Jesus was born years earlier than thought, claims Pope

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The entire Christian calendar is based on a miscalculation, the Pope has declared, as he claims in a new book that Jesus was born several years earlier than commonly believed.

The Pope also weighs in on the debate over Christ's birthplace Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFP

By Nick Squires, Rome

4:02PM GMT 21 Nov 2012

2321 Comments

The 'mistake' was made by a sixth century monk known as Dionysius Exiguus or in English Dennis the Small, the 85-year-old pontiff claims in the book 'Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives', published on Wednesday.

"The calculation of the beginning of our calendar – based on the birth of Jesus – was made by Dionysius Exiguus, who made a mistake in his calculations by several years," the Pope writes in the book, which went on sale around the world with an initial print run of a million copies.

"The actual date of Jesus's birth was several years before."

The assertion that the Christian calendar is based on a false premise is not new – many historians believe that Christ was born sometime between 7BC and 2BC.

But the fact that doubts over one of the keystones of Christian tradition have been raised by the leader of the world's one billion Catholics is striking.

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Dennis the Small, who was born in Eastern Europe, is credited with being the "inventor" of the modern calendar and the concept of the Anno Domini era.
He drew up the new system in part to distance it from the calendar in use at the time, which was based on the years since the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian.
The emperor had persecuted Christians, so there was good reason to expunge him from the new dating system in favour of one inspired by the birth of Christ.
The monk's calendar became widely accepted in Europe after it was adopted by the Venerable Bede, the historian-monk, to date the events that he recounted in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which he completed in AD 731.
But exactly how Dennis calculated the year of Christ's birth is not clear and the Pope's claim that he made a mistake is a view shared by many scholars.
The Bible does not specify a date for the birth of Christ. The monk instead appears to have based his calculations on vague references to Jesus's age at the start of his ministry and the fact that he was baptised in the reign of the emperor Tiberius.
Christ's birth date is not the only controversy raised by the Pope in his new book – he also said that contrary to the traditional Nativity scene, there were no oxen, donkeys or other animals at Jesus's birth.
He also weighs in on the debate over Christ's birthplace, rejecting arguments by some scholars that he was born in Nazareth rather than Bethlehem.
John Barton, Professor of the Interpretation of the Holy Scripture at Oriel College, Oxford University, said most academics agreed with the Pope that the Christian calendar was wrong and that Jesus was born several years earlier than commonly thought, probably between 6BC and 4BC.
"There is no reference to when he was born in the Bible - all we know is that he was born in the reign of Herod the Great, who died before 1AD," he told The Daily Telegraph. "It's been surmised for a very long time that Jesus was born before 1AD - no one knows for sure."
The idea that Christ was born on Dec 25 also has no basis in historical fact. "We don't even know which season he was born in. The whole idea of celebrating his birth during the darkest part of the year is probably linked to pagan traditions and the winter solstice."

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Taken from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/the-pope/9693576/Jesus-was-born-years-earlier-than-thought-claims-Pope.html 

A vaticanista reads the pope's book

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John L. Allen Jr.  |  Nov. 25, 2012 NCR Today

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American reaction to Pope Benedict XVI’s latest book, Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives, so far has been restricted to quick day-one news pieces, partly because it was released the day before Thanksgiving. (The Vatican isn’t always known for its sense of moment, but let it be recorded that in this case, they managed to get book on shelves just in time for “Black Friday”.)
In fairness, even here in Rome the book hasn’t been a sensation, largely because it doesn’t contain that one thunderclap passage – reevaluating the morality of condoms, for instance (as in Benedict’s 2010 interview book with Peter Seewald), or absolving Jews from collective guilt for the death of Christ (as the pope did in his 2011 volume on Jesus.)
This is Benedict’s third book on the life of Christ, with the first, issued in 2007, focusing on the baptism to the transfiguration, and the second, released in 2011, treating Holy Week. In the prologue, Benedict says this entry isn’t so much a third volume as an “antechamber”.
The quick headlines focused on the pope’ defense of the historical reliability of the infancy narratives – Jesus really was conceived virginally, he insists, there really were Magi, he really was born in Bethlehem, and so on. The pope also sees no reason to doubt that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a primary source for the infancy narratives.
As with his other two books on Jesus, however, Benedict’s interest is less with the historical dimension of the gospels than their theological significance. His chief aim, he says, is “to help people on their path toward and alongside Jesus.”
Without attempting a book review, which would really require an expert in Biblical studies, the following are four noteworthy points about The Infancy Narratives as read through the eyes of a vaticanista, meaning a journalist who scours papal writings for hints about his approach to church policy.

