20. Where was Mary’s firstborn son born, and why?

²⁰ During the reign of Caesar Augustus, emperor of the pagan Roman Empire, Jesus was born in Bethlehem-Judah, to fulfill the prophecy of Micah 5:2. This was in the early autumn of the year 2 before our Common Era. While Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem for registration purposes, “she gave birth to her son, the firstborn, and she bound him with cloth bands and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the lodging room.”​—Luke 2:7.

21. Who were made earthly eyewitnesses on the night of Jesus’ birth, and how?

²¹ The Messiah-to-be had come! That was the thrilling news that a glorious angel of God announced to shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night out in the fields near Bethlehem. “The angel said to them: ‘Have no fear, for, look! I am declaring to you good news of a great joy that all the people will have, because there was born to you today a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.’”

Luke 2:8-20.

22. When was it that Jesus became what the angel called him, “Christ the Lord,” and how?

²² When did this Jesus become actually “Christ the Lord”? Not on the eighth day of his birth, when he was circumcised. He was not anointed on that day. It was when he was thirty years old. He went to John the Baptizer, who was then baptizing at the Jordan River. He did not ask John to anoint him with any official oil to be the Messianic king over all twelve tribes of Israel. He asked to be baptized in water, as many other Jews had done during the months of John’s public activity.