The Christmas Story
What
Really
Happened?
by Chuck Missler
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Dr. Chuck Missler,
a widely recognized Biblical authority, updates his
classic study of Christmas for 2007. He explores the
background, and myths, surrounding our favorite
holiday.
- What really
happened in Bethlehem two thousand years ago?
- Who were the
"Magi?"
- Why a virgin
birth?
- What does a
Christmas Tree have to do with it?
Each year at Christmas we celebrate the birth of
Jesus Christ.
After the New Year, we
struggle to remember to add a year as we date our
checks, which should remind us that the entire
Western World reckons its calendar from the birth of
the One who changed the world more than any other
before or since.
It is disturbing to
discover that much of what we have been taught about
the Christmas season seems to be more tradition than
truth. Santa Claus isn't the only myth or legend
that has arisen out of this season.
On what "loophole" does the
Messianic hope rest? Who were the Maji? And why a
"virgin birth?" What does a Christmas Tree have to
do with it?
This DVD
includes notes in PDF format and MP3 files.
A Christmas Issue: Why a Virgin Birth?
Chuck Missler examines the Biblical roots and
reasons behind the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ.
Was this event foretold in the Old Testament
(the Torah)? Come find out!
A Christmas Anticipation Who Were the Magi?
Chuck
Missler discusses the identity and Medo-Persian
history of the Magi - whose gifts of gold,
frankincence, and myrrh announced Jesus as King
of the Jews, according to the messianic
prophecies of Daniel.
A Christmas Promise: The Scepter of Judah
Chuck Missler examines many of the prophetic
events in the Old Testament heralding the coming
of a Saviour.
Christmas Traditions: The Feast of Stephen
John
Loeffler takes an in-depth look at how the
traditions and religious observances surrounding
Christmas (Christ's Mass) came into being.
Seasonal Favourites: The Origins of our
Christmas Traditions
It
is disturbing to discover that much of what we
have been taught about the Christmas season
seems to be more tradition than truth.
A Story of Bethlehem: The Kinsman-Redeemer
The book
of Ruth, a traditional reading at harvest time
during the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot), is a book
of only four brief chapters that is both a
classic love story and also an essential book of
prophecy.
Audio Encoding: Dolby
Digital 2.0 stereo
Run Time: 120 mins.
Number of discs: 1
If Jesus
was born 280 days later it would place the date of his birth on September 29th, 2 b.c.
If Jesus was born on September 29th, 2 b.c., it is interesting to note that it was also the First of Tishri, the day of the Feast of Trumpets.
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Each year at Christmas we celebrate the
birth of Jesus
Christ. After the New Year, we struggle
to remember to
add a year as we date our checks, which
should remind
us that the entire Western World reckons
its calendar
from the birth of the One who changed
the world more
than any other before or since.
It is disturbing to discover that much
of what we have
been taught about the Christmas season
seems to be
more tradition than truth. It isn’t only
Santa Claus
that is the result of myths and legends
of the season.
When Was Jesus Born?
Most serious Bible students realize that
Jesus was
probably
not
born on December 25th. The shepherds
had their flocks in open field,1 which
implies a date
prior to October. Furthermore, no
competent Roman
administrator would require registration
involving
travel during the season when Judea was
generally
impassable.2
If Jesus wasn’t born on December 25th,
just when
was
he born? Although the Bible doesn’t
explicitly identify
the birthday of our Lord, many scholars
have developed
diverse opinions as to the likely
birthday of Jesus. (It
reminds one of the rabbinical
observation:
with two
Jews, you have three opinions!)
The Year of Jesus’ Birth
There are many scholastic debates
offering contrasting
views of the birth of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The following
exploration reviews but a few.
The year of Jesus’ birth is broadly
accepted as 4
b.c.,
primarily from erroneous conclusions
derived from
Josephus’ recording of an eclipse,
assumed to be on
March 13th, 4
b.c.,
“shortly before Herod died.”
There are a number of problems with this
in addition
to the fact that it was more likely the
eclipse occurred
on December 29th, 1
b.c.
