A blanket of snow covers the little town of Bethlehem, in Pieter Bruegel’s oil painting from 1566. Although Jesus’ birth is celebrated every year on December 25, Luke and the other gospel writers offer no hint about the specific time of year he was born. Scala/Art Resource, NY
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
Learn more about the history of Christmas and the date of Jesus’ birth in the free e-book The First Christmas: The Story of Jesus’ Birth in History and Tradition.
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 mid-winter. 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 known 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.
The baby Jesus flies down from heaven on the back of a cross, in this detail from Master Bertram’s 14th-century Annunciation scene. Jesus’ conception carried with it the promise of salvation through his death. It may be no coincidence, then, that the early church celebrated Jesus’ conception and death on the same calendar day: March 25, exactly nine months before December 25. Kunsthalle, Hamburg/Bridgeman Art Library, NY
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 diedc 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 above 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,” 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.”
Warden and President of Trinity College at the University of Melbourne, Australia, Andrew McGowan’s work on early Christianity includes God in Early Christian Thought (Brill, 2009) and Ascetic Eucharists: Food and Drink in Early Christian Ritual Meals (Oxford, 1999).
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M> So why not keep to the vernacular with BJ/AJ?
R> I still say it’s because we don’t know what year Jesus was born. The problem is that if we lock on to a year like 1 AD for example and we find out that Jesus was born in a different year, then all the dates need to be resynchronized. Once we pick a year, it’s locked in until we rewrite the calendar. Or do we just pick 1 AD and stick with it regardless of the actual year Jesus was born? What’s the point of ‘making’ Jesus’s birth in 1 AD if we reference the wrong year? It’s because we don’t know the year that CE and BCE (Common Era and Before the Common Era) is the most honest or accurate representation.
M> And since God’s record of the birth and death of Jesus and JB is available to us all without number crunching; we can reasonably expect even Benedict XVI to confirm them.
R> we had to number crunch to get the day of the year (according to Luke’s gospel). But we still don’t know the year. I say it must be 8/7 BCE based on the lustrum conducted by Augustus. Should 1 BJ = 9 BCE and 1 AJ = 8 BCE? Then (again) do we rewrite every history book? Or do we just say its 2012 AJ and not really care if it references the correct year?
It’s like putting the baby in the manger in December. As we have demonstrated, according to Luke the baby isn’t due to be in the manger for another 9 months (or so).
If we actually could demonstrate there was a single individual named Jesus who fits the criteria put forth in the four gospels, and we knew the year this individual was born, then we could reference our calendar to this individual. But not even the churches agree with this among themselves, let alone any historical reference. Also ‘BJ’ doesn’t jibe with modern English, anybody who has ever seen a PG rated movie would snicker. Even using the term, ‘Before the Messiah’ is problematic (BM).
12-21-2012 and still goin’ strong
Peace,
Rose
I think the most important thing here should be the significant,value or important behind or attached to the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Which i sum up to be under 3 captions,namely;Incarnation,Redemption and Adoption.Thanks!Let these values be real in your LIFE,Selah!
I think the date should not be too much of a concern rather the important or significant behind or attached to Jesus’ birth. To me its the values behind these are Incarnation,Adoption and Redemption.Let these values be real in your LIFE. Selah! Thanks.
L> I think the date should not be too much of a concern
R> so true for the Jesus of ones heart. But then there’s the Jesus of history, and the Jesus of the Bible, and the Jesus of the Church.
Maikel helped us see that Luke’s Jesus was born on the Day of Atonement or autumn equinox. This would explain the virgin birth as its in the month of Virgo.
Peace
i can see contradiction in there. xmas is a date picked out of the blue. much later they claim that the day he was conceived relates to the day of death. so after the fact they try to prove it. facts are seen. facts are ignored. writing a book is like writing on the Internet. not all can be true. most expresses views and opinions. to fit in and spread any religion has to be familiar. a woman 9 months pregnant in the dead of winter? traveling hundreds of miles? would you do that to someone you loved?
R> I still say it’s because we don’t know what year Jesus was born.
M> But we do, It’s 5BC.
R> all the dates need to be resynchronized
M> But it’s not necessary to change the calendar which is only a relative measure.
R> we had to number crunch to get the day of the year (according to Luke’s gospel).
M> But not with a computer surely?
R> But we still don’t know the year.
M> But we do 5 BC.
R> I say it must be 8/7 BCE based on the lustrum conducted by Augustus.
M> Not according to the gospel of Luke and confirmed by the scientific record.
R> Then (again) do we rewrite every history book? Or do we just say its 2012 AJ and not really care if it references the correct year?
M> No need to because as you say you can reference the correct year as we are now doing.
BJ and AJ, like Luke’s 30 years, do not require that they be exact. They refer to the era of Jesus that is surely more authentic than the so-called ‘common era’, which is
‘common’ only for Christians.
