Stephen implied Moses was born near the Winter Solstice

Acts 7:20-21

In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father's house three months: And when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son.

Which agrees with Exodus 2:2 (and Hebrews 11, this period of time being three months is said three times in Scripture).  Three months separated the Birth of Moses from him being taken in by Pharaoh's Daughter.

But Stephen goes on to evenly divide the rest of Moses life into three periods of 40 years.  40 years in the house of Pharaoh king of Mizraim, 40 years in the house of Jethro, and then the 40 years of the Wilderness Wandering.

The Forty years of the Wilderness Wandering began in Nisan, the Nisan of the First Passover, and ended in a Nisan, the Passover recorded early in the Book of Joshua.  It seems reasonable then to infer all three 40 year periods begin and end in Nisan.

Just looking at the account of Pharaoh's Daughter finding Moses in Exodus 2, there are good circumstantial reasons to suspect this is happening near the Spring Equinox.

So if Moses was born three months before events that happened near the Spring Equinox, then he was born near the Winter Solstice, in December or January.

Likewise, three months means he was taken in by Pharaoh's Daughter at about the anniversary of his Conception. 

Why does the Tense change in Revelation 11?

I've noticed a few things interesting about Revelation 11.

First, because we often study the different subjects of Revelation in a compartmentalized fashion, we often think in verse 3 the "I will give power unto my two witnesses" is God/Jesus talking, and maybe it is, but that depends on how you interpret other parts of Revelation.

In the first verse of chapter 11 John writes "and the angel stood, saying" and most of the rest of the chapter is John writing what this angel says.  What Angel is it?  Well remember there were no chapter divisions originally, if you read through 10 and 11 uninterrupted, it becomes clear the angel in question is the angel who was the subject of chapter 10.

I also wonder about the "God of the Earth" the Two Witnesses stand before.  Is it a God they're severing or a God they are opposing?  "Stand Before" could be used both ways.  This title is used no where else in the New Testament, but Satan being the Archon of the Kosmos and God of this Aion leaves open the possibility that this title would most likely be used of Satan.  However it is used of YHWH in Genesis 24:3.   Is it a title of this Angel, who's feet are in the Earth and in the Sea?  It is also worth noting that we are before Satan is cast out of Heaven.

This Blog is predicated on my belief that Revelation should be interpreted chronologically.  But since I now notice much of chapter 11 is a character in the narrative describing future events, I am forced to wonder if there is some wiggle room here, and maybe somethings I have long viewed as being before the Last Trumpet sounds could be after.

And that leads me to the question that was the title of this post.  For verses 1-10 this Angel is speaking in the future tense, in the KJV at least.  Then in verse 11 it changes to past tense.  Maybe it's only in translations it seems this way.  I wouldn't be able to know.

It shouldn't be that big a mystery since lots of Prophecies are spoken in the past tense, and I've made a point of that in posts before.  The sudden change in tense is what seemed interesting here, as I was rereading Revelation 11 in the context of the observations I mentioned above.

In verse 14 it's no longer the Angel speaking, it's John setting the stage for the next Woe to happen, which is the Seventh Trumpet.  

The Angel in Chapter 10 also says the stuff he's telling John about pertains to when the Seventh Angel sounds his Trumpet.  So yeah I do now think everything this Angel Talks about is simply another angels on what happens after the Seventh Trumpet sounds.

Ephraim Ben Joseph is the Horse-Rider of Jacob's Prophecy about Dan

Genesis 49:16-17

Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.

Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.

This passage is frequently the beginning of attempts to say The Antichrist will come from Dan, along with a reference to Dan in Jeremiah that also mentions Horses.  But who/what are this Horse and it's Rider?

 It is commonly speculated that the reason Dan and Ephraim are left out of the 144,000 in Revelation 7 is how it was through them that Idolatry entered Israel, in Judges 17-18 and then with Jeroboam, an Ephraimite who built Golden Calves at Dan and Bethel in Ephraim.