Considerable time elapsed between
Jesus’ birth and Herod’s death since the
family
fled to Egypt to escape Herod’s edict,
and they didn’t
return until after Herod’s death.3
Furthermore, Herod
died on January 14th, 1 b.c.4
Tertullian (born about 160
a.d.)
stated that Augustus
began to rule 41 years before the birth
of Jesus and
died 15 years after that event.5
Augustus died on August
19th, 14
a.d.,
placing Jesus’ birth at 2 b.c.6
Tertullian
also notes that Jesus was born 28 years
after the
death of Cleopatra in 30 b.c., which is
consistent
with
a date of 2 b.c. Irenaeus, born about a
century after
Jesus, also notes that the Lord was born
in the 41st
year of the reign of Augustus. Since
Augustus began
his reign in the autumn of 43 b.c., this
also appears to
substantiate the birth in 2 b.c.
Eusebius (264-340 a.d.), the “Father of
Church History,”
ascribes it to the 42nd year of the
reign of Augustus and
the 28th from the subjection of Egypt on
the death of
Anthony and Cleopatra.7 The 42nd year of
Augustus ran
from the autumn of 2 b.c. to the autumn
of 1 b.c. The
subjugation of Egypt into the Roman
Empire occurred
in the autumn of 30 B.C. The 28th year
extended from
the autumn of 3 b.c. to the autumn of 2
b.c. The only
date that would meet both of these
constraints would
be the autumn of 2 b.c.
John the Baptist
Another approach in determining the date
of Jesus’
birth is from information about John the
Baptist.
Elisabeth, John’s mother, was a cousin
of Mary and
the wife of a priest named Zacharias who
was of
the “course” of Abijah.8 (Priests were
divided into 24
courses9 and each course officiated in
the Temple for
one week, from sabbath to sabbath.)
When the Temple was destroyed by Titus
on August
5th, 70 a.d., the first course of
priests had just taken office.
10 Since the course of Abijah was the
eighth course,
we can track backwards and determine
that Zacharias
would have ended his duties on July
13th, 3 b.c. If the
birth of John took place 280 days later,
it would have
been on April 19th-20th, 2 b.c.
(precisely on Passover of
that year).
John began his ministry in the 15th year
of Tiberius
Caesar.11 The minimum age for the
ministry was 30.12
As Augustus died on August 19th, 14 a.d.,
that was the
accession year for Tiberius. If John was
born on April
19th-20th, 2 b.c., his 30th birthday
would have been
April 19th-20th, 29 a.d., or the 15th
year of Tiberius.
This seems to confirm the 2 b.c. date
and, since John
was five months older, this also
confirms the autumn
birth date for Jesus. (John’s repeated
introduction of
Jesus as “The Lamb of God”13 is
interesting if John was
indeed born on Passover.)
The Date of Jesus’ Birth
Elisabeth hid herself for five months
and then the
Angel Gabriel announced to Mary both
Elisabeth’s
condition and that Mary also would bear
a son who
would be called Jesus. Mary went “with
haste” to visit
Elisabeth, who was then in the first
week of her sixth
month, or the fourth week of December, 3
b.c.
If
Jesus
was born 280 days later it would place
the date of his birth on September 29th,
2 b.c.
If Jesus was born on September 29th, 2
b.c., it is interesting to note that it
was also the First of Tishri, the day of
the Feast of Trumpets.
(See also our briefing
package,
The Feasts of Israel,
for more background.)
Then Why December 25th?
The early Christian church did not
celebrate Jesus’ birth,
and therefore the exact date had not
been preserved in
festivals. The first recorded mention of
December 25th is
in the Calendar of Philocalus (354 a.d.),
which assumed
Jesus’ birth to be Friday, December
25th, 1 a.d.
When the Emperor Constantine eventually
declared
Christianity as the state religion of
the Roman Empire
in the Edict of Toleration in 312 a.d.,
the persecuted
Christians exchanged the rags of hiding
for the silks
of the court.
The predictable expediency to adopt the
inevitable cultural
changes caused many of the former pagan
rituals
to be adapted to their new “Christian”
trappings.
