Source: Why you can trust the Christmas story
Augsburg (kath.net) Mr Hesemann, shortly before Christmas, she released her newest book "Jesus of Nazareth. Archaeologists in the footsteps of the Redeemer in St. Ulrich of Augsburg Publishing House. In it you go to the bottom of the Christmas story. Is it because the reports of Matthew and Luke ever Credence?
has for decades been drummed into us in fact, Jesus was not born in Bethlehem, but in Nazareth, the whole Christmas story is a religious invention. The Jews expected the Messiah from Bethlehem, so you had to invent a scenario in order to leave him there, just come to the world. Meanwhile you can see the fortunately very much differentiated.
what way?
First is the increased confidence in the Gospels. The claim that they were written as late as possible and then together with the participation of local communities has somehow been proven to be unsustainable. Finally emerged fragments on ever-earlier gospels. Shall be deemed to be safe now that all four Gospels at the latest immediately after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. were completed, thus stem from the time of the eyewitnesses.
The second reason is that no country in the world has been explored since 1967 archaeologically as thoroughly as Israel. And that archaeologists could dig up more and more sites that looked exactly as they were described by the evangelists - proving that they actually witness accounts processed.
We are now in an almost ironic situation: The archaeologists bring to the theologians to believe again in the Scriptures!
So it was As reported to the control estimate, from the Gospel of Luke. Did it take place?
Not Available evidence is not evidence of absence - this rule applies also in the historiography. We have in addition to the Gospels almost exclusively an independent source on the history of the Holy Land, Flavius Josephus. But he has left more of a genre picture than even a semi-complete chronicle.
is a fact: Not only in every Roman province, but also in all the client kingdoms were held regularly estimated, on average every 14 years. In neighboring Nabatean kingdom was probably in December, 6 BC. a Fabatus certain to work, Josephus explicitly described as Roman tax officials.
We also read with him, that Herod BC to 5th by all the people demanded an oath, he could well have linked to the entry into the tax rolls. The Jews in February already paid the temple tax, he could have chosen this date for it.
by ancient tax returns, which have been preserved, has testified that the taxpayer had actually gone to the place where he owned property. Also, this detail is so consistent.
As for the governor Quirinius, under which all must have taken place, of course, true He also estimated that AD of the Year 6th conducted, as Judea was a Roman province and was a governor.
But Luke mentions explicitly that it refers to the "first time", that is obviously an earlier estimate, based. The grave inscription of Quirinus, discovered in Tibur see, we know that he served twice as imperial legate in Syria. This can only mean BC Before the second half of the year 5, when he was replaced Varus.! The evidence so let the portrayal of Luke certainly seem feasible.
honest, was really because Jesus' birth in Bethlehem? "
of which I am convinced. His mother and his step-father Joseph came from both the Davididenclan whose master was home to Bethlehem. Probably the clan moved only under the pressure of the Hasmonean in Galilee, the new Jewish kings, for which he wanted as far from the political scene have gone.
rested Finally, all messianic hopes of Jews in this royal family of ancient Israel during the Hasmonean were just upstarts. In Herod, it was still risky for the Davidians, too obvious to appear, he was mercilessly kill all potential claimants to the throne.
Nevertheless preserved the land and was inherited. After the Christian tradition, Mary's father Joachim was a wealthy rancher. From him she could have inherited pasture in Bethlehem.
is certain in any case that the birth grotto early as the 2nd Century sanctuary of the Christians. The testimony of contemporary authors such as Justin Martyr.
Emperor Hadrian, designed to target all Christian and Jewish sites paganisierte was there against AD 135th a Attisheiligtum build, but this did not prevent the Christians to pray here on.
A cave that is as stable in Bethlehem?
More generally served in the Holy Land caves as stables. Only the imagination of European artists let it be a wooden hut. Such was the manger in which the infant Jesus was laid, and you can still visit in Bethlehem, a rock trough, carved a niche in the cave.
in your book you also went to the question of who were the Magi ...
course there were no kings. Kings left their kingdom only two reasons to official state visits or on the tip of a force. But in Matthew this there is also no mention of kings, he tells of "magoi" or "Magi from the East", which is commonly translated as "wise men". And it
fails the test of modern exegetes to explain the Gospels report, a myth. The visit of the Magi filled just not the prophecy of Psalm 72, "all kings shall worship him," even if the church fathers have it later like depicted so, beginning with Tertullian, who attested to the Magi, they were indeed at least "as occurred Kings . We also do not know whether it was three, it may have been just as good two or four, and Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, "they also called in later writings.
