What time was jesus christ born? What time was Jesus born

The time of the birth of Jesus Christ

The question of the exact determination of the time of the birth of Jesus Christ requires special consideration, since the evangelists, not being chroniclers, do not provide an accurate historical dating. Nevertheless, the Gospels contain data that can be used to determine the timing of the main points in the Gospel story. Thus, according to the testimony of the Evangelists Matthew and Luke, Christ was born during the reign of Herod the Great. This testimony, supplemented by the message of Josephus Flavius ​​that in the last days of Herod's life there was a lunar eclipse, allows us to conclude from accurate astronomical calculations that Herod's death occurred in early April 750 from the founding of Rome. Therefore, Christ was born not earlier than this year.

The Evangelist Luke reports that John the Baptist preached in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Jesus Christ was then thirteen years old. Augustus accepted Tiberius as co-ruler two years before his death, in January 765. Consequently, the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius began in 779 from the founding of Rome. Thus, according to these data, Christ was born in 749 from the founding of Rome.

Another indication of the date of Christ's birth is the testimony of the Evangelist Matthew about the star that appeared to the Magi. Since the second century, the fathers and teachers of the Church have raised the question of the nature and origin of this star. St. John Chrysostom and Blessed Theophylact regard her as a manifestation of some kind of intelligent power - an angel who took the form of a star. Others suggested that it was a comet, the motion of which, clearly distinguished by the direction of the tail, showed the Magi the way to Palestine. However, this assumption is groundless, since the phenomenon of comets, although rare, was well known to ancient astronomers and could not induce them to travel to Jerusalem. This star cannot be recognized as a meteor either, since the meteor suddenly appears in the sky and quickly disappears, which does not correspond to the circumstances of the gospel story about the star. Most likely it was a real star, invisible before and extraordinary in brightness of light (St. Ignatius the God-bearer, Origen, Eusebius), similar to those that appeared later.

In 1604, a new extraordinary star was noticed in the constellation Pisces, the brilliance of which exceeded the light of the stars of the first magnitude and was visible even during the day. Soon, however, its glow began to fade, and two years later, in March 1606, it completely disappeared. The reason for the appearance of this star was the conjunction in 1603 * of two large planets - Jupiter and Saturn, to which Mars also joined in March 1604. This gave rise to the famous astronomer Kepler to think whether there was such a conjunction of the planets and the appearance of an extraordinary star at the time of the birth of Christ.

Astronomical calculations showed that indeed at the end of 747 and the beginning of 748 a similar conjunction of the planets Jupiter, Saturn and then Mars took place. Therefore, Kepler, and other astronomers behind him, argued that the star of the Messiah was nothing more than such a conjunction of the planets, accompanied by the appearance of a special, "extraordinary star" *.

The given data are sufficient grounds to assert that Christ was born in 748-749 from the founding of Rome. December 25 is considered the Day of the Nativity of Christ from the time of the Second Ecumenical Council **.

The calculus "from the Nativity of Christ" accepted in our country was introduced in the 6th century by a Roman monk Dionysius the Small who calculated that Jesus Christ was born in 754 from the founding of Rome. This calculation, as later shown by thorough research, turned out to be erroneous: Dionysius was mistaken for at least 5 years. Nevertheless, the chronology introduced by Dionysius, which was originally intended only for church use, has become generally accepted in the Christian world since the 10th century and is used as a civil chronology.

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* The star that the Magi saw in the East could be real, invisible before and extraordinary in the brightness of the light, but the Star that showed the way for the Magi from Jerusalem to Bethlehem was no longer a real star or a planet, but a completely special miraculous phenomenon. Seeing this star, the Magi really rejoiced with great joy, since in this phenomenon they found new reinforcement of their faith in the reality of the birth of an extraordinary Child.

** This is evidenced by St. John Chrysostom, as well as the ancient traditions of the Roman Church.

On these pre-holiday days, the liberal tabloid press is filled with complaints that, they say, everything is wrong with these Christians in general, and with the Orthodox in particular, they say, they celebrate Christmas incorrectly - on the wrong date, on the wrong date and on the wrong that year, etc. And, indeed, in atheistic (and initially - in occult) mythology there is a thesis that Jesus Christ, they say, was not born in December or January! Although no reasoning for such statements is provided, but if doubt is sown, then it will be our duty to consider and reveal the question - when, in fact, was Jesus Christ born?

What year was Jesus Christ born?

Yes, indeed, the date that is designated as the year of birth of Jesus Christ today is to a certain extent conditional! This date was established by the Roman archivist monk Dionysius the Small in 525. He received it as a result of meticulous calculations of the stages of the reign of various Roman emperors and consuls. Based on these calculations, he established that the Lord Jesus Christ was born in the 754th year from the founding of Rome. It should be recalled here that until 525 there was no "continuous" or general chronology - most often the time was determined by the "year from the founding of Rome", and even more often the dates were completely conditional - "such and such a year of the consulate of such and such a consul" or " such and such a year of the reign of such and such an emperor. " And in this respect, the establishment of a single chronological "ruler" is undoubtedly the merit of Dionysius the Small.

Alas, later, a more detailed check showed that the calculus of Dionysius turned out to be erroneous. The archivist was wrong by at least 5 years, and in reality Jesus Christ was born five years earlier than it was indicated. However, the calculations of Dionysius, which formed the basis of the "church calendar", from the X century became widespread in the chronicles of state chronology of Christian countries (as it continues to this day). But, as it was said above, today by the majority of chronologists this “era” is recognized as erroneous!

The historical discrepancy was revealed during a detailed analysis of the Gospel stories and secular chronicles: Herod the Great, on whose orders the infants were beaten, among whom (as Herod thought) the Infant Christ was present, died 4 years before the "Nativity of Christ" (according to Dionysian chronology). And from the Gospel accounts (Matt. 2: 1-18 and Luke 1: 5), we clearly see that Christ was born during the reign of this cruel Jewish king, whose reign, according to various historical data, falls from 714 to 750 years. from the founding of Rome. Herod died eight days before Easter in 750 g, shortly after the lunar eclipse, which, according to the observation of astronomers, occurred on the night of March 13-14, 750. The Jewish Passover fell that year on April 12th. All the above data allow us to assert that King Herod died at the beginning of April 750, and, accordingly, Christ could not be born four years later - in 754, since this would contradict the Gospel narratives.

Trying to establish a different point of reference for calculating the date of the birth of Jesus Christ, the researchers focused their close attention on other historical data reported in the New Testament in the context of the birth of the Divine Infant. Thus, the nationwide census mentioned in the Gospel of Luke 2: 1-5 fell into the area of ​​their attention. This census, in which the Lord Himself took part, was started by order of the emperor Augustus in 746. However, Judea was a remote province of the Roman Empire, and the sovereign's command to count the subjects reached it already in the last years of Herod's reign. As a result of this census, a popular uprising took place in Palestine. Herod subjected his ringleader, a certain Thevda, to the burning on March 12, 750. Due to the imminent death of Herod, the census was suspended. It was possible to resume and complete the census "when Quirinus ruled Syria" (Luke 2: 2). However, researchers are inclined to believe that the Virgin Mary, Joseph and the Infant God entered the number of citizens of the Roman Empire, nevertheless, in the "first wave" of the census under discussion - even during the life of Herod the Great.

Another historical aspect reported by the Gospel, helping to establish the year of the birth of Jesus Christ, is associated with the life of St. John the Baptist. According to the Gospel of Luke (3: 1), St. John the Baptist preached in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar. According to the words of the Evangelist Luke, the Lord Jesus was at this time "thirty years old" (Luke 3:23), that is, 30. It is known that the emperor Augustus accepted Tiberius as co-ruler two years before his death in January 765, i.e. ie, in 763, and accordingly "the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar" began in January 779. With simple arithmetic calculations we can well determine the year of birth of Jesus Christ as 749 from the founding of Rome.

Astronomical calculations give us very important evidence in this respect. According to the Gospel, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross occurred in the year when the Jewish Passover came on Friday evening. And, according to the already mentioned astronomical calculations, such a combination could come only in 783. Jesus Christ at that time was thirty-fourth year from birth. And, again, with the help of simple arithmetic calculations, we get that He was born in 749 from the founding of Rome.