It is often assumed that the difference with Ephraim is Ephraim is still represented by the name of Joseph, since Manasseh is named separately Joseph here must be only Ephraim.  But Numbers 13 doesn't remind us of Joseph when it identifies Ephraim's Spy, but calls it's Manasseh spy of Joseph.  Manasseh himself as a Firstborn was kind of split in two, the two sides of the Jordan, called Machir and Gilead in the Song of Deborah, and this is needed to justify Jeroboam getting Ten Tribes, attempts to justify saying he also got Simeon will not hold up.  Maybe the two tribes left out of the Sealing are involved with The Mark, Satan's counterfeit of the Seal?

Now, both that Judges narrative and the Jeroboam situation may make you think Ephraim lead the way and Dan followed.  But Ephaim's major spiritual problems don't start till Judges 17, while a Danite has an issue already  in Leviticus 24.  But I also think that the mother of Micah in Judges 17 was Delilah and that Delilah was not a philistine.

Jacob's blessing on Joseph in Genesis 49 says he has a Bow and depicted him as an Archer, Zechariah 9 also depicted Ephraim as an Archer.  Isaiah 28 says Ephraim has a Crown.  Isaiah 63 represents Israel as a Horse.  The rider on the White Horse in Revelation 6 has a Bow and a Crown, and is often speculated to possibly be The Antichrist while others have wanted to make him a more positive figure.

It is interesting to note that Jehu wielded a Bow and Arrow when he overthrew Jehoram while riding  a horse drawn chariot.   Jehu is someone a Messiah Ben-Joseph claimant may seek to model themselves after.

Maybe the False Prophet is from Dan and The Antichrist from Ephraim?  When I look at the Prophetic model lots of Rabbinic Jews are expecting, it's easy to see Messiah Ben-Joseph who is Mortally Wounded by Armilus as the Beast, and the False Prophet as Messiah Ben-David who resurrects him.  There is also a view proposed in Rabbinic writings that Messiah Ben-David's mother will be from Dan. 

I feel like I've made a solid case already, but for those who believe in Mazzaroth/Gospel in The Stars theories, I have one more factor to add.

The most popular constellations to identify Joseph/Ephraim with are Aquarius and Taurus (and if Manasseh needs a separate one it's one right next to one of those).  I see no Biblical basis for Aquarius.  Taurus is justifiable by Joseph's blessing in Deuteronomy 33 where he's called a Cow and an Aurochus (Re'em translated Unicorn in the KJV), but in that context Leo is no longer Judah but either Gad or Dan.

In Genesis 49 Joseph is an Archer, the Archer constellation is Sagittarius, who is also a Horseman and has but isn't wearing a Crown, the Corona Australis.  People looking for astronomical references in Revelation tend to see the White Horseman as Sagittarius for these reasons.  And Sagittarius is right next to Scorpio, which gets identified with Dan based on Genesis 49.

The Crucifixion at the site of Solomon's Temple?

This is a follow up both to my post about Solomon’s Temple and the Second Temple possibly not being on the same location, and my post about The Vail of The Temple.

Christians have long wanted to view Genesis 22:14 as saying the place where Isaac was offered is the same spot as where Jesus was Crucified.  The problem has been Mt Moriah being clearly identified as where Solomon's Temple was (The name Moriah appears in The Bible only twice, Genesis 22:2 and 2 Chronicles 3:1), and we know Jesus wasn't Crucified inside The Temple.

The Garden Tomb theory is based in part on saying that location is also on the same mountain as the Temple Mount, and was originally it's peak.  But the Garden Tomb in question is too old, and I have long felt that location for The Crucifixion was least likely to be true.

However now that I've opened the door to the possibility that the Second Temple wasn't where the First Temple was.  Where was Solomon’s Temple site in the time of Christ?  Could it be where the Passover was fulfilled in 30 AD?