The
date of December 25th, which was
officially
proclaimed
by the church fathers in 440 a.d., was
actually a vestige
of the Roman holiday of Saturnalia,
observed near
the winter solstice, which itself was
among the many
pagan traditions inherited
from the earlier Babylonian
priesthood.14
Babylonian Traditions
All
forms of occultic practices have their
origins in
the original city of Babylon. Isaiah
Chapter 47 clearly
brings this out. (See also Hislop in the
bibliography.)
Most of what we associate with pagan
Rome had its
origins in ancient Babylon. It has been
the adherence
to these idolatrous influences that has
evoked the
intense criticism of Roman Catholicism
by Protestant
commentators over the many centuries.
Babylon is mentioned in over 300
references in the
Bible. It is even alluded to three times
in Christ’s own
genealogy. Babylon is presently being
rebuilt 100 kilometers
(62 miles) south of Baghdad.
The Origin of Babylon
The first world dictator was Nimrod, the
“Rebel.” Nimrod
built the famous Tower of Babel as the
centerpiece
of his rebellion against God. (“Bav” =
gate; “El” = God.
Thus, Babel = “gateway to the gods”).
This was the
beginning of the city of Babylon.
God disrupted the rebellious coalition
through the
“confusion of tongues” in Genesis 11.
This rebellion
against God is still with us. The
residuals from Babylon,
including most of the traditions of idol
worship,
astrology, and the occult, continue to
the present day.
The original Biblical significance of
the zodiac (or
“Mazzeroth”) was corrupted by the
Babylonian religious
system and continues in all cultures
to this day.
(See our briefing packages,
Signs in the Heavens,
and
The Mystery of Babylon.)
The Tammuz Legend
Tammuz, the son of Nimrod and his queen,
Semiramis,
was identified with the Babylonian Sun
God and
worshipped following the winter
solstice, on about
December 22nd-23rd. As the days became
shorter and
shorter through the winter, they become
the shortest
at the winter solstice. Tammuz was
thought to have
died during the winter solstice, and was
memorialized
by burning a log in the fireplace. (The
Chaldean word
for infant is
yule.
This is the origin of the “yule log.”)
His “rebirth” was celebrated by
replacing the log with
a trimmed tree the next morning. Sound
familiar?
(Jeremiah 10 contains an interesting
verse which talks
about trimming trees, etc.)
There are numerous other examples: the
wassail
bowl, the mistletoe (a fertility rite),
and others that
are documented in such works as Hislop,
et al. (See
bibliography.)
When Babylon was conquered by subsequent
empires,
this entire religious system was
transplanted, first to
Pergamos under the Persians, and then to
Rome. As
the pagan Rome (Babylonian) religious
system was
integrated with Christian ceremonial
observances,
many of our current traditions
surrounding
Christmas
emerged.
Other Holidays
The Babylonian worship of Ishtar, the
Golden Egg of
Astarte, and the fertility rites of
spring give us Easter
(“Ishtar,” the mother goddess of
Babylon). These get
combined with other fertility symbols
such as prolific
rabbits, etc. (Have you ever wondered
where we get
rabbits that lay eggs?)
The calendar year-end on October 31st,
and its associated
occultic rituals, gave us our Halloween.
Many ancient
cultures—Celts, Druids, et al—observed
October
31st, the Eve of Samhain, as their
year-end. This was
related to the worship of Baal (Mars)
and may have
been stimulated by the perturbation of
the orbit of the
earth associated with the planet Mars.
(See our Briefing
Package,
The Signs in the Heavens.)
It appears that an “ecumenical”
integration of
all the
world’s religions,
including the ancient Babylonian
occult forms that presently masquerade
as the “New
Age,” are destined to be the final
religious
climax. (See
our briefing package,
The Mystery
of Babylon,
for more
background.)
The Messianic Promise
God’s declaration of war on Satan15
involved the promise
of a kinsman-redeemer of Adam: the
Messiah.
It is interesting to note Satan’s
repeated attempts
to eradicate the Messianic line from Eve
onwards
throughout history. From Cain and Abel
and the Flood
of Noah to the slaughter of the infants
in Egypt, Satan
has attempted to interrupt the royal
line, even to the
slaughter of the babes in Bethlehem.
