GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
1 CHRONICLES 24 Summary
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In Chapter 24, David divides the priests for terms of roughly equal service throughout the year. Even among the Jews, ancient commentators are not all of the same mind as to how these divisions served. Since there were 24 divisions, did they each serve for two weeks at a time, or did they serve for a single week in the first half of the year, and for another week in the second half? Before we go on, let’s look at these verses from our chapter:
1 Chronicles 24:4-5,10
4 Since more chief men were found among the sons of Eleazar than among the sons of Ithamar, they organized them under sixteen heads of ancestral houses of the sons of Eleazar, and eight of the sons of Ithamar. 5 They organized them by lot, all alike, for there were officers of the sanctuary and officers of God among both the sons of Eleazar and the sons of Ithamar… 10 the seventh to Hakkoz, the eighth to Abijah, (NRSV)
In this unlikely place, we have an opportunity to take a look at a date accepted by the early church but sometimes questioned today by critics and skeptics: the date of Christmas.
I get the impression that the early church came at the date of Christmas in three ways:
1, A Christian tradition or memory of the actual date. There was no controversy recorded about this calculation. As early as 204 AD, Hyppolitus of Rome mentions the date of Jesus’ birth as having been “eight days before the calends of January, on the fourth day of the week.” This is the same as December 25th.
In addition, a document known as the Didascalia Apostolorum (3rd century) sets Epiphany at January 6, twelve days after Christmas (December 25). A letter known as the Epistle of Theophilus also places Christmas on December 25 (the author lived at the time of Marcus Aurelius, 180 AD). While some modern critics think that the Catholic Church tried to replace certain pagan festivals with Christmas, it is clear from the writings of these ancient Fathers that before there was any authoritative Roman Catholic church, the date of Christmas was already being celebrated on the date we know.
2, There was a Jewish tradition that the conception and death of holy persons took place on the same date. This is suggested for many ancient believers such as Abraham and David. This established a tradition for the death of Jesus (believed to be March 25th), as having also been the date of his conception.
3, Thirdly, I believe that the early church used this passage in 1 Chronicles to help identify the traditional date– and whether or not their reasoning was correct does not matter much, since the traditional date was already fixed, perhaps from the memory of Jesus’ mother Mary and such men as Luke and John. But let’s see how this passage relates to something so far removed from the final year of David’s life as the birth of Jesus, more than nine hundred years later.
David divided the priestly divisions into twenty-four groups, and one of these was the division of Abijah. Later, in the days of Ezra, there were only twenty-two remaining divisions. Nehemiah 12:4 says that Abijah was in the twelfth division after the return from the exile, when David’s arrangement was reorganized again. That might mean (and here I am only speculating) that the ancient church counted the weeks after Passover, which is the beginning of the Jewish sacred year, and they found that Abijah’s division (the twelfth, says Nehemiah) would be stepping down from their service in the temple in September.
Luke tells us that the angel promised the priest Zechariah, who was “of the division of Abijah” (Luke 1:5), that his barren wife Elizabeth would conceive and give birth to a son who would be John the Baptist (Luke 1:13). Therefore Elizabeth might have conceived already in late September. Tradition agrees with this, saying that the virgin Mary visited ELizabeth “in the sixth month” (Luke 1:26), that is, Elizabeth’s sixth month of pregnancy, which would have been late March. Mary became pregnant by the Holy Spirit just before this March visit, and nine months (or forty weeks) after late March would be late December. Whether this reasoning is accurate or not, it corroborates the traditional date for the birth of Jesus.
Of course, it is far more important to celebrate the incarnation of Christ, the Son of God, than to stand on any one date we think of as his birthday, whether a tradition, a guess, or otherwise. The reason that the Son of God appeared in the world was to destroy the devil’s work (1 John 3:8). While birthdays are not unknown in the Bible, they are rarely mentioned (Genesis 40:20; Matthew 14:6). Yet it is good to have a regular date each your to celebrate and remember the birth of Jesus, since knowing about the incarnation of the Son of God as a human being is necessary for our full understanding of what our Savior has done for us, “When the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). And whoever does not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh is the deceiver and the antichrist (2 John 1:7). Therefore even though we are fairly sure of the date from ancient times and from the earliest years of the church, the fact is more important than the day, and the doctrine of our Lord’s incarnation and birth is what we should remind one another about. And thanks be to God! For this is still what we do.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – 1 Chronicles 24 Summary – About Christmas