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Nearly everyone is familiar with the story of Christ’s birth as told in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. However, the reality of the events surrounding His birth is quite likely far different than that most know.
Two thousand and twenty-one years ago this Saturday, Jesus, the prophesied savior to his people, and the world, was born in a manger in the city of Bethlehem to the Virgin Mary and the carpenter Joseph. Shepherds and wise men, following the Star of Bethlehem, came to visit Him. The wise men, sent at the behest of King Herod, brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. These few sentences encapsulate the story of His birth as told in Matthew 2:1-11 and Luke 2:8-20.
For those of us old enough to remember the Peanuts annual Christmas special, perhaps one of the most enduring, and endearing, retellings of the story is Linus’s explanation to Charlie Brown on the true meaning of the holiday.
Yet Christianity and Christmas are being attacked again this year, especially with the White House coming out with one of the worst Christmas messages ever and Lord Fauci suggesting that unvaccinated relatives are not worthy enough to spent time with during the holiday. Yikes!
While scary, this is nothing new. Attacks on Christ’s teachings, the accuracy of the Gospels, and the historical truth of his existence, especially by academia, have been occurring for at least the last 250 years. Many point out inconsistencies between the Gospels, suggesting that first hand witnesses did not write them, or concede the point that Christ existed yet focus on the fact that the authors penned the Gospels some 30 to 90 years after his death, which would make them unreliable at best. Others suggest the entire story is merely a myth. [1]
At least one historian from antiquity, Flavius Josephus, writing about 60 years after the Crucifixion, does mention Christ, although he sums His ministry into single paragraph [2]:
Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.
As to the veracity of the Gospels, J. Warner Wallace, a homicide detective, examines the Gospels from the perspective of a crime scene and a detective’s skill for getting at the truth. In Cold-Case Christianity he walks the reader through an understanding of the skills used when solving crimes, some decades old. In the second half of the book, he presents the case for the Gospel writers, concluding [3]:
The most reasonable inference is that the gospel writers were present, corroborated, accurate, and unbiased. If this is the case, we can conclude with confidence that their testimony is reliable. We’ve done the heavy lifting needed to determine the reliability of these accounts; we’ve been diligent and faithful as jurors and have considered the evidence.
While Warner does an excellent job of establishing Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, as first-hand witnesses to Christ’s ministry, he scarcely mentions Jesus’s birth. So, both the faithful and curious are left with a bit a quandary.
For starters, there is the matter as to the occupation and lineage of Joseph, Christ’s earthly father. Both Matthew (13:55) and Mark (6:3) refer to Joseph as a carpenter. However, both Matthew (1:1-16) and Luke (3:23-38) tell us that Joseph is directly descended from King David. If he is of royal lineage, why is working as a carpenter? Then, there is the question of the manger, or cratch, which is only addressed by Luke (2:7,12, &16), Matthew only stating that the young family was in a house when the wise men arrived (2:11). Finally, there is the question of immaculate conception and Christ’s birth by the Virgin Mary, mentioned by both Matthew (1:18-23) and Luke (1:27-35), yet contradicted by Paul (Rom 1:3), when he states that: [i]
Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord (which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, …
Can all these be taken reliably, on face value, or is there perhaps another explanation?
Fifteen miles or so east of Jerusalem, on the shores of the Dead Sea, lies the ancient site of Khirbet Qumran and the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in 1947. [ii] The Essenes occupied Qumran for nearly two hundred years prior to Christ’s birth. [5] They were a virtuous, rather communal, monastic Jewish sect who were, the contemporary philosopher and commentator Philo describes in Every Good Man is Free,
…devoted to the service of God, not sacrificing living animals, but studying rather to preserve their own minds in a state of holiness and purity.
Josephus also discusses the Essenes, in particular noting, [6]
The doctrine of the Essenes is this: That all things are best ascribed to God. They teach the immortality of souls, and esteem that the rewards of righteousness are to be earnestly striven for;…
There are some acknowledged early indirect Christian connections to the Essenes. [7] Laurence Gardner, in The Origin of God, asserts that Nazarene Christianity is spawn from Essene Judaism. [8] However, using some linguistic sleuthing through both the Scrolls and the Gospels, and a technique she calls “pesher,” in which authors intentionally place coded historical information into text, in this case specifically the New Testament, Australian researcher Barbara Thiering establishes more solid connections between Christianity and the Essenes. Her 1992 work, Jesus the Man, Decoding the Real Story of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, sheds an entirely new light on the entire story of Christ. As Andrew Urban, who interviewed her several times succinctly phrases it, [9][iii]
The Gospels were written, according to her studies, so that two layers of meaning were embedded in the text – an idea suggested by a view of the scriptures held by the original authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The pesher technique enables the informed reader to see through the outer layer.
