Paper 121 Paper 123
See Etymology of Coined Terminology.
Second Society Foundation Map (1964): The Flight To Egypt
Fellowship Map: The Urantia Book’s First Century Palestine
Fellowship Map: Roman Political Administrative Regions, First Century Palestine
Foundation Map: August, 7 B.C. to October, 4 B.C.
Foundation Map: October 4, 4 B.C. to June 3, 3 A.D.
Foundation Map: August 21, 7 A.D. to August 21, 10 A.D.
Introduction
Section 1: Joseph and Mary
p1: patriarch See cross-reference study: Gender Studies.
p1,3: common people See subtopic: “Were the Alpheus twins subnormal?” For the larger context into which this study falls, see the Topical Study: Genetic Introductions, Mutations, and Evolution: a Urantia Book perspective.
Section 2: Gabriel Appears to Elizabeth
p1: Gabriel’s visit to Mary very close to nine months before Jesus’ birth. See potential is always supreme over the actual: (102:5.1). See embryo: (111:3.2), (112:5.4). See in existence nine months b/f birth: (103:2.1). See abortion/infanticide: (68:6.9).
p5: motherhood See cross-reference study: Gender Studies.
p6: metric conversion: “. . . City of Judah, 6.4 km west of Jerusalem . . .”
p7: “Adding the weekday, that date [of John the Baptist’s birth] is Friday, March 25, 7 B.C. Interestingly, John was born on the day that many people considered to be the New Year’s Day. In that sense, his birth literally heralded the dawn of the year that Jesus was born.” –Chris Halvorson, from the 122:8.1 link below.
Section 3: Gabriel’s Announcement to Mary
p1: stone table See: Jesus’ Nazareth Home
Speak not of this matter: Note that no such warning was given by Gabriel to Elizabeth — perhaps because John’s life would not be risked or for other reasons.
p4: See Topical Study page: Abortion and resurrection for the unborn.
Section 4: Joseph’s Dream
p1: now reigns on high: I.e. Immanuel, Michael’s elder brother.
p3: paternal See cross-reference study: Gender Studies.
p4: See cross-reference study: Prophetic Prophec- Prophes-.
Section 5: Jesus’ Earth Parents
p5: brown-eyed is used once.
blond appears in two other paragraphs: 79:1.8 , 80:9.2.
Section 6: The Home at Nazareth
p2,3 stone table See: Jesus’ Nazareth Home
Section 7: The Trip to Bethlehem
p1: From Wikipedia: Res Gestae Divi Augusti (Eng. The Deeds of the Divine Augustus) is the funerary inscription of the first Roman emperor, Augustus, giving a first-person record of his life and accomplishments.[1] The Res Gestae is especially significant because it gives an insight into the image Augustus portrayed to the Roman people. Various portions of the Res Gestae have been found in modern Turkey. The inscription itself is a monument to the establishment of the Julio-Claudian dynasty that was to follow Augustus.
Excerpt: 8. When I was consul the fifth time (29 B.C.E.), I increased the number of patricians by order of the people and senate. I read the roll of the senate three times, and in my sixth consulate (28 B.C.E.) I made a census of the people with Marcus Agrippa as my colleague. I conducted a lustrum, after a forty-one year gap, in which lustrum were counted 4,063,000 heads of Roman citizens. Then again, with consular imperium I conducted a lustrum alone when Gaius Censorinus and Gaius Asinius were consuls (8 B.C.E.), in which lustrum were counted 4,233,000 heads of Roman citizens. And the third time, with consular imperium, I conducted a lustrum with my son Tiberius Caesar as colleague, when Sextus Pompeius and Sextus Appuleius were consuls (14 A.C.E.), in which lustrum were counted 4,937,000 of the heads of Roman citizens. By new laws passed with my sponsorship, I restored many traditions of the ancestors, which were falling into disuse in our age, and myself I handed on precedents of many things to be imitated in later generations.
Comment by Stefan Tallqvist from facebook: “A clarification of the text by Augustus: “The Deeds of the Divine Augustus” recorded and preserved on the temple in Ankara, formerly known as Ancyra and Angora, the capital of the Republic of Turkey: “A second time, (36) in the consulship of Gaius Censorinus and Gaius Asinius, I again performed the lustrum alone, with the consular imperium.” The Editor’s Notes (36) refers to the year 8 B.C. when Gaius Asinius was a Roman Senator. The Urantia Book: “Throughout all the Roman Empire this census was registered in the year 8 B.C., …”
(Roman census: “I performed the lustrum”)
Section 8: The Birth of Jesus
p1: See Chris Halvorson’s paper, When Is Jesus’ Birthday, for an explanation of why August 21st, 7 B.C. was a Sunday and to learn the day of the week for other B.C. dates in The Urantia Book.
See a YouTube video explaining that the Bible has enough clues to put Jesus’ birthday right at about August 21st.
p7: (150:3.3) “The courses of the stars in the heavens have nothing whatever to do with the events of human life on earth. Astronomy is a proper pursuit of science, but astrology is a mass of superstitious error which has no place in the gospel of the kingdom.”
Nonetheless, the date of Jesus’ birthday is on the cusp of Leo and Virgo–just right for association with our perfect king, Jesus.
Is noon significant to marking the cusp between these two astrological signs? What do you make of these associations?
Occasionally, new computer models and calculations are used to re-affirm the dates of the Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions in 7 B.C. The questions of where exactly to pinpoint a conjunction and which time zone demarcates one day from the next is not directly addressed in The Urantia Book. The lack of specificity limits the ability to do exact comparisons with both contemporary studies and the historical record. Speculations about the conjunctions being associated with the Bethlehem Star go back at least as far as 1606, when Johannes Kepler, a German mathematician and astronomer, suggested the theory.
Section 9: The Presentation in the Temple
Section 10: Herod Acts
Additional notes:
Matthew Block suggests that the following authors were influential in writing of this Paper and has prepared a parallel chart:
(1) P. Whitwell Wilson, The Christ We Forget: A Life of Our Lord for Men of To-day (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1917)
(2) David Smith, M.A., D.D., The Days of His Flesh: The Earthly Life of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Eighth Edition, Revised (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1910)
(3) Wm. Arnold Stevens and Ernest Dewitt Burton, A Harmony of the Gospels for Historical Study: An Analytical Synopsis of the Four Gospels (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1904, 1932) Archive.org copy.
(4) David Smith, M.A., D.D., Our Lord’s Earthly Life (New York: George H. Doran Company, 1925)
(5) J. Middleton Murry, Jesus—Man of Genius (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1926)
(6) Louis Wallis, The Bible Is Human: A Study in Secular History (New York: Columbia University Press, 1942)
(7) “Joseph (in NT),” by David Smith, in Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, edited by James Hastings, D.D. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1909)
(8) Robert Norwood, The Man Who Dared to Be God: A Story of Jesus (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1929)
(9) Rev. Alfred Edersheim, M.A.Oxon, D.D., Ph.D., The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (Volume One) (New York: Longman, Green, & Co., Eighth Edition, Revised, 1899)
(10) George A. Barton, Ph.D., LL.D., Jesus of Nazareth: A Biography (New York, The Macmillan Company, 1922) Hathi Trust Digital Library copy. Wikipedia page: Barton.
(11) George Adam Smith, D.D., LL.D., Litt.D., Atlas of the Historical Geography of the Holy Land (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1915) Hathi Trust Digital Library copy. Wikipedia page: Smith.
(12) John A. Scott, We Would Know Jesus (New York: The Abingdon Press, 1936)