R> It’s like putting the baby in the manger in December.
M> Not so. This is a seasonal thing AND it is date sensitive.
R> If we actually could demonstrate there was a single individual named Jesus who fits the criteria put forth in the four gospels,
M> This claim is confirmed by the historical and scientific record
R> and we knew the year this individual was born, then we could reference our calendar to this individual.
M> But we already have so refernced, even without knowing the date of his birth.
R>But not even the churches agree with this among themselves, let alone any historical reference.
M> Which only confirms that these churches have failed to honour God as the Primal One.
And also failed to demonstrate that Religion is the Process by which Science and its numerical language validate the existence of the MInd of God in Us.
R>Also ‘BJ’ doesn’t jibe with modern English, anybody who has ever seen a PG rated movie would snicker. Even using the term, ‘Before the Messiah’ is problematic (BM).
M> Please explain as I don’t like Messiah either.
D> so after the fact they try to prove it.
M> and in so doing dumb down God by ignoring the scientific record.
D> a woman 9 months pregnant in the dead of winter? traveling hundreds of miles? would you do that to someone you loved?
M> too true! this is just Luke’s PC journey that like Matthew’s is not confirmed by the scientific record.
Although the dates and the savagery of Herod even to his own children are.
I Think the date When Jesus was born does make a diffrence.I think the Lord our God does not want us to celebrate our Savior`s BIRTH with a pagan holiday.
I have to point out that having an occasional belated birthday is not really the same thing as what your describing. If you don’t believe me why don’t you try this experiment, every year on your wife’s, mom’s brother’s sister’s birthday (pick one) you decide that you will celebrate YOUR birthday. Furthermore, tell him/her that every year everyone will sing only to you, honor only you and that person’s birthday will have to be put aside and never talked about again. Let me know how that works out.
Anything that did not come from faith is a sin, why celebrating what Christ did not command, it is time for us to wake from our slumber, if you didn’t abide in His doctrine, you did not have God. 2 Jn 9.
Voir mon article en français :
“Le méridien de Jérusalem” http://tinyurl.com/dydsen7
amazing how people manage the Time, the Space of Time: TO precize the datum of Christ’s Birth day took near 4centuries…It means, in France, my country: from Henri the 4th till Now……
The way people conceive “Time and truth” seems appalling…
I’ve also always wondered about Christmas being on 25 December and Hanukah being on 25 Kislev. I’ve never found a connection, but who knows?
There is absolutely no historical evidence to suggest that he was even born or existed. Please note, I said “historical”, not Biblical. Bit weird don’t you think for such an Historical event. As for his birth date. No mention in the Bible. Again, bit weird eh. The whole thing was just cooked up as a convenience, simple as that. Read your “history”
))))
Regarding the connection of Jesus’ death and his Immaculate conception…In Revelation, Jesus says he is the alpha and the omega – the beginning and the end. These things are equal. He has no beginning or ending – envision a circle. If you pick one point as his death, that same point is his beginning. Add nine months to that and you arrive at December.
think of john and his conception, since he was born 3 months before jesus……
http://cantuar.blogspot.com/2012/12/yes-christ-was-really-born-on-december.html
lisa>since he was born 3 months before jesus……
m> how about 6?
albert>These things are equal….
envision a circle. If you pick one point as his death, that same point is his beginning.
m> agreed; but as equal and opposite. So if Jesus dies in March he is born September;
albert>Add nine months to that and you arrive at December
m> for his conception.
brian> no historical evidence… he was even born or existed. Please note, I said “historical”, not Biblical
m> this is not true
brian>As for his birth date. No mention in the Bible.
m> not directly; but indirectly ,for the claims made by Luke re the chronology of Jesus’ conception and infancy are verifiable in the cosmic record.
brian>The whole thing was just cooked up as a convenience, simple as that.
m> it is agreed that the infancy narratives of Jesus by Matthew and Luke are devised so as to fulfil messianic expectations, but this does not affect their intrinsic validity as biographical records with an authentic chronology.
rabbi> wondered about Christmas being on 25 December and Hanukah being on 25 Kislev. I’ve never found a connection
m> the connection is that after the destruction of the 2nd Temple in 70 AD, the Christians could ‘claim’ that the resurrected Jesus was the indestructible and purified 3rd Temple, and also symbolizing: a New Day of Atonement.
Cj>I Think the date When Jesus was born does make a diference.I think the Lord our God does not want us…
m> but not because of God; rather because of it showing our natural affinity with cosmic record in which ALL Creation participates
“…; in the cold month of December, on the other hand, sheep might well have been corralled.”
Today, in Romania, I saw several shepherds keeping watch over there flocks in the fields, over one thousand miles north of Bethlehem.
And Christ was born during the Roman Warm Period.
This is a rather confused account.
