The birth of Christ is one of the greatest events in human history, and yet at the time it was almost entirely missed. Only a few shepherds were told (then they spread the word to the locals), and of course the holy family knew. But other than that, nobody was paying attention. The king of Jews, Herod, didn’t know, nor did the religious leaders of the day, until almost a year later when the magi showed up. It seems that hardly anybody was paying attention.
Today, there is so much attention to the holiday that it seems strange to think it wasn’t always celebrated with trees, gifts, music, and movies. But on the original holy night our savior was ushered into this world without any fanfare except that of the angels to the shepherds:
“Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
“Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”Luke 2:10-14
And as the original poem written in 1816 by Joseph Mohr says,
Silent Night! Holy Night!
Shepherds first saw the sight
Of angels singing alleluia
Calling clearly near and far:
Christ, the saviour is born
Christ the Saviour is born.
(For the original full set of lyrics, click here.)
Jesus Christ is the savior of the world, and I pray you will see the true miracle that happened on that Day of Grace so long ago. My hope is that after you read 500 Year Journey: How the Magi Knew When Christ Would Be Born, you will also rejoice with exceedingly great joy.
Below I have posted the introduction to my book, 500 Year Journey which will give you a good sense
Blessings!
“I admit that it would be wrong to dismiss offhand a claim that has been consistently held by so many people; by doing such a thing I risk letting my love of saying something new distort all my conclusions. But because it seems to me that reason itself argues against the accepted opinion, the truth ought to carry more weight than the authority of a scholar.” —Petrus Cunaeus (1586–1638)
I stood on the rim of the Grand Canyon at the South Kaibab trailhead, and I had no idea what kind of agony I was about to encounter. I was well prepared and young and an experienced outdoorsman, so I thought I knew what I was getting myself into. But this would be a whole new level of agony. I had hunted in eastern Oregon with my family, and I had hiked across the Olympic National Park in the state of Washington. I was also a landscaper for a company in Sedona, Arizona. But after carrying a sixty-pound pack nine miles down the Grand Canyon to the river and then six more miles to Cottonwood camp, the final gentle rise seemed like Mt. Everest.
I learned a valuable lesson that day: until the Canyon has kicked you in the teeth, made you bleed, and broken your knees, you haven’t experienced it. The Canyon is one thing to view from the rim; it’s another to view it while crawling in the dirt. And it’s altogether another thing to get up the next morning and hike out of the Canyon.
That is what it has been like writing this book. I started this journey optimistically. I stood on the rim and I thought I would document what others had discovered about the birth of Christ and come to a consensus conclusion. I knew there were some disagreements among scholars on when Christ was born, but I felt I could sort out the issues and bring them to a defining point of clarity and certainty. What I soon discovered, however, was how controversial every step along the trail would be, how utterly divergent many opinions were. Some scholars thought they had figured out when Jesus was born, but they were proven wrong by others, and then the others were proven wrong by other others, and on and on my journey went. The trail was winding with multiple switchbacks and numerous ups and downs. I found that I wasn’t even close to prepared for how much effort would be involved in sorting through all the controversies. Every idea, every theory, and every conclusion has been a hard-fought battle. While I have strived to smooth out the trail in places, it’s still a challenging hike in places.
So let’s be real. This is definitely not your typical Christmas book that seeks to give you warm fuzzies. Everything—I mean everything—you have heard about when Christ was born is going to be on trial, but please don’t blame that on me. It is the nature of the Canyon, and it has been this way for millennia. We will have to look out for rattlesnakes, fend off dehydration, descend rockslides, and walk along trails at the edge of a cliff where one wrong twitch could plunge us a thousand feet down into the river. This trail is going to be difficult and backbreaking. And I am asking you to join me. Willingly. The Canyon is a commitment from start to finish.
But the journey will be fun and rewarding too. And it will end with what I believe is the actual birth date of Jesus Christ, and it is not December 25. And the year is not AD 1.
My backbreaking first hike in the majestic Grand Canyon also taught me another lesson: the hardest journey is the most meaningful one. I have known people who visited the Canyon once and weren’t all that impressed with it. They had heard all of these marvelous things about it, but when they finally got there, looked over a railing, and saw the expansive views, they said, “Eh. No big deal. I don’t know what all the fuss is about. It’s just a big hole in the ground.” They then got back in their car and drove away. Their problem was that they never truly experienced the Canyon. A casual tourist will never appreciate the joy of taking a nap on the green moss next to Ribbon Falls Cove, exhausted. Or the wonder of seeing a lizard swallow another lizard. They will never know the refreshing relief of removing their pack and dousing their head with cool water from a creek in 120-degree weather, or the sense of accomplishment when looking back down Devil’s Corkscrew and saying, “I just did that.” Nor will they ever know the long-term pleasure of having crawled into a campsite on their knees. There are rewards that only pain can bring, and I wish people knew that the Canyon is more than a nice view—and that the birth of Christ is more than a mere date on a calendar.
