How December 25 Became Christmas

BAR ^ | December 2009 | Andrew McGowan

[BGHater]

On December 25, Christians around the world will gather to celebrate Jesus’ birth. Joyful carols, special liturgies, brightly wrapped gifts, festive foods—these all characterize the feast today, at least in the northern hemisphere. But just how did the Christmas festival originate? How did December 25 come to be associated with Jesus’ birthday?

The Bible offers few clues: Celebrations of Jesus’ Nativity are not mentioned in the Gospels or Acts; the date is not given, not even the time of year. The biblical reference to shepherds tending their flocks at night when they hear the news of Jesus’ birth (Luke 2:8) might suggest the spring lambing season; in the cold month of December, on the other hand, sheep might well have been corralled. Yet most scholars would urge caution about extracting such a precise but incidental detail from a narrative whose focus is theological rather than calendrical.

The extrabiblical evidence from the first and second century is equally spare: There is no mention of birth celebrations in the writings of early Christian writers such as Irenaeus (c. 130–200) or Tertullian (c. 160–225). Origen of Alexandria (c. 165–264) goes so far as to mock Roman celebrations of birth anniversaries, dismissing them as “pagan” practices—a strong indication that Jesus’ birth was not marked with similar festivities at that place and time.¹ As far as we can tell, Christmas was not celebrated at all at this point.

This stands in sharp contrast to the very early traditions surrounding Jesus’ last days. Each of the Four Gospels provides detailed information about the time of Jesus’ death. According to John, Jesus is crucified just as the Passover lambs are being sacrificed. This would have occurred on the 14th of the Hebrew month of Nisan, just before the Jewish holiday began at sundown (considered the beginning of the 15th day because in the Hebrew calendar, days begin at sundown). In Matthew, Mark and Luke, however, the Last Supper is held after sundown, on the beginning of the 15th. Jesus is crucified the next morning—still, the 15th.^a

Easter, a much earlier development than Christmas, was simply the gradual Christian reinterpretation of Passover in terms of Jesus’ Passion. Its observance could even be implied in the New Testament (1 Corinthians 5:7–8: “Our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the festival...”); it was certainly a distinctively Christian feast by the mid-second century C.E., when the apocryphal text known as the Epistle to the Apostles has Jesus instruct his disciples to “make commemoration of [his] death, that is, the Passover.”

Jesus’ ministry, miracles, Passion and Resurrection were often of most interest to first- and early-second-century C.E. Christian writers. But over time, Jesus’ origins would become of increasing concern. We can begin to see this shift already in the New Testament. The earliest writings—Paul and Mark—make no mention of Jesus’ birth. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke provide well-known but quite different accounts of the event—although neither specifies a date. In the second century C.E., further details of Jesus’ birth and childhood are related in apocryphal writings such as the Infancy Gospel of Thomas and the Proto-Gospel of James.^b These texts provide everything from the names of Jesus’ grandparents to the details of his education—but not the date of his birth.

Finally, in about 200 C.E., a Christian teacher in Egypt makes reference to the date Jesus was born. According to Clement of Alexandria, several different days had been proposed by various Christian groups. Surprising as it may seem, Clement doesn’t mention December 25 at all. Clement writes: “There are those who have determined not only the year of our Lord’s birth, but also the day; and they say that it took place in the 28th year of Augustus, and in the 25th day of [the Egyptian month] Pachon [May 20 in our calendar]...And treating of His Passion, with very great accuracy, some say that it took place in the 16th year of Tiberius, on the 25th of Phamenoth [March 21]; and others on the 25th of Pharmuthi [April 21] and others say that on the 19th of Pharmuthi [April 15] the Savior suffered. Further, others say that He was born on the 24th or 25th of Pharmuthi [April 20 or 21].”²

Clearly there was great uncertainty, but also a considerable amount of interest, in dating Jesus’ birth in the late second century. By the fourth century, however, we find references to two dates that were widely recognized—and now also celebrated—as Jesus’ birthday: December 25 in the western Roman Empire and January 6 in the East (especially in Egypt and Asia Minor). The modern Armenian church continues to celebrate Christmas on January 6; for most Christians, however, December 25 would prevail, while January 6 eventually came to be known as the Feast of the Epiphany, commemorating the arrival of the magi in Bethlehem. The period between became the holiday season later known as the 12 days of Christmas.

