The Actual Birth Date of Jesus Christ (2)

The research that lead Christian scholars and Theologians to arrive at the actual birth date of Jesus Christ started in the 19th century when critical scholars made a crucial decision to reject a total lunar eclipse in January 1 BC and to accept instead, one in March 4 BC, as the chronological cornerstone for dating the death of Herod the Great, and thereby the possible birth years for Jesus. By so doing, the critics could argue Jesus had to be born before 4 BC, contradicting Luke, who tied Jesus' 30th year to the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar, 27-28 AD. Luke effectively placed the birth in 3 BC, as did many of the early church fathers. Ironically, even the date used by the Pope during the Christmas Eve midnight mass ritual is itself consistent with the last half of 3 BC. The dirty little secret is that virtually all the available evidence has always pointed at the harvest period of 3 BC as the focal point of the nativity including the possibility of a late summer birth. By rejecting Luke, scholars also threw out the date of birth Luke gives in his Gospel. In his second chapter, Luke tells what happened the day Mary came to the Temple for purification 40 days after the birth of Jesus. All one has to know is what day this was. And Luke plainly name the day. Therefore, does Luke record really ascertained the fact that Jesus was actually born the day his writing claimed, or was there a mistake on his account of the gospel according to Luke.