General Notes

BIRTH: Jesus had been born - against the rules - on 1 March 7 BC, but in order to regualarize his status, he had been allocated the official birthday of 15 September in line with Messianic requirement. (Even in later years, it has been customary for some monarchs to have both personal [real] birthdays, and separtate official birthdays.) It was not until AD 314, that the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great arbitrarily changed the date of Jesus's offical birthday to 25 December, on which date it is still celebrated today - with many presuming it to be his real physical birthday. Constantine's reason for making this change was two-fold. Firstly, it separated the Christian celebration from any Jewish association - thereby suggesting the Jesus was himself a Christian and not a Jew. (In later times, Easter was similarly moved away from its traditional Passover connection.) Secondly, the Emperor adjusted Jesus's official birthday so that it would coincide with, and replace, the contemporary pagan Sun Festival. However, in the contemporary setting of Jesus's own time, 15 September AD 33 - six months after the Crucifixtion - was his 39th offical birthday, and in that month a daughter was born to Mary. She was named Tamar - Palm tree (assimilated in Greek to the name Damaris), a traditional Davidic family name.

MARRIAGE: First marr. took place in Sept AD 30 (his 36th September), the very occasion on which Mary Magdalene first anointed his feet (Luke 7:37-38). There was, however, no conception that December AD 32 Mary did concieve, and duly anointed Jesus's head and feet at Bethany (Matthew 26:6-7, Mark 14:3, and John 12:1-3), formally sanctifying their Second Marriage in March AD 33.