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WHEN WAS JESUS BORN?: M. M. NINAN<br />
"What is the latest time of year in which shepherds would still be<br />
outside with their flocks in the Judean hills, AT NIGHT?" November<br />
through February are far to cold in Israel to be doing this kind of<br />
activity. The answer of course points to the end of October, at the<br />
latest, for temperature reasons alone. Depending of the Hebrew<br />
calendar in any given year, as mentioned above, Succoth always falls in<br />
the September-October time frame, when the weather is still warm and<br />
pleasant outside, especially AT NIGHT. For these reasons, and many<br />
others not documented here, we think Yeshua is very likely to have<br />
been born at Succoth.<br />
And so, the birth of Yeshua at Succoth fulfils another prophecy: "The<br />
virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call<br />
him Emmanu-El - which means, "God is with us". (Matt. 1:23, quoting<br />
from Yishaiyahu (Isaiah) 7:14).<br />
He <strong>was</strong> born in a type of Succah where servants of a household slept, or<br />
where they kept sheep and cattle. Luke uses the Greek word for<br />
"manger" but because Yeshua <strong>was</strong> Jewish, and it <strong>was</strong> most likely the<br />
festival of Succoth, the text probably describes a Succah.<br />
Yochanan, in his Gospel narrative of Yeshua's birth, confirms this truth<br />
when he indicates that G-d had come to earth to dwell with (and serve)<br />
humanity. We read in Yochanan (John) 1:14 about how "The Word<br />
became flesh and made his dwelling (Tabernacled) among us," which is<br />
a clear and obvious reference to Succoth.<br />
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