Between Skepticism and Fundamentalism
Benedict obviously has robust confidence in the basic accuracy of the Biblical tradition. He endorses the position of German Bible scholar Klaus Berger, who argues that in the absence of proof to the contrary, one should assume that the gospel writers got it right, since they were far closer to the events than modern exegetes – and that “mere suspicion” is not sufficient to judge their accounts historically dubious.
On the matter of the virgin birth, for instance, Benedict says it’s a “cornerstone” of the faith: “If God does not have power over matter,” he writes, “then he simply is not God.”
That said, Benedict XVI is clearly no fundamentalist.
For instance, Benedict breezily concedes that it would be impossible to try to reconcile the differences in the genealogies of Jesus presented by Matthew and Luke, saying in both cases their primary interest is the theological and cosmic significance of Jesus’ birth, not the details of his ancestry.
In other words, Benedict isn’t bothered that on certain matters of detail, the gospels appear to contradict themselves.
The pope also has no problem saying that Christian tradition got the date of Jesus’ birth wrong. Rather than what we now regard as the year zero, he says, Jesus was most likely born around 7 or 6 B.C. (As it turns out, there was an astronomic event that year which, as the pope notes, is believed by some to underlie the story of the “star in the East” that led the Magi to Jesus.)
On another score, a pious Catholic tradition has long read Luke 1:34, when Mary asks the Angel Gabriel after he tells her she will conceive a child, “How shall this be, since I have no husband?” to mean that she had taken a vow of virginity. Over the centuries, this tradition has seen Mary as a forerunner of consecrated virginity in the church, especially for women. A quick internet search will turn up any number of Catholic web sites which insist that Mary was a “consecrated virgin of the Lord,” and that Joseph was her guardian or protector.
Noting that such an idea would be “quite foreign to the world of Judaism at Jesus’ time,” Benedict XVI summarily dismisses it as “inconceivable.” (One wonders what all those Catholic apologists who insist on this tradition will make of the pope’s words.)
In general, Benedict argues that the New Testament records real history, but he calls it “interpreted history,” meaning events that actually happened, but as they were “interpreted and understood in the context of the Word of God.” What’s important, he suggests, is not the fine points but the overall theological message.
This approach is consistent with the 2008 Synod of Bishops on the Bible, which aimed to position the Catholic church vis-à-vis the truth of Scripture somewhere between skepticism and fundamentalism.

