Dear Doves,
      The passage from Luke 1:8, quoted in the article heading, gives us a vital clue as to WHEN the Messiah /Christ was born. Very near to Bethlehem was a field of sheep being tended by shepherds by night. Then and now in Bethlehem, Israel the weather is about the same since the Seasons are the same. There are two major Seasons for Israel, past and present. There is Spring-Summer and Autumn-Winter. When would the sheep be in a field near Bethlehem? It would be Spring-Summer and about 4-6 weeks into Autumn. By the conclusion of the Feast of Tabernacles, the 7 crops (species) of Israel have been harvested. Only some olives, crop number 7, are left to mature and harvest. When do the shepherds take the sheep off a field or hill? It would be when the nights begin to grow colder and the colder rains of Autumn-Winter, the rainy season, begin to fall. Shortly after Tabernacles begins the Season of the Sheepfold. A flock of sheep cannot be kept out in a field near Bethlehem during late Cheshvan or Kislev or later which equate to November or December or later. Why? The sheep would be in grave danger of hypothermia, freezing to death! We know they are not in a sheepfold yet. "There were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night." Sheepfolds would be used at least at night, during the rainy season of November to March. When the shepherds go to see Messiah/Christ, He is a newborn baby..What time of year? It is after the census. Would people have journeyed during late Autumn and Winter? I doubt it. It must have been when the weather was best, in Summer or early Autumn. What is around the beginning of Autumn? These are the days of Tishri, especially the Feast of Trumpets, Yom Kippur, and Tabernacles.
      THE WORD gives us a vital clue about when the Redeemer of Israel and all humankind was born, Immanuel. THE WORD in Luke 1:8 makes it clear that it was not a day in the month of Kislev, nor could it have been. Is it wise to look to The Scriptures FIRST, before gamatria or other secondary sources to find His Truth? When was He born and the shepherds visited? It clearly was a day in Tishri.
 
With Love and Shalom,
Jean