Was Y'shua Born During Sukkot?

I have been researching this 'assumption' for quite some time, and today I found the additional information needed to finally bring this to a satisfying conclusion:

Question: Was Y'shua born during the Feast of Sukkot?

Answer: No

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Matthew 2:1 tells us Y'shua was born in Bethlehem (City of David) during the time Herod was king. The Magi were known astronomers, originally taught by Daniel the prophet while in Babylon. They knew the signs to watch for, and had been traveling in order to witness the prophecy that was becoming a reality.

Luke 2:1 tells us a decree from Augustus Caesar went out that the names of all the people of his dominion should be written down. Everyone went to his own city to be registered. Joseph was from Bethlehem, from the house and clan of David which is why he took his bride, who was pregnant, there to be registered.

Luke 2:12 tells us a Messenger/Angel appeared to the shepherds in that region where they lodge and keep watch at night over their flocks. They were told of the birth of the savior that is Master YHWH the Mashiyach* in the City of David (Bethlehem). The shepherds went to see this miracle and spread the word.

Matthew 2:2 - Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."

Through the course of this study I have not found in Scriptures any report that states, infers or alludes to Y'shua being born during the time of Sukkot. It seems it could have been a good idea for Herod to time the census along with one of the feasts that had all Israelites gathered in one location; but it would be unlikely that the followers of Yah would break the command to assemble in Jerusalem for Sukkot in order to gather at their own hometowns instead. Besides, only the males attended Sukkot and it was every 7th year that the entire household traveled to Jerusalem for this gathering.

Deuteronomy 16:16 -- Three times in a year all your males shall appear before YHWH your Elohim in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread and at the Feast of Weeks and at the Feast of Booths (Sukkot)

The knowledge I have been lacking was in regards to astronomy: the 'signs' that are recorded as prophecy, which were taught by Daniel, the same signs the magi had been paying attention to.  Even an angel of Elohim saw fit to bring this to the attention of the shepherds.

Genesis 1:14 - Yah said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate day from night; they shall serve as signs for the set times - the days and the years; and they shall serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to shine  upon the earth... 

Jeremiah 23:5 - "The days are coming", declares Yahweh, "when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land.

Isaiah 7:14 - Therefore YHWH Himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

700 years later, John writes this:

Revelation 12:1 - And a great wonder was seen in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars. And, being with child, she cried and labored, and had the pangs of giving imminent birth.

Matthew 16:1 - And the Pharisees and the Sadducees drew near (Yahshua) tempting him and asking him for a sign from heaven to show them.  But he answered, "When it becomes evening you say 'It is clear, for the sky is red.'  And in the morning you say, 'Today it is winter for the sky is a gloomy red.' Hypocrites! You know how to observe the appearance of the sky. The signs of this time you do no know how to discern. An evil and adulterous generation request a sign and a sign will not be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. (Three days and three nights scenario)

What I have read (links provided below) suggests Y'shua was born a full two weeks before Sukkot, as reckoned with the 'signs' in heaven.  This would place his birth on Yom Teruah = Feast of Trumpets = first day of the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar (Sept. on modern day calendars). 

Here are the links to the study of Scripture and astronomical events that preceded the birth of Y'shua, (a deep study which I am still reviewing, but felt compelled to share at this time) both the web page and the PDF:

Torah Calendar

Signs and the Birth of Mashiyach

(Also, the book, Wheel of Stars, by Andrew Gabriel Roth is worth adding to one's library for further study and reference.)

I think it is interesting to note that at the head of Bethula is the Lion constellation:


Is it the Crown of 12 Stars?  I will need to search that idea out some more.

Y'shua, the Lion of Judah, will be king and selected his 12 Apostles to be seated as judges when that day comes.

Genesis 49:8
Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father's sons shall bow down to you. Judah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He couches, he lies down as a lion, And as a lion, who dares rouse him up? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.…

Revelation 5:5
And one of the elders says to me, "Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome to open the scroll and its seven seals."

...:::```*```:::...

The other study I've been working on ties in with this timeline through the research of priests and their duties.  The one known as John the Baptist is our starting point.  Here's is what I have learned:

In the story leading up to Yahshua's inception, Mary went to visit her cousin, Elizabeth, who was six months pregnant with John. It is through this account, found in Luke, chapter 1, that we are able to more closely fix the date of the birth of Messiah.

