As any Christian, and non-Christian must know, it’s unlikely Jesus was born on the day we traditionally celebrate his birth – December 25th.

I’ve always believed that Jesus must have been born sometime in the spring for the following reason:-

The shepherds, mentioned in Luke chapter 2, appear to be adult men.  While we know that young boys would often watch over the flock, David being an example (see Samuel 16:11), they often watched the sheep alone.  In Luke’s account, we have a number of adults shepherds out in the field together at night, all night.  Probably even for a number of nights

“In the same region, shepherds were staying out in the fields and keeping watch at night over their flock.”  Luke 2:8

The most obvious reason for this is that it was the lambing season.  These experienced shepherds needed to stay in the fields, with the flock, to be close at hand in case an ewe got into difficulty giving birth.  Also, the helpless, newborn lambs would need to be dried off and kept warm.

Spring in Israel falls on the same months as it does here in the UK: March, April and May.  So, that settles it – Jesus would have been born in the spring.

Or was he?

I recently came across an article by a professor Emeritus of Animal breeding at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.  (don’t you just love the Internet?)  He writes that the Awassi, fat-tailed sheep are the, “only indigenous breed of sheep in Lebanon, Jordan and Israel,” and that they have been bred in the region for at least 5,000 years (which of course, includes the time of Jesus).  His research shown that:

“the ewe comes into heat only when the spring and summer grazing has restored the weight they lost, during the preceding period of drought, and brought back to a fair condition”.

The mating season of these, fat-tailed sheep, is from June to September and their gestation period lasts for around 150 days, or almost 5 months.  5 months from June to September brings us to mid-October through to mid-January; the winter months.  So the shepherds would have been out in the fields at this time.

Maybe Jesus was born on December 25th after all.  Unlikely, but not impossible, as I’d previously believed.

Whenever our Lord was born, the most important fact of course, is that he WAS born.  Born to die for the sins of the world – our sins – my sins.  But how amazing to know that he, the Lamb of God, (John 1:36) was born at the same time the shepherds were watching over lambs being born in a nearby field.

ref: Awassi sheep

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Why Bethlehem?

Why did God choose Bethlehem as the place of Jesus’ birth?

Well one reason was to fulfil a 700 year old prophecy:

 

While this prophecy (and many others) confirm that Jesus was indeed the promised Messiah it doesn’t explain WHY God chose Bethlehem.

 

One thing I’ve learned from my study of the Bible is that nothing God does is by accident or chance.  Everything is carefully planned to the minutest detail (one of the reasons we can be sure that the Bible is the word of God not man).  So, if Bethlehem wasn’t chosen by God at random, why was it chosen?  Why not Jerusalem; The ‘Holy City’?  Or Nazareth? (which would have spared the heavily pregnant Mary a very long and uncomfortable journey.)

Searching for information about Bethlehem in ancient times, I discovered that the town is mentioned in ‘The Mishnah’.  The Mishnah is the first written collection of the Jewish oral tradition known as the ‘Old Torah’.  Apparently The Mishnah says that only sheep from the flocks of Bethlehem were raised to be Temple flocks; selected and used for sacrifice.  As an English graduate, I’m a stickler for referencing the original source but, I was unable to find where in The Mishnah this can be found.  I scanned some extracts but, The Mishnah is comprised of 6 books, there was no way I was going to spend the next few months reading it all (maybe one day).  So, I have to resort to quoting from a very reliable secondary source.

In the book “Why a manger” the authors Bodie and Brooke Thoene state that:

“Bethlehem was the place where lambs, destined for the Temple, were born and raised.  Every first born male lamb from the area around Bethlehem was considered holy and set aside for sacrifice in Jerusalem.”.  For Passover.

How amazing is that?  Jesus, the lamb of God was also born in Bethlehem.  He was the holiest of holy and also destined for sacrifice from birth; Not in the Temple but on a cross nearby, during Passover.