Classic Ratzinger touches
Those who’ve followed the work of Joseph Ratzinger over the years will recognize in The Infancy Narratives several classic touches.
First, Benedict XVI argues that the spiritual worship taught by Jesus was not a radical break with the Old Testament tradition of a sacrificial cult. Instead, the pope insists, the Old Testament priesthood was a “path” toward Jesus, and there’s a “development” in priestly spirituality discernible from the Old Testament through the gospels.
In effect, that’s a sort of scriptural version of Benedict’s famous argument for a “hermeneutic of reform … of renewal in continuity” as the right way to understand the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). Benedict tends to see new phases in the life of the church neither as a break with the past, nor a simple recapitulation of it. In his mind, they’re developments that bring the past along and give it new life.
In a similar vein, Benedict insists that Jesus was not a “liberal or a revolutionary,” and that his criticism of Israel’s “false piety” was not meant to upend the entire Old Testament tradition embracing both the law and the prophets.
Second, a striking feature of Benedict’s personality is the serenity he exudes in the midst of crisis and scandal – and his papacy hasn’t suffered any shortage of either one. A chief reason is his conviction that the celebrated events of today will quickly fade, while the real forces shaping culture and history often pass unnoticed.
Whether that’s laudable perspective or a prescription for indifference may be a matter for debate – if it isn’t actually both. In any case, it’s part of the pope’s makeup, and we get another small glimpse of it in the book.
Discussing the appearance of the Angel Gabriel to Zechariah to announce the birth of John the Baptist, Benedict writes: “The hidden event that takes place during Zechariah’s evening sacrifice, unnoticed by the vast world public, in reality ushers in the eschatological hour – the hour of salvation.”
For good or ill, it’s simply part of Benedict’s character to think that things “unnoticed by the vast world public” are more important than the stuff that dominates headlines in the here-and-now.
Third, there’s a vintage Ratzingerian dig at the professional theological guild, delivered the way only someone who used to move in that world could do.
Discussing the scene in which the Magi ask the chief priests and the scribes where the messiah is to be born, Benedict notes that the religious authorities answered the question, but “do not feel prompted to take any practical steps as a result.” In other words, they tell the Magi where to expect Christ – “in Bethlehem in Judea” – but they don’t seek him out themselves, or embrace his message.
Thus the pope’s subtle swipe: “Does this, perhaps, furnish us with the image of a theology that exhausts itself in academic disputes?”

The Danger of Power
Famously, Lord Acton’s line that “power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” was coined with respect to the papacy. At a common sense level, most people consider popes to be fairly powerful figures – a perception backed up by canon 331 of the Code of Canon Law, stating that popes possess “supreme, full, immediate and universal ordinary power in the church.”
Yet as he has on other occasions, Benedict XVI uses The Infancy Narratives to issue a warning to Christians about the dangers of proximity to power – specifically, the negative effects of becoming mixed up with this-worldly systems of authority.
It’s not so much that power corrupts, as Benedict sees it, but that power “disfigures.”
In the context of discussing the kind of kingdom which the birth of Christ promised, Benedict writes: “Jesus’ words to Pilate remain perennially true: ‘My kingdom is not of this world.’ In the course of history, the mighty of this world have sometimes tried to align it with their own [kingdoms], and that’s when it is put at risk. They seek to link their power with Jesus’ power, and in the process they disfigure his kingdom and endanger it.”
Benedict adds, “Or else it is subjected to constant persecution by rulers who will tolerate no other kingdom than their own, and would like to destroy this powerless king, whose mysterious power they fear.”
Notably, the pope seems to lay the blame for this temptation to blur throne and altar mostly on the side of the throne, suggesting it’s the “mighty of this world” who try to co-opt Christ for their own ends. While there are certainly examples of that, both historically and in the present, critics might argue that sometimes the temptation percolates on the side of the altar too – that church leaders themselves sometimes aspire to worldly power, and the privilege it brings.
In any event, Benedict’s language stands as a caution about the “disfiguring” consequences that result when the church is enlisted on behalf of politics. It would be an interesting thought exercise to ponder what that implies today – especially, perhaps, for Americans in the wake of the 2012 elections.