Luke indicates that Elizabeth’s husband was Zechariah and a priest of the course of Abia. While on duty, as a priest, he was visited by an angel and informed his wife was to have a son to be named John. After his obligations to the ministry ended, he departed to his house. He and Elizabeth conceived a child.

In order to fix the time of conception, one must look to the time of Zacharias’ ministry. At that time, the priests were divided into 24 classes and it is known that each class officiated at the Temple in turn for a week. If it is known at which time any one of the courses officiated it is a simple matter to trace the times of the succession of courses backward or forward.

During Elizabeth’s sixth month of pregnancy (4th week of December), the angel Gabriel visited Mary and informed her that she was going to have a son to be named Yahshua. Mary goes to visit her cousin, and stayed with her about three months.

Using these facts: Zacharias’ ministry, Elizabeth’s pregnancy term and Mary’s visit at the start of Elizabeth's sixth month; we discover the conception of Y'shua would have been in the first part of the last week of December and his birth occurring sometime in September - not December 25th.

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I decided to keep the historical/political evidence I have been collecting when I first began my search to discover the month of the census.  I have yet to pinpoint the time frame but have learned some interesting facts nonetheless, so decided to keep this info intact for reference and further research.  This is time consuming for my pea-brain, but will be updated whence I get back to it.  Please feel free to leave any comments below that will help with the study of this time line.

In 27 B.C. the Senate voted Octavian the name Augustus. It also gave him legal power to direct Rome's religious, civil, and military affairs, with the Senate as an advisory body. Augustus Caesar ruled between 27 BC and 12 AD and commanded a census during the time that Qurinius/Cyrenius was governor of Persia (Iran/Afghanistan). Augustus died Aug. 19th 14 AD.

Cyrenius is Governor of Syria During the Census

Luke 2:1 And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria. 

"So Archelaus's country was laid to the province of Syria; and Cyrenius, one that had been consul, was sent by Caesar to take account of people's effects in Syria. Cyrenius came himself into Judea, which was now added to the province of Syria, to take an account of their substance." - Josephus - Antiquities of the Jews - Book 18

"That had been consul" - This lends credibility to the fact of Cyrenius possibly ruling as governor of Syria on more than one occasion. See Judas of Galilee and Theudas - Acts 5

Herod the Great ruled between 37 BC and 4 BC until his death from his awful afflictions... he died 5 days after he ordered his son, Antipater who was in jail, to be slain. Herod began rule in Galilee in the 15th and 25th year of his age (research this more). When did he command the death of baby boys in and around Bethlehem which were 2 years old and younger, thinking to kill the prophesied king, Y'shua? Herod became sick when he was 70 years old. How long was he ill until his death? Yah tells Joseph and Mary to take the boy and flee to Egypt. They stay in Egypt until Herod dies. Yah tells them to return to Israel, to the land of Galilee, where they settled in Nasrath. How long did they stay in Egypt? (Matthew 2:14)

Matthias was High Priest during the end of Herod's life. Judas was Matthias' son. I have read that Herod had them burned alive for tearing down the golden eagle he had put above the entrance to the temple as a 'gift to god'. It is recorded that there was a lunar eclipse at that time. The date is said to be March 13th in the Julian year of 4710 -the 4th year before the 'christian era'. 

Judah Maccabee was the leader of the Jews in their struggle for independence in the 100's B.C. He was the son of a priest named Mattathias from the ancient city of Modin. His family is known as the Hasmoneans in the rabbinic texts. Judah's story is told in the Book of 1 Maccabees in the Apocrypha. 

At that time, the Jews were subjects of the Seleucid Empire, one of the states formed out of Alexander the Great's empire. The Seleucid king, Antiochus IV (called Epiphanes), wanted his subjects to adopt Greek culture and customs. Many Jews did this, almost to the point of abandoning their religion. But others resisted. 

Antiochus also wanted to get possession of the treasures in the Temple. In 168 or 167 B.C., angered by Jewish resistance to his policy, he entered Jerusalem, killed many of the people, and defiled the Temple by building an altar to a pagan god there. This is known as the Abomination of Desolation in the Gospels and in the Book of Daniel.

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Y'shua's birthday wasn't even celebrated until the early 300s. This is a tradition and not one of Yah's set apart times for us to observe. No one is to celebrate birth days year after year.

