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MYTH: Too cold for shepherds to Tend Flocks in December
https://jesus-reasonforseason.com ^ | Unknown | Unknown

Posted on 12/24/2021 9:09:06 PM PST by Beowulf9

Whenever discussions are started about the December 25 date used to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus, this subject typically comes up. Some will say, "It is too cold in December for the shepherds to be tending their flocks!" Some make this claim their continuing effort to discredit and mock anything associated with Christ and Christmas. Some actually believe that it must be true because December is winter and they have not looked into the subject.

(Excerpt) Read more at jesus-reasonforseason.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Education; History
KEYWORDS: christmas; jesus; shepherds
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To: Beowulf9

I dont really understand why people try so hard to figure out or argue about the date Christ was born. If it was important and God wanted us to know the date he would have revealed it in his word.

Just think how much time and energy is wasted on this subject when everyone could be speaking of things that have an impact on our salvation.


21 posted on 12/24/2021 11:43:42 PM PST by 98charlie
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To: the_daug

Rome needs its money

It is not mocking God to suggest that the day we modern humans have selected to celebrate Jesus’s birth may not be His actual birth date. There are many reasons to think it is incorrect. Doesn’t make the adoration less valid


22 posted on 12/25/2021 12:10:10 AM PST by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: Beowulf9

He was born during the census

Do we know when the Romans conducted their census


23 posted on 12/25/2021 1:04:09 AM PST by joshua c (Dump the LEFT. Cable tv, Big tech, national name brands)
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To: roving

“My understanding, he was born in the beginning of the fall”

and the Magi visited a 2 yr old not a newborn.

FWIW - Bill O’Reilly’s Killing Jesus book was well received and portrays the shear tyranny, brutality and the abject poverty endured in the region.


24 posted on 12/25/2021 1:09:40 AM PST by Clutch Martin (The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.)
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To: Beowulf9
God gave us the Feast Days He would do something Biblical so we would know what happened and when. Jesus died on Passover, buried on Unleavened Bread, Rose from the grave on First Fruits, and on Pentecost the Church was born with the giving of the Holy Spirit. On Trumpets, the Rapture will happen and the Tribulation will start. On Atonement, the earth will be Judged. Jesus was born on Tabernacles and will return for a thousand year reign on Tabernacles. This is why Jesus was named Immanuel, "or God with us" The theme of Tabernacles is JOY! Another theme for Tabernacles is "The Light of The World". Jesus said He was the Light of the World multiple times. The Water Libation is the main part of Tabernacles and the Priests retrieved water from the spring of Shilom and and mixed it with wine and dripped it on the bloody altar. John 1:14 says the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. "Dwelt" there is translated from the word "Tabernacled".

Another more difficult method of figuring out when Jesus was born is to go back to Luke 1:5 and see that Zacharias was in the Temple on the "course" of Abijah. That is the 8th course according to 1Chron 24:10.

You have to realize that ALL priests will be in the Temple on Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. All the rest of the weeks will rotate between the rest of the priests. Knowing Elizabeth got pregnant when her husband came home from service at the Temple, we know John the Baptist was born on Passover and Jesus was born 6 months later which would be on Tabernacles. Tabernacles is always around Sept./Oct. and never later.

There is no Biblical Feast day marked later than Tabernacles.

Dec 25th comes from the supposed BD of Tammuz, the supposed son of Nimrod, the originator of the Babylonian religion. The Roman church stopped observation of the Leviticus Feast Days in 325 AD at the Council of Nicaea along with changing the 4th Commandment to observe Sunday and ditch the Sabbath. They then observed Tammuz's BD and feast of Ishtar became Easter. Ezekiel 8 calls these days an abomination. Every year since the same conversations come up about "we can't know when Jesus was born" and it was to cold in December for sheep to be out. All the info is there if you just read the Scriptures. If nothing else just Google "Christmas" and read.

25 posted on 12/25/2021 1:10:13 AM PST by chuckles
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To: roving

I believe you are correct. The moment of conception, ie when Christ came to dwell among man, would have been in December.


26 posted on 12/25/2021 1:12:21 AM PST by Mr. Blond
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To: Beowulf9
Three Dog Night.

The official commentary included in the CD set Celebrate: The Three Dog Night Story, 1965–1975 states that vocalist Danny Hutton's girlfriend, actress June Fairchild (best known as the "Ajax Lady" from the Cheech and Chong movie Up In Smoke) suggested the name after reading a magazine article about Aboriginal Australians, in which it was explained that on cold nights they would customarily sleep in a hole in the ground while embracing a dingo, a native species of wild dog. On colder nights they would sleep with two dogs and, if the night were freezing, it was a "three dog night".[4]

Musician Van Dyke Parks, an arranger at Warner Bros Records, disputed the above story and claimed that he coined the name. He wrote, "I wuz nuts about Hutton's girlfriend. Quite a dancer. Yet, she didn’t read Mankind magazine, nor have an inkling of anthropology and the cold aboriginal nights that inspired my suggestion."[5]

27 posted on 12/25/2021 2:47:20 AM PST by Pollard (PureBlood -- youtube.com/watch?v=VXm0fkDituE)
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To: fidelis
That’s why they have thick wool

Why don't they shrink when caught in the rain?

28 posted on 12/25/2021 2:52:38 AM PST by Hot Tabasco (My favorite word is Tweezer)
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To: Beowulf9

Most likely born in May.

