Luke 1:57

Full time. [Birth of John the Baptist, Luke 1:57-80. See The Nativity; a Suggestive Chronology of Christ’s Birth.] We know nothing of the time of year when John was born. The ancient Alexandrian church is said to have celebrated this event on the 23d of April. In view of the fact that this date is based on a very early tradition, there may be reason to think that it represents at least the approximate time of year when the event occurred. The church in Alexandria later changed the celebration to June 24 — a date arbitrarily set so as to be six months from December 25 — in order to be in harmony with the practice of the Greek and Latin churches.

With April 23 as the possible date for the birth of John the Baptist, the birth of Jesus would have been about October 19 (see pp. 240-242; see on Matt. 2:1). It should be noted, however, that this computation is based only on an ancient tradition whose value is unknown.