold the animals in the temple. They were the guarantors of perfection for the faithful Jews who purchased their animals for sacrifice (Boucher, 2008).
By entrusting to these Levitical shepherds the job of spreading the word about the birth of Messiah, God was asking these shepherds to do their job: Inspect the Lamb, verify His fitness, and then tell the faithful that a fitting sacrifice for sins had been born. These shepherds took their message not only out into town, but because it was sukkot, they likely took this message into the temple as they ushered in the scores of rams, oxen, and sheep that were to be sacrificed on a daily basis during the festival (Numbers 29:12-34).
Light & Water in Sukkot
Water. Water always symbolizes blessing to the Jews. This feast thanks God for sending His blessings in the rain and anticipates Him doing so again (Chumney, n.d.). During Sukkot, water was drawn every night from the pool of Siloam in Jerusalem and marched with great celebration and fanfare, up to the altar, where it was poured into a bowl that drained onto the base of the altar. The singing, dancing, waving of branches, and even juggling flaming torches that accompanied the procession of the water led the authors of the Mishnah to declare that, “He that has never seen the joy of the ceremony of the water drawing has never in his life seen joy” (Sukkah 51a). This water symbolized God pouring out His Holy Spirit on the nation, according to Isa 44:3. It also recalled God’s pledge to save His people in Isa 12:3 and became known as the “outpouring of salvation.” On the last day of the feast, the basin with the spout at the end that drained water onto the base of the altar would be joined by another basin that similarly drained wine. Water and wine would be poured out on the base of the altar. Jesus, during this ceremony, famously called Himself the source of living water (John 7:37-38), and upon his crucifixion, water and blood poured out as the final outpouring of the well of salvation (Edersheim, 1987).
Light. During the festival, light was a powerful metaphor. The temple was ablaze with the light of four massive candelabras, each holding four oil lamps that held fifteen gallons of oil in each. The wicks of these torches were the shredded garments of the priests. The light that was produced was so intense that Jerusalem glowed brightly all night. It was meant to represent the light of God’s word flowing out of the temple and into the world. In the mornings, the priests would stand facing the brightly burning torches and the temple, with their backs to the rising sun, and declare that, while other nations (and even many Jews) worshiped creation in general and the sun in particular, they worshipped God and followed the truth of His word. The priests would declare this and then begin shouting, “Our eyes are toward God!” This chant would be taken up by the people in attendance and would be heard throughout Jerusalem. It was in this context that Jesus lifted up his voice and shouted above the crowd, “I am the light of the world!” (John 8:12).
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