Many believe that Jesus was born on December 25th. I have come to believe that the early Christians had to transition Jewish calendar dates to a fixed calendar in order to observe those holidays. In my studies on this subject, I have come to believe that Jesus was born during the Feast of Lights. I believe the Feast of Lights were put in place to ultimately herald that event. The Feast of Lights is also known as the Feast of Dedication (aka Feast of Lights). It is also mentioned in your Bible:
Joh 10:22 And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter.
The Feast comes from the time when the Maccabees dedicated the Temple with only a little oil for the lamp and it miraculously continued to burn for 8 days.
Now if you know about that number 8, it is a new beginning and associated with consecration of things to God the Father being that the male children are circumcised on the 8th day. The overall understanding of that is that in time the children will be given to the Father on the 8th day after the Millennial rule of Christ (7th day day).
It is important to understand that the Jews didn't observe a fixed calendar. Their calendar was a Lunar/Solar calendar. Therefore, there months started based on the lunar cycles. The observation of the Feast of Feast of Lights was for 8 days beginning the 25th day of the 9th LUNAR month.
Now in 3 BC was our Lord Jesus born. We can know this by tracking the Courses of the Priests. We know that the Zacharias was serving in the Temple during the 8th course and was given the news that Elizabeth would conceive a child and this was given to him during Day of Atonement in 4 BC. We know that the Jews recorded that the first course was in service of the Temple in 70 AD when it was destroyed. By counting backwards you will arrive at 4 BC in the 2nd week of the 7th month for the Day of Atonement. That would be when Zacharias was serving. We know it was the Day of Atonement because everyone was outside waiting and nobody could go into check on him. During that Day - nobody else can be in the Temple but that administering Priest.
Now an important piece to understanding this is that the Priests served in those courses from Sabbath to Sabbath. But furthermore, at that time, since the Jews then observed their sabbaths by the Lunar months, this means that every Sabbath day was the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th of the lunar month. Therefore, there was 49 sabbaths in any year.
Now since the Jews knew that the first course was observing in the 2nd week of the 5th lunar month in the 70 year AD when the Temple was destroyed, you can just go BACKWARD to the years when the Birth would likely to have occurred given that Jesus was 30 in the 15th year of Tiberius. And when you go back to those years you would be looking in the 6 BC to 4 AD timeframe. You will find that the 8th course was serving on the Day of ATonement (2nd week of the 7th month) in 4 BC.
Now you take the account from Luke 1 you will see that when Elizabeth is in her 6th month, is when Mary conceives Jesus. Now if you understand that Zacharias likely didn't tarry and quickly moved towards Elizabeth and got her pregnant immediately following his service in the Temple, then it is likely that she got pregnant at the end of the 7th month or beginning of the 8th month. Now move forward to the beginning of Spring and this is likely when Mary Conceived. Then 9 months later would be the 25th day of the 9th lunar month and now be 3 BC. Therefore, the 25th day of the 9th Lunar month in 3 BC would be around 2/3 December.
So you can see that if you had to transition from dynamic calendar to a fixed calendar then you could take the two parts and combine them and put the 25th of the Lunar month into the Solar month of December. I'm not saying that is how it came to be but I've seen other origins of this and not sure I agree with them. So I don't know why 25 December was settled on but it was not the date. Furthermore, Clement of Alexandria says that the Lord was born 194 years, 1 month and 13 days before the Death of Commodus. I have figured that out but in order to do so, you must realize that Clement is using this former Lunar/Solar calendar of the Jews and transposing it to the year that Commodus died which was December 31st of 192 AD. You notice it mentions months but doesn't say how many days in the month but then mentions days specifically as 13. This should tell you that he was not comparing this to a fixed calendar. The Jews would implement a leap month roughly 2 to 3 years according to the alignment of the moon and the solar equinox. Therefore, when you transpose the former Jewish lunar/solar calendar into 192 AD, you will find that the 25th day of the 9th lunar month falls 13 days prior to December 31st and because of the leap year you must add a month to be correlated. This is further confirmation that they knew Jesus was born in 3 BC during the Feast of Lights. But there is more to prove this as Jesus is heralded as the Light that came into this world. In fact, the Crucifixion/Resurrection is a Light triumphing over darkness event. The Full Moon after the Equinox was when Passover occurred. This even wa such that light has to dominate the day and the night such that no darkness was there for the moon would rise and give light unto the night as soon as the sun would set.
