Everyone, but me, assumes Zechariah concieved his son John – AFTER he completed his course in the temple – AFTER the angel, or, Holy Spirit, appeared to him in the Holy of Holies and told him his wife, Elizabeth-Miram was going to have a child. Did Zechariah marry Elizabeth just before he was called to serve in the Temple, and thus she was a virgin when the Holy Spirit told him his virginal wife – was with child?
Elizabeth descends from the priesthood of Aaron, and Zechariah, the priesthood of Abijah, of Moses, thus in their seed comes together to two oldest priestly lines. For what pupous?
Jon the Nazarite
The Course of Abijah
The timing of John’s conception is tied to the annunciation to Zechariah while he was serving at the temple (Lk 1). Presumably, within a week or two of his return from Jerusalem, John was conceived. The key, therefore, is to narrow down the dates on which Zechariah would have been serving at the temple. This is a cottage industry among biblical chronologists, but unfortunately the results are more evocative than conclusive because the data are subject to varied interpretations.
“When the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a women…”(Gal. 4:4)
“The days were completed for her to give birth.”(Luke 2:6)
These two scriptures seem to indicate that the time of Jesus’ birth was fully planned in the foreknowledge of God. Why September 29?
In 4 B.C., the year Jesus was born, the 10th of Tishri fell on September 29 of our present calendar. That day was Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. Jesus was born on Yom Kippur! God so loved the world that He gave it an offering for all its sins. The Day of Atonement was, and is, the most solemn Jewish feast day. The people were to fast and afflict their souls before God, in anticipation of the High Priest’s exit from the temple’s Most Holy Place. When he finally came forth it was evidence that their sins had been purged away, and all was made right with God.
God instituted this special feast at Mount Sinai for the purpose of getting the worshippers looking by faith to that day when the Messiah would come and put away all sin. But the Jews had let selfishness and pride all but obliterate the Divine purpose in their religious calendar. So while many worshippers massed upon the temple site (like the Muslims of our day to Mecca), blindly obeying a religious habit, waiting for the High Priest to come forth, it was a few humble shepherds only who saw the true High Priest after he had come forth from the most holy place of Mary’s womb!
One of the Levitical stipulations for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, was that the high priest would remove his beautiful, glorious garments, and put on the white linen garb of the common priests. (Lev. 16:4, 23) The symbolism is plain: the Son of God would lay aside His royal robes, and leave the adoration of all the angels in the bliss of Heaven, and clothe Himself with humanity and share in the dismal lot of humankind. “And the Word was made flesh and tabernacled among us…” (John 1:14) Christ’s birth in Bethlehem was thus the beginning of the true Yom Kippur, God’s initial “making good” on His promise to redeem the race. The headlines in Heaven certainly read: “Son of God takes human flesh! First beachhead established in Operation Redemption.”
He Shall Speak to the People in Childhood and in Maturity
Qur’an 3:45-51 Surah Ale-‘Imran (The Family of ‘Imran)
Behold! the angels said “O Mary! Allah giveth thee glad tidings of a Word from Him: his name will be Christ (Maseeh) Jesus the son of Mary held in honor in this world and the Hereafter and of (the company of) those nearest to Allah.
“He shall speak to the people in childhood and in maturity and he shall be (of the company) of the righteous.”
She said: “O my Lord! how shall I have a son when no man hath touched me?” He said: “Even so: Allah createth what He willeth; when He hath decreed a plan He but saith to it ‘Be’ and it is!
“And Allah will teach him the Book and Wisdom the Law and the Gospel.
“And (appoint him) an Apostle to the Children of Israel (with this message): I have come to you with a sign from your Lord in that I make for you out of clay as it were the figure of a bird and breathe into it and it becomes a bird by Allah’s leave; and I heal those born blind and the lepers and I quicken the dead by Allah’s leave; and I declare to you what ye eat and what ye store in your houses. Surely therein is a Sign for you if ye did believe.
“(I have come to you) to attest the Law which was before me and to make lawful to you part of what was (before) forbidden to you; I have come to you with a Sign from your Lord. So fear Allah and obey me.
“It is Allah who is my Lord and your Lord; then worship Him. This is a way that is straight.”
Mary, the Daughter of ‘Imran, Guarded Her Chastity
Qur’an 66:11-12 Surah At-Tahrim (Banning)
And Allah sets forth as an example to those who believe the wife of Pharaoh: Behold she said: “O my Lord! build for me in nearness to Thee a mansion in the Garden and save me from Pharaoh and his doings and save me from those that do wrong”;
And Mary the daughter of ‘Imran who guarded her chastity; and We breathed into her (body) of Our spirit; and she testified to the truth of the words of her Lord and of His Revelations and was one of the devout (Servants).
What is known for sure is that the priests were divided into twenty-four courses, serving for one week at a time from Sabbath to Sabbath (2 Ch 23:8; 24:7-19; Josephus Ant. 7:14:7). In addition, there were three weeks of the year when all of the courses were on duty: Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles (Dt 16:16). Twenty-four divisions each serving two weeks per year, plus the three additional weeks, makes up the fifty-one weeks of a standard Jewish year. (About every third year, an intercalary month was added to the Jewish year to bring it back into alignment with the solar year.) The questions are myriad:
■Did the priests serve the same two weeks every year, perhaps counting from the start of the year? If so, did they calculate the beginning of the year from Nisan or from Tishrei?
■Did the priestly rotation proceed strictly in accordance with the numbering of weeks, without reference to the calendar dates?
■What happened in leap years? Did the priestly rotation simply continue apace, or was there some kind of special arrangement?
■Did the rotation schedule change at any point or was it consistent across the decades and centuries?
Keeping these questions in mind, what are some possibilities? We know from Josephus that the first division, the division of Jehoiarib, was on duty when Jerusalem was besieged during the first week of April, AD 70 (Nisan 1-8, AM 3830). When then would the division of Abijah (the eighth division) have been serving ca. 4 BC? If the courses served in the same weeks of every year, this would have the Abijah division coming on duty
■Passover week: beginning the second Sabbath in Nisan (March-April).
■Pentecost week: beginning the first Sabbath in Sivan (May-June).
■The tenth week of the year: beginning the second Sabbath in Sivan (May-June). (Abijah was the eighth course; the two pilgrimage festivals throws the rotation off by two weeks, resulting in the tenth week.)
■The thirty-fourth week of the year: beginning the second Sabbath in Tishrei (September-October). (Twenty-four weeks later) This places the course of Abijah on duty on the Day of Atonement, Tishrei 10.
■Tabernacles week: beginning the third Sabbath in Tishrei (September-October).
Assuming John was conceived within the week after Zechariah returned from his temple service, the May-June date would yield a date for the birth of Jesus in the fall; if the September-October date is preferred, the result is Jesus being born in winter. In other words, either of the prevailing theories can be supported by this method of calculation!
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