Updated 12/24/2024

This year Hanukkah begins when the sun sets on Christmas Day. It reminds me of the historical but pagan influenced Christmas celebrations that went on from Christmas until New Year’s, which were originally Winter Solstice festivals (see Christmas in The Lord’s Holidays for more). Hanukkah, though, has nothing to do with the Winter Solstice. It’s an eight-day holiday that commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem after the Jews took it back from foreign occupation.

Hanukkah is remembered as a triumph in Jewish history that is most famously celebrated by lighting one candle on each day with an 8 or 9 candle menorah lampstand (If a 9th candle is used, it is at center on the menorah and used to light the other candles. By comparison, the gold menorah lampstand made for God’s Tabernacle and Temple was a 7-lamped menorah (Exodus/Shemot 25:37)). Hanukkah may not traditionally be associated with Christmas, but in years past, I had highlighted things about Hanukkah and Christ that are definitely not coincidental, but show the power and majesty of El Shaddai, God Almighty, because prophecy given to Daniel in the Old Testament or Jewish Tanach was proven to be fulfilled and corroborated with historical events outside of the Bible (see There was not enough oil but the menorah remained lit for details).

So in actuality, Hanukkah and Christmas are more alike than not. They both commemorate a historical event and they both go with miracles of spiritual renewal. Hanukkah remembers God miraculously renewing oil for the whole eight days when they only had one day of oil to rededicate the temple, and Christmas remembers the birth of Christ whom brought a great spiritual renewal which also involved miraculous renewing of God’s temple (see There was not enough oil but the menorah remained lit for details).

However, unlike Hanukkah, Christmas has had more corruptions from pagan traditions and the world’s redirected focuses towards Christmas miracles and holiday spirit that have nothing to do with Christ or God. For example, the dating of Christmas was largely to coincide with taking over Winter Solstice festivals, and most people learn and teach that Christmas is Christ’s birthday. Of course, I used to wholeheartedly believe that, too, since I had nothing to say it was not true, but in recent years, I inspected claims that point to the birth of Christ during the Jewish High Holidays that start with Yom Teruah or what most people call Rosh Hashana.

When I inspected the evidence, it did indeed tell me that Christ was not born around Christmas but a few months earlier during the High Holidays, while Christ came to be in the womb closer to Christmas (see Yom Teruah/Rosh Hashana 2023 - Links to the birth of Christ inspected for details). The date ranges are very specific, so the church’s Annunciation, when the archangel Gabriel told Mary/Miryam/Miriam (see Mary, Blessed and Rebellious? - The Meaning of Mary's Name for more about her name) that she would be with child, should not be in March or Springtime, but at the end of the calendar year.

Many people believe Christ was born in Spring, though, some even saying they researched it and were convinced of the so called “facts,” but nearly every time I inspect claims, evidence, and scripture that contradict what I teach, I find their analysis and interpretations of both scripture and evidence to be very flawed.

One claim for Christ’s birth in Spring is because the Bible said Yeshua’s (Jesus) parents went to Jerusalem every year for Pesach/Passover, which is always in Spring (Luke 2:41), then it’s logical they would be in Bethlehem, just south of Jerusalem, for the birth of Christ^[1.1].

After all, Joseph/Yosef (Mary’s husband) came from Bethlehem, so it’s logical they would go there to visit family. Or did they? There is no scriptural evidence saying they went to Bethlehem except for the census when Mary gave birth to Yeshua, and scripture states the newborn Christ was in a manger, a livestock feeding trough, because there was no room at the inn (Luke 2:7). Is it logical if they had family in Bethlehem, that they’d be staying with them instead of the inn? What sort of family rejects their full-term pregnant daughter from staying with them even if their house was full with other relatives?

That is not logical, unless family and friends shunned them because they thought Mary had an illegitimate child. However, soon after Mary received word she was a virgin mother, she went to visit Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist and Elizabeth recognized that Mary was pregnant by the Spirit of God and did not carry an illegitimate baby (Luke 1:39-43). Mary and Elizabeth were relatives, so family and friends should have heard Mary was not carrying an illegitimate child.

However, it is not clear if anyone but Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth, and her husband, Zechariah, believed she was pregnant by the Spirit. So we don't know whether or not Mary and Joseph had family or friends in Bethlehem anymore when they went to register for the census (Luke 2:1-5). Bethlehem was simply Joseph’s childhood or ancestral tribal home where he was registered as a citizen. In any case, just because they went to Jerusalem every year in the spring, doesn't mean they were always in Bethlehem at the same time.