The earliest mention of December 25 as Jesus’ birthday comes from a mid-fourth-century Roman almanac that lists the death dates of various Christian bishops and martyrs. The first date listed, December 25, is marked: natus Christus in Betleem Judeae: “Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea.”³ In about 400 C.E., Augustine of Hippo mentions a local dissident Christian group, the Donatists, who apparently kept Christmas festivals on December 25, but refused to celebrate the Epiphany on January 6, regarding it as an innovation. Since the Donatist group only emerged during the persecution under Diocletian in 312 C.E. and then remained stubbornly attached to the practices of that moment in time, they seem to represent an older North African Christian tradition.

In the East, January 6 was at first not associated with the magi alone, but with the Christmas story as a whole.

So, almost 300 years after Jesus was born, we finally find people observing his birth in midwinter. But how had they settled on the dates December 25 and January 6?

There are two theories today: one extremely popular, the other less often heard outside scholarly circles (though far more ancient).⁴

The most loudly touted theory about the origins of the Christmas date(s) is that it was borrowed from pagan celebrations. The Romans had their mid-winter Saturnalia festival in late December; barbarian peoples of northern and western Europe kept holidays at similar times. To top it off, in 274 C.E., the Roman emperor Aurelian established a feast of the birth of Sol Invictus (the Unconquered Sun), on December 25. Christmas, the argument goes, is really a spin-off from these pagan solar festivals. According to this theory, early Christians deliberately chose these dates to encourage the spread of Christmas and Christianity throughout the Roman world: If Christmas looked like a pagan holiday, more pagans would be open to both the holiday and the God whose birth it celebrated.

Despite its popularity today, this theory of Christmas’s origins has its problems. It is not found in any ancient Christian writings, for one thing. Christian authors of the time do note a connection between the solstice and Jesus’ birth: The church father Ambrose (c. 339–397), for example, described Christ as the true sun, who outshone the fallen gods of the old order. But early Christian writers never hint at any recent calendrical engineering; they clearly don’t think the date was chosen by the church. Rather they see the coincidence as a providential sign, as natural proof that God had selected Jesus over the false pagan gods.

It’s not until the 12th century that we find the first suggestion that Jesus’ birth celebration was deliberately set at the time of pagan feasts. A marginal note on a manuscript of the writings of the Syriac biblical commentator Dionysius bar-Salibi states that in ancient times the Christmas holiday was actually shifted from January 6 to December 25 so that it fell on the same date as the pagan Sol Invictus holiday.⁵ In the 18th and 19th centuries, Bible scholars spurred on by the new study of comparative religions latched on to this idea.⁶ They claimed that because the early Christians didn’t know when Jesus was born, they simply assimilated the pagan solstice festival for their own purposes, claiming it as the time of the Messiah’s birth and celebrating it accordingly.

More recent studies have shown that many of the holiday’s modern trappings do reflect pagan customs borrowed much later, as Christianity expanded into northern and western Europe. The Christmas tree, for example, has been linked with late medieval druidic practices. This has only encouraged modern audiences to assume that the date, too, must be pagan.

There are problems with this popular theory, however, as many scholars recognize. Most significantly, the first mention of a date for Christmas (c. 200) and the earliest celebrations that we know about (c. 250–300) come in a period when Christians were not borrowing heavily from pagan traditions of such an obvious character.

Granted, Christian belief and practice were not formed in isolation. Many early elements of Christian worship—including eucharistic meals, meals honoring martyrs and much early Christian funerary art—would have been quite comprehensible to pagan observers. Yet, in the first few centuries C.E., the persecuted Christian minority was greatly concerned with distancing itself from the larger, public pagan religious observances, such as sacrifices, games and holidays. This was still true as late as the violent persecutions of the Christians conducted by the Roman emperor Diocletian between 303 and 312 C.E.

