Posted on 12/09/2004 12:14:02 PM PST by AnalogReigns
These days its routine to hear from multiple sources the almost flipant dismissal that "of course Jesus wasn't born on Christmas!" or "everyone knows Jesus must have been born in August." or "He had to have been born in the Spring" or any number of speculative prognostifications serving to spoil the season. I've even heard this from the pulpit ... in evangelical churches no less "we know that Jesus wasn't born in December, but its a time to celebrate Advent anyway..."
The fact of the matter though, the historical record is anything but clear when Jesus "had to be born." The Gospel accounts simply do not say. Yes, you can date Jesus birth from the conception of John the Baptist in Luke--where his father was serving in the temple...but that could be any of various times of the year--burning of incense was a regular part of Jewish temple worship. All the arguments AGAINST a Dec. 25 birthday are just that, only arguments and definitely speculative. Even today (depending on the weather) you will find shepherds in Israel out of doors in late December (contrary popular "of course..." speculative pronouncements), and yes, the Romans took censuses even in winter--didn't HAVE to be harvest time.
Yes, the Constantine's Church took over the pagan Saturnalia, and yes, pagan societies have winter solstice celebrations. So what? That doesn't prove Jesus COULD NOT have been born then.
Honestly, I find it perverse people work so hard to say that the 1700+ year old virtually universal Christian tradition HAS to be wrong...taking the magic out of Christmas.
The historical record simply does not say when the first Christmas was....but it doesn't tell us it was NOT in late December. When tradition isn't proven wrong, by history or scripture, I think its a sin to question it.
KEEP CHRISTMAS AT CHRISTMAS!!!!
> When tradition isn't proven wrong, by history or scripture, I think its a sin to question it.
WOW. A sin to question the unknown.
Fundamentally it is a day chosen to remember and celebrate Christ's birth -- God's gift of grace. The particular day we do that is largely irrelevant.
And history is pretty clear on how Christmas came to be celebrated on Dec. 25.
Moreover, does it really matter? No.
Just another step towards eliminating Christmas (except as a secular shopping "holiday").
I can't see that it matters.
Yeah, to me it doesn't really matter about the timing of birth, but more so with the sacrifice at "death".
That seems kind of dumb, to me. Of course there's a non-zero chance that He was born on December 25, but there's nothing substantive to support that. It's like insisting that you can't prove Jesus wasn't entirely bald. So what?
(sigh) There you go again...
I don't care what day of the week, month or year He was born. I don't care if he was born in Bethlehem, Jerusalem or Duluth. I'm just glad and grateful He was born. :o)
From what I read, December 25th was agreed upon long ago, but I don' thing there was specific dates recored. Maybe the season of the year was determined, but that was it.
The recognition of God is what is important, and though we may pay particular attention to Christ's birth on Christmas and His resurrection on Easter, everyday should be a day of reflection and appreciation.
Jesus never asked us to celebrate his birth. So, I don't think he cares when we do it.
don' thing is "don't think"
Pardon me, but Jesus died to take away our sins...not our minds.
LOL
Of course, Mithraism was very popular in the Roman empire at about the time Christ was born ...
Amen to that!
It would be interesting to find any references to the birth of Jesus being around the time for Chunnukah. I always liked that Jesus was the 49th decendant of King David, thus making Jesus King of the Jews. Mr. Sinai dots all the i's.
Pardon my incensitivity, but was there really any incentive to burn incenses during that census?
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