The Blood Curse on Jeconiah
The kings of both Israel and Judah went
from bad to
worse. Ultimately, God pronounced a
“blood curse” on
Jeconiah and his descendants16 and,
thus, on the royal
line. How can the Messiah be of the
royal line and yet
not be subject to the blood curse?
The Two Genealogies
Matthew:
As a Levi, Matthew focuses on the
Messiahship
of Jesus: he traces the legal line from
Abraham
(as any Jew would) through David, then
Solomon and
the royal line, to Joseph, the legal
father
of Jesus (Mt
1:1-17).
Luke:
As a physician, Luke focuses on the
humanity
of Jesus: he traces the blood line from
Adam (the first
man) through David, then through Nathan
(a different
son of David) to Mary, the mother of
Jesus (Lk
3:23-38).
Solution:
A virgin shall bear a son (Isa 7:14) LXX:
parthenos.
Why? Deity, yet a kinsman-redeemer of
Adam.
(See genealogies on the next page.)
“Loophole”:
Daughters of Zelophehad: One must note
the amendment to the law which permitted
inheritance
through the daughter if no sons were
available and she
married within the tribe.17 Study the
following verses:
Num 26:33; 27:1-11; 36:2-12; Josh
17:3-6; 1 Chr 7:15.
(John also has a genealogy of the
Pre-Existent One:
John 1:1-3.)
Why Bethlehem?
Why did Samuel, knowing that the royal
line was
of the tribe of Judah, anoint Saul from
the tribe of
Benjamin?
This, and the link of Bethlehem to
David, is found in
the Book of Ruth. (See the briefing
package,
The Romance
of Redemption.)
You cannot understand Revelation
Chapter 5 without it.18
A Master Plan: Genesis Chapter 5
Adam
Man
Seth
Appointed
Enosh
Mortal
Kenan
Sorrow;
Mahalalel
The Blessed God
Jared
Shall come down
Enoch
Teaching
Methuselah
His Death shall bring
Lamech
The despairing
Noah
Rest, Comfort
Specifications Fulfilled
He would be born of a virgin Isaiah 7:14
And He was: Mt 1:18-25
He would be born in Bethlehem Micah 5:2
And He was: Mt 2:1-6
He would be taken into Egypt Hosea 11:1
And He was: Mt 2:15
He would heal the sick
and make people whole Isa 53
And He did: Mt 8
He would be crucified Ps 22:14-17
And He was: Mt 27:31
He would die for our sins Isa 53
And He did: Jn 1:29; 11:49-52
He would be raised from the dead Ps
16:10
And He was: Mt 28:1-10
Messianic Genealogy
He had the most distinguished Family
Tree in history:
Encrypted in the Torah Gen 38
Prophesied in Judges Ruth 4
Evades the blood curse on Jeconiah Jer
22:30
Virgin Birth Gen 3:15; Isa 7:14;
Ps 69, 110
The Christmas Story: Session 2
Visit of the Magi Mt 2:1-15
Massacre at Bethlehem Mt 2:16-18
Flight to Egypt Mt 2:19-22
Return into Nazareth Mt. 2:23
His childhood years Psalm 69
The Magi
Eastern tradition: 12 Magi; (Christmas:
Jan 6)
Western tradition: 3 Magi; (Epiphany:
Jan 6)
In the 3rd century, Magi became “Kings”
bearing gifts:
Psalms 72:10, 68:29. Sixth century
chronicle,
Exerpia
Latina Garbari,
gives the names of the Magi:
Bithisarea Balthasar
Melichior Melchior
Gathaspa Gasper
Bede (673-735): Magi were
representatives of the three
sons of Noah and their progeny from
Asia, Africa, &
Europe: Shem, Ham, Japheth.
14th century Armenian tradition:
Balthasar King of Arabia
Melchior King of Persia
Gasper King of India
Relics attributed to them were
discovered in the 4th
century; transferred from Constantinople
to Milan, 5th
century; to Cologne by Frederick
Barbarossa in 1162
where they remain enshrined.