One, however, have their earliest representations, such as in the Roman catacombs, in common: They always wear the so-called "Phrygian cap", the traditional headgear of the Medes and Persians. And that's "Magi" were: the caste of priests, the Levites, the quasi-Meder, of which we know two things for sure, namely that they were followers of Zoroaster and that astrologers.
This is demonstrated by the way one of the great wonders of the ancient world, the Nemrut Dagi in today's southeastern Turkey. This is a huge, pyramid-like grave, on top of which, to the east, five monumental statues of Greek gods Persian, flanked by lions and eagles stood. One of them, a lion statue represents a chart showing the constellation on Coronation Day the first king of Commagene, whose son Antiochus I. BC to 40th This monument was erected.
His astrologers, it unveiled a dedicatory inscription, Magi were - "priests in the robes of the Persian race, which are represented on the reliefs just as later the" Three Kings ", namely, with Phrygian cap. The horoscope for the coronation she had calculated. It was the day that Jupiter, Mercury, Mars and the moon in the constellation of the Lion stood.
What pagan astrologers looked at the manger of Jesus?
the Messiah! During the Babylonian captivity there was an encounter between Judaism and Zoroastrian teachings come. Later claimed the Jews even, Zoroaster was a disciple of the prophet Daniel was.
is certain that Daniel from BC 539th the court of the Persian King Darius in Ecbatana, visited the capital of the Medes, which was also the center of the Magi. The Jewish wife of King Ahasuerus, Queen Esther, founded later a Jewish colony in Ecbatana.
Modern religious scholars believe that the Jewish eschatology, the belief in a final battle between good and evil, as we meet it as in the Qumran writings is inspired by the Zoroastrian doctrine. In any event, we knew each other and be respected. Now also expected Zarathustra bring a Savior, which he called Saoschjant, and a new, imperishable world would. According to him, the Magi have kept lookout when they saw the star to Bethlehem.
Generally applies to Jupiter / Saturn conjunction in the year 7 BC. than the historical Star of Bethlehem. But they deny in your book. Why?
Nowhere in the Gospel of Matthew is a plural: it is only a single star of the speech, not of two approaching planet. Now there is a more concrete description of the so-called "Protevangelium of James," which tells so many details from the Jewish life during the Second Temple that early Date of origin is very probable, the great archaeologist Benedictine Father Bargil Pixner even suspected its roots in the traditions of the family of Jesus. And therein lies the Magi are cited:
"We saw a massive star that shone among the other heavenly bodies (on) and let their light fade. That does not sound like a conjunction, but in a very different phenomenon in the sky, a supernova, a star exploded. Such was actually held in the period in question - in Chinese and Korean sources, it was BC, between mid March and late May 5 visible in the constellation of the eagle!
The eagle, however, was not only among the Greeks the symbol of Zeus, he was also among the Persians for their supreme god, Ahura-mazda. This was the blazing star in the Eagle for the Magi a clear sign of the coming of the Savior sent by God.
But the earlier planetary phenomena have yet taken place ...
Yes, of course. Previously there were three interesting astrological conjunctions that preceded the supernova. The first of these was actually the famous Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in Pisces, the first time in May, 7 BC. appeared. It announced at least that would be born in the land of the Jews (Saturn), a new king (Jupiter). This is what the Magi certainly have taken careful note of the reason for departure was not enough.
Two other, equally significant constellations followed 6 BC. and February 5 BC. before the supernova lit up the night sky.
way corresponds to the report of Matthew to the laws of celestial mechanics. When the Magi the supernova mid March 5 BC. the first time saw that he was actually in the East. In the next two months, he "walked" is always more to the south. Bethlehem is south of Jerusalem. When the Magi So at dawn from Jerusalem to Bethlehem from flying off, they have this bright, shining star directly have been going on.
Is not that all a bit speculative?
Now I'll tell you why I am so sure that I'm right! When the Magi mid-May, 5 BC. Reached Jerusalem, they told Herod what they exactly two years since BC, just since May 7, had seen in the sky. And what did the king? He issued orders to "all the boys until the age of two years to kill"!