This would change only after Constantine converted to Christianity. From the mid-fourth century on, we do find Christians deliberately adapting and Christianizing pagan festivals. A famous proponent of this practice was Pope Gregory the Great, who, in a letter written in 601 C.E. to a Christian missionary in Britain, recommended that local pagan temples not be destroyed but be converted into churches, and that pagan festivals be celebrated as feasts of Christian martyrs. At this late point, Christmas may well have acquired some pagan trappings. But we don’t have evidence of Christians adopting pagan festivals in the third century, at which point dates for Christmas were established. Thus, it seems unlikely that the date was simply selected to correspond with pagan solar festivals.

The December 25 feast seems to have existed before 312—before Constantine and his conversion, at least. As we have seen, the Donatist Christians in North Africa seem to have know it from before that time. Furthermore, in the mid- to late fourth century, church leaders in the eastern Empire concerned themselves not with introducing a celebration of Jesus’ birthday, but with the addition of the December date to their traditional celebration on January 6.⁷

There is another way to account for the origins of Christmas on December 25: Strange as it may seem, the key to dating Jesus’ birth may lie in the dating of Jesus’ death at Passover. This view was first suggested to the modern world by French scholar Louis Duchesne in the early 20th century and fully developed by American Thomas Talley in more recent years.⁸ But they were certainly not the first to note a connection between the traditional date of Jesus’ death and his birth.

Around 200 C.E. Tertullian of Carthage reported the calculation that the 14th of Nisan (the day of the crucifixion according to the Gospel of John) in the year Jesus died^c was equivalent to March 25 in the Roman (solar) calendar.⁹ March 25 is, of course, nine months before December 25; it was later recognized as the Feast of the Annunciation—the commemoration of Jesus’ conception.¹⁰ Thus, Jesus was believed to have been conceived and crucified on the same day of the year. Exactly nine months later, Jesus was born, on December 25.^d

This idea appears in an anonymous Christian treatise titled On Solstices and Equinoxes, which appears to come from fourth-century North Africa. The treatise states: “Therefore our Lord was conceived on the eighth of the kalends of April in the month of March [March 25], which is the day of the passion of the Lord and of his conception. For on that day he was conceived on the same he suffered.”¹¹ Based on this, the treatise dates Jesus’ birth to the winter solstice.

Augustine, too, was familiar with this association. In On the Trinity (c. 399–419) he writes: “For he [Jesus] 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 him nor since. But he was born, according to tradition, upon December the 25th.”¹²

In the East, too, the dates of Jesus’ conception and death were linked. But instead of working from the 14th of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar, the easterners used the 14th of the first spring month (Artemisios) in their local Greek calendar—April 6 to us. April 6 is, of course, exactly nine months before January 6—the eastern date for Christmas. In the East too, we have evidence that April was associated with Jesus’ conception and crucifixion. Bishop Epiphanius of Salamis writes that on April 6, “The lamb was shut up in the spotless womb of the holy virgin, he who took away and takes away in perpetual sacrifice the sins of the world.”¹³ Even today, the Armenian Church celebrates the Annunciation in early April (on the 7th, not the 6th) and Christmas on January 6.^e

Thus, we have Christians in two parts of the world calculating Jesus’ birth on the basis that his death and conception took place on the same day (March 25 or April 6) and coming up with two close but different results (December 25 and January 6).

Connecting Jesus’ conception and death in this way will certainly seem odd to modern readers, but it reflects ancient and medieval understandings of the whole of salvation being bound up together. One of the most poignant expressions of this belief is found in Christian art. In numerous paintings of the angel’s Annunciation to Mary—the moment of Jesus’ conception—the baby Jesus is shown gliding down from heaven on or with a small cross (see photo of detail from Master Bertram’s Annunciation scene); a visual reminder that the conception brings the promise of salvation through Jesus’ death.

