I’m reposting what first appeared here July 19, 2022 under the title, “Having become flesh on 25 December, 5 BC, He began tabernacling among us on 29 September, 4 BC” (and republished December 23, 2022). I excavate E. W. Bullinger’s argument, buried in the notes of his Companion Bible, published a century ago. Don’t miss this post’s notes. Merry Christmas! —A.G.F.
“And the Word became (ἐγένετο, egeneto) flesh (σάρξ, sarx) and dwelt (ἐσκήνωσεν, eskēnōsēn) among us . . . .” John 1:14
In “The Divine Purpose,” Otis Q. Sellers wrote:
In all the work that God has done for mankind, is now doing for mankind, and will yet do for mankind, there is a definite goal, a fixed purpose. To state it as simply as possible, His object in all His work is to produce a people who know Him, who understand Him, who love and appreciate Him, a people with whom He can joyfully dwell, and among whom He can center Himself in view of a greater program for the universe.
If the Bible is read carefully from Genesis to Revelation, it will be found that this end is reached and becomes a reality in Revelation 21. There under a new order of things described as “a New Heaven and New Earth,” the tabernacle of God is seen as being with men, He is dwelling (tabernacling) with them, they are His people, and He is their God. This is as far as Revelation takes us, yet we can rightfully go a step beyond this and envision a great divine program in which mankind will be vitally involved as those who are working and not those upon whom God is working. A tabernacle (skenos) in Scripture when used figuratively always denotes a center of activity, and it could not be that God would bring about such a center and then not use it.[1]
To “become flesh” is to be, not born, but rather “begotten,” that is, conceived. The root of ἐγένετο (egeneto) is γίνομαι (ginomai), to come into existence.
The one who is born, who exits the womb, is already flesh, which precedes “dwelling among us.”[2] (She who “can’t bring a baby into this world” and so procures an abortion only achieves the death of an already begotten and in-the-world baby.)
The English “to dwell” doesn’t capture the Greek ἐσκήνωσεν (eskēnōsēn), the form of σκηνόω (skēnoō) in John 1:14. The root is σκηνή (skēne), originally the hut or tent where players changed masks and costumes behind the stage; later, the stage itself. (Our “scene” descends from this.)
When Jerome translated into Latin the Hebrew הַסֻּכּ֛וֹת (hasukkoth) of, say, Deuteronomy 16:16, he used tabernaculum, the diminutive of taberna. (Our “tavern” echoes this.) He rendered that verse’s Hebrew as in solemnitate tabernaculorum, that is, “in the feast of the tabernacles.”
Tabernacles are booths. Annually, Jews today set up booths where they commemorate סֻכּוֹת, Sukkot, one of three Torah-commanded pilgrimages to the Temple which was destroyed in 70 A.D. (The other two are פסח, Pesach, “Passover” and שבועות, Shavous, “Pentecost.”)
In 5 BC, the angel Gabriel announced two conceptions, that of John (the “Forerunner”: Luke 1:13), and then of his cousin, Jesus (Luke 1:31). Gabriel addressed the first to John’s father, Zacharias; the second to Jesus’ mother, Mary. According to E. W. Bullinger:
The courses [of priestly Temple ministrations] were changed every week, beginning each with a Sabbath. The reckoning commenced on the 22nd day of [the Hebrew calendar month of] Tisri [Tishrei] or Ethanim [as that month was called pre-Babylonian Exile]. This was the eighth and last day of the Feast of Tabernacles ….
Bearing in mind that all the courses served together at the three Great Feasts, the dates for the two yearly “ministrations” of Abiah will be seen to fall as follows:
The first ministration was from 12-18 Chisleu = December 6-12[3]
The second ministration was from 12-18 Sivan = June 13-19
The announcement therefore to Zacharias in the Temple as to the conception of John the Baptist took place between 12-18 Sivan (June 13-19) in the years 5 BC. After finishing his “ministration,” the aged priest “departed to his own house” (Luke 1:23), which was in a city in “the hill country” of Judah [see Luke 1:39].
The day following the end of the “Course of Abia” being a Sabbath (Sivan 19), he would not be able to leave Jerusalem before the 20th.
The thirty miles journey would probably occupy, for an old man, a couple of days at least. He would therefore arrive at his house on the 21st or 22nd. This leaves ample time for the miraculous “conception” of Elizabeth to take place on or about the 23rd of Sivan—which would correspond to June 23-24 of that year.[4]
If John’s conception occurred in late June by our calendar, then Jesus’ happened in late December. Not His birth, but conception.
Bullinger provides tables of dates pertaining to Jesus’ earthly ministry, coordinating Jewish and Western reckonings, from which he concludes:
It thus appears without the shadow of a doubt that the day assigned to the Birth of the Lord, viz. December 25, was the day on which He was “begotten of the Holy Ghost,” i.e. by pneuma hagion = divine power (Matt. 1:18, 20 marg.), and His birth took place on the 15th of Ethanim, September 29, in the year following, thus making beautifully clear the meaning of John 1:14, “The Word became flesh” (Matt. 1:18, 20) on 1st Tebeth or December 25th (5 BC), “and tabernacled (Gr. eskēnōsen) with us”, on 15th of Ethanim, September 29 (4 BC).
