Posted on 12/17/2019 10:36:24 AM PST by Antoninus
It's that festive time of year when those who profess not to care a whit about religion expend countless hours and billions of pixels to demonstrate that Jesus Christ was not born on Christmas. But before you succumb to their pathological zeal, take a few minutes to read some of the ancient sources from which we originally derived the date of December 25 as the nativity of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
The first clear source for this date is Hippolytus of Rome, a somewhat mysterious figure from antiquity who may have been an anti-pope of the third century AD. He was later regarded as a saint thanks to his copious theological writings. Sadly, only fragments of his works have survived to the present day, but among them is a work in which Hippolytus provides an analysis of the Old Testament Book of Daniel. The earliest notice of Christmas being celebrated on December 25 comes from this work, as follows:
"For the first advent of our Lord in the flesh, when he was born in Bethlehem, eight days before the Kalends of January [that is, December 25], the fourth day [that is, Wednesday], while Augustus was in his forty-second year, but from Adam, five thousand and five hundred years. He suffered in the thirty-third year, eight days before the Kalends of April (that is, March 25), the day of preparation [that is, Friday] the eighteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, while Rufus and Roubellion were Consuls." [Hippolytus of Rome, Commentary on Daniel, written ca. AD 205]
Dedication page of the Chronography of AD 354.
Another early notice may be found in the Chronography of AD 354. This work is an illuminated calendar produced by an artist named Furius Dionysius Filocalus for a wealthy Roman patrician. As part of this calendar, there is a list entitled "ITEM DEPOSITIO MARTIRVM". The first line on this list says:
VIII kal. Ian. natus Christus in Betleem Iudeae.
This appears to corroborate Hippolytus's date above. Interestingly, Hippolytus is also mentioned in this calendar in a list of the Popes with a notice saying: "In that time the exiled bishop Pontianus and the presbyter Hippolytus were deported to Sardinia on the island of Vocina, Severus and Quintianus being consuls [AD 235]."
After about AD 350, overt references to December 25 as the date of Christ's birth are more numerous, particularly in the Greek east where the date seems to have been more variable before that time. Many in the east had celebrated the Nativity on January 6 -- which would later be recognized as the feast of the Epiphany. Saint John Chrysostom, later bishop of Constantinople but at this point a presbyter in Antioch, offers a meditation on preparing for the Nativity in his homily on the feast of St. Philogonios which was celebrated on December 20. Note that John clearly separates the Nativity from the feast of the Epiphany:
A feast is approaching which is the most solemn and awe-inspiring of all feasts. If one were to call it the metropolis of all feasts, one wouldn't be wrong. What is it? The birth of Christ according to the flesh. In this feast the Epiphany, holy Pascha, the Ascension and Pentecost have their beginning and their purpose. For if Christ hadn't been born according to the flesh, he wouldn't have been baptized, which is Epiphany. He wouldn't have been crucified, which is Pascha. He wouldn't have sent the Spirit, which is Pentecost. So from this event, as from some spring, different rivers flow - these feasts of ours are born. [John Chrysostom, On St. Philogonius, delivered December 20, AD 386]In a subsequent homily that same year while still in Antioch, St. John offers evidence for the date by citing official Roman secular records of the census of Augustus mentioned in Sacred Scripture, as follows:
“The 25th day of December has been celebrated from the beginning as the birthday of Christ, and the knowledge of it is now transmitted to us….It is manifest from Scripture that Christ was born at the enrollment or census, and the very day was certain from a written document in the Roman archives….It is lawful for anyone to search these ancient records, publicly deposited at Rome, and there to learn the time of this enrollment.” [John Chrysostom, In Diem Natalem, Migne: Patrologia Graeca, 49, 353-354. Translation taken from Hyde: "The Date of Christ's Birth" in The Living Church, December 31, 1904 p. 319.]It should be noted that several other early Christian writers, including St. Justin Martyr and Tertullian, appealed to these same census records when defending the Christian faith. The records seem to have existed into the 5th century when they were lost after the Goths and Vandals pillaged Rome.
The dating of Christmas to December 25 seems to have been well established in Africa by about this time as well. In his treatise On the Trinity, Saint Augustine of Hippo writes:
For He is believed to have been conceived on the 25th of March, upon which day also He suffered; so the womb of the Virgin, in which He was conceived, where no one of mortals was begotten, corresponds to the new grave in which He was buried, wherein was never man laid, neither before nor since. But He was born, according to tradition, upon December the 25th. [Augustine, On the Trinity, Book IV, Chapter 5, written beginning AD 400, published AD 428]So it is clear that the roots of the December 25 date for Christmas stretch well back into antiquity.
The other common take-down posed at this time of year is that Christmas was artificially dated to December 25 to superimpose a Christian feast on top of a variety of pagan feasts which happened at around the same time, whether it be Saturnalia, or the birthday of Mithras, or the birthday of Sol Invictis, or the birthday of Horus.
This line of attack has been effectively dealt with many times, so rather than regurgitate the same refutation here, I would point you to this summary article here or this humorous video response by our separated brethren entitled: Horus Ruins Christmas. A balanced and very detailed article on this topic, entitled Sol Invictus and Christmas, is also well worth a read.
Catholic Ping!
It’s a *fact* that the birth of Christ is celebrated on December 25th, so that much is the plain truth. The birth date isn’t provided in the account, so all of the scholarly theorizing is just that.
In any case, in secular society “Christmas in July” is a humorous recurring theme and besides, if a Christmas tree is good enough for Christ it’s good enough for me. Now there’s a man who knows how to go out and cut down a tree.
What brand of chainsaw do you think he uses? The one with a Stihl small voice, naturally.
It's just a theory.
“I have already seen this stupid supposed debunking of Christianity show up in various places.”
I am confused - the article confirms the celebration of Christmas on December 25th from the early days of the church. To what “debunking of Christianity” do you refer?
Well, honestly, I think it is.
And, why don't you ask a man/woman of the cloth how the date WAS chosen.
Honestly, there HAD to be a reason.
https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/jesus-historical-jesus/how-december-25-became-christmas/
Oh; it seemed like you were referring to this article, which it appears you were not.
I thank you for posting it; I found it very interesting.
Oh, my, that is funny.
This doesn’t explain how Santa’s reindeer can fly.
“One of the theories about why the Catholic Church chose December 25 as our Savior’s birthday is that since Christ is the LIGHT OF THE WORLD His birth was chosen RIGHT AFTER the winter solstice as to Christ coming into the world as the day light would start increasing.”
Unless you live in the southern hemisphere...
Who is it, who drives this old-fashioned, red country truck?
After all, you can just tell that it has Emmanuel transmission. Three on the tree, even.
Happy days are here again. Merry Christmas! :-)
My former son-in-law restored, and drives one that is very similar.
Jesus' birthday is UNKNOWN. If you went to that website I showed you ... you would know that His birthday was NOT KNOWN.
Jesus' Crucifixion was known because it was tied in with Passover. The Jews did keep track of things that went on. But the exact date of Jesus' birthday is NOT known.
Get over it. The early Church Father's decided on that date.
Google it and see that I'm right.
The only Biblical holidays are the Jewish holidays, which were uttered from the very Mouth of G-d and may be found in the Divinely-dictated Torah.
Are you a priest????
Where would I find Hanukkah and Purim in the "Divinely-dictated Torah"?
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