Another Christmas has come and gone. The decorations that adorned our house – the creche in the foyer; stuffed cloth gingerbread men keeping strategically placed Santa Clauses company; colored lights strung along the two sides of the staircase that meet the guests arriving for a progressive dinner-and-carols singalong; similarly-strung lights on the hutch in the dining room; lights strung and stockings hung along the fireplace mantle; and, of course, the cut Christmas tree, bedecked with lights and ornaments; oh, and not to forget the obligatory string of lights regaling (the appearance given was more of having been haphazardly thrown onto) the rhododendron in front of the house – have been ensconced for safe keeping and easy retrieval next year (LORD willing).

Certainly, there is an air of expectancy as the days are counted down, beginning the day after Thanksgiving. Of course, within Christianity much is made of the ‘advent season’ with its tradition of candle lighting during the four Sundays of advent – each representing an aspect of Biblical truth: hope, faith, joy, and peace, the anticipated results of the Messiah’s coming into this world – with a fifth candle lit on the Sunday closest to Christmas Day, representing the Messiah as the Light of the world. However, this tradition does little more than to instill an artificial feeling of worship, which use of this tradition is starkly illustrated by the teachings of another system of religious rites as being concomitant with 1) “preparing themselves worthily to celebrate the anniversary of the Lord’s coming” and 2) “mak[ing] their souls fitting abodes for the Redeemer coming in Holy Communion.” (http://www.traditionalcatholic.info/advent-candles/). As if ritual can make one worthy before YAHWAH ELOHIM HaGIBOR / THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY except through an experiential act of HIS saving grace in YESHUA HaMOSHIAH!

I would hazard a guess that a majority of Christians are not aware that there is a strong argument that the Messiah was not born on December 25; or, if they are, they are not interested in investigating the claim. Yet the history behind settling on this date is fairly well documented: Constantine/Rome decided to declare December 25 to be the date of the Messiah’s birth in an attempt to co-opt the pagans’ celebration of the winter solstice, also known as Yule. This decision of Rome explains the reason for many of the trappings used in the ‘Christian’ celebration of ‘Christmas,’ a synonym for which is ‘Yule(tide).’ The word ‘yule’ readily reflects the connection between the two celebrations, with the ‘Christmas’ traditions of the decorated evergreen tree, stringing lights (replacing candles), and gift-giving being borrowed from the pagan winter solstice celebration. As we contemplate the holiday’s progression over the centuries from essentially Christian to secular, it is easy to see how the secular, i.e., the pagan, has in fact co-opted the meaning attached to it by Christendom, at least in the West, that the evergreen tree symbolizes eternal life; the strung lights, Christ the Light of the world; and gift-giving God’s love in giving His Son.

Indeed, the above statements are all true concerning what the Messiah’s coming to earth means for all who believe in Him. However, to preach or teach them as incorporating the ‘reason for the season,’ on the one hand belies, while on the other nullifies, the actual Biblical linguistic indicators pointing to the spiritually rich significance of when God actually sent His Son to be born of woman. The religious system in place at the time cynically established a day and a narrative that begs an empirically historical and Biblical foundation and thus misrepresents the underlying Biblical texts of that foundation, while the narrative, because these underlying Biblical texts not having been properly exegeted, has been nullified by an overwhelmingly commercialized secular holiday attended by schmaltzy Hallmark Channel movies.

There is plenty of credible information on the internet that provides ample reason to argue that Yeshua was born, not on December 25 but during the fall Feast of Tabernacles/Booths (or Sukkoth) [the ‘u’ is pronounced like ‘oo;’ in the title, I chose to render it phonetically, but will now use the common way it is written], which fits perfectly with the narrative in the gospels.

So, let’s start from the beginning:

Since the Feast of Sukkoth was one of three feasts to be celebrated together as a nation in Jerusalem, accommodations would have been on a ‘first come-first served’ basis and would have forced many travelers to seek lodging at some distance outside Jerusalem. However, it would seem that Joseph and Mary wound up in Bethlehem because of the other reason for the overcrowded conditions – we are told that a tax had been decreed requiring all to go to their ancestral home, which for those claiming a heritage from the tribe of Judah, as did Joseph and Mary, would have been Bethlehem. So, in making the long trek from Nazareth, they would need to bypass Jerusalem (a distance of approximately 64 miles) and proceed to Bethlehem (six miles further south) to complete the government-mandated registration, before returning to Jerusalem for the festival. God the Father had orchestrated events so that the prophet Micah’s prophecy would be fulfilled that the Messiah would be born in Judah, in the city (hometown) of David.