What if Jesus was Crucified where Animals would have been killed in Solomon's Temple?   And maybe the Tomb where he was buried and rose from the dead was beneath the Holy Place or Holy of Holies, his Body laid beneath where The Ark once rested?

Now needless to say if this is true it rules out the Mount of Olives model that I had favored at one point, since that's to the East and probably where Solomon placed his Idols.

Placing Solomon's Temple to the West would happen to fit The Church of The Holy Sepulcher.  In my post about Venus maybe being the Star of Bethlehem, I was interested in the implications of Hadrian building a Temple to Venus on that site.  In the apocryphal Prophecy attributed to the Tiburtine Sybil, The Church of the Holy Sepulcher seems to play the role modern Futurist Christians tend to give The Temple in Bible Prophecy.  The actual presumed Tomb of Jesus there is directly under its largest Dome, which is interesting.  

That would place the Brazen Altar in the Katholikon, perhaps about where the Omphalos is.  I recall seeing in a documentary I watched years ago, a woman saying she thinks the Crucifixion site was within The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, but not at the traditional spot.  This part I may be remembering wrong, but I think she placed it in the Katholikon.

However I have seen models of the Tabernacle and Temple that interpret the Brazen Altar as being as being not directly east of the entrance to the Holy Place, but a little further south.

Also it could be that if the Tomb is the Holy of Holies and the Brazen Altar to the East of it.  That the traditional Rock of Golgotha could equate to where the Red Heifer was killed, to the east of the Gate of the Tabernacle. Fitting the desire to connect Numbers 19 to Hebrews 13:11-13.

But I'm not quite willing to support The Church of The Holy Sepulcher being the site of either  Solomon's Temple or Calvary just yet.  It may be too far West (and North) given where I think Jebus proper was.

What if the real site of Jesus Crucifixion and Resurrection was where the Nea Ekklesia was built?  Which in my main post on thinking Solomon’s Temple wasn’t where the second Temple was I came to favor for it’s location.

The Garden that exists by that site now happens to by sheer coincidence be called The Garden of The Resurrection, the intent being to refer to Israel's modern Resurrection as a nation.  And that Armenian Church is called The Church of the Archangels, I have suggested before that Michael's actions in Daniel 12 could be tied to the events of the Crucifixion and Resurrection.

Some people have theorized Jesus was Crucified on a still standing Tree, with only part of the Cross being what he carried.  Which makes me curious about the Olive Tree believed to mark the Holy of Holies in that model.

However I have come to realize that if that Armenian Church is where Ananias lived as it’s actual tradition claims, then it was within the City at Christ’s time and thus not where the Crucifixion would have been.  

The people who before me argued it was the site of The Temple were basing most of their arguments on it being the Second Temple.

One more compelling argument for the possibility of Jesus burial being where the Holy of Holies was where the Ark of The Covenant rested,  is in the word for Ark itself.

The Hebrew word translated Ark when referring to the Ark of the Covenant is not the same Hebrew word used for Noah’s Ark or the basket the carried Moses.  It’s ‘arown Strong Number 727.  This word is used almost exclusively in direct reference to the Ark of the Covenant, including I think every time the KJV translates it Ark.  Of course I lean towards the theory that there were two Ark of the Covenants and this word is used of both.  But still it’s almost always of an Ark containing Tablets of The Law.

Six of the exceptions to this are places where the KJV translated it “chest”, in two accounts of the same events.  2 Kings 12:9-10 and 2 Chronicles 24:8-11.  This chest was also placed in The Temple, it was a chest for depositing funds for The Temple.

Coincidentally the name given to Ornan who originally owned the Threshing Floor the Temple was built on in 2 Samuel 24 is Araunah, basically this word with a Heh added at the end.  Interesting but still not the exact same word, but the most similar any other word in Scripture is.

But the exact word in question does appear one other time in Scripture, in the very last verse of the Book of Genesis.  Where the KJV translates it “coffin” because it describes where Joseph’s body was laid to rest.  Joseph is viewed as a type of Christ, and the Tomb Jesus was buried in was originally built for another man named Joseph.

