LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS INT.

When was the Messiah born?

According to the Gospel of Luke, pastors were outside taking care of their flock when they received the message from the angel about the Messiah being born in that time.

There is only one time in the year when this happens and it is when the lambs are going to be born, lambs cannot be born in different seasons of the year (like humans), this type of lambs are born only in the Spring. Besides that, we know by the Gospels and the Prophecies that the Messiah was born in Bethlehem. Bethlehem is where the sacrificial lambs for the Temple were raised. Therefore, it is evident that God used the same season for the Messiah to be born giving us a hint that He is our Passover Lamb, I mean, he was born in the time where lambs are born and in the place where the sacrificial lambs for the Temple were born.

Herod the Great was the Emperor when the Messiah was born, he died approx. in the year 4 BCE, this means that the birth of the Messiah happened to be a couple of years before, when Herod the Great was still alive.

In the year 6 BCE there was a great stars conjunction between planets like Jupiter and Saturn which is believed to be what we know as – The Star of Bethlehem -, this was the sign that the Maggi saw in the sky. As astronomers they had to study the sign of the Star, and later on, they determined that this event was related to the birth of a special king among the Jewish people.

Some scholars believe that the Maggi whom came from Persia (modern day Iran) knew about Jewish prophecies specially those dreams or oracles that Daniel described hundreds of years before, we have to remember that Daniel was a very prominent figure and the chief of the “wise men” in Babylon. So, the Maggi studied the stars, probably had ancient knowledge about the 70 weeks of Daniel, then made a calculation and came with the conclusion that they will need to start a journey to the land of the Jews (in that time under the rule of the Roman Empire), and bring gifts to the new born king as part of the fulfillment of prophecies that we can find in the Old Testament.

Daniel 9:25–26 (LEB)
25 And you must know and you must understand that from the time of the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem until an anointed one—a leader—will be ⌊seven weeks and sixty-two weeks⌋; it will be restored and will be built with streets and a moat, but ⌊in a time of oppression⌋.
26 “And after the sixty and two weeks an anointed one shall be cut off, and ⌊he shall have nothing⌋, and the people of the coming leader will destroy the city and the sanctuary, and its end will be with the flood and on to the end there shall be war; these desolations are determined.

Firstly, the anointed one defined in the book of Daniel is the Messiah and if we make the calculations of years since the last event of the prophecy and the time of the coming of the Messiah, gives as a result the year when Jesus was Baptized by John the Baptist.

If the wise men or Maggi had this information, they calculated the date and figured out that the prophecy and the alignment of the stars where the confirmation of the major event in human history of that time. If they didn’t have that information, in that case, they had to read the stars through which God revealed to them the birth of His Messiah. Either way, they followed the star.

But, can we find a prophecy about the gifts of the Maggi in the Old Testament?

Isaiah 60:6 (LEB)
6 A multitude of camels shall cover you,
the young male camels of Midian and Ephah.
All those from Sheba shall come;
they shall bring gold and frankincense,
and they shall proclaim the praise of YHWH.

Isaiah seems to prophecy about nations coming to bring wealth to Zion, he talks about Midian, Sheba and Epha. The three of them are Arab nations, Epha was a son of Midian, but here is a land serving as transporter of Gold and Frankincense. This is connected to the chapter 59 where God himself will bring deliverance to his people through a Messianic figure.

Isaiah 59:20 (LEB)
20 “And a redeemer will come to Zion,
to those in Jacob who turn away from transgression,”

⌊declares⌋ YHWH.

So, this reveals that people will come from the Arab world and will bring as gifts gold and frankincense, and we see in the Gospels that they also brought Myrrh with them. We don’t know how many Maggi came to see the Messiah, maybe they were more than three; and I believe all of them brought the same gifts, I mean, each one of the Maggi brought Gold, frankincense and Myrrh. Another thing to consider is that they found the Messiah in his home in Bethlehem, and he was two years old when they met him and gave him the gifts, therefore, this event happened approx. in the year 4 BCE. We know by Historic account that Herod the Great died a few days after he sent to kill all males of two years old and under.

Every gift given to the toddler Messiah had a prophetic meaning. Gold represents his royal status as king of the heavens and the earth, Frankincense was burned and used in the Temple on the Altar of Incense in front of the Holy of Holies. It was considered a valuable and precious offering… Therefore, Frankincense represents the sacrifice of the Messiah, because he will give his life as an offering… as a ransom taking away the sins of many. The last and not less important was the Myrrh, it was a component of the holy anointing oil which in one hand represents prayer and consecration, and in the other hand was used as a substance for embalming and perfuming, therefore, it represents the death and burial of the Messiah.

Until now, we have been gathering some information about the first two years of life of the Messiah, so, we can calculate his birth taking as reference the visit of the Maggi. This tells us that he was born two years before the Maggi came to visit him, the same year when the star of Bethlehem appeared to them because of the great conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter which happened in the year 6 BCE. This means, we can confirm that the Messiah had to be born in the time of the Spring of that same year. Another thing to consider, and we talked about this previously… is that the types of lambs used for the Sacrifice in the Temple were born on Spring in Bethlehem, but specifically in the month of Nissan (Late March and Mid April).

Also, We can take as reference the death of Herod the Great which is supposed to be between March and April of the year 4 BCE, and we make a difference between his month and year of death and the age of the Messiah when Herod sent to kill all males of 2 years old and under. If we calculate using this reference, we come to the conclusion that the toddler Messiah was 2 years old. Therefore, late March – Mid April 4 BCE minus 2 years will give us as a result, late March – Mid April 6 BCE. And if we use the Jewish calendar and we calculate the equivalent year, Nissan 3757 minus 2 years this will give us as result Nissan 3755.

Now that we have the month and year of birth, we can calculate based in the biblical prophetic hints about the Messiah and the feasts in the month of Nissan. We know that the Messiah died in the beginning of the feast of Passover according to the gospels, this is Nissan 14th. And in the Old Testament the Messiah is a king… an anointed one, also, one of the gifts of the Maggi was gold which represents his royal status; this means, he was born in the new year celebration for kings and festivals, that is Nissan 1st. Therefore, the date of birth of the Messiah was 1st of Nissan 3755 which is Saturday 20th of March 6 BCE.

Conclusion

The Messiah was born in the same season and place where the sacrificial lambs for the Temple were born, this is on the Spring in the land of Bethlehem. God did that to fulfill the prophecies about his birth and ministry. The Messiah is called the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. Since his birth we have clues of his ministry, the Scriptures reveal that he took our place and died (was sacrificed) as our Passover Lamb. The stars aligned to let the creation know that the King of the Universe took the form of flesh to save us all and this happened on Saturday, Nissan 1st of 3755 in the Hebrew Calendar… Saturday, March 20th of 6 BCE in the Gregorian Calendar.

Leo Ramirez.