The 15th of Ethanim (or Tisri [Tishrei]) was the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles. The circumcision therefore took place on the eighth day of the Feast = 22nd Ethanim=October 6-7 (Lev. 23:33-43) ….
… A reference to the Table and statements above, makes the “original special idea” why the Festival of “Michael and All Angels” is held on September 29 abundantly clear. Our Lord was born on that day, the first day of the “Feast of Tabernacles” (Lev. 23:39). This was on the 15th day of the seventh Jewish month called Tisri [Tishrei], or Ethanim …. corresponding to our September 29 (of the year 4 B.C.) ….
… [John 1:14 contains] two clauses …. The word tabernacled here … receives beautiful significance from the knowledge that “the Lord of Glory” was “found in fashion as a man,” and thus tabernacling in human flesh. And in turn it shows in equally beautiful significance that our Lord was born on the first day of the great Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, viz. the 15th of Tisri ….
The Circumcision of our Lord took place therefore on the eighth day, the last day of the Feast, the “Great Day of the Feast” of John 7:37 ….[5]
Here’s that passage:
In that last day, the great day of the feast [21 Tishrei, הוֹשַׁעְנָא רַבָּא, hoshanah rabba “the great cry of supplication”] Jesus stood and cried, saying, “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, “out of His belly shall flow rivers of living water.” John 7:37-38 (alluding to Ezekiel 47:1-12).
Jesus exclaimed this on the anniversary of His circumcision!
Bullinger then encapsulates the key dates (I paraphrase):
-
-
- John’s natural conception on or about 23rd Sivan, June 24, in 5 BC
- Jesus’ miraculous begetting on or about 1st Tebeth, December 25, 5 BC
- John’s birth on or about 4th-7th Nisan, March 25-28, 4 BC
- Jesus’ birth on or about 15th Tishrei, September 29, 4 BC
-
Notably, Haggai, one of the minor prophets who spoke God’s word with respect to the rebuilding of the Second Temple, dates his second prophecy to the “the 21st day of the seventh month [Tishrei],” that is, the seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles (Haggai 2:1).
Jesus tabernacled—established His “tent,” His base of operations—among us. Centuries into the future, premillennial Kingdom,
… the One sitting on the throne will tabernacle (σκηνώσει, skēnōsei) over (ἐπ, ep) them. Revelation 7:15
From His throne, He will tabernacle over those who went through the Great Pressure (θλίψις μεγάλη, thlipsis megalē; Matthew 24:21)—before tabernacling among us once again during his Parousia, when He will be personally present because of who He is and what He is.
Notes
[1] Otis Q. Sellers, “The Divine Purpose,” Seed & Bread, No. 26, nd (1973?); emphasis added.
[2] This is why the translation of γεννηθῇ ἄνωθεν (gennēthē anōthen) in John 3:3 as “born again” is so bad—not to mention that ἄνωθεν means “from above,” not “again”! (See, e.g., James 1:17, 3:15, 3:17.) Nicodemus wondered how an old man could enter his mother’s womb a second time to be conceived (γεννηθῆναι, gennethēnai); Jesus straightened him out: to see (ἰδεῖν, idein, to grasp mentally) the Kingdom of God, one had to be “generated from above.” Yes, the verb here is γεννάω, gennaō, not (as in John 1:14) γίνομαι, ginomai, but their common proto-Indo-European root is *gene-, which pertains to begetting, birthing, generating. See the Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/word/*gene-
[3] Ethanim or Tishrei was the first month of the Israelites’ civil year; the first month of their sacred calendar, Nisan, was six months later.
[4] Ethelbert William Bullinger, The Companion Bible, 1922, Appendix 179,
Parallel Datings, etc., 200.
[5] Bullinger, Companion Bible, 198. “The main arguments against the Nativity having taken place in December [Bullinger continues] may be set forth very simply: (i) The extreme improbability, amounting almost to impossibility, that Mary, under such circumstances, could have undertaken a journey of about 70 miles (as the crow flies), through a hill district averaging some 3,000 feet above sea-level, in the depth of winter: (ii) Shepherds and their flocks would not be found “abiding” (Gr. agrauelō) in the open fields at night in December (Tebeth), for the paramount reason that there would be no pasturage at that time. It was the custom then (as now) to withdraw the flocks during the month Marchesvan (Oct.-Nov.) from the open districts and house them for the winter: (iii) The Roman authorities in imposing such a “census taking” for the hated and unpopular “foreign” tax would not have enforced the imperial decree (Luke 2:1) at the most inconvenient and inclement season of the year, by compelling the people to enroll themselves at their respective “cities” in December. In such a case they would naturally choose the “line of least resistance,” and select a time of year that would cause least friction, and interference with the habits and pursuits of the Jewish people. This would be in the autumn, when the agricultural round of the year was complete, and the people generally more or less at liberty to take advantage, as we know many did, of the opportunity of “going up” to Jerusalem for the “Feast of Tabernacles” (cp. John 7:8-10, &c), the crowning
Feast of the Jewish year…. To … attempt to enforce the Edict of Registration for the purposes of imperial taxation in the depth of winter—when travelling for such a purpose would have been deeply resented, and perhaps have brought about a revolt—would have never been attempted by such an astute rule as Augustus.” 199-200.