From: heb_roots_chr@mail.geocities.com To: "Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup"<heb_roots_chr@geocities.com> Date: Thu, 25 Dec 1997 03:55:23 +0000 Subject: Christmas in the Bible
From: Fred Costello To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com Subject: Christmas in the Bible > > From Eddie: > ************** > > You can read your Bible a zillion times and you will NEVER find > Christmas celebrated in the NT. > Dear Eddie, I can think of three wise men and a host of Angels who might argue with you. Glory to God in the Highest, and peace to His people on earth. Fred >From Eddie: ************** This is a good example how we (20th century, Western culture Christianity) read the Bible and do so from the framework of our culture and our customs as opposed to reading the Bible in the culture and the land in which it was written. God's Angels don't celebrate Christmas. In Luk 2:10,12 the ANGEL said these words: "And the ANGEL said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of GREAT JOY which shall be to ALL PEOPLE ... and this shall be a sign unto you; you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a MANGER" By having a background and understanding of the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) and the themes of this holiday rather than only having a background and understanding of Santa Claus and the story of Rudolph the red nosed reindeer, we can understand the the WORDS being spoken by the ANGEL are THEMES for the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot). The Feast of Tabernacles is known as: #1) The SEASON OF OUR JOY #2) The feast of ALL NATIONS Finally, a MANGER is the Greek word which when translated back into Hebrew is a SUKKAH (tabernacle). Some of the following information is taken from my book, "The Seven Festivals of the Messiah". THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES: THE FEAST OF ALL NATIONS The feast of tabernacles is also called the feast of all nations. Why is this so? Number 29:12-32 describes the Feast of Tabernacles and the bullocks which God required to be sacrificed during the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles. In Numbers 29:12 it is written: "And on the 15th day of the seventh month (the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles) you shall have a holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work, and ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days" The following bullocks were to be offered as burnt offerings during these seven days. Day #1 --- 13 bullocks ---- Numbers 29:13 Day #2 --- 12 bullocks ---- Numbers 29:17 Day #3 --- 11 bullocks ---- Numbers 29:20 Day #4 --- 10 bullocks ---- Numbers 29:23 Day #5 --- 9 bullocks ---- Numbers 29:26 Day #6 --- 8 bullocks ---- Numbers 29:29 Day #7 ---- 7 bullocks ---- Numbers 29:32 So, the total number of bullocks that were offered during the Feast of Tabernacles was 70 = 13+12+11+10+9+8+7. God divided the nations of world into 70 nations after the flood according to the number of the children of Israel. In Deuteronomy 32:8 it it written: "When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel" How many were the number of the children of Israel? In Exodus 1:1,5 it is written: "Now these are the name of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob ... and all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were SEVENTY (70) souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already". So, in Deuteronomy 32:8, it tells us that God divided the nations after the flood according to the number of the children of Israel. In Exodus 1:1,5 the number of the children of Israel who went to Egypt was 70. Therefore, 70 is the number which represents the nations of the world. During the Feast of Tabernacles, 70 bullocks were sacrificed. It was seen that one bullock was sacrificed for each nation in the world. Therefore, the Feast of Tabernacles was seen as being the feast of ALL NATIONS. Furthermore, the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) will be celebrated by ALL NATIONS during the 1,000 year Messianic Age when Yeshua/Jesus rules and reigns and teaches the LAW (Isaiah 2:2-4, Zechariah 14:16-17). THE FEAST OF TABERANACLES: THE SEASON OF OUR JOY In Numbers 29:12-32 where it describes the 70 bullocks which are offered during the Feast of Tabernacles, there is a Hebrew word that the Rabbi's saw coded in a specific interval in these passages. The Hebrew word was MAYIM which means "water". So, WATER was also associated with the Feast of Tabernacles. In Isaiah 12:3 it is written: "Therefore with JOY shall ye draw WATER out of the wells of salvation". It was on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles that Yeshua/Jesus spoke these words in John 7:37: "In the LAST DAY, that great day of the feast (of tabernacles), Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man THIRST, let him come unto me and DRINK" The relationship between WATER and JOY