To sum up several chapters, the crux of her thesis concerning Christ’s birth, which will answer the several questions poised above, is as follows.
Yes Joseph, and therefore Jesus, were direct descendants of King David. She puts the correct lineage as that outlined in Luke. Joseph’s father, Heli – Jacob in Matthew – was leader of the Essenes in the years before Jesus’s birth. However, in those years, they had moved back to the Essene Gate at Jerusalem, due to the earthquake of 31 BC, which wrought havoc on the settlement at Qumran. [10] As to Joseph’s day job, if you will, as a carpenter, this was his trade, for indeed all the Essenes worked, even the wealthy. [11]
When Herod, the Judaic convert King of the Jews, who had gained the trust of the Romans, announced in about 20 BC his intention to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem, the Essences attempted to influence the design of the temple. Herod, who was attempting to westernize the area, and the Jews in particular, would have nothing to do with the Essenes’ suggestions. Smitten by Herod’s rebuke, they eventually returned to Qumran, determined to reestablish their Davidic line as Supreme. Joseph was next in line to be king when his father passed, and his son would follow him. [12]
The Essenes, being quite the pious lot, had strict rules and procedures regarding marriage and conception, which was supposed to take place around the Winter solstice, thereby producing a child in September. Mary was indeed already betrothed to Joseph, however, being pious and dedicated to the religious rites herself, bore the title virgin, which was common among such women in the Hellenistic world of the eastern Mediterranean two thousand years ago, e.g. the Vestal Virgins of Rome. [13]
Mary and Joseph, it seems got a bit ahead of themselves, succumbing to their passions over the summer, thus Jesus was born in March, 7 BC. [iv] As Joseph’s first born he was the heir apparent to the Davidic line, however, because of the timing of his birth, under the rules of the Essenes at the time, He had a legitimacy issue. This, coupled with the political strife between Herod and the Essenes, would color His life and ministry in the years to come. [14]
Thiering also uses the pesher technique and linguistics to explain that that “manger” is not quite what contemporary notion might lead one to imagine. Although it did house a ceremonial mule, it marked the place where the coronation of the line of Davids would begin. [15]
All this might seem quite heretical and disturbing to some, even to supposed biblical scholars. Vermes, who translated the beautiful Easton Press copy of The Dead Sea Scrolls that adorns my library, takes issue with her. Many trounce her theory of Essence – Christian connection and the pesher technique.
Later in the book, she ties together the story of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, who is often portrayed as a whore, and an overview of that relationship warrants an entire article of its own. One researcher emphatically stated,
There is absolutely zero evidence of any quality which even implies the possibility of Jesus being married and having children.
However, at least several passages in The Nag Hammadi Scriptures would seem to give some credence to Thering’s theses. Concerning the conception, from the “Gospel of Philip:”
Some said that Mary became pregnant by the Holy Spirit. They got it wrong and do not know what they are saying. When did a woman ever get pregnant by a woman?
The footnote to the passage explains that in Hebrew and other Semitic traditions, spirit is feminine in gender, Spirit may be considered as the Divine Mother. [16]
Concerning Mary Magdalene, also from the “Gospel of Philip”:
Three women always walked with the master: Mary his mother, <his> sister, and Mary of Magdala, who is called his companion. [17]
The companion of the [Savior] is Mary Magdala. The [Savior loved] her more than [all] the disciples, [and he] kissed her often on her [mouth]. [18]
While discounting Wallace’s contention that the authors of the Gospels were eyewitnesses, Bart Ehrman, does points out that they were well-educated and spoke Greek. [19] Given the political backstory, as well as the later strife between Rome and both the Jews and Christians in the middle to later half of the first century, and that the Essenes were, in fact, educated and studied scribes, would it not make at least a modicum of sense, that the writers of the Gospels might, just might, try to encrypt , or even embellish, some of the story? Not only to protect key individuals from Roman persecution, but also to strengthen the tale and make it accessible to as many as possible? A curious mind wonders…
I thought of Christ the other day while watching the Star Trek, Enterprise episode, “Judgement.” “How odd?” the reader might think. Stay with me a moment. In the episode, Captain Archer is wrongly accused by a Klingon Commander of some heinous crime against the empire. His lawyer, Advocate Kolos, has long given up fighting the corrupt Klingon court system, and just goes thru the motions for Archer. Archer convinces him to fight back, which he does, and while waiting for the verdict back in Archer’s cell, the two have the following exchange,
ARCHER: How many cases have you won?