The notion that creation and redemption should occur at the same time of year is also reflected in ancient Jewish tradition, recorded in the Talmud. The Babylonian Talmud preserves a dispute between two early-second-century C.E. rabbis who share this view, but disagree on the date: Rabbi Eliezer states: “In Nisan the world was created; in Nisan the Patriarchs were born; on Passover Isaac was born...and in Nisan they [our ancestors] will be redeemed in time to come.” (The other rabbi, Joshua, dates these same events to the following month, Tishri.)¹⁴ Thus, the dates of Christmas and Epiphany may well have resulted from Christian theological reflection on such chronologies: Jesus would have been conceived on the same date he died, and born nine months later.¹⁵

In the end we are left with a question: How did December 25 become Christmas? We cannot be entirely sure. Elements of the festival that developed from the fourth century until modern times may well derive from pagan traditions. Yet the actual date might really derive more from Judaism—from Jesus’ death at Passover, and from the rabbinic notion that great things might be expected, again and again, at the same time of the year—than from paganism. Then again, in this notion of cycles and the return of God’s redemption, we may perhaps also be touching upon something that the pagan Romans who celebrated Sol Invictus, and many other peoples since, would have understood and claimed for their own too.¹⁶

Notes

1. Origen, Homily on Leviticus 8.

2. Clement, Stromateis 1.21.145. In addition, Christians in Clement’s native Egypt seem to have known a commemoration of Jesus’ baptism—sometimes understood as the moment of his divine choice, and hence as an alternate “incarnation” story—on the same date (Stromateis 1.21.146). See further on this point Thomas J. Talley, Origins of the Liturgical Year, 2nd ed. (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1991), pp. 118–120, drawing on Roland H. Bainton, “Basilidian Chronology and New Testament Interpretation,” Journal of Biblical Literature 42 (1923), pp. 81–134; and now especially Gabriele Winkler, “The Appearance of the Light at the Baptism of Jesus and the Origins of the Feast of the Epiphany,” in Maxwell Johnson, ed., Between Memory and Hope: Readings on the Liturgical Year (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2000), pp. 291–347.

3. The Philocalian Calendar.

4. Scholars of liturgical history in the English-speaking world are particularly skeptical of the “solstice” connection; see Susan K. Roll, “The Origins of Christmas: The State of the Question,” in Between Memory and Hope: Readings on the Liturgical Year (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2000), pp. 273–290, especially pp. 289–290.

5. A gloss on a manuscript of Dionysius Bar Salibi, d. 1171; see Talley, Origins, pp. 101–102.

6. Prominent among these was Paul Ernst Jablonski; on the history of scholarship see especially Roll, “The Origins of Christmas,” pp. 277–283.

7. For example, Gregory of Nazianzen, Oratio 38; John Chrysostom, In Diem Natalem.

8. Louis Duchesne, Origines du culte Chrétien, 5th ed. (Paris: Thorin et Fontemoing, 1925), pp. 275–279; and Talley, Origins.

9. Tertullian, Adversus Iudaeos 8.

10. There are other relevant texts for this element of argument, including Hippolytus and the (pseudo-Cyprianic) De pascha computus; see Talley, Origins, pp. 86, 90–91.

11. De solstitia et aequinoctia conceptionis et nativitatis domini nostri iesu christi et iohannis baptistae.

12. Augustine, Sermon 202.

13. Epiphanius is quoted in Talley, Origins, p. 98.

14. b. Rosh Hashanah 10b–11a.

15. Talley, Origins, pp. 81–82.

16. On the two theories as false alternatives, see Roll, “Origins of Christmas.”

^a. See Jonathan Klawans, “Was Jesus’ Last Supper a Seder?” BR 17:05.

^b. See the following BR articles: David R. Cartlidge, “The Christian Apocrypha: Preserved in Art,” BR 13:03; Ronald F. Hock, “The Favored One,” BR 17:03; and Charles W. Hedrick, “The 34 Gospels,” BR 18:03.

^c. For more on dating the year of Jesus’ birth, see Leonara Neville, “Fixing the Millennium,&rd; AO 03:01.

^d. The ancients were familiar with the 9-month gestation period based on the observance of women’s menstrual cycles, pregnancies and miscarriages.

^e. In the West (and eventually everywhere), the Easter celebration was later shifted from the actual day to the following Sunday. The insistence of the eastern Christians in keeping Easter on the actual 14th day caused a major debate within the church, with the easterners sometimes referred to as the Quartodecimans, or “Fourteenthers.”