What sense would have it, when the Magi only half a year after the start of observations about November 7 BC., Had been in the crib? No, it was exactly two years!
Christ's birth was so in March, 5 BC., Therefore, already deposited the shepherds with their flocks in the pastures from Bethlehem. According to the Talmud, the sheep spent the winter from November to 1 Nisan 9th, this year on the March occurred in the barns. But this means that Jesus was born when the sacrificial lambs for the upcoming Passover came to the world ...
Is there evidence that the Massacre of the Innocents has actually taken place?
Flavius Josephus describes a veritable frenzy of Herod in the last two years of his reign, when he was obviously fall into the paranoia and madness, but he does not mention the child murders.
In Bethlehem, lived at the time of Jesus, but only a few hundred People, the number of his victims be located somewhere between 10 and 30, which went in the amount of the described acts of violence, including the second wife of Herod and his two sons were killed, well-informed.
But there is an AD by 70. formed Jewish scripture, the "Assumption of Moses" that implies the child murder and compares it with the command of Pharaoh to kill the firstborn of the Jews. Incidentally, the "feast of the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem" in the 4th Century 18 May committed.
The Protevangelium of James, dated turn the child murder in one of the two weeks of the priestly class service Abijah, who also Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist belonged. We can look for the Jewish calendar to calculate precisely that of 13 to 20 May and lasts. So you see, how precisely can be the tradition!
In your book you describe the discovery of Herod's tomb in early 2007. What it tells us about the biblical villain?
Yes, found after 35 years of fruitless searching, Israeli archaeologist Ehud Netzer it just where he had never suspected, that the slope of Herodium, a massive fortress palace of Herod on the edge of the desert.
I am last May, when I saw the Pope to the Holy Land, accompanied went there and had a look at that. And you know what? The dead king looked directly at Bethlehem!
The grave is testimony also depends on just how much hate the people in the end, Herod. Only a few years after his death it was completely devastated, shattered his sarcophagus in a thousand pieces.
His residence reveals everything about him, his megalomania, his ostentation, his paranoia, it was the grandest of its time, even surpassing most of the Roman Emperor villas later date. The whole country was covered with prestige buildings, while the people impoverished. The temple he built the most impressive temple in the ancient world, from the outside covered with marble and gold - but at heart, in the Blessed Sacrament, it was empty.
It could be no greater contrast than that between the "King of the Jews" of the emperor's grace and Jesus. His kingdom was quite of this world and ephemeral as dust. Jesus came in the shadow of all this splendor in a simple stable cavity to the world - and his kingdom endures forever!
But you know, something good had the policy of Herod, the connection to Rome, after all. Through them, Judea opened to the world. By connecting to the roads of the Roman empire, the gospel was half a century later spread like wildfire. There was never a time that would have been cheaper for the central event of history, the incarnation of God!
About the author: Michael Hesemann studied in Göttingen history, cultural anthropology, Germanic and Journalism and was until 2000 editor of a popular science magazine. Today he is a consultant to the Vatican magazine journalist and science of the ARD Buffet magazine. For his documentary film, he has won several awards in the U.S. and Great Britain. Most of his 30 books are international bestsellers. They appeared in 14 languages with a total circulation of over two million copies. With his study of church history and especially of Christian relics, he also was active in the Catholic Church a name. As an expert on these Topics he has participated in TV documentaries of the ARD, ZDF, ORF, BR, ARTE, the Vatican's CTV station, and the American, Italian, Canadian and English television. In addition, he has served as a lecturer, lectures for the educational work of the archdiocese of Cologne and other church
facilities. As a historian, he is researching for a Roman institution and the American Pave the Way Foundation (PTWF), were the obstacles to inter-religious dialogue between Catholics and Jews. In 2008 he received permission to search, even in the Vatican Secret Archives. In May 2009 he accompanied Pope Benedict XVI. on his historic trip to the Holy Land, visited the holy sites and researched about the latest research on Jesus. The result, his book "Jesus of Nazareth. Archaeologists in the footsteps of the Redeemer "was released in fall 2009 in St. Ulrich of Augsburg Publishing House. bound
Michael Hesemann
Jesus of Nazareth
archaeologists in the footsteps of the Redeemer
, 304 pages, 135 mm x 215 mm,
EUR 22.70
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