The word Magi comes from a Latinized
form of
Magoi
(Herodotus, 1:101), which came from an
ancient Greek
transliteration of the Persian original,
meaning
“magic”
(Singular,
magus).
However, “magicians” (a profession,
rather than citizenship
or cultural link) are presented in Acts
as vile
men without standing or morals: Simon
Magus in
Samaria, Acts 8:9-24; Elymas Magus at
Paphos on the
Island of Cyprus, associated with
Sergius Paulsu the
proconsul.19
Persian Cult
Rab-mag,
Chief of the Magi. (Untranslated title
of Nergal-
shar-ezer in Nebuchadnezzar’s court, Jer
39:3,13).
Magi of lesser rank in Dan 2:10,27;
4:7,9; 5:11. (Cf.
Magi are Median; vs. Chaldean.)
Title of Daniel.20 His Jewish
appointment may have
had repercussions among the hereditary
Median priesthood,
leading to the plot of Daniel 6.
Persian Magi were credited with profound
and
extraordinary
religious knowledge. (Babylonian magi
were often considered impostors.)
Established as the state religion of
Persia by Darius
the Great, after some Magi who were
considered to
be expert in the interpretation of
dreams had been
attached to the Median court.
(Oneiromancy, not astrology,
is the key skill mentioned by Herodotus,
et al.
I.107, 120; VII.19.)
It was in this dual capacity whereby
civil and political
counsel was invested with religious
authority that
the Magi became the supreme priestly
caste of the
empire.
The Magi are mentioned in the trilingual
inscription
of Bisitun, made by Darius I The Great
(550-486 b.c.;
reigned 522-486). The three languages
were Elamite,
Akkadian/Babylonian, and Old
Persian/Aramaic. It
speaks of his speedy and final triumph
over a revolt of
Magi in 522 b.c. The Magi were not
originally followers
of Zoroaster.21
The subsequent syncretistic Magian
religion of Archaemenid
days had much in common with the
religion
of the Jews: Each had its monotheistic
concept
of one
beneficent creator, author of all good,
who in turn was
opposed by a malevolent evil spirit.
Each had its hereditary
priesthood which became the essential
mediator
between God and man by virtue
of a blood sacrifice.
Each depended upon the wisdom of the
priesthood in
divination (The Urim and Thummim of the
Levite; the
barsoms, small bundles of divining rods,
of the Magi);
each mutually
held concepts of clean and unclean
forms of life.
The Magi developed into a hereditary
priesthood serving
several religions; they became the
priestly caste
during Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian
periods.
New Testament Magi (Matthew 2:1-12)
Political Background:
Since the days of Daniel, the
fortunes of both the Persian and the
Jewish nation
had been closely intertwined. Both
nations had fallen
under Seleucid domination in the wake of
Alexander’s
conquests. Subsequently both had
regained their independence:
the Jews under Maccabean leadership,
and
the Persians as the dominating ruling
group within the
Parthian empire
It was at this time that the Magi, in
their dual priestly
and governmental office, composed the
upper
house of
the council of the Megistanes
(“magistrates”?)
whose
duties included the absolute choice and
election of the
king of the realm.
It was therefore a group of
Persian-Parthian “king
makers” who entered Jerusalem in the
latter days
of the reign of Herod. Herod’s reaction
was understandably
one of fear when one considers the
background
of Roman-Parthian rivalry that prevailed
during
his lifetime.
Pompey, the first Roman conqueror of
Jerusalem, in
63
b.c.
had attacked the Armenian outpost of
Parthia.
In 55
b.c.
Crassus led Roman legions in sacking
Jerusalem
and in a subsequent attack on Parthia
proper.
The Romans were decisively defeated at
the battle of
Carrhae with the loss of 30,000 troops,
including their
commander. The Parthians counterattacked
with a
token invasion of Armenia, Syria, and
Palestine.
Nominal Roman rule was reestablished
under Antipater,
the father of Herod, who retreated
before
another
Parthian invasion in 40 b.c.