749 is the most optimal and historically substantiated date of the Birth of Jesus Christ, which does not contradict either the Gospel narrative or the secular chronicles. But, if we consider the totality of the traditions of different churches and Christian confessions, then in terms of the date of birth of Jesus Christ, we will stumble upon a "spread" of 7 years. The earliest dating is 747. It was this date that was considered official in our Church before the reform of Patriarch Nikon - and the Old Believers still consider this very year the year of the Savior's birth. The well-known German mathematician, astronomer, mechanic, optician Johannes Kepler believed in the same way. From his point of view, it was in 747 (from the founding of Rome) that a certain constellation of planets took place (the relative position of heavenly bodies or planets, when one planet is hidden behind another, or several behind each other, and they multiply the glow at one point). For an outside observer on earth, this astronomical phenomenon looks like an unprecedentedly bright star. This is how Kepler understood the Star of Bethlehem mentioned in the Gospel. By the way, the well-known Russian church historian V.V. Bolotov also pointed out the same date (747 from the founding of Rome) due to this astronomical phenomenon. The latest date of the Birth of Christ, as already mentioned, is 754 (Western tradition).

However, nevertheless, searches for the date of the Nativity of Christ on the basis of some astronomical phenomena (such as the constellation of planets) cannot be recognized as satisfactory from a theological point of view. Still, that star behaved unusual - it showed the Magi a certain consistent path, and not just some general vector of motion. Bringing them from east to west to Jerusalem, she suddenly turned south to bring the Magi to Bethlehem and, moreover, stopped over the nativity scene (stable) where the nursery of the Infant God was located. For a comet, and even more so for planets or stars, such behavior is unacceptable. Therefore, already in the IV century. St. John Chrysostom believed that it was an angel who took the form of a star. The providence of God speaks to people in a language that is clear and interesting to them. Therefore, with all our respect for science in general and for I. Kepler, in particular, from the Christian point of view, one should not attach special importance to their astronomical calculations in terms of identifying the Star of Bethlehem and establishing the time of the Nativity of Jesus Christ.

What date was Jesus Christ born?

As for a more precise date - in what month, on what day Jesus Christ was born, it must be honestly said that the Church did not remember this event with chronological accuracy. However, take your time to accuse Christians of inconsistency and negligence. This "forgetfulness" is explained by the fact that for the first generations of Christians the Resurrection of Christ was the center of their entire religious life - they were shocked by the Easter miracle. It is with the Easter greeting "Rejoice" that the apostles begin their sermon, addressing Jews and pagans. Their gaze is turned to the future, to a certain eschatological perspective - "Come, Lord Jesus!" (Rev. 22:20). At that time, there was no urgent need to look back, compile chronologies, stages of the earthly biography of Christ, etc.

The purpose of the Church and Her future for the early Christians meant much more than any earthly milestones. We can observe the reflection of this Easter joy in our days - to this day, in our Church, the memory of the saints is celebrated on the day of their death, and not on their birthdays. Likewise, then - the memory of the death and Resurrection of Christ among the first Christians was so keen that the memories of the circumstances of His life, including the date of birth, faded into the background and were not scrupulously studied.

However, from a careful reading of the Gospel texts, we can determine the time of the year (even the month) when Christ was born. The technique of reasoning is as follows: the first event of the New Testament cycle is the story of the Birth of St. John the Baptist. Father of St. John was the priest Zechariah, who served in the Jerusalem temple. According to the Gospel of Luke, the conception of St. John happened after the return of Zechariah from the Jerusalem temple home after the passage of the so-called. priestly ranks. When King David established the temple priesthood, 24 orders of service for the Levite priests were established (i.e., the order of service). In total, there were 24 ranks, in modern terms - 24 priestly "brigades", each of which, alternately replacing each other, served in the church for 2 weeks. And so the whole year passed. Priest Zachariah was from the Avian line, which, according to the Holy Scriptures, was the 8th in a row (out of 24). The Jewish liturgical calendar began with the month Nisan (or Aviv), that is, from March to April modern calendar. Then she took up the ministry of the 1st series. If we add 4 months to Nisan (i.e. 8th hour), we get July-August. This is the time of the ministry of the priest Zechariah. After the end of his line, Zechariah went to his home in Galilee - this is a long journey, involving the passage of almost all of Palestine.

“After these days, Elizabeth conceived” (Luke 1:22) - the Gospel tells us. Those. time of conception of St. Elizabeth St. John the Baptist can be roughly attributed to September! In church tradition, it is on September 25 (according to the old style, on October 6 according to the new) that the day of commemoration of the Conception of St. John the Baptist. Adding 9 months to this, we get the date of birth of St. John the Baptist - June 24 according to the church calendar (July 7 according to the new style). But while St. Elizabeth was pregnant, another very important event happened - in the 6th month of her pregnancy, the Archangel Gabriel preaches to the Virgin Mary the seedless conception of the Divine Infant and commands Her to go to meet Her relative Elizabeth. This shows that between the conception of St. John the Baptist and the conception of Jesus Christ passes 6 months. The corresponding time distance also exists between the days of their birth. If St. John the Baptist is born on June 24, then, adding 6 months (taking into account the peculiarity of the lunar calendar), we get the date of Christ's birth - December 25 (January 7 in a new style). This is the most textologically reasoned date for the Nativity of Christ. Although, of course, it cannot be denied that this date is to a certain extent conditional.

In the end, I would like to dispel one more myth. In pseudoscientific literature, one can find the assertion that the feast of the Nativity of Christ was allegedly introduced by the Church in order to supplant the pagan feast of the sun god, which falls at the end of December. Actually, there is some truth in this statement, only it is necessary to note a certain error of this conspiracy theory, which implies that the cause producing some effect can be exclusively one and the motive for some actions can be only one. This is not so - and there may be several reasons and motives! Indeed, in the III century. The Nativity of Christ was celebrated as part of the Feast of the Epiphany (Theophany), which fell, as now, on January 6 (January 19 in a new style). On this day, the birth of Christ was remembered, and His entrance to public preaching (the Epiphany itself). But at the end of the 4th century in Rome, it was decided that such an event as the Birth of Christ deserves a separate memory, different from the exit of an already adult Christ to preach. And the date of Christ's Birth was pretty much clear. And just on these days, the still hardened pagan tradition got used to celebrating the birthday of the god Mithra - the sun god in Mithraism (Mithraism was a widespread religion in Rome before the adoption of Christianity). And then the Church wisely decided not to change the calendar and folk habits, but to change the object itself, the very content of the holiday. The pagans celebrated the birthday of the sun, Christians did not break this habit, the Church simply indicated - Who is the True Sun and whose birthday it is - bow to the Sun of righteousness and guide You from the height of the East, Lord, glory to You!

Deacon Artemy Silvestrov, Head of the Orthodox Youth Missionary Center of the Novosibirsk Metropolitanate, Assistant to the Dean of the Novosibirsk City District for Catechesis and Youth Work, Assistant to the Head of the Youth Department of the Novosibirsk Metropolis, Assistant to the Chairman of the Catechesis Subdivision of the Novosibirsk Metropolis' Education and Enlightenment Department, Assistant to the Chairman of the Sunday Schools Subdivision of the Novosibirsk Metropolitan Department of Education and Enlightenment metropolitanate

He was born in Bethlehem on Saturday September 21, 5 BC, but the most surprising thing is that the "official" dates (December 25 and January 7) are also correct! How can it be? It turns out that it can!