The references to Jacob and Joseph being “embalmed” in Genesis 50:2-3 and 26 are often assumed to refer to Mummification because of who/where people assume Mizraim was.  But the actual etymology of the word just means to spice or anoint a body, exactly as was done with Jesus.

So perhaps the last verse of the first book of The Bible is providing us a type picture of the Burial of Jesus while at the same time providing the first usage in Scripture of a word used almost exclusively of The Ark of The Covenant?

And for further connection between Genesis 50 and this subject.  Genesis 50:10-11 says the children of Jacob stopped to mourn at the Thresshingfloor of Atad on the way to burying Jacob. Now this is often assumed to be east of the Jordan, but if Mizraim was in Arabia rather then Africa, then Beyond Jordan in this context could mean west of the Jordan.  Canaanites being there could be a reason to see this as west of the Jordan, as well as that they aren't described as crossing the Jordan to get from here to Hebron/Mamre.  Atad isn't used as a place name anywhere else, it means "thorn", so could it be a reference to the same thorns that the Crown of Thorns was made from?  And could this Thresshingfloor have later become the Thresshinglfoor of Ornan the Jebusite?

And then there is John 20:12 where after the Tomb is found empty Mary Magdalene sees two angels standing where the body of Jesus had laid, one at the Head and the other at the Feet.  Could they correspond to the two Cherubim on the Atonement Covering?

Update March 20th 2018: I've abandoned this view as explained here.

12 BC Date for the Nativity

I’ve been slightly off in the past when I mention saying that a Romans census took about 5 years.  I just went by the usual known Census dates and assumed they dated the start of that 5 year period, allowing the 8 BC Census to end in 4 or 3 BC.

In actuality the Monumentum Ancyranum inscription states that Augustus completed a Lustrum in 8 BC, the year Censorinus and Asinius were Consuls.  That would make the first year of that Lustrum 12 BC.  Some translations word this more vaguely, but I think the version identifying 8 BC as when it was completed may be correct.

Now I’ve made a big deal before about my post deconstructing the assumption that Luke mentions Quirinus, however it's interesting that 12 BC was the year Quirinus was Consul.  Again Luke 2 doesn’t use a word for Governor, but for governing.  The Legate of Syria at this time was Marcus Titius, but he was brand new in the office, it’s not difficult at all to imagine one of the Consuls was overseeing the East.  Especially since 12 BC was also the year Quirinus started his campaign against the Homonadenses.  He wasn't actively serving as Consul anymore by the year's end, but he was still one of the Consuls the year was named after. 

Or if Jesus was born at the end of 13 BC or beginning of 12 BC, it could be Mary and Joseph had to be in Bethlehem before the Lustrum started. 

Of course given the common interpretation of Luke 2:1-2 saying the Census began during the governing of Quirinus, and the Roman custom of naming years after the Consuls at it's start.  It could be this Lustrum was gonna be identified with Quirinus regardless of when during it Jesus was born.

Some before have argued for a 12 BC Birthdate for Jesus.  They get a lot of stuff wrong (including the common anti December 25th memes), starting with wanting to see Halley's Comet as the Star of Bethlehem.  Since I place the Star of Bethlehem a little under 2 years before Jesus was born, not at his birth, my model here would use the Star of Bethlehem candidate(s) usually favored by 15 or 14 BC theorists, when there were more Jupiter-Regulus conjunctions, and some interesting movements with Venus.  And that when Hanukkah would have happened in December of 12 BC, Venus was visible in Israel as an Evening Star according to Stellarium.  

But the previous year's Hanukkah had Venus visible as a Morning Star.  That year the 25th of Kislev would have began probably at sunset of December 23rd.  And then perhaps the magi arrived in Jerusalem when Jesus was born around Sunrise of December 24th, and arrived at Mary and Joseph's house exactly 24 hours later.  That model would put the beginning of Nisan of 13 BC around the 6th of 7th of April.