Mark Antony reestablished Roman
sovereignty in 37
b.c. and, like Crassus before him, also
embarked on a
similarly ill-fated Parthian expedition.
His disastrous
retreat was followed by another wave of
invading Parthians
which swept all Roman opposition
completely
out of Palestine (including Herod
himself who fled to
Alexandria and then to Rome). With
Parthian collaboration,
Jewish sovereignty was restored and
Jerusalem
was fortified with a Jewish garrison.
Herod, by this time, secured from
Augustus Caesar
the title of “King of the Jews.”
However, it was not for
three years (including a five-month’s
siege by Roman
troops) that the king was able to occupy
his own capital
city. Herod had thus gained the throne
of a rebellious
buffer state which was situated between
two mighty
contending empires. At any time, his own
subjects
might conspire in bringing the Parthians
to their aid.
At the time of Christ’s birth, Herod may
have been
close to his final illness. Augustus was
also aged; and
Rome, since the retirement of Tiberius,
was without
any experienced military commander.
Pro-Parthian
Armenia was fomenting revolt against
Rome (which
was successfully accomplished within two
years). The
time was ripe for another Parthian
invasion of the buffer
provinces, except for the fact that
Parthia itself was
racked by internal dissension.
Phraates IV, the unpopular and aging
king, had once
been deposed and it was not improbable
that the
Persian Magi were already involved in
the political
maneuvering requisite to choosing his
successor. It
was conceivable that the Magi might have
taken advantage
of the king’s lack of popularity to
further their
own interests with the establishment of
a new dynasty
which could have been implemented if a
sufficiently
strong contender could be found. During
this time it
was entirely likely that the Messianic
prophecies of the
OT, culminating in the writings
of Daniel, one of their
own Magians, was of profound motivating
significance.
The promise of divinely imposed world
dominion at the
hands of a Jewish monarch was more than
acceptable
to them. (Their own Persian and
Medo-Persian history
was studded with Jewish nobles,
ministers, and counselors;
and in the great Archaemenid days, some
of the
kings themselves were apparently of
Jewish blood.)
In Jerusalem the sudden appearance of
the Magi, probably
traveling in force with imaginable
oriental pomp
and accompanied by adequate calvary
escort to insure
their safe penetration of Roman
territory, certainly
alarmed Herod and the populace of
Jerusalem.
It would seem as if these Magi were
attempting to
perpetrate a border incident which could
bring swift
reprisal from Parthian armies. Their
request of Herod,
regarding the one “who has been born
king of the
Jews,”22 was a calculated insult to him
who had contrived
and bribed his way into that office.
In the providence of God, the Messianic
prophecy of the
kingdom having been then fulfilled; the
Magi, “being
warned in a dream” (a form of
communication
most acceptable
to them), departed to their own country
with
empty hands.
Within two years, Phraataces, the
parricide son of
Phraates IV, was duly installed by the
Magi as the new
ruler of Parthia. Later, Philo of
Alexandria, Cicero, and
others record that Magi were attached to
senior Roman
courts with acknowledged gifts and
standing.
Star of Bethlehem?
Was it a fulfillment of Balaam’s
prophecy in Num
24:17? Neither Num 24:17 nor Isa 60:3
are quoted by
Matthew. (Note: Simon
Bar Cocheba,
“Son of the Star.”)
Conjunction theory:
Kepler suggested that the star
was a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn
in the constellation
of Pisces in 7 b.c. (Wrong date: 2-4
b.c. suggested
from an erroneous inference from
Josephus.)
But this star was not a natural
phenomenon—it settled
over a specific location! Could it be
the
Shekhinah?
It
appeared at the Creation (Gen 1), the
Abrahamic Covenant
(Gen 15), the Burning Bush (Ex 3),
Pillar of fire
by night (Ex 13), and the Flames at
Pentecost (Acts 2).
Why
not
here? See
Signs in the Heavens
for a discussion
of the Hebrew
Mazzeroth
and the Zodiac.