It is so much more.
I wish I could make this journey easy for you and guide you to the Magical Conclusion Overlook where you would be able to see the truth from the safety of your car. But even if that were possible, that would never replace the experience of loading up your pack, lacing up your hiking boots, and experiencing the Canyon with me. So I ask you to join me on this journey to untangle the mess that has been made of one of the most transformative events in human history: the birth of Jesus Christ, the son of the living God.
But before we begin—consider it getting your pack ready—I need to explain my unique approach to finding Jesus’s birth date. I used to think that I had to figure out what the magi had discovered in their astrological studies in order to solve the riddle. If I could find the beckoning star, I could find the right date. But that turned out to be more elusive than the proverbial needle in a haystack. It seems as if there are as many different theories about what the magi saw as there are stars in the heavens! The magi certainly saw something that convinced them that the King of the Jews had been born, but what exactly did they see?
After years of effort, it finally dawned on me that my whole approach was backwards: instead of looking at the stars first, I needed to solve the historical, chronological puzzle first and then look at the stars. Once I could confidently locate Christ’s birth in history—if that were even possible—I could then look at the stars and see if there was anything interesting enough going on up there that would have caused the magi to rejoice. And there is! In fact, it is so incredible that the traditional nativity scene will become like looking at a child’s toy in comparison. A mere conjunction is so boring. The truth is more elaborate and interesting than the medieval Orloj astronomical clock in Prague, Czechoslovakia.[i] It is beyond magnificent!
What I came to realize is that the date of Christ’s birth can only fit during one moment in history, and it did not fit there accidentally. God intended it to fit. He designed the whole thing. He synchronized world events with the vast clock of the universe, all in order to announce the arrival of his Son. It’s more than a date; it’s a miracle!
Our journey together will traverse over 500 years of history, and it will span the distance between Babylon and Bethlehem. We will explore the ancient world, Old Testament prophecies, and the movements of the stars. And all of this exploration will focus on answering one central question: When was Jesus of Nazareth actually born? The Western church settled on December 25, but why did they choose that date? And if wrong, can we ever know when the Son of God entered into the womb of Mary and then came out into the world as a living, breathing, kicking, crying human infant?
You may also be wondering, “Why does Jesus’s birth date matter?” Does it change anything? It seems like a rather boring topic. Oh ye who merely glances over the edge of the Grand Canyon and says, “Eh.” I wish I could say something practical like “It will cure your marriage ills” or “It will provide you with ten steps to becoming a successful leader,” but all I can encourage you to do is join me on the journey, get to end of the book, and see what happens to your soul. You might “rejoice with exceeding great joy” like the magi did, and one cannot underestimate the power of awe. A wise rabbi once said:
Awe is more than an emotion; it is a way of understanding, an insight into a meaning greater than ourselves. The beginning of awe is wonder, and the beginning of wisdom is awe. Awe is an intuition for the dignity of all things, a realization that things not only are what they are, but also stand . . . for something supreme. Awe . . . enables us to perceive in the world intimations of the divine, to sense in small things the beginning of infinite significance.[ii]
The date of Christ’s birth matters, but you may not appreciate why unless we hike this journey together. Sometimes awe will only come after experiencing the trials of the trail, so let me be your guide to one of the most amazing moments in world history.
To arrive at our destination, though, we need to first map out our path. We will begin by revisiting the key events surrounding the birth of Christ and reacquaint ourselves with the key characters and hear their stories anew. You might be surprised by how many assumptions we accept as absolute truth, so we dare not take for granted that what we have heard and read or watched on screen or on stage are accurate. And this fresh perspective will be our compass through the many twists and turns of the trail that will lead us to the amazing historical context of the greatest event to ever occur since the creation of the world.
So lace up your boots, cinch up your pack, and let’s get going on this 500-year journey!
Order Today!
You can order directly from my website at www.500yearjourney.com. However, I also believe in supporting local bookstores. Both Eighth Day Books and Watermark Books here in Wichita, KS have copies that can be ordered online, so please check them out! It would also be cool if you were to ask your favorite local bookstore to make copies available.
Otherwise, you can pre-order on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Shop, Sandman Books, Walmart, and Books-A-Million. If you are in the UK you can order from Eden.
I also have copies available for GROUP STUDIES at churches or community groups. If your church library would like to carry copies, please contact me directly at contact@coreypiper.com. We’ll work out the cost and details together. Thank you!
Rejoice in the Lord!
[i] “Prague Astronomical Clock (Orloj): Facts, Legends, Location & Video,” PragueGo, accessed November 11, 2022, https://www.praguego.com/attractions/astronomical-clock-orloj.
[ii] Jason Sobel, Aligning with God’s Appointed Times: Discover the Prophetic and Spiritual Meaning of the Biblical Holidays (North Hollywood, CA: RJS Publishing, 2020), 127.,