HISTORY OF THE QUESTION ABOUT THE DATE OF R.KH.
Neither the texts of the New Testament, nor the apocrypha, nor oral tradition have brought to us the actual date and year of the birth of Jesus Christ. Why? The fact is that according to a deep tradition, probably since the time of Moses, the Jews did not celebrate birthdays. Of course, everyone knew their age, but they did not celebrate birthdays, and even if they wanted to, they could not do it because of the long-accepted solar-lunar calendar with a floating beginning of the year, sometimes determined not even by the spring new moon, but by the day , "when the barley is ripe." Celebrating a birthday was a sign of "paganism" for Orthodox Jews and could only be practiced among apostates from the faith of the fathers, in circles close and friendly to Rome.
So it was during the time of the tetrarch (and then the king) Herod the Great, who ruled Judea for thirty-four years until his death in the spring of the 4th year BC, and during whose reign the baby Jesus was born in Bethlehem. If a Jew of those times wanted to say something about the date of his birth, he would be able to say something like the following: he was born on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, in the 33rd year of Herod's reign, or rather (since the Jews did not like Herod), it would be said - in the 15th year of the Renewal of the Temple. The Gospel of John testifies that the year of the consecration of the Jewish temple rebuilt by Herod in Jerusalem (20 BC) was the most important point of reference for the Jews at that time. We will return to this later, but for now we will recall how the "official" date of the Nativity of Christ arose - the night from December 24 to 25, 1st year BC. (in Orthodoxy since 1918 - January 7, 1st year A.D.)

Church and Nativity of Christ. How was the date of R.H. established?

Until the seventies of the 1st century A.D. the overwhelming majority of Christians were Jews, and among them the question of the date of the Savior's birth was simply not raised. But after the Jewish War, the complete destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersal of about six million Jews, among whom there were already tens of thousands of Christians, across the Mediterranean the question was customary, and accepted into the reign of Julius Caesar on January 1, 46 BC. The Julian calendar made it possible to celebrate any birthday every year at the same date, much like we celebrate our birthdays now. In the second century A.D. Judeo-Christianity, closely related to the observance of the laws of Moses, was rejected by the new Christian majority, although for the "pagans" converted to Christ, by revelation from above, significant indulgences were introduced by the Apostle Peter, and then the Apostolic Council of Jerusalem confirmed his innovations - this was about 50 -m year A.D. The first known attempts to establish the date of the Nativity of Christ and celebrate it as one of the main Christian holidays belong to the second or third centuries.
The first widely known and accepted by the Egyptian Church in Alexandria, the date of the Nativity of Christ was associated with the ancient Egyptian holiday of the reborn Sun, with the winter solstice, which was celebrated in Egypt at that time on January 6 (according to the Julian calendar), although astronomically it was already inaccurate for a long time, - at the very in fact, the winter solstice should have been celebrated two weeks earlier. However, to this day, some Christian communities, dating back to the ancient Alexandrian tradition, celebrate the Nativity of Christ on January 6, for example, the Armenian Autocephalous Church. Date binding R.H. to the solar calendar and the winter solstice is explained by the fact that since ancient times all peoples believed that the Sun-Spirit prevails in the Universe over everything, and that it is from the day of the winter solstice that daylight begins to arrive - the Spirit of the Universe is reborn, conquering the darkness in the world. This is how the Fathers of the Alexandrian Church justified their decision.
Flamarion in his "History of Heaven" wrote (on another occasion, not in connection with the issue under consideration) that in the ancient Egyptian tradition the Sun of the vernal equinox was depicted in the form of a young man, the summer Sun in the form of a husband with a thick beard, the autumn Sun was depicted by an old man, and the Sun the winter solstice was depicted in the form of a child, a baby. The Fathers of the Alexandrian Church, of course, knew the ancient Egyptian beliefs and traditions and, obviously, their choice of the date of the Nativity of Christ was associated with them. In Rome, the holiday of the rebirth of the Sun was celebrated on the night of December 24-25, immediately after the Roman Saturnalia, the most cheerful Roman holiday. The Festival of the Sun was associated in Rome with the cult of Mithra, the sun god of the ancient Persians-Zoroastrians, whose cult was long accepted by the Romans.
In 337 A.D. Pope Julius the First approved the date of December 25 as the date of the Nativity of Christ. The connection of the holiday of the Sun with the Nativity of Christ in Rome was largely facilitated by the vision of the Gaul emperor Constantine the Great on October 27, 312. Before the battle for Rome, he saw on a solar disk a cross with the initials of Jesus Christ and the inscription "In hoc signo vinces" ("Conquer by this"). Even Constantine the Great's father, the Gaul emperor Constantine Chlorus, sympathized with Christians, and Constantine the Great subsequently proclaimed Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire. The combination of the "pagan" holiday of the Sun with the Nativity of Christ was, obviously, and purely pragmatically beneficial to the Christian Church, since this "pagan" holiday, beloved by the people, was invincible otherwise by no admonitions of churchmen and papal bulls. The Church has never hidden that the actual birthday of Jesus Christ is not known and that the date of December 25 was established by the right of the Church itself.
In the summer of 1996, in one of his messages, Pope John Paul II confirmed that the historical date of the Nativity of Christ is not known, and that in reality the Savior was born 5-7 years earlier than the new era, the "official" Nativity of Christ. The chronology from the Nativity of Christ (from the "new era") was established even later than the adoption of the date December 25, in the sixth century according to the present account, and before that the count went from the founding of Rome, from April 22, 754 BC. In 1997, on April 22, Rome celebrated the 2750th anniversary of the legendary founding of the great city. Another reader will ask, how can this be, because 1997 plus 754 turns out to be 2751? The fact is that after the 1st year BC. it is the 1st year AD, and there is no "zero" year, therefore, for example, if Jesus Christ was born in 5 BC, then in 1 AD. He turned not six, but five years old, but 33 years old He turned in 29 AD - but we will return to this later.
And in 1278, from the founding of Rome, Pope John the First ordered the compilation of Easter tables to the monk Dionysius the Small, an outstanding theologian, astronomer and mathematician of those times, by the way, a Scythian by origin. It was for the sake of convenience in compiling Easter tables that Dionysius chose December 25, 753 from the founding of Rome as a hypothetical date for the Nativity of Christ, and then suggested that John the First introduce a new chronology, from the Nativity of Christ, - and then, it turned out, the 525th year from R. H., or rather, from January 1, 754 according to the old account, from 1 year of the new era according to the new account. But for hundreds of years after that, many in Europe adhered to the Roman reckoning of years, and only in the X1V century a new chronology was finally established almost throughout Christian Europe ...
Some researchers believe that Dionysius the Small, when calculating the terms of the reign of the Roman emperors, simply "overlooked" four years from the reign of the emperor Augustus; others believe that in his work he was guided not so much by historical accuracy as by the convenience of drawing up Easter tables, since this was precisely the task that was set before him. One way or another, but such is, in short, the history of the establishment of the now accepted date of the Nativity of Christ. It remains to add that in 1918, after the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in Soviet Russia, the Orthodox Church, in order to remain in the Julian count of days, postponed all church holidays 13 days ahead, therefore, since 1919, Christmas is celebrated by the Orthodox world on the night from 6 to Jan. 7. But these details, however essential, are not the subject of our consideration.

WHAT YEAR WAS JESUS ​​CHRIST BORN?