Psalm 69: Jesus’ Early Years
This psalm tells us about the silent
years of Christ’s
childhood and young manhood, of which
the Gospels
tell us practically nothing. Dr. Luke
tells us about an
incident in the life of our Lord when He
was twelve
years old, but we learn nothing else
about Him until
He is about thirty years old. This psalm
fills in some of
the details of those early years. We see
some of Christ’s
dark days in Nazareth and His dark hours
on the cross.
We begin way up north at Nazareth: We
hear the heart
sob of a small boy, a teenager, a young
man…
Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord
GOD of
hosts, be ashamed for my sake: let not
those that
seek thee be confounded for my sake, O
God of
Israel. Because for thy sake I have
borne reproach;
shame hath covered my face. I am become
a
stranger unto my brethren, and an alien
unto
my mother’s children.
Psalm 69:6-8
There are two reasons He is bearing this
reproach: 1)
They hated Him because of who He was. 2)
He came to
take a lowly, humble place on earth.
Mary had other
children, which confirms the record in
the Gospels (Mt
13:55; Mk 6:3). He became an alien unto
His mother’s
children—not His father’s children
because Joseph
was not His father. They were
half-brothers and halfsisters.
It may have been a very unhappy home.
(This
verse also teaches the virgin birth of
Christ.)
When I wept, and chastened my soul with
fasting,
that was to my reproach. I made
sackcloth also
my garment; and I became a proverb to
them.
Psalm 69:10-11
Do you know what that proverb was? The
word that
circulated around was that He was
illegitimate. You
know what people would call Him today.
(John 8 is a
tense confrontation about “Fatherhood”!
“We be not
born of fornication…” Jn 8:41.)
They that sit in the gate speak against
me; and I
was the song of the drunkards.
Psalm 69:12
The drunkards at the local bar made up
dirty little
ditties about Him and His mother. Those
who are “sitting
in the gate” are the high officials of
the town, the
judges. The best people in Nazareth also
spoke against
Him. (You know how forgiving small towns
are!) His
life in Nazareth was not nice.
Why did He endure all of this? He was
raised in a town
where He was called illegitimate in
order that I might
be a legitimate son of God. The Son of
God bore that
for me on the cross; He paid the penalty
for my sins.
We have no idea what He endured for 30
years in order
that we might have a clear title as a
legitimate son of
God. What is
your
Christmas gift to
Him?
* * *
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Notes:
1. Luke 2:8.
2. Matthew 24:20.
3. Matthew 2:15, 19-22.
4.
Magillath Ta’anith,
an ancient Jewish scroll contemporary
with Jesus.
5.
Tert. adv. Judaeos
c.8.
6. No year 0 between
b.c.
and
a.d.
7.
Eccle. Hist.
i.5.
8. Luke 1:5, 8-13, 23-24.
9. I Chronicles 24:7-19.
10. Both the Talmud and Josephus confirm
this.
11. Luke 3:1.
12. Numbers 4:3.
13. John 1:29, 36.
14. Alexander Hislop,
The Two Babylons,
Loizeaux, Neptune,
NJ, 1916.
15. Genesis 3:15
16. Jeremiah 22:30
17. Numbers 27:1-11; 36:2-12
18. Micah 5:2
19.
Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible
3:222
20. Daniel 4:9; 5:11
21.
Encyclopedia Britannica
7:691
22. Matthew 2:2
Bibliography
Hislop, Alexander,
The Two Babylons,
Loizeaux Brothers,
Neptune, New Jersey, 1916.
Missler, Chuck,
Expositional Commentary on Daniel,
(tape
cassettes with notes), Koinonia House,
2004.
Santala, Risto,
The Messiah in the Old Testament in the
Light of Rabbinical Writings,
(trans. from the Hebrew),
Keren Ahvah Meshihit, Jerusalem, 1980.
Santala, Risto,
The Messiah in the New Testament in the
Light of Rabbinical Writings,
(trans. from Hebrew),
Keren Ahvah Meshihit, Jerusalem, 1984.
Yamauchi, Edwin M.,
Persian and the Bible,
Baker Book
House, 1990.
Also
Encyclopedia Judaica, Encyclopedia
Britannica,
the
Babylonian Talmud,
and other various encyclopedias,
dictionaries, and other reference
materials
as noted.