[TheThirdRuffian]

You know, the 25th being the date of conception, and thus early fall being the date of birth makes a lot of sense:

Practical:

Shephards would be in the fields in the fall.

Historical:

This was a time of harvest and a common time for a census, as people are heading back in to batten down for the coming winter.

Mathematical:

A fall birth would give balance to a spring death (Passover), and if anything I’ve figured out about God is He is a mathematics geek who like symatry.

Theological:

The other “big” Jewish holidays other than Passover are Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur (indeed Yom Kippur being the holiest) and Rosh Hashanah being the the “new year” (talk about a time for a fresh start, huh?)

Practical:

The aforementioned Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur also necessitates some gathering together, going home, etc, which makes the general time a logical time to have a census as people head home for that sort of thing.

[TheThirdRuffian]

Yeah, I think so.

[Elsiejay]

Christian’s celebration of the Resurrection became all about baby chicks and bunnies, symbols of the spring season of fecundity (oestrus)as celebrated by pagans. Most confusing, and quite needlessly so.
Roman Catholic missionary priests have been quite adept at laying a veneer of Christian symbolism on pre-existing festivals celebrated by pagan peoples they ostensbily were trying to convert to Christianity. Celebratory parades observed by indigenous Latin American Indians and succeeding mixed breed peoples (Spanish influence) are examples.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

I think the bottom line is straightforward. First of all, that date was chosen not because it is a pagan holiday, rather it was chosen for that day for the same *reason* the pagan holidays were on that day as well. Even the author calls them “solar festivals”. So what is a solar festival?

Simply put, the winter solstice happens on December 21st, on a stable, adjusted modern calendar. But the first day most people can tell that the sun is “coming back” is on December 25th.

If you don’t know what day Jesus was born, then what better day to pick than the day when the “world is restored”, and you can tell that “light is returning to the world”? Who cares if the pagans also liked the day?

However, the stable, modern calendar is also a recent innovation, and an awful lot of thought went into figuring out how to justify all the other various historical calendars. It never did work out very well, so we are left with some good guesses.

Almost to the modern era, there was a lot of chaos in calendars. On the Julian calendar, George Washington was born 11 days earlier than on the Gregorian calendar, and it doesn’t help that his birthday is not celebrated on the actual day. Even during the Napoleonic wars, the Russians were still on the Julian calendar, so they showed up two weeks late to a major battle in 1805. That could have resulted in Napoleon being the Emperor of Europe.

If we can’t even get things orderly 200 or so years ago, what hope have we of figuring out things that happened 2000 years ago?

This is why the bottom line to this is that the days picked for holidays will be arbitrary. So the important thing is to emphasize the *purpose* of the holiday. This is what matters.

[TheThirdRuffian]

“the important thing is to emphasize the *purpose* of the holiday. This is what matters.”

I agree about 90% of that statement.

The other 10% is that I have become aware of just how much pagan influence has leaked into Christian practice, and how much effort was put into de-Jewishing Christianity (in revolt against Judaizing Christians who were still hung up on being Jewish, I know, but they went overboard).

Nothing wrong with getting the date right.

Tabernacles, Rosh Hashanah, etc are much more likely dates.

[antiRepublicrat]

I have a little problem with the whole 9 month thing. Gestation isn’t 9 months, but 40 weeks. March 25 to December 25 is less than 40 weeks. If one were to do a best-guess full-gestation birth date estimate based on a March 25 conception, the date of birth should be December 30.

[thackney]

Bookmark

[BRITinUSA]

I thought December 25th was the date when the Magi arrived at Bethlehem, some months after the actual birth...

There's some cool stuff about it at: http://www.bethlehemstar.net/

[Star Traveler]

Ummm..., the birth or conception... ?

[GLDNGUN]

Go to:

http://www.bethlehemstar.net

It's a highly detailed astronomical study of what the Star of Bethlehem actually was. There's a DVD available that I have and have viewed several times. When you realize the implications, it will literally take your breath away, as it gives just a glimpse of God's infinite intelligence.