The upper limit is determined by the time of death of Herod the Great, and he died in the early spring of 4 BC, shortly after the lunar eclipse on March 13 of that year (750th from the founding of Rome). Almost all modern researchers are practically unanimous on this issue. The lower limit of the possible year R.H. also quite confidently determined from a joint examination of the canonical Gospels. In the Gospel of Luke about the beginning of Christ's ministry it is said that it was "in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate ruled in Judea ..." (Luke 3: 1). It is known that Tiberius Claudius Nero Caesar - this is his full name - was born in 712. from the founding of Rome (42 BC), was declared co-ruler of the emperor Augustus in 765 (12 AD), and became monarch in 767 (14 AD). In the first case, the beginning of the ministry of Jesus falls on 27 AD, in the second - on 29 AD.
Further in the Gospel of Luke it is said that “Jesus, starting His ministry, was about thirty years old” (Luke 3:23). Probably the Evangelist Luke considered the beginning of the reign of Tiberius in 765, since otherwise it turns out that Christ was born after the death of Herod the Great, and this already contradicts the Gospel of Matthew, the entire second chapter of which is devoted to the story of the events of Christmas associated with Herod the Great. In addition, it follows from the Gospel of John that the first appearance of Jesus with the apostles in Jerusalem was shortly before the Jewish Passover in 27 AD. Indeed, we read the Gospel of John about the first disputes with the Jews in the temple: “Jesus answered them: Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days. will you raise it up? " (John 2: 19,20). The temple was mainly rebuilt by Herod the Great and consecrated by the high priests in 20 BC, and then it was constantly completed and improved, therefore, 46 years of its construction is 27 AD. As you can see, the testimonies of the Evangelists agree if we consider the beginning of the reign of Tiberius in 12 AD. and the beginning of the ministry of Jesus in 27 CE.
Now we are almost ready to set the lower limit of the possible year of birth of Jesus Christ, accepting the words of Luke "was about thirty years old." Obviously, more than thirty, because otherwise we again go beyond the upper limit, 4 years BC. If in 27 AD. The Savior was 31 years old, then the year of His birth is 5 BC, if 32 years, then we get 6 BC, if 33 years were fulfilled by Him in 27, then the year of the Nativity of Christ is 7 BC .NS. Most researchers believe that this is the lower limit of the possible year of birth of Jesus Christ. We add that if the error in four years found in the calculations of Dionysius the Small is the only one, then the fifth year BC is obtained as the most probable.
Sometimes, however, one hears, with reference to the same Gospel of John, that in the last year of the earthly ministry of the Savior was about fifty years old. At the same time, they refer to the following words from this Gospel relating to the time of the last, third visit of the Savior to Jerusalem: "Abraham, your father, was glad to see My day: he saw and rejoiced. To this the Jews said to Him: You are not yet fifty years old, - and did you see Abraham? " (John 8-57). In order to correctly understand these lines, one must recall the above episode from the second chapter of the same Gospel, when during the first visit to Jerusalem (in 27 AD), the Jews say that the temple is forty-six years old. The episode from chapter 8 is also related to the age of the temple, not Jesus. The matter again takes place, as follows from the Gospel, in the temple, on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles - now, if you follow the chronology of the Gospel, in 29 AD, and the Jews again correlate the behavior and words of Jesus, this time about Abraham, with the age of the temple. That is, they again point out to the Nazarene that He is younger than the temple, younger than many of his opponents - and at the same time dares to teach them. This "line of the temple" in the Gospel of John allows, as we see, to restore the chronology of the Gospel events through the age of the temple - that's all. However, not all of them. We will try to understand later on what "His day" Jesus Christ spoke about on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles in 29 AD - but more on that later. In the meantime, let's try to clarify the year of the Nativity of Christ.

STAR OF BIFLEY.

Another indication of the time of the Nativity of Christ is the story of the Star of Bethlehem in the Gospel of Matthew. Hundreds of studies have been devoted to this story, so we present it here:
"And when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, magicians came to Jerusalem from the east, and they say: Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and came to worship Him. Hearing this, Herod the king was alarmed, and all Jerusalem And having gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he asked them: where should Christ be born? They said to him: in Bethlehem of Judea, for this is written through the prophet ... Then Herod, secretly summoning the Magi, found out from them the time of the appearance of the star And, having sent them to Bethlehem, he said: go, scout out carefully about the Baby, and when you find, inform me that I should also go to worship Him. before them, when at last she came and stopped over the place where the Infant was. Seeing the star, they rejoiced with very great joy, and entering the house, they saw the Infant with Mary, His Mother, and fell down worshiped Him, and opening their treasures, brought Him gifts: s gold, incense and myrrh. " (Matthew 2: 1-11).

From the earliest centuries of Christianity, the Church Fathers were engaged in the interpretation of the nature of this star. Origen (in the third century) and John Damascene (about 700) assumed that it was a "tailed star", that is, a comet, and this hypothesis is again supported from time to time in one form or another, even in our years, - in connection with the appearance in the spring of 1997. comet Hale-Bopp. As for this particular comet, the Bethlehem star could not have been it, if only because the last time it passed near the Earth about four thousand years ago, - this is how modern astronomical calculations show, - but the next time it will really be visible in the sky after about 2,000 years, its orbit is greatly altered each time by Jupiter's gravity. In addition, and this is the main thing, it is difficult to imagine that such a feature of the Star of Bethlehem was not noted by the chroniclers of those times and by the Evangelist Matthew himself. All chroniclers have always especially noted the phenomena of comets, calling them "tailed stars", or "like a spear" - one way or another, always noting this feature of comets. It is enough to read, for example, "The Tale of Bygone Years" (St. Petersburg, 1996) with comments by Academician DS Likhachev to be convinced of this. There is no reason to believe that Matthew the Evangelist was worse than other chroniclers, less attentive, less knowledgeable in such simple things. But what was this star?
In October 1604. Johannes Kepler, observing the triple conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn and Mars near the New Star that flared up at the same time and in the same region of the sky, came to the idea that something similar could have been in the heavens at the time of the Nativity of Christ. This assumption was also supported by the fact that since ancient times Jupiter was called the "star of kings", and Saturn was considered the "Jewish star" - a planet associated with Judaism, therefore the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn could be interpreted by astrologers as a sign of the future birth of the King of the Jews - all the more since, according to the legends of the East, such a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn preceded the birth of Moses, who from ancient times was revered not only by Jews, but also by many nations as the greatest prophet.
The conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn occur once every twenty years, and indeed, in 7 BC. Jupiter and Saturn were united three times in the sign of Pisces, and since it was the image of the fish (and the Greek spelling of this word) that was the secret symbol of the early Christians, Johannes Kepler's assumption was supported by many researchers. However, modern accurate calculations show that in 7 BC. Jupiter and Saturn approached each other no closer than the diameter of the Moon, so their conjunction could not stand out in the heavens with its brightness, although, of course, the magi-zvezdochek could perceive this as a harbinger of the future birth of the King of the Jews. But did a New or Supernova star flare up in the sky in those years?
Astronomers know that bright new stars that flare up in the sky once or twice in hundreds of years, after several days or months of their radiance, or completely disappear, leaving only a gradually increasing nebula (such is the Crab Nebula, which remained in the place of a star that once flared up), or after resetting the extraordinary brightness, they become small asterisks of small magnitude. The former are called Supernovae, the latter are called Nova stars. From the Gospel of Luke, it can be assumed that the Magi-magicians saw a New Star in the east.
Even before I. Kepler, another great astronomer, mathematician and inventor, the Italian Jerome Cardan put forward just such an assumption. And indeed, in the end, already closer to our century, in the Chinese and then Korean ancient chronicles, chronicles were found astronomical records relating to the modern account to 5 BC, and testifying to the outbreak of a New Star, about the fact that that she shone brightly in the spring of that year for seventy days before sunrise in the east low above the horizon. Some researchers referred to these annals at the beginning of our century, but it was not until 1977 that the English astronomers D. Clarke, J. Parkinson and F. Stephenson undertook a serious study of them. They had to face considerable difficulties, because it was necessary to establish and bring in line with the European system of dividing the sky into constellations, to reveal the ancient classification of celestial objects to distinguish the outbreaks of the New from the observation of comets, to translate the eastern calendar dates to the modern scale.
All this was done by British astronomers. They are until 1977. analyzed these Chinese and Korean astronomical chronicles for the period from 10 BC. to 13 AD and identified the Star of Bethlehem with the outburst of a bright Nova star observed for 70 days in the spring of 5 BC, and they managed to quite accurately establish its celestial coordinates. In terms of 1950. it would be the 3rd degree of the zodiacal sign of Aquarius, and in 5 BC. this star of Bethlehem was located approximately in the 7th degree of the zodiacal sign of Capricorn. Astronomical calculations confirmed that in the spring of that year, its bright radiance could be observed in Persia (where the magicians came from) and in general from Syria to China and Korea in the east, low above the horizon, before sunrise, all exactly according to the Gospel of Matthew. However, at the time of the arrival of the magicians in Jerusalem, no one saw the star, only the magicians remembered about it, which means that it was after seventy days of its radiance on spring nights, in the summer or autumn of 5 BC ...
Until now, we have told what researchers of early Christianity are well aware of, and the general public is more or less familiar with the above, except, perhaps, the research of British astronomers (a message about him was published in the journal "Nature", 1978, issue 12). These same English astronomers calculated that Jupiter and Saturn approached in 7 BC. no closer than several diameters of the moon visible from the earth (about a degree of arc), so that their connection could not stand out in the sky.
Now I will present my version of how the Star of Bethlehem led the Magi-magicians from Jerusalem to Bethlehem: "And behold, the star that they saw in the east walked in front of them, when it finally came and stopped over the place where the Child was ..." There are known attempts by supporters of the identification of the Star of Bethlehem with the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn to explain this strange phrase by the fact that Jupiter passed the standing point during the threefold conjunction, and the Magi interpreted this as arrival at the place - that one should not go further. However, even apart from the year of the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn (7 BC), this explanation does not stand up to criticism, since for an observer from earth Jupiter stands in the heavens for several days, at least during the day its movement in the heavens in this point of standing is absolutely indistinguishable for the unaided eye with a powerful telescope, and the distance from Jerusalem to Bethlehem is about 6/7 km - two hours of walking.
Bethlehem (translated from Hebrew "House of Bread") is located exactly south of Jerusalem, two hours of walking from its ancient center. So, simple astronomical calculations show that the very Bethlehem star, which was located all 5 BC. in the 6th degree of the sign of Capricorn, could be seen in Jerusalem in the south just after sunset in the fall of that year, at the end of September or October. It rose after sunset, rose slightly above the horizon just south of Jerusalem, and set over the horizon in about three hours. In November, this star rose above the horizon already deep at night and not to the south of Jerusalem, and in December it rose above the horizon only during the day, so that it could not be seen at all in the sky of Jerusalem and Bethlehem in December 5 BC. and in the following months.
This means that if the Magi came to Jerusalem in late September or early October, then in the evening, after sunset, they could see in the sky exactly in the south the very star that they had been tracking for many months (albeit now dim). So, seeing the star in the south in front of them, the Magi could go south from Jerusalem, after her, and she "led" them to Bethlehem, and went beyond the horizon ("stopped") when they were in Bethlehem and, possibly, went beyond the horizon just above the house (place) where Mary and the Child, the Holy Family were that evening in September or October ...