There could be more time between the family going to Egypt and Herod’s death then people usually assume.  The word for “young child” used at the time they return from Egypt, can simply mean not fully an adult yet, Mark 5:40-42 uses it of a 12 year old.

Now that goes against some of what I’ve argued before.  I do still believe the Magi arrived in Jerusalem when Jesus was born.  But it might be Herod didn’t give up on waiting for the Magi to return till after the 40 days.  Maybe he wasn’t in Jerusalem when Simeon and Anna gave their prophecies.  He was often not in Jerusalem, he may have been there for when the Magi arrived only because he was there to celebrate Hannukah.

Some think Simeon the Just of Luke 2 was probably a Priest and maybe even the High Priest.  That this date puts the nativity during the administration of Simon Beothus is pretty interesting then.   One of the more overlooked things Josephus said about the house of Simon Beothus is that they descended from Onais IV.

In my post on the Lunar Eclipse preceding the Death of Herod, where I explain why reluctantly I may have to agree with the 4 BC Eclipse, I also broke down Luke 2 and showed that it was only John preaching against Antipas and Herodias dated to the 15th year of Tiberius, Jesus Baptism when he was almost 30 could have been earlier.

If Jesus was conceived during the Passover season of 13 BC, and then born in late December 13 BC or early January 12 BC.  Then Nissan of 37 AD would be the 49th anniversary of Jesus conception, a Jubilee.  And that’s when I believe the 70 Weeks of Daniel 9 ended.

I believe Simeon the second Bishop of Jerusalem was the same person as Simon the half brother of Jesus (in-spite of the early Catholics wanting to call him a son of Clopas).  I believe all of his half siblings were younger, since I believe Mary was their mother and Jesus was obviously her first born.  Simeon’s death is dated to 117 AD, and he was apparently 120 years old when he died, according to Eusebius (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iii.viii.xxxii.html).  That would place the birth of Simon in 5 or 4 BC.  Assuming they were named in the order they were born, James and Joses were also older than Simon.  So that is potential evidence against my past desire to place Jesus's Birth right before Herod died.

However that date for Simeon’s death may be too late.  Since it’s also said to be while Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes was Governor of Judea, which was from 99-102.  However the chronology of post Josephus governors of Judea isn't established as firmly.  The scenario presented makes most sense as being in the context of the Kitos War.

This is an idea I’m considering, but not one I’m willing to consider my main theory yet.

Update March 21 2018: John The Baptist

What's interesting to me about the proposed December 23rd/24th 13 BC Birthdate is that from the calculations I did with the Lunar phases and such for the prior two years.  John The Baptist could have been born on July 7th 13 BC. On the Hebrew Calendar that's the 4th of Tammuz.

Update September 2022: I've been returning to basically this Nativity Model, but I'm now favoring December of 12 or January of 11 BC over the prior year as I had originally, with the Annunciation near the Spring Equinox of 12 BC.

When I say I think Jesus was born on December 25th

I don't necessarily mean that exactly.  But I think the basic time-frame is right.  Late December or early January.  On the Hebrew Calendar in either Kislev or Tevet.

I have a bit of a hunch it may have been the 25th day of the Month on the Hebrew Calendar, and then that got translated to December 25th by Gentile Christians.   In other words I think it highly possible Jesus was born on the First day of Hanukkah and Circumcised on the Eight Day of Hanukkah.

My past estimate that a Passover/First Fruits conception would place his Birth near the end of Tevet was based on a misunderstanding of how the Gestation cycle is counted.

Following Zola Levitt's observations about the Gestation cycle and the Leviticus 23 Feast days.  If the first month of Mary's cycle directly lined up with the month of Nisan.  Then 270 days takes us to about when Hanukkah happens.

Ya know often on the first day of Hanukkah the Moon is under the Feet of Virgo.

I still haven't made up my mind what year yet.  That's something I'll be getting into more in the future.