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Remembering Herod's slaughter of the innocents

Today the West widely commemorates as the “Feast of the Holy Innocents.” In Eastern countries they commemorate this event tomorrow, December 29.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Feast-of-the-Holy-Innocents

We know that Jesus was born the night of September 28/29 of 2 B.C., and that the angels notified certain shepherds in a nearby field. It was still early enough in the year that the sheep were in the fields. I have no doubt that these shepherds came often to Bethlehem to discuss the Scriptures with Joseph and Mary. Once the census had been carried out, most people would have returned to their homes, but Joseph and Mary remained for a few months, probably as guests of their relatives.

Meanwhile, signs in the heavens had already put magi on alert further east. Important planetary conjunctions had begun 16 months earlier on May 19, 3 BC with a conjunction between Mercury and Saturn. Yet these early signs did not yet confirm that the Messiah had been born. They would have waited while continuing to monitor the night sky in the next year.

Jupiter did not have a conjunction with Regulus until September 14, 3 B.C. It did so again on February 17, 2 B.C., around the time when the Roman Senate passed a bill proclaiming Augustus Caesar to be Pater Patriae, “Father of the Country.” This was done to honor him (Octavian) on the 25^th anniversary of being declared Augustus (“Emperor”) in 27 B.C.

Jupiter had another conjunction with Regulus on May 8, 2 B.C. and then had a conjunction with Venus on June 17 and with Mars on August 26.

Finally, however, Jupiter, the King’s Planet, “crowned” Regulus, the King’s Star. Both were known to represent the Messiah. Regulus, in fact, is “the lawgiver from between his feet” prophesied in Genesis 49:10. It was positioned between the feet of Leo, the Lion. No doubt this was the event which confirmed to them the birth of the Messiah, and they began preparing for their long journey.

Jupiter continued to track westward, so the magi followed it west, arriving in late December. When they came to Jerusalem, they immediately inquired of King Herod, assuming that he would know all about the birth of the King-Messiah. He was not amused. Religious leaders informed them, however, that Bethlehem was the town in which the Messiah was to be born (Micah 5:2). That evening, they noted that Jupiter was hovering over Bethlehem as viewed from Jerusalem. Astronomers tell us that Jupiter was positioned over Bethlehem on December 25, 2 B.C.

That is how the magi found the Messiah on December 25. Centuries later, the church came to think that the wise men had arrived on the same night that the shepherds came from the nearby fields. And because the wise men had followed Jupiter, they assumed that this was the date of Jesus’ birth. But the wise men arrived three months after Jesus was born.

That night God warned the wise men (magi) to return home by another route without telling King Herod where they had found the Messiah. At the same time God told Joseph in a dream to escape to Egypt immediately. After a few days Herod got word that the magi had departed, and so he sent out the order to kill the children of Bethlehem who were up to 2 years old.

This seems to have occurred around December 28 or 29 of 2 B.C.

Meanwhile, the Roman Senate passed a bill honoring Augustus Caesar on the occasion of “Silver Jubilee” after he had been emperor for 25 years. This bill was passed in February of 2 B.C. They also decreed that everyone in the Roman Empire must ratify that bill with his signature in honor of Augustus. Cyrenius, the great census expert was sent to Syria in March to conduct the census there. When finished, he moved south to Palestine.

That is the census that brought Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem in September of 2 B.C. While there, Jesus was born on the feast of Trumpets, September 29, 2 B.C. to fulfill prophecy.

By this time, the magi may have already been on their way to Jerusalem, following Jupiter. They arrived in Jerusalem on or about December 25, 2 B.C. and having been apprised of the prophecy in Micah 5:2, they noticed that Jupiter stood stationary over Bethlehem and did not seem to move further. They were able to give their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to Christ before returning home by another route to avoid informing Herod.

As I said earlier, Herod soon gave orders to kill the children of Bethlehem. Herod did not have a precise date for the Messiah’s birth, as he did not know that He was to be born on the feast of Trumpets. Since the planetary conjunctions began 18 months earlier, he gave the order to go house to house and to kill all the children up to 2 years of age.

What is interesting is that when Augustus Caesar (i.e., Octavian) had been born in 63 B.C., the Roman Senate saw astrological signs and heard prophetic dreams indicating that a “King of the Romans” was to be born. So they too killed all male babies born in that year. Herod seems to have had a precedent for his own actions 61 years later.

The church did not formally celebrate Christ’s birth for a few centuries. When they did, they only had one date to work with—December 25—because it was when Jupiter hovered over Bethlehem as seen from Jerusalem. They took the story of the shepherds and merged it with the story of the wise men and began to celebrate December 25 as the date of Christ’s birth.

In the early 4^th century, Nicholas, bishop of Myra, was known for his generosity and soon became the “Saint Nick” of the Christmas festival.

“Nicholas’s reputation for generosity and kindness gave rise to legends of miracles he performed for the poor and unhappy. He was reputed to have given marriage dowries of gold to three girls whom poverty would otherwise have forced into lives of prostitution and to have restored to life three children who had been chopped up by a butcher and put in a tub of brine. In the Middle Ages, devotion to Nicholas extended to all parts of Europe. He became the patron saint of Russia and Greece…”

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Nicholas

Over the centuries, his admirers began to follow his example and the earlier example of the wise men bearing gifts to the Christ child. This was how the tradition of giving gifts at “Christmas” began to spread throughout the church. Unfortunately, in more recent years this tradition became increasingly commercialized and secularized. Few today are aware of the actual history of the development of the Christmas festival.