Moon Sighting and the Weekly Sabbath

I have been working on a study about the Set Apart times of YHWH - most know them as His Feast Days. In the course of this study, Exodus 12 keeps popping up in my brain. It is when Yahweh tells Moses this is the beginning of the year for you, the first month. Then in Exodus 19 we note His month begins with the new moon... Now, I trust Elohim to know what He's talking about and it is very evident that His calendar is not the one we've been using all these years.

If we believe YHWH indicates each month begins with the New Moon then we need to come out of the ever popular Gregorian Calendar system.  This won't be easy but as as we move along His Path of Righteousness, we exhibit another sign of becoming Set Apart because He is Set Apart.

I've avoided the topic of calendars and time keeping even though I have been aware of the discrepancies and changes made.  Andrew Gabriel Roth has a book that goes deep into Yah's method of time keeping titled Wheel of Stars which left me feeling even more confused, but I continue to refer to his wealth of information hoping to gain understanding.  Sometimes it takes me a while to catch on.

Here's some basic info on the history of calendars, none of which follow Yah's description:

The Egyptian calendar year comprised of 12 months, and each month had exactly 30 days. The months were further divided into three weeks, with each week lasting 10 days. The Babylonian calendar was made up of 12 lunar months, and each month would begin when a new crescent moon appeared. The Greeks used a calendar that was similar to the Babylonian calendar, but they also had other calendars, such as the democratic state calendar with 10 arbitrary months and an agricultural calendar. The first Roman calendar was created by Romulus, and it had 10 months in a year, with each month lasting 30 or 31 days. The Romans had a number of calendars, and the most notable one was the Julian calendar introduced in 45 BC by Julius Caesar.  In the year 1582, Pope Gregory XIII decreed that there should be a change in the Julian calendar. Many European countries did not adopt the Gregorian calendar when it was introduced, mainly because of the Protestant Reformation that was taking place at that time. Nevertheless, by the 20^th century, the calendar became the standard calendar in Europe. Today, it is the most widely used calendar in the world. 

What has really been on my mind is this:

YHWH says the month begins with the sighting of the new moon, yet we are using the Gregorian (modern day) calendar to tell us when the month begins.  If you were to look on a calendar today, you would see one of the days marked as the "new moon". Scientists today regard the new moon as "conjunction", which is the moment the moon is in between the sun and the earth. In reality, conjunction is a dark moon, unseen. A day or two later the new moon crescent appears.  If we use that 'conjunction' symbol as a starting point and add a day or two to actually see the new moon as the beginning of the month and then count off seven day (sunset to sunset) cycles, we discover that the weekly sabbath does not always fall on what we call Sat.day, the day of rest, or Sun.day for that matter.

We know that the lights in the expanse of the sky not only separated day from night but serve as signs for the set times - the days and the years - and when YHWH was finished with His Works He rested on the 7th day (and this is what He expects of us, to rest on each 7th day...) He counted 7 days from the beginning of Creation - what beginning do we count from? 

Exodus 12 Yah tells Moshe that the month they are to be set free from Pharaoh is the first month of the year... and on the 15th day is when they were set free. 

Exodus 16: the Israelites came to the wilderness of Sin on the 15th day of the 2nd month after they left Egypt (when did the new count of days begin?)

Now this is where I connect the moon with the month => Exodus 19: On the 3rd new moon after the Israelites had gone forth from the land of Egypt... 19:16 On the 3rd day as morning dawned. 

This reads, to me, a count of days from the new moon, the 3rd new moon since Yah told Moshe when the first month was. Three Moons = 3 months. (He says the third new moon and then counts the 3rd day from that new moon....) If I have this right then there are many of us keeping the sabbath on the wrong day.  If we've got the beginning of the month wrong, then we have the sabbath day wrong. 

This what YHWH said through Isaiah:

7:11 What need have I of all your sacrifices... I have no delight that you come to appear before Me - trample My courts no more. Bringing your offerings is futile, incense is offensive to Me. New moon and sabbath you proclaim solemnities and assemble with wickedness I cannot tolerate. Your new moons (months) and your fixed seasons (man's traditions and substitutes for Yah's moedim) fill Me with loathing - they have become a burden to Me, no longer a joy. When you lift up your hands in false praise and worship I will turn My Eyes away from you.

