To: "Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup"<heb_roots_chr@geocities.com> Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 02:14:36 Subject: The Birthday of Yeshua during Sukkot
From: Eddie Chumney To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com Subject: The Birth of Yeshua during Sukkot
THE BIRTH OF YESHUA DURING SUKKOT (Taken from the book, "Seven Festivals of the Messiah")
With the end of the year approaching, without a doubt we will probably be getting into the "Christmas" debate about Christmas having it's origins in the worship of the sun god in Mythraism and Dec 25th being the birthday of the sun god. The Roman Catholic church adopted Dec 25 as the birthday of Yeshua/Jesus to allow for those who worshipped Mithras to be more easily converted to Roman Catholicism. The Eastern Orthodox church regards "Christmas" as being on Jan 6th.
What most Protestants don't realize is that Protestants have not fully left those things that were brought in by the Roman Catholic church when they mixed paganism (Egyptian/Babylonian/Mithraism) worship and practices with the worship of the God of Israel and sanctioned this mixed worship as the true worship of the God of Israel. By understanding the themes of the festival of Sukkot (Tabernacles), we can understand that Yeshua/Jesus was most probably born on the first day of Sukkot (Tishrei 15). Let us examine some of the facts which leads us to this conclusion.
In Luke 1:5, Zachariah is a priest of the division of Abijah. What does this mean? Israel was divided into 24 districts at the time of Yeshua/Jesus. Each of these districts sent two representatives to officiate at the Temple during the weeks of the year. In I Chron 24, the first division of the priests would serve in the first week of the year which would be both in the month of Nisan and Tishrei since both months begin the new year, Tishrei on the Civil Calendar and Nisan on the religious calendar. During the Festivals, the priests from all 24 districts would go to Jerusalem to help with the festival activities.
In I Cor 24:10, we see that Abijah was the eighth division or course of priests. The course of Abijah would minister in the 10th week of the year (Passover and Shavuot all would come).
In Luke 1:9-10, we see that Zacharias is burning incense. This is done in the room of the temple known as the Holy Place. As the incense (which represents the prayers of God's people ... Psalm 141:2, Rev 8:3-4) is being burned by the priests in the temple, 18 special prayers are prayed. These 18 prayers would be prayed every day in the Temple. One of these prayers is for the coming of Elijah. This is important to understand because it was understood by the people that Elijah would proceed the coming of the Messiah (Malachi 4:5).
In Luke 1:11-13, the angel appeared on the right side of the altar and told Zacharias that his prayer was heard and John the Immerser (Baptist) would be born. John was not literally Elijah but of the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke 1:17).
Allowing two weeks for the monthly period of separation between man and wife that God commanded in Lev 12:5, 15:19.,24-25 after going back to the house (Luke 1:23) and then going forward nine months puts the birth of John during the festival of Passover. This is an extremely important point because during the service for Passover, which is called the Passover Seder, the people are instructed by God to go to the door and look for Elijah while the Passover meal is eaten. The cup is called the cup of Elijah. The understanding that Elijah will proceed the coming of Messiah is the basis for the question and discussion as found in (Matthew 17:10-13).
In Luke 1:26, during the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary. This should have been around the 25th of Kislev otherwise known as Chanukah. During the time of the first century, Chanukah was known as the second Sukkot. During the time of Chanukah, all the Sukkot prayers would be prayed again. Mary's dialogue with the angel Gabriel is still found in the Sukkot liturgy today.
If you calculate from the 25th of Kislev and add 8 days for the festival of Chanukah plus nine months for Mary's pregnancy, this will bring you to the time of the Festival of Sukkot or Tishrei 15. On Tishrei 22 (also known as the 8th day ... Lev 23:36, Yeshua/Jesus was circumcised (Luke 2:22-23, Lev 12:1-3)
OTHER EVIDENCES OF YESHUA'S BIRTH DURING SUKKOT
The feast of Sukkot is called "the season of our joy" and "the feast of the nations". With this in mind, in Luke 2:10 it is written:
"And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of GREAT JOY (the season of our joy) which shall be to ALL PEOPLE (the feast of the nations)"
In Luke 2:12, the babe is wrapped in "swaddling cloths" and "lying in a manger". The swaddling cloths of the priests were used as wicks to light the 16 vats of oil within the court of the women during the festival of Sukkot. So, swaddling cloths are associated with the feast of Sukkot. The word "manger" in Luke 2:12 is the Gree word "platn'e". This word is translated as "stall" in Luke 13:15. So, we can see that the word "manger/stall" can mean a place for hitching cattle. The Hebrew word for "stall" is "marbek" which can be found in Amos 6:4 and Malachi 4:2. In Genesis 33:17, it is written that Jacob journeyed to SUKKOT and made BOOTHS for his CATTLE.
Therefore, by studying and understanding the festival of Sukkot and the themes and messages that God desired to be communicated to us during this festival, enables us to read the Bible in a new light and also allows us to understand that Yeshua/Jesus was born during the season of Sukkot not on Dec 25th which is the birthday of the sun god in Mithraism.
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