You'll have to read the entire story or view it to fully understand, but it ends with:

On December 25 of 2 BC...Magi viewing from Jerusalem would have seen it stopped in the sky above the little town of Bethlehem.

[ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton]

Here is something that Joseph Farah wrote about it several years back. I know that is is controversial but I think it might be celebrated Dec 25 BECAUSE THAT IS THE DATE OF HIS BIRTH...

Jesus, the Lamb of God
Posted: December 24, 2001
By Joseph Farah
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=25819
Tomorrow, millions of Christians around the world celebrate the birth of the One they believe to be the Savior of the world, the Prince of Peace, the Son of God – Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus is called many things in the Bible. One of His names is the Lamb of God. And while no one is quite sure exactly when Jesus was born, I believe that name may actually lend credence to the birth date of Dec. 25.
I know what you skeptics are going to say. Dec. 25 was chosen by church leaders because it coincided with pagan festivities. It was a way of hijacking those customs and traditions – a way of redeeming them.
But hear me out. I’m going to tell you why I think Dec. 25 could well be the actual birthday of the Messiah. First, let’s review the most descriptive and familiar of the Christmas stories from the Bible.
There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.
And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years.
And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest’s office before God in the order of his course, According to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.

And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense. And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.
And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.
Luke 1:5-13 KJV

The story continues, with Zacharias remaining in the temple and fulfilling his duties as priest. Only after “the days of his ministration were accomplished” did Zacharias return home, where his wife, Elisabeth, conceived, “and hid herself five months.”
And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.
And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?
And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible.
And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her. And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda; And entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth.
And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.
Luke 1:26-44
Notice the details pointing to the approximate time when Jesus was conceived and born.
“What are you talking about, Farah?” you’re probably asking yourself.
We’ve learned that Zacharias was a priest of the course of Abia and that he fulfilled his duties before going home and impregnating his wife. In I Chronicles 24:1-10, we learn that the priestly duties were established about 1,000 years earlier. They included 24 courses and were numbered by drawing lots – 12 courses for sanctuary service and 12 for the government of the house of God.

Priests would serve during a month starting with the Hebrew months of Nisan, which can begin anytime between early March and early April. The sons of Abija, the Old Testament spelling for Abia, were in the eighth course, which would mean Zacharias would likely have ministered during the eighth month of the Hebrew calendar, starting as early as the fifth day of our month of October. That would place the likely time of John the Baptist’s conception toward the end of October.
Elisabeth then hid herself for five months. Sometime, perhaps, around March 15-April 15, the angel appeared to Mary. For the sake of argument, let’s say this happened on or about April 1. A normal gestation period of 270 days would have resulted in the birth of Jesus on or about Dec. 25.
That is a very plausible scenario. Still not convinced? How about this?
Let’s go back to Luke, Chapter 2, verse 8: “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.”
Shepherds spent the night in the fields with their sheep when the lambs are born. The mating cycle begins after June 21. The normal gestation period is five months, so the ewes start giving birth in mid-December.
And that’s where “the Lamb of God” comes into the picture. Jesus was likened to a lamb who was brought into this world to be slaughtered for our sins. Wouldn’t it make sense that He was born around the same time that the innocent little lambs were being born in the fields nearby?
The more I read the Bible, the more I am stunned by such little “coincidences.” The Bible is full of them. It makes perfect sense to me. I hope you agree.
Yet, it doesn’t really matter exactly when Jesus was born. The important thing today, as we Christians prepare to celebrate that birth, is that He was born – that He did come, that He later laid down His life for us and that He will come again.
Merry Christmas to all of you, dear readers. May the joy of His coming be with you today, tomorrow and for all eternity.

[dangus]

It never ceases how many “Christians” are so fast to join forces with atheists, pagans, and all manners of Christ-haters in hating Christmas.

Yes, it is true that the ancient Christians supposed at a date when to celebrate Christmas. But they did so for pious, sensible reasons having nothing to do with pagan celebrations.