Certainly, one method of determining the actual time of year for the birth of God’s Son is to consider the Biblical account of the timeline from Elizabeth’s conception of John the Baptist to Mary’s of Yeshua. However, this is not the intent of this post, since, as mentioned above, an internet search yields sufficient information on this approach to when Yeshua was born.

I prefer to approach any Biblical topic linguistically through an examination of the appropriate texts in the original languages, as they were God-breathed and transmitted by His Spirit. So, linguistically, a corollary to the supposition that it was at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles that Yeshua came into this world as a baby to dwell with men is the interplay between the Hebrew radicals סך (sook)/שכן (shakaan) and the Greek root σκην (skeen).

I think the reader will be as amazed as I was, the further along the path I traveled, linguistic magnifying glass in hand, in search of the full scope of meaning of the Hebrew radical. This is where we will begin our quest to rightly align the narrative of Yeshua’s birth as depicted in the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and in John’s interpretive Gospel, where I am confident John deliberately interprets the life and teaching of Yeshua within the context of His birth having been at the Feast of Tabernacles/Booths.

Just as the first words in the first verse of the first book of the Bible, Genesis, are “In the beginning…,” we too will begin with a Genesis passage where the root ‘sook’ is first encountered. In Genesis 33:17, we are told that “Jacob journeyed to Sukkoth and built for himself a house and for his livestock, he made huts/shelters (Heb: Sukkoth/סכות; Greek: skeenas/σκηνας (accusative plural, italics mine) so that he called the name of the place Sukkoth.” [my translation from the Hebrew Bible] Here is the first indication that there is a connection between the shelters that Jacob built to provide cover for his livestock and the similar structure [i.e., what we call a ‘stable’] where Joseph and Mary sought shelter for Mary to give birth. Is it any wonder, then, that it was to shepherds that an angel of the LORD appeared with “glad tidings of great joy?” The shepherds would have understood, in exactly what circumstances they would find this baby, who, they were told, would be lying in a manger, i.e., in a feeding trough, which would be found in a ‘sukkah‘ [singular of the plural ‘sukkoth’] where they and their sheep would have sought shelter from the elements. In fact, the shepherds probably would have had a good idea where the ‘sukkah‘ would be located.

Now that we have seen the ultimate use of the ‘sukkah‘ in Yahwah’s plan – to provide shelter for His Son as He entered into His created order to dwell with His supreme creation, man (Και ο λογος σαρξ εγενετο και εσκηνωσεν/ישְכן εν ημιν…And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us… John 1:14a), let’s return to the Old Testament and consider the account of the exodus of the ancient Israelites, under the leadership of Moses, out of the land of Egypt on their journey to Canaan, the land Yahwah had promised them. In Leviticus 23:34 we read: דבר אל-בני ישראל לאמר בחמשה עשר יום לחדש השביעי הזה חג” הסכות שבעת ימים” ליהוה Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, On the 15th day of this 7th month a Festival of Booths unto Yahwah.” What Yahwah instructed Moses to say continues in verses 42-43: בסכות תשבו שבעת ימים כל-האזרח בישראל ישבו בסכות: למען ידעו דרתיכם כי בסכות הושבתי את-בני” ישראל בהוציאי אותם מארץ מצרים אני יהוה אלהיכם In booths you shall live seven days, all the native (born) in Israel shall live in booths. So that your generations will know that I caused the children of Israel to dwell in huts [translation note: same word as ‘booth,’ just a different gloss for contextual reasons] when I brought them up from the land of Egypt. I am Yahwah your GOD.” It was Yahwah’s intent that His people, Israel, would always remember how He had provided for them during the forty long years in the wilderness. Τhe people had brought that lengthy period of wandering on themselves because the report that the twelve spies brought back from having reconnoitered the land had caused them to fear entering the land; they had not believed that Yahwah could deliver the inhabitants of Canaan into their hands. Despite this disobedience, Yahwah had provided for them in so many ways – manna and quail as food; the cloud by day that not only led them but gave relief from the hot desert sun and the column of fire by night that not only led them by shining light on their way but warmed them from the cold desert nights; and their clothes and sandals did not wear out. Thus the Israelites were to remember with joy and feasting Yahwah’s care for them by celebrating the Festival of Booths.

