Posted on 12/10/2008 10:51:09 AM PST by Between the Lines
It may not be too late to send the presents back, as astronomers have calculated that Christmas should not be celebrated on December 25 - but on June 17 instead.
Researchers tracked the appearance of the 'Christmas star', which the Bible states three wise men followed to find Jesus.
Australian stargazer Dave Reneke used complex computer software to chart the exact positions of all celestial bodies and map the night sky as it would have appeared over the Holy Land more than 2,000 years ago.
He discovered that a bright star really did appear over Bethlehem 2,000 years ago - but pinpointed the date of Christ's birth as June 17, and not December 25.
Scientists claim the Christmas star was most likely a magnificent conjunction of the planets Venus and Jupiter, which were so close together they would have shone unusually brightly as a single 'beacon of light' which appeared suddenly.
Mr Reneke says the wise men probably interpreted it as the sign they had been waiting for, and they followed the 'star' to Christ's birthplace in a stable in Bethlehem, as described in the Bible.
Generally accepted research has placed the nativity to somewhere between 3BC and 1AD.
Using the St Matthew's Gospel as a reference point, Mr Reneke pinpointed the planetary conjunction, which appeared in the constellation of Leo, to the exact date of June 17 in the year 2BC.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Juneteenth?!
;o)
I celebrate the birth of Jesus throughout the year.
This newscycle isn’t about the date, this is about the recognition of the event.
Its not the day he was born. Its the day we celebrate his birth.As far as I'm concerned, yours is the last word on the matter.
It was a virgin birth. Or do you have a problem with that?
Christopher Hitchens is an example of an atheism who is even in denial of the existence of Jesus. He gives more credence to the tales of King Arthur.
Simple. Keep Christmas in your heart all year long.
Happy Christmas everyone.
Somebody help me out here. If you follow a star that is in the east, don’t you have to turn around after the star passes overhead and go west until it sets. Wouldn’t that make your net progress westward for any star not on the eastern horizen at sunset? For a star on the eastern horizon, wouldn’t your progress actually be south if you are in the northern hemisphere?
The early Irish Church apparently celebrated All Saints on April 20. It was the Romans who set the date at November 1st and the Romans didn’t celebrate Samhain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Saints
Neo-pagans put out a lot of sloppy scholarship trying to take credit for feast days! :)
Let’s have a sense of humor here, it’s the middle of the work week
for home
There's also the possibility that the pagans originally stole the date from Christians. That god you are talking about was Sol Invictus, and his cult was not established at Rome until the AD 200s. It was not an old pagan holiday in Rome by any means.
Thanks but for whoever that date was being celebrated Christianity took it over ...
But the point is I don't know that it was being celebrated by anyone. I am unaware of any other earlier pagan feast on that day; Saturnalia ran from Dec. 19 to 23.
The answer lies in the pagan origins of Christmas. In ancient Babylon, the feast of the Son of Isis (Goddess of Nature) was celebrated on December 25. Raucous partying, gluttonous eating and drinking, and gift-giving were traditions of this feast. So somewhere/sometime when Christianity ruled they took that date to do away with the pagan celebrations and made it into a Christian holiday (???)
Mel Torme wrote the Christmas Song (Chestnuts roasting on an open fire) in June.
Things are already dicey for him in Australia & S. Africa this time of year.
But what is the evidence that the cult of Isis had a feast day on Dec. 25th in the Roman Empire?
Here’s the Chronography of 354:
http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/chronography_of_354_06_calendar.htm
I can see a number of days that look like they are dedicated to Isis. The “Isia” take place October 28th to November 1st. I can’t find anything here in the civil Roman calendar relating to the birth of Horus.
We have to be careful assuming that paganism was the same everywhere. It was a very local phenomenon; and what was standard in Babylon or Egypt often didn’t apply elsewhere.
Well Babylon which is in Iraq was in the influence of Rome. Rome extended from Scotland to Egypt so many forms of winter solstice celebrations happened. December 25th. was for them when the days started to get longer. It’s just that December 25th. played a part in some pagan worship ritual and Christianity took it over to celebrate the birth of Jesus. This I believe was done to overshadow any pagan celebration that occurred over the centuries ...
Any argument you can make from Scripture could have been equally offered in 350 or 250 or 150.
Your argument seems to rely on your being able to easily crack a code which earlier Christians could not. Apologies, but I don’t put that much faith in your exegesis...or mine either for that matter.
As I posted on a similar thread earlier, the irony of this article is that in order to refute the traditional December birthday, the scientists have acknowledged the existence of an actual historical Jesus Christ (i.e. JESUS WAS BORN . . . . .) Non-believers hoist once again upon their own petard.
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