Sukkot—The Feast of Booths Part 2
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth.
[John 1:14 KJV]
The Greek word for “dwelt” is skenoo (Strong’s #4637). It is the verb form of the Greek skenos (Strong’s #4636), which means tent, or tabernacle. Both skenoo and skenos come from the same root, skene, which means tent, or “a tabernacle made from the boughs of trees or skins” (Strong’s #4633). It is the equivalent of the Hebrew sukkah (Strong’s #5521).
In the verb form, it means, properly, to pitch or live in a tent/tabernacle, “denoting much more than the mere general notion of dwelling.” To fix or set one’s tabernacle. It would not be unreasonable to translate the word to tabernacle, in effect using the word tabernacle as a verb. The Orthodox Jewish Bible (OJB) translates John 1:14… “and made his sukkah among us…”
And the Dvar Hashem took on gufaniyut (corporeality) and made his sukkah, his Mishkan (Tabernacle) among us and we gazed upon his Kavod, the Shechinah of the Ben Yachid from Elohim HaAv, full of Hashem’s Chesed v’Emes.
[John 1:14 OJB, emphasis added]
The Greek skene, and its derivatives, and the Hebrew sukkah are equivalents. This is another example of a writer using a Hebraism in scripture that would have immediately been recognized by devout Jews as a reference to the Tabernacles of Moses and David, and the Feast of Tabernacles.
Because of this reference, many scholars believe that Jesus of Nazareth was born on the 15th day of Tishri, which would correspond to the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles. Because the Tabernacles of Moses and David are also extraordinarily strong symbolic and typological elements in scripture, I respectfully disagree (since John 1:14 could in effect be a reference to all three), but make no mistake, their conclusions have real merit. Some scholars believe John 1:14 to be a specific reference to Jesus’ birth (and therefore date his birth as Tishri 15), whereas I believe this is a general reference to the time of the fall feasts. I believe there is additional highly specific evidence that reveals the precise birthdate for Jesus of Nazareth.
Stay tuned for more…