When we came to the part of His Path where we discovered our Hebrew Heritage and realized that Torah is for everyone - His Creation - we didn't stop there... we kept reading His Words, learning and obeying His Instructions, which is what keeps us moving along His Path as the Ruach haKodesh continues to reveal Truth. We gave up man's traditions and replaced them with Yah's intended times. Our Walk is a learning process. Even the twelve apostles went through a learning curve which resulted in them being made ready to receive the Spirit of Elohim.

YHWH will restore all things when His time comes.  In the meantime let us not stagnate on a comfortable part of that path making the excuse that it's O.K. since "we are all on different parts of the path".  We are called to be His Set Apart People. Come out of the world system now. There is only One Path that leads to His Kingdom.

Isaiah 66:23 And new moon after new moon, and sabbath after sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship Me.

In my research on this topic I have come across the following website. As always, I find others who have looked into these things long before I became aware of them! I agree with most of what this person has uncovered and helps express my own thoughts:

God's Calendar 

Here is a quote from Nehemiah's Wall referring to the naming of months:

Today, few people remember the biblical name of Yom Teruah and instead it is widely known as "Rosh Hashanah" which literally means “head of the year” and hence also “New Years”. The transformation of Yom Teruah (Day of Shouting) into Rosh Hashanah (New Years) is the result of pagan Babylonian influence upon the Jewish nation. The first stage in the transformation was the adoption of the Babylonian month names. In the Torah, the months are numbered as First Month, Second Month, Third Month, etc (Leviticus 23; Numbers 28). During their sojourn in Babylonia our ancestors began to use the pagan Babylonian month names, a fact readily admitted in the Talmud:

“The names of the months came up with them from Babylonia.” (Jerusalem Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 1:2 56d) 

The pagan nature of the Babylonian month names is epitomized by the fourth month known as Tammuz. In the Babylonian religion, Tammuz was the god of grain whose annual death and resurrection brought fertility to the world. In the book of Ezekiel, the prophet described a journey to Jerusalem in which he saw the Jewish women sitting in the Temple “weeping over Tammuz” (Ezekiel 8:14). The reason they were weeping over Tammuz is that, according to Babylonian mythology, Tammuz had been slain but had not yet been resurrected. In ancient Babylonia, the time for weeping over Tammuz was the early summer, when the rains cease throughout the Middle East and green vegetation is burnt by the unrelenting sun. To this day the Fourth Month in the rabbinical calendar is known as the month of Tammuz and it is still a time for weeping and mourning.

Some of the Babylonian month names found their way into the later books of the Tanakh, but they always appear alongside the Torah month names. For example, Esther 3:7 says:
This verse starts off by giving the Torah name for the month (“First Month”) and then translates this month into its pagan equivalent (“which is the month of Nissan”). By the time of Esther, all the Jews lived within the boundaries of the Persian Empire and the Persians had adopted the Babylonian calendar for the civil administration of their realm. At first, the Jews used these Babylonian month names alongside the Torah month names, but over time the Torah month names fell into disuse. 

As the Jewish People became more comfortable with the Babylonian month names, they became more susceptible to other Babylonian influences. This is similar to the way that American Jews observe Hanukkah as a Jewish version of Christmas. This influence began with the seemingly harmless custom of giving gifts on Hanukkah. Until the Jews arrived in America this custom was unknown and it is still a rarity in Israel where Hanukkah does not need to compete with Christmas for the hearts and minds of the Jewish youth. Once Hanukkah took on this relatively trivial aspect of Christmas, it became ripe for more significant influences. Today, many American Jews have established the custom of setting up a “Hanukkah bush” as a Jewish alternative to the Christmas tree. These Jews did not want to adopt Christmas outright so they “Judaized” the Christmas tree and incorporated into Hanukkah. This example shows how easy it is to be influenced by the practices of a foreign religion, especially when there is some similarity to begin with. The fact that Hanukkah often falls out around the same time as Christmas made it natural for American Jews to incorporate elements of Christmas into their observance of Hanukkah.  

The ancient Rabbis were influenced by the pagan Babylonian religion. Although many Jews returned to Judea when the Exile officially ended in 516 BC, the forebears of the Rabbis remained behind in Babylonia where rabbinical Judaism gradually took shape. Many of the earliest known Rabbis such as Hillel I were born and educated in Babylonia. Indeed, Babylonia remained the heartland of Rabbinical Judaism until the 11th Century CE. The Babylonian Talmud abounds with the influences of Babylonian paganism. Indeed, pagan deities even appear in the Talmud recycled as "Jewish" angels and demons. (End Quote)

Even today's Gregorian Calendar uses names of pagan gods to denote the months of the year. In Scripture YHWH doesn't even want to hear these names come out of our mouths. Satan is pretty subtle.