But there is much more here than the provision of material needs. We can connect the stable (hut/shelter; sukkah) that the Father had His Son born in with the transportable tabernacle (Mishkan/משכן) – also called the tent of meeting (ohel moed/אהל מועד) – that Yahwah commanded Moses to construct, where Yahwah would dwell among His people as they proceeded on their exodus out of Egypt to the promised land of Canaan. Thus, the Festival of Booths is also called the Festival of Tabernacles, so that future generations would remember that Yahwah not only provided for them but also dwelt among them.

Here the point should be made that ‘Mishkan’ is a noun built on the verb shakaan/שכן ‘to dwell’ and it is this verb, in my opinion, that was borrowed directly into Biblical Greek, as noted above as σκηνω/skeeno. In addition, there are the Hebrew radicals סך/sook and its homonym שך, which, as also noted above, contain the idea of a dwelling – a hut/shelter. It is a distinct probability that there existed in ancient Hebrew an interchange – and perhaps even confusion – between the use of the sibilant ‘shin’ (distinguished by a dot over the right fork of that ‘sh’ phoneme’s symbolic representation ש) and the sibilant ‘sin’ (distinguished from ‘shin’ by placing a dot over the left fork of the ‘s’ phoneme’s symbolic representation ש), especially concerning Hebrew radicals with similar meanings, which is the case in point. There is also the possibility that the dialectical differences in speech may also have contributed to this interchange of these two sibilants. Regarding the latter observation:

In Judges 12:6, we read: “And they said to him, Say ‘shibboleth’ (שבלת – dot over the right fork), but he said ‘sibboleth’ (סבלת – the symbolic representation of the ‘s’ phoneme ‘samek’) because he was unable to say thusly. So, they seized him and killed him at the ford of the Jordan [River], and of the Ephraimites 42,000 fell at this time.” Although the Masoretic text renders the word with two different sibilant phonemes, the conjecture can certainly be justified that, given the homophonous quality of samek/ס and sin/ש – dot over the left fork, ‘sin’ could easily have replaced ‘samek’ without any change in the text’s meaning. In fact, by using a ‘samek’ rather than a ‘sin’ the writer was emphasizing phonemic renderings and taking no chance of a misreading or misinterpretation if the phonetic symbol ש had been used in both words. The bottom line, therefore, is: in my view, there was considerable leeway in the use of the three sibilants ‘samek’/ס, ‘sin’/ש, and ‘shin’/ש.

It is now time for us to examine the concept of the sukkah through David’s eyes. In Psalm 18:11 of [Yahwah] he writes, “He sets darkness [as] His covering/hiding, secret place/shelter, protection; His dwelling (sukkah) is darkness of waters, darkness of thick clouds [יָשֶׁת חֹשֶׁךְ סִתְרוֹ סְבִיבוֹתָיו סֻכָּתוֹ חֶשְׁכַת־מַיִם עָבֵי שְׁחָקִים.].” As is often the case in the Psalms, the literary technique of parallelism is employed, where equivalent truths are rendered with different words, as is the case here: Yahwah’s dwelling, i.e., the sukkah, David is comparing to a hiding place or a protective shelter. David uses similar parallelism in Psalm 27:5, where he writes, “כִּי יִצְפְּנֵנִי בְּסֻכֹּה בְּיוֹם רָעָה יַסְתִּרֵנִי בְּסֵתֶר אָהֳלוֹ בְּצוּר יְרוֹמְמֵנִי For He shelters me in a hut (sukkah); in the day of evil He will hide me secretly in His tent/tabernacle, He lifts me high on a rock.” And again, in similar parallel fashion, in Psalm 31:20 “תַּסְתִּירֵם בְּסֵתֶר פָּנֶיךָ מֵרֻכְסֵי אִישׁ תִּצְפְּנֵם בְּסֻכָּה מֵרִיב לְשֹׁנוֹת You will hide them [i.e., those that fear Yahwah] secretly in the protection of Your Presence from the plots of man; You will hide them in a hut (sukkah) from dispute/contentious tongues.”

Being sheltered in a hut, i.e., stable, is exactly the circumstance Joseph and Mary found themselves in when it was time for Yeshua to come into the world.

