The Journeys of Jesus and his Family: (1) Life Before Jesus
A while ago I was talking with a friend of mine about the story of the Nativity. It’s a story everyone knows. At least, everyone thinks they know the story. A recent survey showed that in fact only a small proportion of people in the UK actually know the full story, and even then I am sure there are some misconceptions.
The most incredible thing we stumbled upon was that Jesus might actually have been middle-class. It is generally accepted that Mary and Joseph were poor, which fits in with the image we have of Jesus being born in the squalor of a stable. However, our musings (and I must stress that that’s all they were, at that point nothing was backed up by scripture or history) suggested the possibility that Joseph was providing well for his family, and that Jesus actually may have grown up fairly comfortably. There is no way we can be sure, of course, but it would make for a stark contrast when Jesus started his ministry and had absolutely nothing, relying on the generosity of others wherever he went.
That idea led to this series of articles exploring the journeys Jesus and his family made, what impact that had on their life, and where they all ended up. I know it’s not Christmas right now (at the time of writing, it’s January, and Christmas has long been packed away in the loft again), but I think it still serves as an interesting topic to explore, challenging the traditional images we have built up over the centuries.
When did Elizabeth and Mary conceive?
This is actually quite a tricky question to answer, partly because scholars argue that the accounts in Matthew and Luke disagree with each other, or at least with other historical documents of the time. Incidentally, only Matthew and Luke include details of the birth of Jesus in their gospels; Mark and John start at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Luke 1:5 kicks the story off by setting up the birth of John the Baptist:
“In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron.”
This gives us an initial timeframe to work towards. Herod king of Judea is recorded to have died in 4BC, so we must therefore assume that this story begins before that date, though by how much we can’t be sure. Most scholars hold then that Elizabeth conceived in or before 4BC, and would therefore have given birth nine months later. However, there are mathematical complications afoot. For a start, Zechariah only came home after his term of service had finished. According to some hefty research someone else has done (which I’m not going to attempt to repeat here), each priest was required to serve at the temple for five weeks, not necessarily consecutively, and all priests were to serve for the three main festivals – the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of Tabernacles. According to the timings, gleaned from the fact that Zechariah was of the “priestly division of Abijah” and the yearly slots each group was assigned to, it is determined that Zechariah’s term of service would have ended after the third Sabbath of Sivan, which I think is sometime in March.
However, this is mere background information. The important thing I want to stress is that Elizabeth didn’t necessarily conceive immediately after Zechariah returned.
“When his time of service was completed, he returned home. After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion.” Luke 1:23-24
How many of God’s promises come true immediately? Abraham had to wait years before he was given a son, and by the time his family outnumbered the sand on the seashore he was long dead. Is it unreasonable, therefore, to assume that there may have been some gap between God’s promise to Zechariah and Elizabeth actually conceiving? After all, he would first have to find a way to tell her of the promise, which was no easy feat given that he was struck dumb at this point! There is no indication that the conception was anything but ‘normal’, but I’m sure it would have taken some time for Elizabeth to consent to having sex again, given her age and her lifelong barrenness. I can quite imagine it being several months at least before she actually conceived, even with God’s blessing.
Now things are a little more prescribed, with specific dates being thrown around of when Mary and Elizabeth saw each other. After Elizabeth had been pregnant for six months (though not necessarily six months after Zechariah was in the temple), Mary was visited by the angel Gabriel and then went to stay with Elizabeth for “about three months”. That brings us right up to the birth of John the Baptist, almost as soon as Mary had left to go back to Nazareth.
Now we come to another problem. Did Mary conceive the moment Gabriel came to visit? I’m not so sure she did.
“‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus’” Luke 1:30-31
Notice the use of the future tense there. She will be with child. Not she is with child. Gabriel is talking about something that will happen in the near future. The same is true later on when Mary asks how this will happen.
“‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.’” Luke 1:35
Skipping ahead slightly for a moment, Matthew 2:1 tells us that Jesus was born “during the time of King Herod”. This puts the birth of Christ before 4BC, and pushes the events of Luke 1 even further back. In fact, Herod was still at large when the Magi came to find Jesus, and given that Herod ordered all children under 2 years old to be killed, we can assume that Jesus was at least 1 or 2 by then, which puts all these events back even further again, with the birth of Christ at least before 6BC. “BC” doesn’t refer to “Before Christ” after all!
Another piece of useful information is that the the Roman census mentioned actually took place in 8BC. So, let’s assume then that Jesus was in fact born around 8BC. At least 9 months before that Mary was visited by the angel Gabriel, and at least six months before that God gave Zechariah an inkling of what was being planned. By the time Jesus was visited by the Magi it would have been about 6BC, which leaves plenty of time for Mary, Joseph and Jesus to escape to Egypt, settle there and wait for Herod to die a couple of years later in 4BC. So that all seems to fit nicely.
So, the conclusion of this first part of the series is that Elizabeth conceived an undetermined amount of time after an angel of the Lord appeared to Zechariah in the temple, that six months into her pregnancy Mary was informed that she too would become pregnant at some point, and that at least nine months later Mary gave birth to Jesus while they were in Bethlehem for the 8BC census.
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Matthew has long had a strong involvement with Christian websites. He was a keen contributor to the original Crossring site, and subsequently launched his own website, Focus On Faith. Focus On Faith was incorporated into Crossring in September 2009, and Matthew took on the role of lead writer for the site. Matthew works as a web designer, and lives in the West Country with his wife, Ellie.
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