So, the Star of Bethlehem, the New Star, flashed and shone at night in the east for seventy days in the spring of 5 BC. For more than a year after the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the sign of Pisces, the magicians in Persia, who perceived this conjunction as a sign of the future birth of the King of the Jews, predicted in their sacred book Avesta Savior, were waiting for a new sign from heaven, and waited for it in the spring. The journey from Persia to Jerusalem took five / six months, and they arrived in the kingdom of Herod the Great in the fall of 5 BC, most likely at the end of September or October.
In Jerusalem, no one knew about the "King of the Jews" who had been born, nor about the New Star that shone in the east in the spring. Alarmed by rumors, Herod invites the magicians to his place. They tell him about the conjunction of the "star of the kings" Jupiter and the "star of the Jews" Saturn, which existed two years ago, and they tell him, perhaps, about a new sign, about the New Star shining in the spring. The Magi-Magi go to Bethlehem and do not return to Herod, they leave for their homeland by revelation from above in a different way. After some time, Herod orders to kill "all the babies in Bethlehem and in all its limits, from two years old and below, according to the time that he brought out from the Magi" (Matthew 2:16). Why "from two years and below"? - Now I understand, - the magicians told him about the sign that happened two years ago! The Evangelist Matthew is accurate - and there is no symbolism in the story of the Star of Bethlehem! All Evangelists described real events and were accurate ... Only our ignorance or our unbelief prevents us from understanding sometimes the full power and truth of the Gospels.

THE MAGICIAN RIDDLE - WHO WERE THEY?

The Magi is a synodal translation of the Greek original Magi. Most researchers believe that Persian magicians, followers of Zoroaster, visited the cradle of the Infant. This assumption is most justified, firstly, because in the Gospel times (and earlier) the Persian priests, ministers and interpreters of the sacred book of the Aryan Avesta, followers of the prophet Zardesht, whom the Greeks called Zoroaster, were called magicians throughout the entire space of the Roman Empire and the East. Son of the Star.
Secondly, in one of the apocryphal times it is directly stated that Persian magicians came to bow to the Infant. Thirdly, it was in the sacred book of the ancient Persians-Zoroastrians Avesta that the birth of the future Savior (in the Avesta "Saoshyant") from the virgin virgin was predicted, and even to this day, discussions continue about whether it was not from the Avesta that it passed into Jewish mysticism and the Old Testament. image and many other details and prophecies about the coming Messiah-Savior of Israel.
There is nothing surprising in such hypotheses, since already in the 19th century a certain influence of Zoroastrian ideas on Jewish mysticism was proved. Since the V1 century BC, when the "king of kings" of Persia, Cyrus, after the capture of Babylon, freed all the peoples who were there in slavery, including the Jews, and released them to their homes along with property and religious shrines, and then he and his successors patronized Jews in Palestine and were allowed to restore in Jerusalem the main shrine for the sons of Israel, the Temple of Solomon - since then, for hundreds of years, the state religion of the Persians and their sacred Avesta had a strong influence on Judaism, on Jewish mysticism. This influence was then interrupted for one and a half hundred years in connection with the conquests of Alexander the Great and the subsequent Hellenization of Judea, but around the second century BC, the semi-monastic Qumran order of the Essenes, isolated and separated in Hellenized Judea, revived Jewish mysticism, filled even earlier from the sources of the Avesta.
The leather scrolls with documents and prophetic books of the Essenes community, accidentally discovered in 1945-47 in the caves of Wadi Qumran on the northwestern coast of the Dead Sea, soon became the greatest archaeological discovery of the twentieth century. About these approximately nine hundred scrolls from 11 caves, a whole science grew up - Qumran studies. Currently, most Qumran specialists agree that in the Essene community in the second-first centuries BC there was a synthesis of the Old Testament and Zoroastrianism (the religion of the Avesta), the result of which was the New Testament. By the way, the very expression "New Testament" is found in the texts of Qumran themselves. Note here that astrological texts were also found among the Qumran scrolls, and their study shows the closeness of the astrological views of the Essenes precisely to Zoroastrianism, a good quarter of which is the doctrine of the Heavenly Host and the astrological decoding of the star message of the Creator. The Essenes were famous in Judea and throughout the region as excellent astrologers, which also separated them from the Pharisees, Sadducees, in general from the Orthodox Jews, who did not recognize astrology as a good deed. Herod the Great treated the Essenes with great respect, since it was the Essenes who predicted his future reign in his youth (this is evidenced by Josephus in the "Antiquities of the Jews"), although the Essenes themselves treated him coldly, even with hostility. In recent years, the Qumran texts have been published in Russian and a detailed study of these texts, as well as the history and ideology of the Essenes has been published (I.R. Tantlevsky. "History and Ideology of the Qumran Community" St. Petersburg, 1994, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences).
Why are we telling here about the Essenes and the connection of their doctrines with Zoroastrianism, with the Avesta? The fact is that after the very first publications (in the fifties) of the texts of Qumran, it became clear that many images of the Gospels and many of their characters (close to Jesus) are associated with the Essenes.
This was also noticed in the Orthodox Church: Bishop of Smolensk and Drogobuzh Mikhail Chub wrote about the closeness to the Essenes of John the Baptist, referring to the first published texts of Qumran, in the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate (1958, issue 8). He was the first in the church, apparently, to put forward the assumption that John the Baptist from childhood, after the death of his elderly parents, was brought up in the Qumran community, but then left it, not agreeing with their extreme separation from the world. By the way, Mikhail Chub also noted that the place of preaching of John the Baptist in 27 AD. was only two hours walk from Qumran! All this was then noted by Alexander Men in his History of Religion. He wrote that it was the Essenes who were the fermenting principle, preparing Palestine for the "fulfillment of the times" of the prophecies of the Old Testament. Those who sympathized with the Essenes, but not directly included in their semi-monastic order of white robes, called themselves "longing for Consolation."
The Evangelist Luke named among them the parents of John the Baptist and the Mother of God Mary, the stepbrothers of Jesus and the elder Simeon, who recognized Jesus by revelation from above among the first-born brought by his parents to the temple and read a special prayer of thanks of the Essenes over him. Those close to the Essenes were also called righteous in those days, and the Evangelist Matthew calls Joseph, the betrothed of the Mother of God, the righteous. Among the apostles, Nathanael, the story of which is given in the 1st chapter of the Gospel of John, was one of the Essenes (this follows from the episode with the fig tree mentioned in verses 48-50, associated with the secret rituals of the Essenes), and the apostles John Zebedee and Andrew Ionin were formerly disciples of John the Baptist and, therefore, were well acquainted with the Essene doctrines from the first teacher. Jesus himself, as follows from the first chapter of the Gospel of John, knew the secret rites of the Essenes.
I.R.Tantlevsky, the author of the aforementioned major study of the history and ideology of the Essenes, believes that the words "came to his own, and his own did not receive Him" ​​(John 1:11) also reveal that before the baptism of John the Savior came to the Essenes but they did not recognize in Him the long-awaited Messiah, the longed-for Comforter of Israel. The totality of the testimonies of the Gospels tells us that the characters of the Gospel history close to Jesus Christ were either themselves Essenes, or sympathized with them and knew their doctrines well. Consequently, not directly, but indirectly, they were also close to the knowledge of the Avesta. And again: why are we talking about all this here?