Lunar Tetrad

This study is in regards to the teachings of Mark Biltz and John Hagee in regards to the 'Blood Moons' of late. They were promoting prophecy and the imminent return of Y'shua, and used Joel 2:31 as their launch pad.   In the Tanakh there is no Joel 2:31, but there is Joel 3 which reads:

After that I will pour out My spirit on all flesh; your sons and daughters shall prophesy; your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. I will even pour out My spirit upon male and female slaves in those days.  Before the great and terrible day of YHWH Elohim comes, I will set portents in the sky and on earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke; the sun shall turn into darkness and the moon into blood. But everyone who invokes the Name of Elohim (YHWH) shall escape; for there shall be a remnant on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, as YHWH Elohim promised.  Anyone who invokes YHWH will be among the survivors.

Note: Before the sun goes dark and the moon turns red there are portents on the earth: blood, fire and pillars of smoke. Perhaps the blood, fire and smoke fills the air and causes the sun to darken and the moon appear red? What caused the fire? A *great earthquake* maybe?

Joel 2

Blow a horn in Zion, sound an alarm on My Set Apart mount! Let all dwellers on earth tremble, for the Day of YHWH has come! It is close - a day of darkness and gloom, a  day of densest cloud spread like soot over the hills. A vast, enormous horde - nothing like it has ever happened, and it shall never happen again through the years and ages. (The shofar/horn/trumpet is blown before the darkness and gloom*)

Note: Nothing like this has ever happened before and will not happen again - that pretty much rules out lunar eclipses as the cause of the moon turning 'blood red', because those, even the tetrads, have happened several times in the past and are calculated to occur again in the future. 

I do not deny that this prophecy most certainly concerns the end time events and the return of Y'shua haMashiyach, Son of Elohim,  but there are other signs which have been recorded that precede this scenario that have yet to occur.  Scripture does indeed interpret itself, so focusing on the lunar tetrads and trying to make something out of them that is not backed up by Scriptures can turn into a false teaching.  It's understandable, though, because these are exciting times we live in, but we must always study out events as they are written and not try to force the Word of God to fit current events.  It is important to keep Scripture in context so as not to spin a 'theory' out of control.  We have been warned against the imaginings of man. We have been told beforehand; given the facts, as it were.

In the book of Matthew, the disciples had asked Y'shua about the signs of the end and his return.  He spoke of several things and the suffering that will happen, then he said:

Matthew 24:29

And immediately after the suffering of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not shine its light.  And the stars will fall from heaven and the powers of heaven will be shaken.  And then will be seen the sign of the Son of man in heaven... :31 And he will send his Messengers (angels) with a large trumpet (shofar/horn) and they will gather his chosen ones from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. (*His Set Apart believers are rescued before the darkness and gloom)

Lets take a look at the writings in Revelation.

Revelation 6:12

And I looked when he had opened the sixth seal, and there was a *great earthquake*; and the sun became black, like sackcloth of hair; and the whole moon became like blood. and the stars of heaven fell on the earth...

The Sixth Seal has yet to be opened.  We are in the time frame known as The Beginning of Sorrows which I have studied out to be related to Seals 1 through 4, which have been opened. (See the link provided below: 'Signs')

The prophecy referred to in Joel, Matthew and Revelation is one and the same and has yet to happened.  They all report that this darkened sun and blood red moon happen before the great and glorious day of YHWH, which is when Y'shua is set to return.  But before that happens the one world united nations government system with its world leader will be in place.  The 3-1/2 years of peace and safety will have passed by and Satan will possess that final world leader to do abominations that cause desolation for the remaining 3-1/2 years.  The 'mark' will have been put in place in order to buy or sell... you get the picture.

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For more detail about the signs of the times, refer to my study:
 Signs 

To understand who His Chosen people are, refer to my study:  
Who is Israel?

For more information according to astronomy, visit:
EarthSky.org

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After you have prayed and studied on this yourself, let me know if I have overlooked anything. Your thoughts, input and comments are always welcomed as well as corrections when needed.