KOLOS: Oh, I'm not sure. Over two hundred. But that was a long time ago, when the tribunal was a forum for the truth and not a tool for the warrior class.
ARCHER: There are other classes?
KOLOS: You didn't believe all Klingons were soldiers?
ARCHER: I guess I did.
KOLOS: My father was a teacher. My mother, a biologist at the university. They encouraged me to take up the law. Now all young people want to do is take up weapons as soon as they can hold them. They're told there's honor in victory, any victory. What honor is there in a victory over a weaker opponent? Had Duras destroyed that ship he would have been lauded as a hero of the Empire for murdering helpless refugees. We were a great society not so long ago, when honor was earned through integrity and acts of true courage, not senseless bloodshed.
ARCHER: For thousands of years, my people had similar problems. We fought three world wars that almost destroyed us. Whole generations were nearly wiped out.
KOLOS: What changed?
ARCHER: A few courageous people began to realize they could make a difference.
And it was Archer’s last point that made me think of Jesus. For no matter what one may think about Him – divine Son of God made flesh, solely fallible human, or as I believe, a divine soul incarnated, as we all are, with highly disciplined and developed powers inherent to us all – no matter what one may think, He made a difference. Jesus made a difference in the world, and still does. And what He did took incredible courage.
In the end, Barbara Thiering comes down squarely on the side of the courageous Jesus, and for me, her hypothesis only strengthens my faith in the Divine.
But it seems that Jesus interacted with his position in an extraordinary way. In each of the decisive events of the history, he was on the side of those who suffered from the system: the poor, the handicapped, the socially excluded. His protest on their behalf was at the same time a protest for himself. Born with a stigma he did not deserve, of possible illegitimacy and inability to inherit, he fought against oppressive structures, moral and political. In doing so, he freed his own religion from its introversion, giving it to a larger society, the Greek world, which it had hated and feared. Born at a time, and in an institution, which was poised for such a change, he became the opening through which the change would come.
In practice he would often have been a tool in the hands of others, who found themselves also the agents of historical processes. But when competing forces tore at him, he yielded to the side of that made for liberty and human quality; the choice was surely his own. [20]
And as for Christmas this year and those to follow? We’ll continue to set out the table-top Nativity, put up the tree, decorations, and lights, and exchange presents. But we’ll always keep in mind what the holiday is actually about, and remember that Christ did, and does, make a difference. His example is one we should strive to emulate, especially in these days of rampant tyranny and downright evil. I wonder what He would do today? He made the choice to make a difference, and so can every one of us; it’s our choice to make, or not.
Merry Christmas folks,
Namaste, thanks for reading, and keep fighting the tyranny!
Mark
December 23, 2021
🙏 🎅 🎄 ⛪️
Endnote
I have barely scratched the surface of the of the information available on the subject. The stack of physical books included in the references and bibliography is over a foot tall. The Kindle and online resources, if printed, would easily add another foot tall stack. I encourage the reader to explore the rich tapestry of the life of Christ as recorded not only in the Gospels, but also in the many historical texts relating to His life and the development of Christianity over the last two millennia.
Notes
[i] All biblical citations herein use the 1599 Geneva Bible translation accessible at www.biblegateway.com. I encourage the reader to explore the many translations available there to see how various words and meaning can become muddied and slanted over time.
[ii] I had the pleasure of viewing some of the Dead Sea Scrolls on at the North Carolina Museum of Sciences in Raleigh on Friday, August 29, 2008.