I like celebrating in December.


29 posted on 12/25/2021 3:51:31 AM PST by MayflowerMadam (When government fears the people, there is liberty.)
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To: Beowulf9

Conception-December 25, Birth Sept 29


30 posted on 12/25/2021 4:10:36 AM PST by scott says (Servant of the Living God--YHVH)
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To: 98charlie

Correct. Dec. 25th is probably NOT the day Christ was born.


31 posted on 12/25/2021 4:48:03 AM PST by Baldwin77 (Democrats CANNOT win without violence and/or cheating)
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To: Beowulf9

To those who are genuinely born-from-above, we are not worshiping a date.

We are ecstatic that Jesus came to earth to provide for our redemption.

Period.


32 posted on 12/25/2021 6:25:32 AM PST by Prov1322 (Enjoy my wife's incredible artwork at www.watercolorARTwork.com! (This space no longer for rent))
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To: Beowulf9

The White House is full of stinkin’ sheep


33 posted on 12/25/2021 6:50:02 AM PST by bunkerhill7 (That`s 464 people per square foot! Is this corrrect..it was NYC.)
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To: Nifster

Mountains? Bethlehem is in a desert. It’s not completely flat, but there are no high mountains. We would call them “hills,” even though they have names like “Mount Moriah” and the like.


34 posted on 12/25/2021 7:25:05 AM PST by Campion (What part of "shall not be infringed" don't they understand?)
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To: chuckles
Dec 25th comes from the supposed BD of Tammuz, the supposed son of Nimrod, the originator of the Babylonian religion.

Complete Hislopian nonsense. The Babylonians had their own calendar, and knew nothing of any month of "December". (Incidentally, per Josephus, the Jewish civil calendar at the time of the conquest was derived from the Babylonian calendar.)

The Roman church stopped observation of the Leviticus Feast Days in 325 AD at the Council of Nicaea along with changing the 4th Commandment to observe Sunday and ditch the Sabbath.

Gentile Christians never observed Jewish feasts in any great numbers, because they read and understood the Pauline epistles, which you evidently do not.

Nicaea had nothing to do with worshipping on Sunday, either, which was well established by that time. Even SDA scholars now admit that Sunday worship long predated Nicaea.

They then observed Tammuz's BD and feast of Ishtar became Easter.

Nicaea conducted business in Greek, not English, a language which wouldn't exist for another thousand years. They fixed the date for the holy day commemorating the Resurrection of Christ. They called that holiday PASCHA. Does that sound anything like "Ishtar" to you? It shouln't, because it had nothing to do with her.

I'm sorry you believe such ahistorical made-up garbage, but that's what it is.

35 posted on 12/25/2021 7:40:55 AM PST by Campion (What part of "shall not be infringed" don't they understand?)
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To: 98charlie

From what I have come to understand is that taxes were paid in the spring season of the year. That is why Mary and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem.


36 posted on 12/25/2021 7:49:58 AM PST by eastforker (All in, I'm all Trump,what you got!)
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To: Campion

The low in Bethlehem yesterday and today was in the thirties

They didn’t have Lands End equipment


37 posted on 12/25/2021 8:52:34 AM PST by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: Campion
They then observed Tammuz's BD and feast of Ishtar became Easter.

“Nicaea conducted business in Greek, not English, a language which wouldn't exist for another thousand years. They fixed the date for the holy day commemorating the Resurrection of Christ. They called that holiday PASCHA. Does that sound anything like "Ishtar" to you? It shouln't, because it had nothing to do with her”.

———————————-

LOL! Exactly. This is the one that always makes me roll my eyes because it is a polemic that only sounds good in the English speaking world because that’s the only place it’s called “Easter” (taken from the Old English word for the month of April). Almost every place else—including ROME— it’s called Pascha or some variation of it.

38 posted on 12/25/2021 10:17:52 AM PST by fidelis (Ecce Crucem Domini! Fugite partes adversae! Vicit Leo de tribu Juda, Radix David! Alleluia! )
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To: 98charlie

The article is just simply mentioning the fact that Bethlehem is not so cold in December that shepherds don’t guard the sheep.

I thought about it because I often check temperatures in places my family live back east, or here to see what the temp might be on a certain day.

It occurred to me when I saw someone once again make this argument and so I looked up the temp in Bethlehem and saw on that day it was 55. I live in phoenix and the temps here are said to be like over there and I also thought gee, if sheep all are outside without a shepherd what kind of minding the flock is that and looked it up on the net.

People will want to know the truth of the historical events of every kind. I don’t understand someone arguing they should not be curious. There is nothing wrong with getting to the bottom of something.

I don’t even think the whole shepherd thing is much evidence regarding Christmas, whether it’s the real date or not. It’s not a big factor. But to realize this idea that shepherds aren’t out there when they are is false. That needs to be pointed out. To know the truth of something is a valid concern. To not seek truth is to be content in blindness.

I see this idea that there were no shepherds in the field cause it was too cold therefore Jesus could not be born in December every year. It’s wrong. There were. But it does not mean he was born in December, it just means that whole thing about no shepherds out there because ‘too cold’ needs to be shelved.


39 posted on 12/25/2021 10:20:35 AM PST by Beowulf9
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To: joshua c

That’s a good thought.


40 posted on 12/25/2021 10:29:18 AM PST by Beowulf9
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