Now let’s transition from David’s perception of the sukkah as a protective shelter to that of Amos as a metaphor for restoration of the Davidic kingdom in the person of the Messiah. Amos writes, “בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא אָקִים אֶת־סֻכַּת דָּוִיד הַנֹּפֶלֶת וְגָדַרְתִּי אֶת־פִּרְצֵיהֶו וַהֲרִסֹתָיו אָקִים וּבְנִיתִיהָ” כִּימֵי עוֹלָם In that day I will erect the collapsed hut (sukkah) of David and wall up its breaches and I will erect his ruins and restore it as in the days of old.” (9:11)

In other words, the Holy Spirit directly connects the concept of the sukkah, first, to the lowly station into which Yeshua haMoshiach was born into this world in order to dwell among us; and, secondly, to the future, exalted station which He will attain. He appeared to us in the fullness of time to show us the Father so that at the end of time we would dwell in His presence for eternity.

In this context, it is instructive to take a second look at the accounts of Yeshua’s transfiguration as it relates to the Feast of Sukkoth as the proper time to celebrate haMoshiach’s birth to perhaps gain additional insight into why the Holy Spirit directed Matthew, Mark, and Luke to record the incident in their gospels.

The Feast of Sukkoth was within days of being held when, according to Matthew’s account (which I find most descriptive), Yeshua took Peter, James, and John with Him up to a high mountain. There “He was transfigured in front of them: His face shone like the sun and His clothes became as white as the light.” Peter’s subsequent exclamation about building ‘tabernacles’ [סכות (sukkoth): Delitzsch] was certainly a reflection of his awareness of the upcoming feast but beyond that indicated a Spirit-inspired recognition of Yeshua not only to be ‘the Messiah the Son of the Living God (אתה המשיח בן אלוהים חיים: Delitzsch),’ which he had confessed in the previous chapter but Yahwah, Who had dwelt with the Israelites in the desert. This of course was the symbolism behind the Festival – Yahwah dwelling among His people in the tabernacle, leading them through the desert by a cloud during the day and a flame of fire at night, and providing for their physical needs. The New Testament Greek word for ‘tabernacle’ is, as discussed above, ‘skeenee’ which is the translation for the Hebrew ‘Mishkan’ < ‘suk.’

At the conclusion of the Feast of Sukkoth, Yeshua returned to the temple and declared Himself to be the ‘Light of the world.’ Having just seen the radiance of His face and the brilliant whiteness of His clothes, the three disciples would have comprehended the meaning of Yeshua’s statement in a way that otherwise would have eluded them. John later testified that “…the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it…nor did the world recognize it…” Having begun his account of the life of Yeshua with ‘The Word,’ John here returns to ‘The Word,’ declaring that “we have seen His glory, glory as the only-begotten from the Father” (i.e., The Word and the Father are One). Later in his gospel, John recorded Yeshua’s declaration in full: “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will never walk in darkness but will have the Light of Life.” One can justifiably imply that John had in his mind’s eye the flame of fire by which his ancestors, centuries before, had been led through the deep darkness of the desert nights into the light of the Promised Land. [Please see https://the-dragon-is-slain.com/2023/12/25/book-review-god-was-not-in-the-fire-the-search-for-a-spiritual-judaism-by-daniel-gordis/ for additional comments regarding observing the Feast of Tabernacles/Booths/Sukkoth]. This is the feast’s significance for present-day unredeemed Jews – to call to mind Yahwah’s care and provision during the 40 years of wanderings in the desert. On the other hand, for the community of the redeemed by the blood of Yeshua, it points to the important aspects of His birth and Who He declared Himself to be – both the Light of the world and the Living Water.

Resources: Abingdon’s Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible; Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon; German Bible (Die Bibel nach der Übersetzung D. Martin Luthers); The Greek New Testament, United Bible Societies, 2nd Edition; The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, Koehler&Baumgartner; Hebrew Bible: Bomberg/Ginsburg Old Testament (תורה נביאים כתבים) | Franz Delitzsch New Testament (והברית הדשה); Holy Bible: Hebrew Old Testament (תורה נביאים כתבים)- Koine Greek New Testament (Η Καινη Διαθηκη); Lexicon of the Modern Greek Language, Babiniotis (Λεξικον της Νεας Ελληνικης Γλωσσας, Μπαμπινιωτης); New American Standard Bible; New Geneva Study Bible | New King James Version; The Septuagint with Apocrypha: Greek-English, Brenton; Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament; Russian Bible (Русская Библия).