HAPPY HANUKKAH TO ALL
Wishing everyone a happy Hanukkah which begins the evening of December 22 and will overlap Christmas.
Hanukkah is definitely a holiday for both Jews and Christians that we should celebrate together.
Christians may ask why should they be interested in Hanukkah? Let me give you five quick answers.
1. Without Hanukkah there would most likely be no Jews and no Jesus/Yeshua as they would have all been murdered or assimilated.
2. Jesus/Yeshua was most likely conceived by the Holy Spirit in Mary (Miriam) at Hanukkah.
3. Jesus-Yeshua celebrated Hanukkah called the Feast of Dedication in John 10.
4. Christians are grafted into the Jewish people and are part of the Commonwealth of Israel.
5. We often hear the phrase, “What would Jesus do?” He would celebrate Hanukkah. What do you think you should do?
Hag Hanukkah Sameach – Happy Holiday,
Richard and Peggy Booker
WAS JESUS BORN AT CHRISTMAS?
by Dr. Richard Booker
While the New Testament records the birth of Jesus, it does not record the specific date of His birth. Unlike modern times, people in Bible times, and for the first three centuries, did not celebrate birthdays because that was a pagan custom. So how did we decide on the birth date of Jesus?
December 25th was the winter solstice, when days began to lengthen. In view of this, the ancient world of pagan sun-worshippers celebrated December 25 as the birthday of the sun. For example, to the Romans, Zeus, the high god of the Greeks, was known as Jupiter. He was the Roman high god of the sun. The Romans celebrated December 25th (the birthday of Zeus/Jupiter) as Dies Natalis Invicti Solis, “the Day of the Nativity of the Unconquered Sun.”
In the fourth century of our era, after Constantine “Christianized” Rome, he chose December 25 as the day to celebrate the birth of Jesus so that the pagan Romans would accept the new Christian religion of Rome. Constantine, himself a sun-worshipper, may have believed Jesus to be an incarnation of Jupiter, the sun god. Because of the obvious pagan origins, many segments of Christianity condemned the observance of December 25 due to its connection to sun worship. In fact, our Pilgrim Fathers did not celebrate Christmas knowing that is was a pagan holiday that Rome had Christianized.
So when was Jesus born? It is possible that Jesus was conceived during Hanukkah. According to Luke 1:5, Zecharias was a priest of the division of Abijah. Luke 1:8 says that Gabriel appeared to Zecharias when he was serving as a priest in the temple. Based on Rabbinic writings and 1 Chronicles 24:10, the division of Abijah served as priests during the second half of the fourth month on the Jewish religious calendar. This was late June when Elizabeth conceived John the Baptist. This would mean that John the Baptist was born the next year around Passover.
According to Luke 1:24-26, Mary conceived Jesus in the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy. This means that Jesus was conceived during the latter part of the Jewish month of Kislev, or late December on the Gentile calendar. Jesus was born nine months later, most likely at the Feast of Tabernacles.
By-the-way, John the Baptist was not a Baptist, Mary was not a Catholic and Jesus was not a Christian. THEY WERE ALL JEWS!
MERRY CHRISTMAS