[iii] I must point out that I ran across Urban’s article on Wednesday, December 22, 2021. The idea for this article did not come from his, rather it occurred to me Monday evening, December 20, 2021. I read Thiering’s book, Jesus the Man sometime in 2012; uncharacteristically, I did not record the date. However, I bought three copies from Amazon in November and December of 2011, two as gifts, and vividly recall reading the main narrative of the book during the next year in Kandahar. I read Gardner’s works, specifically, The Illustrated Bloodline of the Holy Grail, which draws on Thiering’s work, in 2004.
[iv] Thiering gives detailed analysis of the year of Jesus’s birth throughout, but especially on page 209 in the section, “Detailed Chronology from 9 BC to AD 64.” Gardner, in Bloodline, expands on the discussion in note 19 of Chapter 3 [21], highlighting also that, “It was not until 314 CE (AD) that Emperor Constantine the Great arbitrarily changed the date of Jesus’s birthday to December 25 so as to coincide with the pagan sun festival.” Even Durant, writing nearly 50 years prior to Thiering, places the year of His birth between 1 BC and 6 BC. [22]
References (not hyperlinked within)
[1] Will Durant, Caesar and Christ. (New York, Simon and Schuster, 1944, 1972), 553-554.
[2] Flavius Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews. (https://gutenberg.org/files/2848/2848-h/2848-h.htm#link182HCH0003, 93 AD (?)), Book XVIII, Chapter 3, paragraph 3.
[3] J. Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels, Kindle Edition. (Colorado Springs, David C. Cook, 2013), 252.
[4] Wallace, Cold-Case, 256.
[5] Barbara Thiering, Jesus the Man, paperback edition. (New York, Atria Books, 1992, 2006), 34
[6] Josephus, Book XVIII, Chapter 1, paragraph 5.
[7] Philip R. Davies, George J. Brooke, and Phillip R. Callaway, The Complete World of The Dead Seas Scrolls. (London, Thames & Hudson, 2002, 2005).
[8] Laurence Gardner, The Origin of God. (Brockenhurst, dash house, 2010), 301.
[9] Andrew Urban, “A different take on the Jesus story,” Spectator Australia, December 19, 2021, https://spectator.com.au/2021/12/a-different-take-on-the-jesus-story/
[10] Thiering, Jesus, 29, 41, 353.
[11] Ibid, 46.
[12] Ibid, 41-42.
[13] Ibid, 45.
[14] Ibid, 45-49.
[15] Ibid, 51.
[16] Marvin Meyer, editor, The Nag Hammadi Scriptures, Easton Press Edition. (Norwalk, Easton Press, 2007, 2019), 164.
[17] Ibid, 167.
[18] Ibid, 171.
[19] Bart D. Ehrman, How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee, Kindle Edition. (e-publication, HarperCollins, 2014), loc 1350.
[20] Thiering, Jesus, 74.
[21] Laurence Gardner, The Illustrated Bloodline of the Holy Grail. (Singapore, Barnes & Noble, 2001), 225.
[22] Durant, Caesar and Christ, 557-558.
Bibliography
[A] The Holy Bible, King James Version, Easton Press Edition. (Norwalk, Easton Press, 2002)
[B] Melville Bell Grosvenor and Frederick G. Vosburgh, eds., Everyday Life in Bible Times. (Washington, National Geographic Society, 1977).
[C] Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth. (New York, Double Day, 1988).
[D] Lisa Yow and Lori Belk, The Dead Sea Scrolls. (Raleigh, The North Carolina Museum of Sciences, 2008).
[E] Geza Vermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls, Easton Press Edition. (Norwalk, Easton Press, 2016).
[F] Karen Armstrong, A History of God, The 4000-year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Kindle Edition. (New York, Random House, 1993).
[G] The Gospel of the Nazarenes (http://rejectedscriptures.weebly.com/uploads/4/0/9/5/4095914/the_gospel_of_the_nazarenes_complete.pdf)
[H] Geza Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English, Revised Edition. (London, Penguin Books, 2004, available at https://ia802705.us.archive.org/0/items/pdfy-Uy_BZ_QGsaLiJ4Zs/The%20Dead%20Sea%20Scrolls%20[Complete%20English%20Translation].pdf
This is beautiful, Mark. Thank you and Merry Christmas!
Thomas