In " The Phoenix," " a collection of manuscripts and printed tracts, nowhere to be found but in the closets of the curious (1707)," there is a paper with the above title, " proving that Christ was not born in December." The book is not very scarce, so I need not transcribe the article. The following is the substance of it which may prove interesting:- " David divided the year's service of the priests into twenty-four courses, and the eighth course fell to Abijah (1 Chron. 24:10).
" The Jewish ecclesiastical year, commencing with the month Abib or Nisan, nearly corresponding to our March, 0.S., the eighth course would occur at the end of June or at the beginning of July in our computation.
"Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, was of the course of Abia, and as he was ministering, in the order of his course' (that is, in June or July), when the angel appeared to him, and that immediately on his return home his wife Elizabeth conceived, it follows that the conception of John the Baptist was about Midsummer, where we place his birth.
" In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy (Luke 1:26-36), i.e. in December, where we place Christ's birth, the angel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary that she should be the mother of the Christ; and, counting onward for nine months, we come to the month of September, and to the Feast of Tabernacles, which was a type of the incarnation of the Son of God, as the period of the Savior's birth.
" In which feast-time of eight days, Christ pitched in the tabernacle of His flesh amongst us, as appears, John 1:14: ' And the Word was made flesh (χαὶ εσχήνςσεν ὲν ¨ημῖν), and pitched his tabernacle amongst us:' He became a Scaenite. Thus (we) behold the sweet harmony between the type and the thing typified, for Christ came not to break the law, but to fulfill it."
The error appears to have arisen from supposing that Zacharias was the high priest, in which case his ministry would have occurred in September. [Is there any other thought of this subject?]