Nativity
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According to the work of Maria Valtorta, Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judah (Judea), on the 25th of Kislev.[1] This date corresponds to the beginning of the joyful Feast of the Dedication of the Temple that Jesus Calls Encénies. In the contemporary Jewish calendar, it corresponds to the feast of Hanukkah or the Feast of Light.
It is assumed that he was born in the year –5 of our era, but Maria Valtorta does not specify. Research on this subject has led to two schools that date the life of Jesus differently.
Jesus is of the lineage of David through his adoptive father, originally from Bethlehem, and through his mother as Scripture suggests.[2]
His birth is that of men, but Mary, his Mother, preserved her virginity. His delivery was beatific.
The "December 25th"
In the Jewish lunisolar calendar, the 25th of Kislev can be literally translated as December 25th in our calendar in that this month falls within a range from mid-November to mid-December. This may be what Dionysius Exiguus did in the 6th century when he established, in 532, the Anno Domini (Year of the Lord) which served to determine the dates of the life of Christ. A calculation that still underpins our calendar and the Christian era.
This date is highly symbolic in more than one way, not that the Church wanted to use symbols (which it does not actually exploit) to promote the date of Christmas, but because God wished to reinforce the earthly meaning of his Mission through these symbols surrounding his Incarnation.
The 25th of Kislev is indeed the date of the Purification of the Temple by Judas Maccabeus in 164/5 BCE, three years to the day after Antiochus Epiphanes had profaned it.[3] Seeking to forcibly Hellenize Palestine, he had erected an altar to Baal, promoted the sacrifice of pigs and, finally, outlawed the Torah by persecuting those who lived according to Salton his law. On coins bearing his effigy, one can read Theos Epiphanes (God revealed). A blasphemy! It was too much, and the Jews rebelled under the leadership of the Maccabean brothers.[4]
Therefore, Jesus was born on the anniversary of the restoration of the desecrated Temple. The term Encénies which Jesus uses in Maria Valtorta is found in rabbinic literature as designating the new inauguration of the altar of offerings of the Temple. This term later passed into Christianity to denote the dedication of a Church.
What is the year of his birth?
Maria Valtorta says nothing about it. She only transcribes visions of the time. Thus, when Jesus says "I am thirty years old," his year of birth is evidently known by his interlocutors.
However, if one can precisely date the life of Jesus, it is thanks to the thousands of details scattered throughout the work.
He was therefore born on the night from Tuesday, December 10 to Wednesday, December 11, in the year –5. The discrepancy between this date and the official start of the Christian era comes mainly from the interpretation given to Luke's statement "the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius." For some, it refers to the actual reign of Tiberius starting in August 14 CE, for others, to when he was officially associated with Augustus in the government of the empire, that is, August 11.
From this range arose different hypotheses placing his birth between –4 and –2. Progressive historical discoveries, combined with the gospel indications, further scattered these estimates.
It is to the collection of all these data and their confrontation with the chronological and astronomical data from the work of Maria Valtorta that Jean Aulagnier, then Jean-François Lavère, successively applied themselves.
The former published his research in "With Jesus, Day by Day"[5], and the latter in his various publications. He summarized his arguments in a downloadable work.[6]
More recently, Liberato Di Caro[7], an Italian researcher, gave another dating starting from the "vision of Gadara," a rare astral configuration, described in detail, which Professor Van Zandt of Purdue University (Indiana) dates exactly to March 13, 33, while Jean Aulagnier dates it to February 26, 29.
Based on this observation, Van Zandt and Liberato Di Caro extrapolated a different dating. This hypothesis has been scrutinized against historical markers, but not yet against the data from the work.
Is he really the "Son of David"?
The Gospels highlight the Davidic descent of Joseph.[8] But it is known that he did not intervene in the conception of Jesus. It is not specified that Mary was also of royal ancestry. Some authors have therefore concluded that the "Son of David" was a symbolic kinship.
This is not the case, because Scripture explicitly says, on several occasions,[2] that David is indeed his ancestor. The Virgin Mary is also of this descent and it is on this basis that, becoming an orphan, she was educated at the Temple and that, in accordance with the Jewish law, her husband was chosen from her tribe.
Did Scripture not say that it is from the descent of David and from Bethlehem, the village where David was, that the Christ must come?[9]
The Vulgate specifies "semine": from the seed of David.
In "The Gospel as it was revealed to me"
- The Census Edict.[10]
- Description of the manger.[11]
- The event of the Nativity itself.[12]
- The ADoration of the shepherds.[13]
- The ADoration of the Magi.[14]
- The flight into Egypt.[15]
- A Woman from Bethlehem, because of the massacre of the innocents: "Curse on the fools who, in drunkenness, saw Angels in the clouds, heard voices from Heaven."[16]
- Remembrance of the holy Family taken in by Anne.[17]
- I repeat once more, my Mother "knew no other union" and had no other children. Flesh untouched, which I myself did not tear, closed over the mystery of a tabernacle-breast, throne of the Trinity and of the Word Incarnate."[18]
- Memories of the first days of Jesus in Bethlehem recounted by the shepherds.[19]
- Beatific vision of the Nativity by one of the shepherds.[20]
- "I am the Eternal Encénie, Peter. Do you know that I was born precisely on the 25th of the month of Kislev?"[21]
- Account of the Nativity recounted later by Jesus.[22]
- Memories of Jesus and Mary.[23]
In fundamental Christian texts
In the Bible
At that time a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This first census took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.
Everyone went to their own town to be registered. Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was from the house and the Family of David, to register with Mary, his betrothed, who was pregnant.
While they were there, the time came for Mary to give birth, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
In that same region there were shepherds staying out in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them. They were terrified.
But the angel said to them: Do not be afraid; I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Christ, the Lord.[24]
In the Catechism of the Catholic Church
Notes and references
- ↑ Kislev
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 See also the note on the Davidic lineage of Joachim, father of the Virgin Mary and thus grandfather of Jesus.
- ↑ 1 Maccabees 1:54-64
- ↑ 1 Maccabees 4:52-59
- ↑ Éditions Résiac.
- ↑ Jean François Lavère, dating, downloadable work
- ↑ I cieli raccontano {it}.
- ↑ See notably the genealogy of Matthew Matthew 1:1-17.
- ↑ John 7:42
- ↑ EMV 27
- ↑ EMV 28
- ↑ EMV 29
- ↑ EMV 30
- ↑ EMV 34
- ↑ EMV 35
- ↑ EMV 73.2
- ↑ EMV 74
- ↑ EMV 100
- ↑ EMV 103
- ↑ EMV 109
- ↑ EMV 132
- ↑ EMV 136
- ↑ EMV 207
- ↑ Luke 2:1-11
- ↑ CEC § 525
- ↑ CEC § 527