The claim that Christmas was chosen to fall on In Sol Invictus is simply a Satanic slander. The opposite is true: Sol Invictus was celebrated in August, until moved to that year four centuries after Christ, by gnostics who wished to co-opt the Christian holiday into their pantheon. There has been some association with Sol Invictus and Christ, but this is likely a contrast, with Christ labeled the “Sun of Justice,” taking after Malachi 4:2, written centuries before Rome even adopted the worship of Sol. [”But for you who revere my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall.”]

December 25th was chosen for Christmas for two reasons:

1. While the apostles may not have known Jesus’ birthday, they certainly knew of the day he died: The day before the Pharisees’ Passover, which was the day of the Essenes’ passover. This was calculated in antiquity to have fallen on March 25th. Great prophets were said to be conceived into the afterlife (died) on the day the day they were conceived into the world. Hence, March 25th is celebrated as the Feast of the Annunciation, when Christ was conceived. December 25th is nine months later.

2. The Feast of the Dedication of the Temple celebrates the return of the Spirit of God to dwell among Men. It’s the 8th day of Passover, and falls on the 25th of the month closest to December (Kislev). Christ declared that He was the Temple of the Living God. He traveled to Jerusalem at the time of the Feast of the Dedication in each of his three-year ministry. (In fact, that’s about the only basis for suggesting his ministry lasted three years.)

It makes sense that the Feast of the Dedication could celebrate his conception. Even if so, it’s a fine day to celebrate.

Many other arguments are quite spurious; For instance, it’s said shepherds wouldn’t be having their sheep out to pasture. But that’s based on weather we have now. During the Roman Warm Period, the existence of weather warm enough to pasture sheep is hardly proof that an event couldn’t fall on the 25th of Kislev, especially since 25 Kislev could be as early as mid-November.

[Quix]

A slight interest.

Not a high priority.

Thx.

[Vermont Lt]

I am sure that someone could eventually pin it down. But, the point of the matter is that no one can definitively tell you when this baby, born to an out of wedlock mother and his carpenter father, was exactly.

Think about it in our context. A baby is born behind a garage in a shed, because its homeless parents cannot afford rent.

Two thousand years from now will they be able to find a birth certificate? They would know that it was born during the reign of Obama. That will narrow it down to four years.....

[NeoCaveman]

Two thousand years from now will they be able to find a birth certificate? They would know that it was born during the reign of Obama. That will narrow it down to four years.....

Hell we can't even find Obama's.

:D

[Star Traveler]

You were saying ...

I am sure that someone could eventually pin it down. But, the point of the matter is that no one can definitively tell you when this baby, born to an out of wedlock mother and his carpenter father, was exactly.

Well, unless there is some undiscovered and new information that we do not have right now, I don't know how anyone could pin it down any more than it is right now. We do have a lot of clues as to the time of the year, but I don't think that's ever going to get us close to a particular day of the year.

And there are reasons why God left some details out, while including other details, in the Bible.

---

Think about it in our context. A baby is born behind a garage in a shed, because its homeless parents cannot afford rent.

I don't think that those parents were ever really "homeless" though. I mean, being unable to find location accommodations on a trip that one is making is hardly being homeless... :-)

They had a home before they left on the trip and they had a home after they made the trip. The crowded "inn conditions" at that particular time, hardly makes one homeless. They were unable to come up with the kind of accommodations that they had sought at the time, as that was all they could find, but to say that they were homeless is to depict them in a light that they really weren't in, in their situation.

But, aside from the issue of "homeless," it wouldn't bear on the date of the Messiah of Israel's birth.

It seems fairly clear to me that the general time period of the 25th of Kislev being the time of conception, would fit very well what we know of the situation.

[count-your-change]

The Saturnalia and Sol Invictus celebrations dressed up as a Christian holiday.

[BGHater]

‘A baby is born behind a garage in a shed, because its homeless parents cannot afford rent.’

In order for for Joseph and Mary to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem required a SUV. They at least had a donkey, camel etc. for the travel.

Those were not cheap. Joseph had more money than people let on.

[SunkenCiv]

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[Monkey Face]

Don’t get me started on this. I could offer more ‘splainin’ than Lucy bargained for!!