| OCR Text |
Show No Positive Proof of Date of Christ' Birth All Investigations prove conclusively conclusive-ly that It Is Impossible to determine to the satisfaction of chronologlsts In general either the date or the year of Christ's birth. It Is almost universally admitted that that event preceded the commencement of the Christian era as now reckoned. St. Clement fixes It on November 18 In the twenty-eighth year of the Emperor Emp-eror Augustus, a little more than two years before the beginning of our era. Since the death of Herod the Great, according to Josephus, must have occurred before the spring of B. C. 4, modern scholars are generally gener-ally agreed that Christ's blrlh could not have been later than B. C. 4 ; and there is some reason for believing believ-ing that it was in B. C. C or 7. As to the day and month of Christ's birth the differences are still more difficult to overcome. Modern investigation is strongly against Christmas, or any day In midwinter, as unseasonable either for the shepherds to be watching their flocks in the fields, or for the congregating of the people from all parts of the kingdom to be registered and taxed, which was the occasion of Mary and loseph being in Bethlehem. These two arguments are used, along with others, by the Biblical scholars who hold to the opinion that the nativity was not earlier in the year than March. These students have Inclined to various months, all the way from March to August. |