ARCHANGEL GABRIEL
The Evangelist Luke, with his story about the Angel Gabriel, gives us the Zoroastrian keys to the secrets of the Gospels, or - in what month and on what date was Jesus Christ born in Bethlehem of Judea?

The Gospel of Luke in the first chapter describes the appearance of the Angel of the Lord to the expecting Consolation of the old priest Zechariah with a message about the upcoming birth of his previously barren and also elderly wife Elisabeth, the son of John. Six months later, the same Angel appears before the young woman Mary, who was betrothed to the righteous Joseph, and informs her about the forthcoming birth of the son of Jesus, who will be born of the Holy Spirit and who will be called the Son of God.
Luke calls the name of the Angel - GABRIEL. This is the only example in the entire New Testament when the name of the Angel is given. Why did the evangelist Luke mention the name of the Angel? None of the New Testament commentators have been able to answer this question. We believe that until the middle of our century, before the discovery and publication of the Qumran texts, this question could not be answered.
The so-called third book of Enoch, dating back to the second century BC, is found in the Qumran manuscripts. Enoch, one of the antediluvian patriarchs, the seventh from Adam, Noah's great-grandfather, gave people, according to Old Testament legends, the knowledge of mathematics and astronomy-astrology, during his lifetime "walked with God" and was taken alive to heaven at the 365th year of his life. This, by the way, has long caused many researchers to associate with the Zoroastrian solar deity Mithra. So, in the found third book, the establishment of Enoch in Heaven is described and, in particular, it tells about the hierarchy of the divine-angelic government of our Universe. The secrets of the past and the future are revealed to Enoch, he sees the forthcoming coming of the Son of Man and the entire further history of mankind until the End of Days. The Evangelist Luke, who is rightfully considered among all New Testament authors to be the most educated in the book wisdom of all nations, and according to legend, he also studied with the Essenes of Egypt (they were called therapists there), this evangelist undoubtedly relied in his blessed work and on the well-known Essenes the revelations of this book of Enoch. Well, since the doctrines of the Essenes were largely associated with Zoroastrian beliefs, then we can look for prototypes of the Angel Gabriel in the well-developed and well-known hierarchy of Zoroastrian Angels, which are called Izedami in the Avesta.
There are seven main Izeds, like the Archangels in the Christian tradition, but a number of the Creator's assistants are known in Zoroastrianism, and each of them controls one of the twelve months of the year and one of the thirty days of each month. The ancient Persian solar-lunar calendar is well known. In contrast to the Jewish, the beginning of the year in it is rigidly tied to the vernal equinox, more precisely to the first sunrise in the zodiacal sign of Aries, therefore, if, for example, about some event it is said that it happened in the month of Mithra and on the day of Amertat, then this allows you to accurately correlate the date of the event with our modern calendar. Let's try now to find the Zoroastrian "colleagues" of the Archangel Gabriel and then establish with which month and what day they are connected ...
In Jewish mysticism, the Angel, and then in the Christian tradition, the Archangel Gabriel is the "Power of God", the guardian of Paradise and at the same time the messenger of the future, who comes to people to proclaim the will of God. The Pahlavi commentaries to the Avesta (2nd chapter of the book Bundahishn) describe in detail the Avestan hierarchy of Angels-Ized, assistants of the Creator of the world, Ahura Mazda. The book of Bundahishn dates back to the third-fourth centuries AD, but it is a commentary on the texts of the ancient Avesta left after the campaigns of Alexander the Great, from which the wisdom of the East and the Essenes drew. We will not go into detail here about the Zoroastrian hierarchy of the Isedian Angels and the Zoroastrian calendar - this is the subject of research by specialists - we will immediately cite the result: Archangel Gabriel, according to his "powers" and connections with the "Heavenly Host" (in the Christian tradition, he is associated with the Moon, a symbol conception and motherhood), - this Archangel is associated by the Zoroastrian tradition with Izad Haurvat (associated with the Moon, conception and motherhood) and Tishtar (the guardian of the sky, standing before the Creator, messenger of the future and also associated with the Moon).
So, the Angel of the Lord Gabriel corresponds in the Zoroastrian tradition to Tishtar and Haurvat. It is natural to assume that the Archangel appeared with the first annunciation of Zechariah either in the month of Haurvat and on the day of Tishtar of the Zoroastrian calendar, or in the month of Tishtar and on the day of Haurvat. In the first case, as shown by simple calculations, the annunciation of Zechariah falls on June 1, in the second case - on June 24. Here's how! This is exactly the birth of John the Baptist in Western churches, what a coincidence! In the Zoroastrian tradition, the opposing days in the annual cycle are considered to be connected with each other, therefore, six months after the annunciation of Zechariah, the same Archangel preached Mary. Accordingly, the annunciation of Mary could have occurred either on November 28 or December 21. Counting from these dates the Gospel nine months from annunciation to births, we get the following dates: John the Baptist could have been born either around March 3, or around March 26, and Jesus Christ could have been born either around August 30, or around September 21. It is interesting that the dates of annunciation, accepted by the Church by its own right, are very close to the dates of birth here: the Catholic Annunciation of John is celebrated on September 23, the Annunciation of Jesus is on March 25. However, the opposite is true - in dates, and in names, and in conceptions, and in births. However, we will see that in fact the dates of the Nativity of Christ adopted by the Church, both December 25 and January 7, are also in a sense correct, in the most mystical way! But more on that at the end.
Now let's remember that earlier we came to the conclusion that the actual Nativity of Christ was, apparently, in September 5 BC - the Persian magicians came to worship the Child and the Holy Family at the end of September or in October. Consequently, the date of September 21 (with some clarifications, it turns out to be September 21) fits well into the general chronology of the Gospels. In the fifth year BC, the day of September 21 was Saturday and that year it was the last day of the Jewish holiday of Tabernacles (in memory of forty years of wandering in the wilderness and also the festival of the fruits of the earth). In the Zoroastrian tradition, since we have talked so much about it, this is the first day of the Sede holiday, the holiday of "bridges" that connect people and all the worlds of the Universe. According to the Julian calendar, then adopted in the Roman Empire, it was September 23rd. It turns out that Jesus Christ was born under the zodiac sign of Virgo. By the way, the sign of Virgo is depicted with ears of grain in their hands, and in general is traditionally associated with the harvest and with bread. And now let's remember that Bethlehem, where the Savior was born, means "House of Bread" in translation. It remains to add that according to the ancient beliefs of many peoples, baking bread drives away demons. “When bread is baked, demons scatter with a howl,” something like this is said in the Avesta.

So, Jesus Christ was born on Saturday 21 (Julian 23) September 5 BC, on Saturday, the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles of that year. As you know, in Judaism, Saturday is a day of rest, when all work is prohibited. In Zoroastrianism, Saturday is the day of complete freedom and personal responsibility of a person for all the deeds of this day, the day of higher creativity. Isn't that why so many Gospel episodes are connected with the controversy about the Sabbath, is it not connected with this that the well-known "not a man for the Sabbath, but a Saturday for a man"?
Now let us recall another episode of the Gospel of John, which we have already mentioned, an episode of a dispute in the temple, on the third coming of the Savior to Jerusalem, in 29 AD, in the fall, on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles of that year - all this follows from chapters seven ( Article 2) and the eighth (Articles 56-58). At the end of the dispute with the Orthodox Jews, Jesus Christ says: "Abraham, your father, was glad to see my day: he saw and was glad." Wasn't Jesus talking about His birthday - after all, on that last day of the Feast of Tabernacles in the 29th year, He turned thirty-three years old! If we assume that before this the Jews asked Him how old He is, that He allows Himself to talk like this with the elders, and He replied that thirty-three, and then said about Abraham, then the further lines of the Gospel of John become absolutely clear: To him the Jews: You are not yet fifty years old - and have you seen Abraham? Jesus said to them: truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. " That is, the Jews tell Him that His age is less than fifty years of the temple, and the Savior answers that He is eternal and says "I am" - the secret name of the Creator, which is only once a year (and it is on this last day of the Feast of Tabernacles!) says the high priest to the thunderous sounds of the sacred trumpets so that no one hears this secret name. "Then they took up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple, passed among them, and went on." As you can see, the establishment of the actual date of the Nativity of Christ helps to understand the lines of the Gospels that were not quite clear earlier.

