John 8:1-11
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Handout
Was Jesus born on December 25th? How old was Jesus when He died?
Was Jesus born on December 25th? How old was Jesus when He died?
How we date a Calendar
Today we use a Gregorian calendar that was created by Gregorian monks in the 16th century. The Gregorian calendar is a reformed version of the Julian calendar which was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC. The Julian calendar established itself on a lunar cycle eventually adopting a solar cycle as well. This made it more accurate to the seasons. For a long time everyone had their own calendars but over time the world began to adopt a single calendar, specifically the western world. In general, calendars before Julius Caesar were kind of all over the place. One of the ways people recorded dates for historical events was according to who was in leadership during the event that was being recorded.
Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city.
In the year 525 a man named Dionysius Exiguus was making a table of when the dates of Easter should take place. The date for when we celebrate Easter changes every year based off of a lunar calendar and solar calendar like Julius Caesar’s calendar would have been at the time. It is the first Sunday after the full moon that occurs on or after the spring equinox. Dionysius was making a table to record the dates of every Easter that had taken place since Jesus rose from the grave on the first Easter.
When labeling the dates he was referencing the typical process of dating (using historical figures like Caesars as a reference point. He didn’t like that they were giving reference to Diocletian, who had violently persecuted the church and so rather than base a calendar off of historical leaders he decided to date everything in reference to the birth of Jesus. Thus Dionysius Exiguus created the BC Before Christ and AD Anno Domini (in the year of our Lord) Eras.
If the dating system is based on Christ’s life why is Christmas not the first day of the year? The dates on a calendar are based off of lunar/solar cycles with January 1st being the first day of the year because the Roman calendar and the Julian calendar weren’t made by Christians. January was named after Janus the Roman god of beginnings and January 1st was the day new proconsuls were appointed in Rome. The dates and months on a calendar were created by the Romans. in 525 the way we refer to what year it was changed based off of a Christian monk dating Easter.
The year Jesus was probably born
The date of Jesus birth is based on a couple things. Luke says Jesus was 30 years old when He began His ministry and so we look and see in Luke that it says Jesus was doing ministry in the 15th year of Tiberius’ reign and we count backwards 30 years which puts Jesus being born around the start of Dyonysius Exiguus’ AD Era.
Based on other historical references like when Herod likely died the date has been estimated to be around 4 BC
All in all a four year window for dating when Jesus would have been born is not too shabby. Considering how historical events were recorded it is a pretty safe to place it within that window knowing it doesn’t delegitimize the Gospel account of Christ’s life.
What month was Jesus born in?
Based off of some second century writings Jesus was probably born in April. This is right around the time passover lambs would be born in order that lambs would be at least a year old for sacrifices. This fits the shepherds being out with their flocks. It also continues the symbolism of Jesus being the ultimate passover lamb. This brings up the question of did Jesus die on His birthday? Did He rise from the grave on His birthday? Both of which we have no idea but it would be crazy to think about.
Where we got December 25
Easter has always been celebrated by the church but Christmas wasn’t celebrated until later. How did they pick a day to celebrate?
Some people say that John the Baptist was born during the summer solstice and Jesus during the winter solstice with there reasoning being John the baptist says He must increase and I must decrease. Days after the summer solstice get shorter while days after the winter solstice get longer. They say cosmic symbolism inspired the early leadership in Rome to start celebrating Christ’s birth around the winter solstice.
Some say there was a tradition in first century Judaism that said great men die on the day of their conception. If Jesus’ death in march or early April was the same day Mary conceived, nine months later would put His birth in late December.
During the second century after the Roman world became Christian under Constantine. With that a once pagan empire was radically changing under this new worldview. With that the pagan holidays and traditions of Rome were dying off and being replaced with Christian traditions. December 25 was known as the birthday of the sun and was the day Rome celebrated the winter solstice and worshipped the sun. It makes sense that instead of worshipping the sun and being pagan on that day Rome would celebrate the light of the world that was born in Bethlehem under a bright star. Rather than celebrate the birthday of the sun they could celebrate the birthday of the Son.
Whichever reason it doesn’t take away from who Jesus is or what we celebrate at Christmas. I don’t think Jesus is dishonored because we aren’t celebrating His birthday on the day. Plus it’s nice to celebrate multiple times throughout a year. We can remember the incarnation and the resurrection and give time to honor both incredible truths (Even though we celebrate them everyday as Christians)
How old was Jesus when He died?
Jesus was 30 years old when He began His ministry. He did ministry for about 3 1/2 years and probably died at the age of 33.
When He began His ministry, Jesus Himself was about thirty years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, the son of Eli,
We know it was probably 3 1/2 years because of the festivals Jesus attends during His ministry.
The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near.
Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up to Jerusalem out of the country before the Passover to purify themselves. So they were seeking for Jesus, and were saying to one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think; that He will not come to the feast at all?” Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where He was, he was to report it, so that they might seize Him.
The Woman Caught in Adultery
The Woman Caught in Adultery
Another question I want to work through tonight as we look at our next chapter in John is how did we get the Bible?
Take a look at John 8.
“The Earliest Manuscripts Do Not Include”
Lets talk about the process. How did we get an English translation of the Bible?
The Bible was written over thousands of years by several different people but all Scripture is inspired or breathed out by God.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
While several people contributed to the project it was the Lord who was guiding their hands. What that person wrote down is considered an autograph or an original copy. Whether it was Moses writing the first five books of the Bible, David writing Psalms, or Paul writing his letters all were inspired by God.
After that autograph has been written by the original author it is painstakingly copied letter by letter into what is called a manuscript. We don’t have any autographs but we have over 25,000 manuscripts of the original texts. In regards to ancient manuscripts the Bible is the most legitimate ancient text in existence because of the sheer quantity of copies that exist.
Is every manuscript the same?
No. The manuscripts we have sometimes are complete books while sometimes it is only a page fragment. Within those manuscripts we see things known as a variance. A variance happens when there is a discrepancy between the two texts. These variances are typically a minor spelling mistake. To make the mistake is one variance and to correct it is another variance. Sometimes you’ll here people say there are hundreds of thousands of mistakes between the manuscripts that we have therefore you can’t trust the Bible. There are variances that occur within the manuscripts but in almost every case it is a minor spelling or simple mistake. Some variances are tags a scribe might write in the margin to explain something to their reader. Occasionally we have a story that isn’t in early manuscripts but is included in later ones like with the story of the woman caught in adultery in John 8. However, there isn’t anything that contradicts the overall narrative of Scripture, there isn’t anything that would give us cause to doubt any essential doctrines we have about Jesus or His character and nature.
How do we know the process of transcribing a text is reliable?
Back in 1947 a shepherds were looking for a lost goat in a cave and stumbled upon a group of scrolls now refereed to as the dead sea scrolls. While these scrolls were found recently they are actually older than most manuscripts we had obtained up until that point. What we found through comparing them is that they are largely in part the same as the newer copies we had already had. You might think like a game of telephone, as people passed down copy after copy that there would be large discrepancies but the Dead sea scrolls proved the reliability of the transcription process. These weren’t random people copying a verse down. These were monks and scribes whose job it was to carefully preserve every letter of this sacred text and they did so whole heatedly.
If some things aren’t included in earlier manuscripts why/how is it included in the Bible?
Typically if there is a variance worth noting your Bible will put it in the margins or mark it some way it really depends on your translation. Look at the woman caught in adultery story. Why is it included and numbered as part of the text if it isn’t included in the earliest manuscripts we have?
Just because it isn’t in the ones we have doesn’t necessarily mean it isn’t part of the original but it could have been added in later by someone else.
Because we didn’t find the Dead Sea Scrolls until 1947 (300 years after the King James translation) many translations included it in the text.
They aren’t contradictory to the story of the Bible.
This is why we aren’t giving a whole Wednesday night to it but why it is still important to look at.
The original authors wrote the autographs, these autographs were copied into manuscripts that are very reliable and accurate to the originals, those manuscripts are pieced together into a collection of texts to form a complete text in the original languages (Hebrew for the Old Testament and Greek for the New Testament). There are different versions of this that people have put together throughout history. These texts are then used by different people whose job it is to translate the Bible into other languages. These aren’t random people doing the translating, these are professional textual critics that have spent their life studying and comparing these documents in order to provide the most accurate translations to the original text. Some focus on more of a thought for though translation while others are more word of word translation. Some are more formal sounding in the language they use and some are more casual in the language they use.
They went each to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
There are some details that are important to know in understanding the story. It was illegal for the Jews to put people to death under the Roman occupation. These men who bring this woman here did not have the authority to carry out the punishment they brought against her. In Jewish law there needed to be two eye witnesses in order to carry out the punishment and it would be done against the man and the woman not just the woman. These men have likely set up a scenario in which they orchestrated this scenario with the purpose of bringing a lose lose situation against Jesus to catch Him in a trap.
Jesus does not play along with the Pharisees dilemma and instead begins to write in the sand. He says let him without sin cast the first stone. The crowd begins to leave. Finally Jesus speaks to the woman and asks, “Who condemns you? Neither do I go and sin no more.”
What does this passage teach us about Jesus’ character?
Wise, caring, loving, gracious
How is that consistent with how we see Him in other passages?
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
What do the woman caught in adultery and the Pharisees have in common?
Both are dead in their sin and in need of a savior.
What hope is there for sinners?
Jesus offers grace freely regardless of your past.
Even if this story isn’t considered Scripture it still points us to the hope of the Gospel.
