I've already done one post where I explained why historically I find it highly implausible, I don't think Rome would have forced everyone to be at a specific location so close to any of the Pilgrimage Festivals.
Still, there are some people in the Torah Observant and Hebrew Roots communities who seem darn near like the Holy Days are Idols to them. Insisting "They are Yahweh's Appointed Times, of course Yeshua could only be born then", ignoring any history based arguments besides the common anti December 25th Memes that I've firmly refuted.
Remember how people used to mock the title of Star Wars Episode VII? "The Force doesn't Sleep". Well it seems like some Christians think Yahuah sleeps over 300 days a year, and wakes up only on those Leviticus appointed times.
In Exodus 16 in the very next month after Yahuah initiated the calendar, He does something significant on a day not mentioned in Leviticus 23. And later the Book of Esther ordains Purim.
Other Anti-Christmas people start with how The Bible never calls for celebrating Birthdays at all, and every reference to Birthdays seem to be about Pagans celebrating them. So maybe that's a good argument against Jesus being born on an Appointed Time?
But of course since these people are usually Pro-Lifers, I could point out that perhaps they should consider the Conception date more important, the time of the Annunciation and Visitation. And the traditional date for Jesus Birth places that around Passover, it is inherently linked to Early Christians believing (before Constantine) that Jesus Conception should logically happen around the same time as His Death and Resurrection. It's the Conceptions of Jesus and John, being Six months apart, that start the New Testament narrative chronologically, not their births.
It was first Zola Levitt who discovered a compelling correlation between the Gestation process and the Leviticus 23 Holy Days. And Rob Skiba, one of the most adamant anti-Christmas people out there right now, endorses that idea, including a video about it on his Virtual House Church website, on the page for Week 15, Bo.
http://www.virtualhousechurch.com/biblestudies/exodus-week-15
That begins with placing the sequence of biological events we commonly call "Conception" on the Spring Feasts in Nissan. That the Early Church Fathers, having no knowledge of any of these modern Scientific facts, for totally separate reasons concluded that Jesus was conceived at that time, I find an awfully compelling coincidence.
What's interesting then is to try, though it's not easy, to follow the chronology of Exodus after the first Passover, and see what if anything there can be estimated to happen about Nine Months later.
In Exodus 18 and 19 the giving of what we commonly call The Ten Commandments is placed in the Third Month, now known as Sivan, and generally conjectured to be Pentecost.
In Exodus 24:18 to chapter 32, after the initial Covenant had been given and ratified, Moses goes up into the Mount for 40 days and 40 nights. It's difficult to be certain when this was. But it's common to theorize it as basically Elul and the first 10 days of Tishri. It was near the end of this Period the Golden Calf was made, and there is potential typological significance to it being in early Tishri or late Elul, when the Abomination of Desolation will likely happen.
Stuff happens after that, and then in Exodus 34:27-28 Moses goes up again for another 40 days because now the Tablets have to be replaced.
Exodus 40:2&17 tell us that the Tabernacle was first set up on the first day of the first month of the second year, that is almost a full year since the first Passover.
Between the end of the second 40 day period, and the start of the second year, it was mostly the creating of The Tabernacle and everything needed for it that they were doing. And it does seem the first priority was building The Ark of The Covenant. Could it make sense to place the construction of the Ark as being on the Birth and/or Circumcision day of Christ? Or maybe it'd be fitting if the Menorah was originally made during what would become Hanukkah?
Is it possible the second 40 day period may have correlated to the 40 days and nights that it rained in Genesis 7? Which is commonly viewed as beginning on the 17th of Heshvan and ending during the 8 days that would become Hanukkah?
That's another thing. In the Torah observant branch of the Anti-Christmas movement, it commonly goes hand in hand with arguing for Hanukkah. Other Anti-Christmas people also hate Hanukkah (though Hanukkah receives hate from pro-Christmas people as well). Well I've been a Hanukkah defender on this Blog. And the fact is I've also seen it argued that Hanukkah is a reason for placing Jesus birth at that time of year. Him being the Light of The World and so forth.
And to a great extent reasons for placing Jesus birth at Tabernacles can be transferred to Hanukkah, but without the Pilgrimage problems. I firmly believe the real origin of Hanukkah is Haggai 2, where it is essentially ordained as a Second Tabernacles. And the First and Second Maccabees accounts of their Hanukkah also back that up.
The first Thanksgiving was actually in September. And many have argued it originates from celebrating Tabernacles. Perhaps that Holiday getting moved from the month named the Seventh Month to the month named the Ninth Month has something to do with how Hanukkah relates to Tabernacles?
Of course my initial main argument was for Jesus being born in Tevet. But I'm less certain on my exact chronology now since I've possibly changed my view on the Lunar Eclipse preceding the Death of Herod.
So I'm still working out the details. But I now believe Jesus was born at the earliest in late November and at the latest in early February.
And as I was still writing this, it occurred to me, what if there is some relevance to the start of Leviticus 24? What Yahuah talked about right after finishing the Leviticus 23 Appointed Times? Since our modern chapter divisions weren't in the original text. And that just so happens to be about The Menorah, and then talk of frankincense. Almost as if The Holy Spirit wanted to tell me something before I finished this.
And then Leviticus 25 to the end is mainly about the Sabbatical Cycle and The Jubilee, showing He wasn't done with The Calendar when 23 ended.
In my attempts to do searches for others who might have thought the same thing. I am seeing a common argument that it was nine months spent building The Tabernacle. So far no sign of anyone using this as evidence for the Birth-date of Jesus, but it would be attractive to those who place his Birth in Nissan. This estimate fudges the dates, they could not have begun building the Tabernacle till after Moses came down from the first period of 40 days. The soonest that could have ended was maybe in Tammuz, but as I said it was probably much later Moses even went up there.
The completion of the Tabernacle's construction is recorded in Exodus 39. Then early in 40 the instruction to set it up on the First Day of the new year is given. Then later in that chapter that is recorded. So perhaps it can be assumed the Tabernacle was done significantly before it was set up? Not unlike Solomon's Temple.
Perhaps the first 40 day period, which ended with the Golden Calf incident, was really most of Tammuz and early Av, making a link between that period of Sin and the dates the associated with The Temples' destruction much later. And the second 40 days were Elul and the beginning of Tishrei. And the Tabernacle was completed in Kislev or Tevet?
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