INDEPENDENT CONFIRMATIONS OF THE DATE OF RH IN SEPTEMBER.
Some foreign researchers also concluded that Jesus Christ was most likely born in September:
http://www.ucgstp.org/lit/gn/gn008/gn008f03.htm
("When Was Jesus Christ Born?" By Mario Seiglie - "The Good News", 1997 January / February - Volume 2, Number 1). Excerpts from translation:
CENSUS
<<В Евангелии от Луки (2:1-7) сказано о переписи, проводившейся в то время:
”In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus to make a census of all the earth. This census was the first during the reign of Quirinius in Syria. 3 And all went to be enrolled, each to his own city. Joseph also went from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, called Bethlehem, because he was from the house and family of David, to sign up with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was pregnant. When they were there, the time came for her to give birth; And she gave birth to her Firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. "
The Roman rulers knew that taking a census in the winter would be impractical and unpopular with the population. As a rule, censuses were carried out after harvest, in September or October, when they were already harvested, and the weather was still good and the roads were fairly dry. .... For the agrarian society, autumn after the harvest was a much more likely time for the census than December, with its rains, storms and cold weather.
"ORDER OF THE AVIAN WRONG"
In the same Gospel of Luke (1: 5-13) it is said:
“In the days of Herod, king of Judah, there was a priest from the Abian line, named Zechariah, and his wife was from the family of Aaron, her name was Elizabeth. Both of them were righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. They had no children, for Elizabeth was barren, and both were already advanced in years. Once, when, in the order of his succession, he served before God by lot, as was usual with the priests, he got to enter the temple of the Lord for censing, and all the multitude of people prayed outside during the censing, - then the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar. censer. Zechariah, seeing him, was embarrassed, and fear attacked him. And the angel said to him: Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elisabeth will give you a son, and you will call his name John. "
This was six months before Mary became pregnant with Jesus. What is this "order of the Avian line" "? As early as the time of King David, the priestly ministry was divided into 24 parts, or “queues” (1Chronicles 24: 7-19). The cycles began in the first month (1Chronicles 27: 2), in March or April of our modern calendar, and, according to Talmudic and Qumran sources, changed every week until they reached the end of the sixth month - then the cycle was repeated (from September to October) , before the end of the year.
During the holidays, all the priests came to the temple to serve. Luke shows us that Zechariah's ministry was not during the holidays, as it was in the line of Abijah, who is in charge of the temple, and Zechariah was chosen to present the offering of incense in the order of the Abijah line.
This series was the eighth in the order of division, i.e. he was supposed to serve almost three months after the start of the March-April cycle. This puts Elizabeth's conception in June or, if this was Zechariah's second annual turn, then in December. The Bible does not specify which of his two ranks Zechariah served. One way or another, nine months after June or after December, John the Baptist was born. This puts his birth in March or September. Jesus was born six months after the birth of John - that is, Jesus was born either September or March next year. >>

Thus, the months of birth of both John the Baptist (March) and Jesus Christ - September - determined by us - exactly coincide with the calculation of the month of Abiev's ministry.

BUT WHERE IS THE MIRACLE?
But where is the miracle ?, another reader will ask. Indeed, everything that we have told so far is historical research, as popularly as possible set out above and, we hope, interesting for the general reader. But if the established date of the Nativity of Christ is true, then where is the miracle, some kind of miracle - after all, it cannot be that this date does not reveal some miracle! Well, there is also a miracle ...
If, using the Zoroastrian rules and Essene traditions, build the horoscope of the birth of Jesus Christ on September 21, 5 BC, it turns out that the two most important, most important points of this horoscope (called by astrologers, respectively, the ascendants of Placis and Jamaspa) are in the degrees of the Zodiac, which the Sun passes annually:
- Placis ascendant around DECEMBER 25, - Western Christmas;
- Jamaspa ascendant around JANUARY 7, - Eastern Christmas!
Let us explain here that the ascendant point characterizes a person in society, in the world, among other people. Astrologers distinguish between event-psychological ascents (Placida) and spiritual-psychological ascents (Jamasps), they differ somewhat from each other in any horoscope. They show a mask, or a mask, or a face - who has something - an earthly person, a person among people. It remains to add that in the horoscope of John the Baptist for March 26, 5 BC. these points, ascend. Placis and Jamaspa, are in degrees of the Zodiac, which the Sun passes annually on July 7 and June 24, respectively, on the eastern and western Christmas of John the Baptist! Here, on the contrary, the Eastern Church marks the eventful, and the Western Church marks the spiritual face of John!
Thus, we see a mystical justification of the dates of birth of Jesus and John accepted by the Church, which defies any logical explanation. On the days of official festivities, the Sun really illuminates for us the earthly FACES OF THE FORECAST AND THE SAVIOR! Moreover, this coincidence in the ascendants of horoscopes occurs only in the XX and XXI centuries ...
These are not the only miracles that were revealed as a result of the establishment of the true, as we believe, dates of birth of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ, but that's enough for now. The last question that I would like to highlight here is the question of when did the 2000 years from the birth of Christ celebrate? It turns out that it was September 21, 1996 ... It was Saturday and we in Russia then celebrated the eightieth anniversary of a wonderful person, the late Zinovy ​​Efimovich Gerdt. This jubilee was celebrated so widely and so well that many newspapers recalled it for several weeks after it. The newspaper "Izvestia" then devoted a large article to this anniversary, which began with the words: "We took a sip of the Divine Saturday ..." (words from Bulat Okudzhava's song about the hero of the day). It was impossible to say more precisely! By the way, Zinovy ​​Gerdt was born not only on the same day with the Savior, but also in the same year of the Zoroastrian calendar of the thirty-two year old: 1916. (year of birth of Zinovy ​​Gerdt) and 5g. BC, is the year of Daena (Faith) in the Zoroastrian cycle of years. Do you remember the last "clips", video sequences with Zinovy ​​Gerdt on TV screens in 1995-1996? "We love you ... I love you ..." - a sad face, an inscription on the glass through which he looked at us ... If Jesus of Nazareth was an ordinary person and would have lived to be eighty, then perhaps He would have looked like that Zinovy ​​Gerdt, whom we remember from the fall of 1996, when ...
DIVINE SATURDAY WE BAKED A SIP ...

And in conclusion, the Christmas Troparion (song-prayer about a church holiday), which is read in all our churches on Christmas night:
Christmas troparion

Your birth, Christ our God,
Illuminated the world with the light of reason;
Because there are employees in it
We learned to worship you with a star, the sun of righteousness,
And they learned about You through the wisdom of the East;
Our Lord, glory to Thee.

The birth of Jesus Christ changed the history of mankind. The modern civilizational paradigm became possible thanks to this event. The achievements of today's mankind: scientific, cultural, economic, have deep Christian roots. It was Christmas that became the starting point for the formation of a new way of life for people.

Unfortunately, there is not much detailed information. The Holy Gospel gives its listeners the main message - the Lord has appeared, the Redeemer of the world has been born. Everything else is of secondary importance.

Evangelicals practically do not focus on these facts. However, the inquisitive human mind is trying to study grains of knowledge in order to expand the scope of its knowledge.

For 2,000 years, scientists have been studying the texts of the New Testament, apocrypha, Tradition, carrying out meticulous work, trying to clarify and increase the knowledge they have.

Life and Nativity of Jesus Christ in the New Testament

Today we will answer the main questions that are often asked by interested people.

