-Caveat Lector-
From: "Tenorlove" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> I'm not knowledgeable about the Jewish calendar (yet), but based upon
> evidence in the New Testament Nativity stories, mainly the behavior of
> the shepherds in Luke, Jesus would have been born sometime between
> midsummer and mid-autumn. It couldn't have been March, that would have
> been in the middle of lambing time, and the shepherds would not be out
> in the fields until the lambs were big enough to keep up with the
> flock. They wintered in town, so December is out. Luke 2:8 specifically
> says the shepherds were "abiding in the field...."
And it would be unlikely they would be in the fields in summer, especially
midsummer, as the fields (in the lowlands) are hot and dry at that time...
affording little grazing and even less water to the flocks. Shepherds
usually brought the flocks up into the hills and mountains in the summer,
where it was cooler and had better grazing and abundunt water. They only
brought them back down into the fields after the height of summer...
Not only is March lambing time, but is usually cold and rainy, and if they
tried to take the flocks out to the fields at that time, they'd be spending
their time in a cold sea of mud...not only uncomfortable, but something that
would lead to the deaths of the flocks, especially the newborn lambs...they
wouldn't have brought the flocks out from the city until after the spring
rains had abated, usually not until May, when the lambs would have been
mature enough to keep up with the rest of the flock...
They would have spent only a short time in the fields at that time, as only
young shoots of grass would be growing at that time...enough to feed a flock
in transit, but not enough to feed a flock (which included lactating ewes)
permanently pastured there...the fields in late spring were only used as a
transit route, on way to the permanent summer pastures in the hills and
mountains...
June ;-)
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