Another main point for those that say Christ was born in Spring is because the New Testament says the shepherds were in the fields when Christ was born (Luke 2:8), so that means they couldn’t possibly be outside at night in the middle of winter. Let’s assume that people and flocks can’t possibly acclimate to frigid climates, though, I’ve seen herders in Siberia or the Himalayas keep their flocks all through the night outside in temperatures much worse than we experience in Minnesota, much less Israel. I also found after researching this argument more, winters in the Holy Land are mild and it is a rainy season when some crops are sown and grown, so just because the Bible says shepherds and flocks were outside when Christ was born, doesn’t mean it couldn’t have been winter (see Christmas in The Lord's Holidays for more about this). In any case, the timing of Christ’s birth best fits the fall timeframe during the High Holidays with methods of calculating the times that are much more reliable and also backed up by astronomical alignments that must also occur with Christ’s birth (see Yom Teruah/Rosh Hashana 2023 for details).

The importance of these stellar alignments going with the coming of HaMashiach, The Messiah, go far back to the time of Moses/Moshe, so the Jews also believe their Mashiach also comes with a star^[1.2], “I see him, but not now. I look at him, but not soon. A star shall appear from Jacob/Yaakov. A scepter will rise from Israel and will smash the forehead of Moab and overcome all the sons of Sheth. And Edom will be a possession, Seir, its enemies, also will be a possession, while Israel performs valiantly. One from Jacob shall rule, And will eliminate the survivors from the city” (Numbers 24:17-19).

That prophecy was partially related to King David who later conquered Moab and Edom (2 Samuel 8:2, 8:13-14^[1.3]), however, David was never associated with a star. Not unless you count the Star of David, a national symbol of Israel and Judaism. However, the Star of David did not come from the time of King David. Its earliest record is long after the time of Christ in 135 AD and 3rd or 4th Centuries AD^{[1.4, 1.5]}. This means the prophecy goes with an unknown Messiah, at least unknown and unacknowledged by Judaism, who continue to wait for HaMashiach yet know this scripture of the star coming from Jacob goes with Him.

It is our HaMashiach, Yeshua Mashiach (Jesus Christ), whom fulfills the complete prophecy with a star leading forth from Jacob/Yaakov and it is only He that will be able to subdue and destroy all the enemies of God's people. A literal star did march out before Him at the sunrise of Yom Teruah in 1 BC to announce His coming in Christ whom very likely was born later that night as scripture states, in a Bethlehem. The stellar and time calculations I shared in last year’s Yom Teruah service all confirm it.

They gave the best possible timeframes for the birth of Christ, but I said they were timeframes because I didn’t want to over speculate like so many false teachers do as if they were always speaking absolute fact. But it is logical that Christ was born the same day or in the evening after that Yom Teruah sunrise in 1 BC. It had all the proper astronomical alignments, fit the timeframe of when Christ had to be born, and in Ernest L. Martin’s book, The Star That Astonished The World^[1.6], he noted that astronomical alignments historically foretold the birth of important people, sometimes within that same day, so Christ must have been born very soon after that morning alignment on Yom Teruah in 1 BC (see 2023 Yom Teruah Service for details).

With that in mind, may you not keep celebrating Christmas as a birthday for Christ, but more as a celebration of Christ’s coming in human form as a baby or child. He was conceived around this time of year, as I said. Make Yom Teruah/Rosh Hashana more about when Christ came in visible bodily form. That is also important for our Jewish kin, because they also honor God as King on Rosh Hashana. But unlike Jews, I was guided to commemorate Yom Teruah with HaMashiach, Yeshua, as our King (see Yom Teruah for more about that holiday).

Christ really is our one and only true God. I never doubted that when I first came to faith, but in the years since, God gave me much more real world evidence of this truth so that others, especially our Jewish brothers and sisters, would have more evidence to move them into faith (see Topics in Proof that God and Mashiach – Christ are truly One for more). It would seem that given so much real and amazing evidence, people would easily change their minds and step forward with belief in Christ, but I’ve found that long-established traditions and beliefs are very difficult to come out of.

It's as if the slaves actually preferred to remain in slavery when their masters want to set them free. That was something else I noticed about this year’s Hanukkah and Christmas alignment. Historically, the time of Christmas through New Years was the most popular time for enslaved people to escape their masters, because celebrations would often have slave owners and masters preoccupied, if not drunk, so as to present many good opportunities for slaves to escape^[1.7].

But for my people in Judaism, they hardly see how they wish to remain in chains and continue to reject El Elyon, God Most High, their very own God whom they wish to serve. If only they could understand El Shaddai, our Moshiya/Savior, it was He whom came in the flesh two thousand years ago to set them free. If you remain skeptical, please seriously study all the links here that give more details that Mashiach Yeshua, The Christ, truly is our Lord God and Savior God. The things El Shaddai gave me as proof can only be created by Him, for it is embedded directly in our languages, like Hebrew and English, and in the meaning of numbers correlating with scripture (see God’s Names and The Meaning of Numbers for more). If anyone thinks I can make up and create that kind of proof myself or that the devil did it, then I very much worry where their faith is, for there is no power that can control the details of the universe so, there is no one like our one true God.