during the days of the Feast of Tabernacles was so great that there was an elaborate celebration of water pouring that took place in the Temple. This is recorded in the Mishnah in Succah 5. The water pouring became a focus of the joy that the Torah commands for Tabernacles (Sukkot). On no other other festival were the people commanded to be joyful, and as a result Tabernacles (Sukkot) became knows as the SEASON OF OUR JOY. The Talmud states, 'He who has not seen the rejoicing at the place of the water-drawing has never seen rejoicing in his life'. So the themes of GREAT JOY and ALL NATIONS are two themes of the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot). So, when the ANGEL spoke the words in Luke 2:10: "And the ANGEL said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of GREAT JOY which shall be to ALL PEOPLE" The ANGEL was speaking the words of the THEMES of the Feast of Taberncles (Sukkot) NOT CHRISTMAS! A MANGER IS A SUKKAH (Tabernacle) The Hebrew word Tabernacle is Sukkah. In Luke 2:12 it is written: "And this shall be a sign unto you; you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a MANGER (5336)" The word manger is the Strong's word (5336). It is the same word translated as STALL in Luke 13:15 as it is written: "The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, does not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the STALL (5336) and lead him away to watering?" So, we can see that a MANGER of STALL was a place for hitching cattle. In Genesis 33:17 it is written: "And Jacob journeyed to Succoth (Tabernacles), and built him a house (God commanded to build a house (Sukkah) and to live in it during the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles ... Lev 23:42) and made booths (5521) (SUKKAH) / Tabernacle) for his CATTLE: therefore, the name of the place is called Sukkoth (Tabernacles)" Therefore, we can see that the WORDS of the ANGEL when he announced the birth of Yeshua/Jesus in Luke 2:10,12 when he used the words JOY, ALL NATIONS, MANGER (Sukkah) are associated with the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot). FOR SURE, the ANGEL was NOT announcing the celebration of or keeping Christmas when this was done. THE WISE MEN Finally, the Bible does NOT say that there were THREE wise men. Once again this is Christian Christmas tradition that has no Biblical basis and once again we read the account of the birth of Yeshua/Jesus through our 20th century, Western Christian mind rather than from the culture in the day in which the text was written. A famous song is sung at Christmas time from which we get the concept of THREE wise men. The song is ... "We THREE Kings from ORIENT are bearing gifts we travel afar ..." This is a nice song but it is unbiblical. The wise men were NOT from the ORIENT. It was NOT the chinese who were looking for a Jewish Messiah. It was Jewish RABBI'S. In Matthew 2:1 it is written: "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came WISE MEN from the EAST to Jerusalem" The largest population of Jewish people lived in BABYLON during the days of the birth of Yeshua/Jesus because they were taken captive by King Nebuchadnezzar around 586 B.C.E. Babylon was known as the land of the EAST (Genesis 29:1, Judges 6:3). The Jewish Rabbis were called sages or WISE MEN because they studied and learned the Torah. The word in Matthew 2:1 for wise men is the Greek word, "Magos" (3097) which is translated into English as "Magi". Magos (3097) in Greek is the Hebrew word (7248) "Ravmag" which comes from the Hebrew word (7227) "rav" which means "Rabbi". There was a prophecy in Numbers 24:17 that a STAR would rise out of Jacob as it is written: "I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a STAR out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel ..." The STAR was seen as the Messiah. The wise men (Jewish Rabbi's) came from the East (Babylon ... the largest Jewish population in the world during the days of the birth of Yeshua/Jesus) because they saw His STAR in the EAST as it is written in Matthew 2:2: "Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his STAR in the EAST and are come to WORSHIP him" Three Oriential Kings from China didn't come to see the Jewish Messiah but Jewish Rabbi's from the land of Babylon did. When they came they offered gifts befitting for one who would be called the KING OF ISRAEL! Therefore, I will say once again, you can read the Bible a ZILLION times and you will NEVER see Christmas being celebrated in the Bible but by knowing about the roots of your faith and understanding the Biblical Festivals (which I explain fully in my book, "The Seven Festivals of the Messiah"), you will understand that the "Christmas story" in the Bible makes MANY references to Feast of Tabernacles which was the time when Yeshua/Jesus was really born and the ANGLES NEVER celebrated Christmas or announced it's arrival. **************************************************************************