Listen - Search This Site - Newsletter

Although, no one knows exactly when Jesus was born, history is divided according to His birth---B.C. (before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini, the year of our Lord).  A man by the name of Bishop Ussher performed the work for dating the various Bible events.  He is known for using the Bible chronologies to determine that the earth was created in the year 4004 BC. The timing of Christ's birth was determined by the date of the Roman census mentioned in Luke 2:1-6, but it was discovered later that Jesus was born about the year 3 or 4 BC.  God, in His great wisdom, does not reveal the exact day or even the month.  Some things can be determined through deduction, however.

We can be certain that Jesus was not born on December 25. (The December 25, date was decided upon long ago by the church in order to interest more pagans in Christianity; as the pagans had a holiday called Saturnalia and were already used to revering that date.)  Palestine would be very cold in December.  It was much too cold to tell every one they had to travel to the city of their fathers to be registered for a tax.  Also the shepherds were in the fields.  (Luke 2:8-14)  Shepherds were not in the fields in the winter time.  Most likely His birth was in the spring or in the fall.

I think that it is a good thing that we do not know exactly when Jesus was born.  There would be many people who would make a big religious celebration to the point that it would be more about the day than about Jesus and what He did for us. There is one way that the Bible tells us to celebrate Jesus' birth, life, and death.  You can read about it in John 13 and 1 Corinthians 11:23-29.

--Thanks to Ron Hartwell for answering this question!  The exact timing of Chris's birth may not be certain: What's really important is that He left His throne in heaven to come and redeem this fallen world.  That's what matters!