Humility and Joy
It’s always interesting to know what a pope considers to be the hallmarks of authentic Christian life. One can argue over whether his policies are actually promoting those qualities, of course, but it’s still useful to have a clear sense of what he’s looking for.
In The Infancy Narratives, Benedict suggests two such hallmarks: humility and joy.
Humility comes up as Benedict discusses the two annunciation scenes in the infancy narratives, that of the birth of John the Baptist and that of Jesus. The former, he notes, features a priest of Israel receiving a visit from an angel during the Temple liturgy, while the latter involves an unknown woman in simple surroundings living in a town, Nazareth, which has no real significance in the Old Testament.
Here’s what Benedict deduces from the contrast: “The sign of the New Covenant is humility, hiddenness – the sign of the mustard seed. The Son of God comes in lowliness.”
The stress on joy, meanwhile, comes out of Benedict’s discussion of the annunciation to Mary. He notes that Gabriel does not employ the usual Jewish greeting with Mary – shalom, or “peace” – but the Greek term chaĩre, which tradition renders as “hail,” but which really means something like “rejoice!”
 “Joy appears in these texts as the particular gift of the Holy Spirit,” the pope writes, “the true gift of the redeemer.”
Benedict also notes that in Greek, the terms “joy” and “grace” share the same root. As he puts it, therefore, “joy and grace belong together.”
There you have it: According to Benedict XVI, humility and joy are core tests for Christian authenticity. Let the conversation begin about whether those two qualities are actually characteristic of Catholic life in the early 21^st century.

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Taken from: http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/vaticanista-reads-popes-book

"Before the Day of Justice, I am sending the Day of Mercy"



Background
St. Faustina

The ImageFeast of Mercy

Indulgence

The Chaplet
The NovenaThe HourSecond Coming

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Read more: http://www.ewtn.com.au/devotionals/mercy/coming.htm#ixzz2Ehw24PVS

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Why would Christ emphasize in our time a doctrine, the Divine Mercy, which has been part of the patrimony of the Faith from the beginning, as well as request new devotional and liturgical expressions of it? In His revelations to St. Faustina Jesus answers this question, connecting it to another doctrine, also sometimes little emphasized, that of His Second Coming. In the Gospel the Lord shows us that His first coming was in humility, as a Servant, to free the world from sin. Yet, He promises to return in glory to judge the world on love, as He makes clear in his discourses on the Kingdom in Matthew chapters 13 and 25. In between these Comings we have the end times or era of the Church, in which the Church ministers reconciliation to the world until the great and terrible Day of the Lord, the Day of Justice. Every Catholic should be familiar with the teaching of the Church on this matter, contained in paragraphs 668 to 679 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Only in the context of public revelation as taught by the Magisterium can we situate the words of private revelation given to Sr. Faustina. You will prepare the world for My final coming. (Diary 429) Speak to the world about My mercy ... It is a sign for the end times. After it will come the Day of Justice. While there is still time, let them have recourse to the fountain of My mercy. (Diary 848) Tell souls about this great mercy of Mine, because the awful day, the day of My justice, is near. (Diary 965). I am prolonging the time of mercy for the sake of sinners. But woe to them if they do not recognize this time of My visitation. (Diary 1160) Before the Day of Justice, I am sending the Day of Mercy. (Diary 1588) He who refuses to pass through the door of My mercy must pass through the door of My justice. (Diary 1146). In addition to these words of Our Lord Sr. Faustina gives us the Words of the Mother of Mercy, the Blessed Virgin, You have to speak to the world about His great mercy and prepare the world for the Second Coming of Him who will come, not as a merciful Savior, but as a just Judge. Oh how terrible is that day! Determined is the day of justice, the day of divine wrath. The angels tremble before it. Speak to souls about this great mercy while it is still the time for granting mercy. (Diary 635). It is clear that, like the message of Fátima, the urgency here is the urgency of the Gospel, "repent and believe." The exact timing is the Lord's. However, it is also clear that we have reached some critical phase of the end times that began with the birth of the Church. To this fact Pope John Paul II alluded at the consecration in 1981 of the Shrine of Merciful Love in Collevalenaza, Italy, when he noted the "special task" assigned to him by God "in the present situation of man, the Church and the world." In His Encyclical on the Father he urges us "to implore God's mercy for humanity in this hour of history ... to beg for it at this difficult, critical phase of the history of the Church and of the world as we approach the end of the second millennium." (Rich in Mercy 15)
		Diary, Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, Divine Mercy in My Soul (c) 1987 Congregation of Marians of the Immaculate Conception, Stockbridge, MA 01263. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

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