When Was Jesus Born?

In this, our Understanding the Scriptures, segment, we are in the gospel of Matthew chapter 2. Dave, pick right up with verse 1:“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.”

Dave:

Well, we have to comment on that.Tom, I think we mentioned this last week or the week before, and I will only go over it very briefly.I mentioned that there is a problem.The Catholic Church dates, they celebrated the 2000^th birthday of Jesus, they got the wrong day.Now you would think the Pope would know what was the right day.And it comes from here:In the 15^th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate, being governor of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip being tetrarch of Iturea, (Luke:3:1Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene,
See All...) and so on.You could say that it sounds like a begats and begottens, I mean, what is all of this for.Well, it identifies, first of all it proves that whoever wrote this knew what he was talking about.He must have been there at that time.It identifies a specific time, and specific people, and specific offices which you couldn’t have done years later, but yet the skeptics say, oh this was written years later.But then you have a problem.Well, if you go to verse 23, Jesus himself began to be about 30 years of age.So He must have been about 29, let’s say, in the 15^th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, and they say well yeah, historians say, Tiberius Caesar, he began to reign in 14 AD, and 15 years later, 29AD, but we’ve got a problem there, because Augustus wasn’t dead.How are we going to explain this?Five years before Augustus died, Tiberius—macho guy, he took over, and he began to rule Rome.So, we’re going to have to move the date of the takeover, or the beginning of the reign of Tiberius.We’re going to have to move that back 5 years.Now, another problem was, Herod.It clearly said, we just read it—In the days of Herod the king there came wise men saying, Where is He that is born King of the Jews?Well now, we’ve got a real problem, because Herod died in about 4 BC, or was assassinated, I don’t remember which.Well now, if Jesus was born in the days of Herod the king, and he died in 4 BC, Jesus must have been born sometime before then, that’s not zero.So, you’ve got the wrong date.Anyway Tom, the Bible is very precise, and it doesn’t waste words.But all I’m saying is, it also gives us proof that this was written by men who were there, and who knew what they were talking about, instead of what they will teach you in a postmodern seminary, or whatever you want to call it.Oh no, this wasn’t written until centuries later—you didn’t have the library facility, you couldn’t look up all of this stuff centuries later.So, it’s interesting to me, because the Bible just drops these little nuggets here and there as proof of itself.

Tom:

Dave, there’s another aspect to this that I find interesting in terms of accuracy.You spelled out something that was terrific—terrific insight, just a matter of checking the record here, and so on.But it’s amazing how many Christians just kind of go along with things that they’ve heard, and now they can’t tell the difference between what the Bible says, or what they come up with.For example, three wise men, how do we know there were three?

Dave:

Well, it doesn’t say so, the Bible doesn’t say so, and you had better stay away from that.

Tom:

But you get my point here; we just kind of assume some things because we’re mixing.Now, here’s another point; the wise men showed up at the manger, right?

Dave:

No.

Tom:

Well, what do you mean no?All the displays that we see have the wise men there, why is that?

Dave:

Not true, because it was some time after the birth of Jesus.He was back in his home town, Joseph and Mary, and he was in a proper bed, I assume, not in a stable.

Tom:

But you get my point here.We just kind of go along with things, and we were at your debate in Toronto—I say, we, — I was there along with one of our board members in Toronto.And some of the people that you were debating, they had some ideas about the Bible, and as I told you, they were not accurate, but they were persuasive.And a gentleman, after one of the debates, walked by me, and said we really need to know our Bibles, and that’s true.So, part of what we’re doing here, Search the Scriptures Daily, we are encouraging people to, don’t take our word for it, we’re trying to encourage people to get into the Word of God, and be accurate about their understanding.

Dave:

That’s one of the problems of the debate, Tom, because the Muslim can reel off all this false information about the Bible, and people out there in the audience, they don’t know that it’s false.I do not have time to deal with every one of those false statements.So, there are some things unsatisfactory about a debate, but I think it stimulates a lot of thinking.

Tom:

Right, but the point is you’ve got to know the Words along the testimony.

Dave:

Absolutely, absolutely!

Tom:

So, verse 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.”Now Dave, who might these, we said there are not necessarily three of them, could have been, but Scripture doesn’t say, but who would these wise men be?We know they are from the East, but what would they be about?

Dave:

Tom, numbers tells us about a man named Baalim, we don’t have time to go into that, but at one time he was in touch with God, and it is literally Baalim who prophesied, and he was from the East you could say in a way, it was Baalim who prophesied the star that would show, a star will arise, and so forth.And obviously, these men, whoever they were, had been searching the Scriptures, and they were watching for this star.And they, apparently, I mean, yes, not apparently, they saw a star that they believed was the one.They are following the star, but it could not have led them to Jerusalem.They must have somehow—well, when they get close enough—aha, we’re heading in the direction of Jerusalem, this is the King of the Jews.So, they don’t have to watch the star anymore, they just go on their camels riding to Jerusalem.Where was he that is born King of the Jews?Of course we really upset that cause.I believe that they were following; they had read the prophecy of Baalim.

Tom:

Well, Dave, what’s your take on a star?Do you think this was actually a star as we understand it today, you know, like the North Star?

Dave:

No, Tom, it had to be something that seemed to them to be a star.

Tom:

A light of some kind.

Dave:

But it came down on the earth.

Tom:

Could this have been an angelic being, or some phenomenon?I know we are speculating, but I know this trips up people.Dave, some people say, well, wait a minute, do they use sextants to follow the stars like a ship would use to direct itself?

Dave:

The Bible doesn’t go into details about that.It may be because this star, it looked like a star, it’s up in the heavens, you can’t tell, and it seemed to shine right onto the earth, and is moving.It may be that that is what caused them to think that this must be the star that Baalim talked about, and they began to follow it.

Tom:

Verse 3:“When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.”It must have been an item for them.Whoa, how is it that these guys from the East know better than we do.

Dave:

Well, also if there has been a king born, where does that put Herod?So, I can understand why he would be troubled.