When was Jesus Christ born?

According to the opinion of the Holy Fathers of the Church, the Lord's appearance in the world fell on the most suitable time for the existence of society. Greek wisdom, adopted by the Roman Empire, ceased to satisfy the needs of the people.

Jesus Christ was born during a time of general disappointment in the meaning of life. A striking example of this is the emergence of various mystical sects and trends in philosophy (skepticism).

Where was Jesus Christ born?

Jesus Christ was born among a people who were chosen by God for many years for this great event. The territorially chosen people lived in the territory of modern Israel and Palestine.

After the death of King Solomon in 930 BC, the one kingdom of Israel disintegrated into Israel and Judah. The Savior was born on the territory of the latter.

What year was Jesus Christ born?

There is no exact date of birth of the Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament. The Evangelist Luke writes in the second chapter that the Savior was born during the reign of the Roman emperor Augustus. Historical science dates His reign from 27 to 14 BC. However, the emperor Augustus is mentioned only by the Evangelist Luke.

Matthew ties the birth of the Lord to the period of the reign of one of the dynasty of Herods. Most scholars agree that the evangelist is talking about Herod the Great. It is reliably known that he died in 4 BC, after him his son ascended the throne. These events are also reflected in the Scriptures.

In the 8th century, Deacon Dionysius the Small made astronomical calculations that confirmed the possibility of a miracle and a guiding star, and came to the conclusion that Christmas took place between 5 BC and 20 AD.

At the moment, most scholars agree that this event took place in 4-6 AD. At one of the conferences at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, Professor V. Bolotov, proved that modern science is not able to concretize the date of the Lord's birth.

In which city was Jesus Christ born?

The Holy Scriptures clearly indicate the place of the Savior's birth. The city of Bethlehem is located ten kilometers from Jerusalem and is geographically located on the West Bank of the Jordan River.

According to Old Testament prophecies, the Savior of the human race was to be born here. According to the Gospel story, the Magi also came here and brought various gifts to the King of Kings.

The Most Holy Theotokos - Mother of the Born Child

In the Books of the New Testament, biographical data concerning the Ever-Virgin Mary are rather sparingly described. It is known that the mother of Jesus Christ came from the royal tribe and was a descendant of King David.

She was born into a family that did not have children for a long time. At the age of three, she was given to the temple.

Sacred Tradition gives a little more information. After meeting with the high priest on the steps of the temple, the Virgin Mary was led into the Holy of Holies - the altar. She was very beautiful and from infancy she saw Angels who served Her.

Righteous Joseph - Father of Jesus Christ

Scripture tells Christians that the parents of Jesus Christ were Mary and Elder Joseph. The question of paternity is quite difficult for human understanding. Christians insist that conception took place in a mysterious and supernatural way.

Therefore, one cannot speak about the biological father of Jesus Christ in the literal sense. He is the hypostasis of the Holy Trinity and therefore He is the true God.

At the same time, Scripture says that the Holy Spirit entered the Virgin Mary and she became pregnant. The Holy Spirit is also the hypostasis of the Trinity, and therefore it turns out that the Lord entered the womb of the Virgin with one nature, but with different hypostases.

How old was Joseph the Betrothed when the Baby Jesus Christ was born?

The question of how old Joseph was when Jesus was born is quite open. In Protestantism, there is an opinion that Mary's betrothed was young enough.

More conservative Christian denominations claim that Joseph was many years old. In addition, Sacred Tradition and the teaching of the Fathers confirm Joseph's advanced age.

When is the birthday of Jesus Christ?

The New Testament does not specify the exact date of the birth of Jesus Christ. There is a Church tradition according to which this happened in the month of tubi, which is analogous to the month of January.

Only from the fourth century was the practice of celebrating Christmas on December 25 according to the Gregorian calendar and January 7 according to the Julian calendar introduced.

What is the name of God the Father Jesus Christ?

Various names of God the Father Jesus Christ are found in the Holy Scriptures. Adanoi translates as my God, Hosts - the Lord of Hosts, El-Shaddai - the Almighty Lord, El-Olam - the eternal Lord, Jehovah - Jehovah, El Gibor - the mighty Lord. There are other names for God in the text.

However, this is not a reflection of His essence, but only indications of the manifestations of God in the world.

How can you find Jesus' birthplace on a map?

The gospel account clearly indicates the birthplace of Jesus. When His parents came to the census, there was no room in the hotel. They had to seek refuge outside the city.

Many commentators point out that, despite Joseph's working profession, the income in the family was rather meager, so it was not possible to rent a separate house. The family had to spend the night in a cave where the shepherds hid their livestock for the night.

What country was Jesus Christ born in?

Jesus Christ was born in the country of Galilee, which was part of the province of Israel and was ruled by local kings, subject to the authority of Rome. At the moment, this is the north of Palestine.

How many years ago was Jesus Christ born?

Jesus Christ was born approximately 2015 - 2020 years ago. Unfortunately, a more precise date cannot be established.

How to briefly tell the children the story of the feast of the Nativity of Christ?

A short story for children of the feast of the Nativity of Christ tells about the following events. Saint Joseph became the betrothed of the Virgin Mary. Having gone to the census, they could not find a place to sleep in the town of Bethlehem. They had to spend the night in a cave.

The Savior of the world was born there. After His birth, three wise men came to the Holy Family and brought gifts to the King of Kings.

Conclusion

Evangelists describe the events of the Nativity of the Lord in short, capacious phrases. Of course, I would like to have more information about this great miracle.

However, it is not so important to find out in which particular year this great miracle happened. Most importantly, the Lord came into the world to save humanity.

At all times, people were worried about the question - when was Jesus born. More than one millennium has passed since then, and scientists, theologians, historians, even art historians and writers are still arguing about the date and place of birth of Jesus Christ.

Year of birth of Jesus

To begin with, Jesus is a completely real person; in our time, there is no controversy on this topic. And if he lived, then there is a day, month and year when Jesus Christ was born. The Bible says that on the birthday of his dream, a bright star burned in the sky. Scientists have proved that such a star could be a comet, which was just at that time visible from Earth in Judea (Israel). This fact is undeniable. But with the date when the comet flew over the Earth, again many scientists have disagreements. If you collect many of the opinions expressed, then the time period during which Jesus was born will be determined. This is from 12 BC to 4 AD. This is the time of the reign of King Herod, when he waged his war with infants. This fact has also been historically proven. Of course, 16 years is a long period of time, but due to the remoteness of years and due to the huge contrast of documentary evidence in the form of the Gospel, even such a spread can be considered a complete hit on the target. These dates allow us to definitely answer the question in what year Jesus was born.

Date of birth of Jesus

Now we can dwell on the number of the birth of Jesus. We celebrate Christmas in December-January due to the calendar difference. December 26 is Catholic Christmas, January 7 - Orthodox. But what do scientists say about these dates? Even in Orthodox religious sources, you can read that the birth of Christ was in the spring, March 25-27. This is evidenced by the descriptions of this event in all sources. But on December 26, at that time, the pagan Sun Day was celebrated. And in order to wean the population from the "bad" holiday, the ancient churchmen legalized Christmas on this very day. This is the opinion of the modern Orthodox Church!

Modern astrologers are also engaged in calculating the date of birth of Jesus Christ. German Lomov wrote a whole work "And it's all about Him", dedicated to the date of the birth of Christ. He brought together the studies of many astrologers who lived in different cities, countries and centuries. Researchers of human destinies by the stars built the horoscope of Christ and calculated his exact date of birth (in their opinion) - December 24.

Birthplace of Jesus

There is no such confusion with the place where Jesus was born, there is only one version. His father Joseph and his mother Mary lived until the moment of the conception of the Messiah in Nazareth. But before giving birth, an angel informed Joseph that the child should be born in Bethlehem. Therefore, Phithlem is the city where Jesus was born. The family went there, right on the eve of the birth of the baby. As soon as Jesus was born and the wise men brought up the good news, and the shepherds saw the star, everyone visited the stable where Mary was resting with the baby and brought them their gifts. After that, due to the persecution of Herod, the family fled to Egypt. They did not live there for long, Herod died shortly. His parents brought Jesus back to his homeland, to Nazareth, as an infant.