So in summary, Jesus was born during the Feast of Lights around 2/3 December of 3 BC.
References - the course of Abia was the 8th course of the Priests.
Luk 1:5 There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.
1CH 24 for the courses of the Priests.
Joh 10:22 And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter.
The Feast comes from the time when the Maccabees dedicated the Temple with only a little oil for the lamp and it miraculously continued to burn for 8 days.
Now if you know about that number 8, it is a new beginning and associated with consecration of things to God the Father being that the male children are circumcised on the 8th day. The overall understanding of that is that in time the children will be given to the Father on the 8th day after the Millennial rule of Christ (7th day day).
It is important to understand that the Jews didn't observe a fixed calendar. Their calendar was a Lunar/Solar calendar. Therefore, there months started based on the lunar cycles. The observation of the Feast of Feast of Lights was for 8 days beginning the 25th day of the 9th LUNAR month.
Now in 3 BC was our Lord Jesus born. We can know this by tracking the Courses of the Priests. We know that the Zacharias was serving in the Temple during the 8th course and was given the news that Elizabeth would conceive a child and this was given to him during Day of Atonement in 4 BC. We know that the Jews recorded that the first course was in service of the Temple in 70 AD when it was destroyed. By counting backwards you will arrive at 4 BC in the 2nd week of the 7th month for the Day of Atonement. That would be when Zacharias was serving. We know it was the Day of Atonement because everyone was outside waiting and nobody could go into check on him. During that Day - nobody else can be in the Temple but that administering Priest.
Now an important piece to understanding this is that the Priests served in those courses from Sabbath to Sabbath. But furthermore, at that time, since the Jews then observed their sabbaths by the Lunar months, this means that every Sabbath day was the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th of the lunar month. Therefore, there was 49 sabbaths in any year.
Now since the Jews knew that the first course was observing in the 2nd week of the 5th lunar month in the 70 year AD when the Temple was destroyed, you can just go BACKWARD to the years when the Birth would likely to have occurred given that Jesus was 30 in the 15th year of Tiberius. And when you go back to those years you would be looking in the 6 BC to 4 AD timeframe. You will find that the 8th course was serving on the Day of ATonement (2nd week of the 7th month) in 4 BC.
Now you take the account from Luke 1 you will see that when Elizabeth is in her 6th month, is when Mary conceives Jesus. Now if you understand that Zacharias likely didn't tarry and quickly moved towards Elizabeth and got her pregnant immediately following his service in the Temple, then it is likely that she got pregnant at the end of the 7th month or beginning of the 8th month. Now move forward to the beginning of Spring and this is likely when Mary Conceived. Then 9 months later would be the 25th day of the 9th lunar month and now be 3 BC. Therefore, the 25th day of the 9th Lunar month in 3 BC would be around 2/3 December.
So you can see that if you had to transition from dynamic calendar to a fixed calendar then you could take the two parts and combine them and put the 25th of the Lunar month into the Solar month of December. I'm not saying that is how it came to be but I've seen other origins of this and not sure I agree with them. So I don't know why 25 December was settled on but it was not the date. Furthermore, Clement of Alexandria says that the Lord was born 194 years, 1 month and 13 days before the Death of Commodus. I have figured that out but in order to do so, you must realize that Clement is using this former Lunar/Solar calendar of the Jews and transposing it to the year that Commodus died which was December 31st of 192 AD. You notice it mentions months but doesn't say how many days in the month but then mentions days specifically as 13. This should tell you that he was not comparing this to a fixed calendar. The Jews would implement a leap month roughly 2 to 3 years according to the alignment of the moon and the solar equinox. Therefore, when you transpose the former Jewish lunar/solar calendar into 192 AD, you will find that the 25th day of the 9th lunar month falls 13 days prior to December 31st and because of the leap year you must add a month to be correlated. This is further confirmation that they knew Jesus was born in 3 BC during the Feast of Lights. But there is more to prove this as Jesus is heralded as the Light that came into this world. In fact, the Crucifixion/Resurrection is a Light triumphing over darkness event. The Full Moon after the Equinox was when Passover occurred. This even wa such that light has to dominate the day and the night such that no darkness was there for the moon would rise and give light unto the night as soon as the sun would set.
So in summary, Jesus was born during the Feast of Lights around 2/3 December of 3 BC.
References - the course of Abia was the 8th course of the Priests.
Luk 1:5 There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.
1CH 24 for the courses of the Priests.