The story usually given in catechesis in the Eastern churches is that Epiphany is the original Eastern feast, which celebrated not Jesus’ birth per se but the entire mystery of the Incarnation, from his birth to his public revelation as the Son of God at his baptism in the Jordan. It was observed in the East. At the same time, the Church of Rome developed Christmas as an observance specifically of Jesus’ birth. At an unspecified point, each tradition borrowed each others’ feast, creating an extended 12 day observance of the Incarnation.
This would tend to explain the Western North African suspicion of Epiphany as an innovation. For them, it was. In the East the innovation was Christmas, which the Armenians, at least, never took up. Most of the rest of the East shifted those features of their feast concerning Jesus’ birth — including the visit of the Magi — to 25 December.
With its original focus on the birth, the West naturally wanted to place the visit of the Magi some days afterward, hence their association with 6 January. However, Mr. McGowan’s implication that 6 January is NOW associated with the Magi in the East is false. The Magi are associated entirely with 25 December. The troparia and kontakia of the day feature them prominently. By the time you get to 6 January, the observance is entirely focused on Jesus’ *baptism* just prior to beginning his public ministry. This is why holy water is blessed on that day: the “blessing of Jordan” is felt to be particularly available.
It’s important not to confuse Epiphany (sometimes called Theophany) on 6 January with the Old Calendar observance of Christmas on 7 January still used by some Orthodox churches. That’s a difference in reckoning, not days assigned to feasts. 25 December on the old Julian calendar falls on 7 January on the modern Gregorian. If you go into a Russian church on the evening of 6 January, you will indeed hear singing about the Magi — but for them it’s Christmas Eve, not the eve of Epiphany. Julian calendar Epiphany, which occurs as always on 6 January, falls on 19 January of the Gregorian calendar.
michael> And Christ was born during the Roman Warm Period. Today, in Romania…
m. but according to tv news, it’s back again today in Germany ?
chris>This is a rather confused account.
m> thank you for so clarifying it and as such confusion is is usually overlooked or made even more confusing, perhaps mr mcgowan would consider incorporating your facts in his article as a footnote?
the BAR editor should also take note.
First we have to get something right, a messiah was born. Before emperor constatan became a christian, December 25 was a pagan date(holiday). Biblically, the first time that time line was celebrated as an holiday was during king Jeroboam. In actual fact, the messiah was conceived in December, follow the accounts in Luke and Matthew, 9 months after he was born, around september(popularly called Feast of Tabernacles) by the Jewish. He died around March(celebrated by the jews and christians as passover and Feast of unleavened bread), the bible is compact from the begining to the end if only we allow it to talk to us and we don’t give our own meanings or interpretations. December 25 remains a pagan date and a pagan holiday, and the activities involved on that day only confirms it. Let’s not deceive ourself. For more information on indept knowlege, catch me on michmichy2@gmail.com
michymich> First we have to get something right, a messiah was born….the bible is compact from the begining to the end if only we allow it to talk to us and we don’t give our own meanings or interpretations…. Let’s not deceive ourself
m> so simple and yet so true. would you also like to give a reference source for “indepth knowledge ” apart from your email.
it seems to me better to see what you mean before a further email discussion. you make sense so far.
sanjeev – this artical is good in bible there is no 25 december jesus birthday then why we celebrate . after jesus death his disples do what jesus tell ,jesus tell him to preach the good news of kingdom to all nation that work we have to do ,not to celebrate christmus
I like the theory of the Anninciation and Christmas…Mar 25 to Dec. 25…ity rings true for me…or as true as any theory can be.
Thanks for finally talking about >How December 25 Became Christmas – Biblical Archaeology Society <Liked it!
The popular belief has more foundation that what is mentioned here. I find it odd that shepherds were in the fields in late December… much too cold to be out and about.
Constantine was a Sun worshiper and his Sun god, Mithras whose symbol was the cross, was supposedly born on December 25th. Around 325 CE when the Nicene council was called by the Roman emperor was also about the time that the date of Jesus’s birth was established by the smaller numbered Christians of the orthodox Roman Church. The Sun god was widely worshiped in the Roman world at this time and it made sense to incorporate things about the sun god into the Christian beliefs.
For the several very good indications in the Bible of when Jesus was born (besides other related topics) see my 99¢ ebook “Christmas Constantine and the Bible” – on google, just type Roger Day Christmas, and you should see the links to it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
Peace & blessings,
-Roger Day
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Why does the church still keep the pagan days and pagan calendar? Paganism was crushed long ago. There is no point keeping the pagan days. I have learned that Jesus was probably conceived on Hanukkah (which in Jewish culture, is actually considered your birthday), came out of the womb ( “born” as we understand in our culture) on Sukkot, died on Passover and rose on First Fruits. He was Jewish, and I think that is something most Christians tend to forget. He came for Israel first! (then for everyone else…) Yes, the pagan gods are not real, but we shouldn’t be connected to them in any way (ex mithras, horus etc…) Also, I think if the church did keep the real “Holy Days” instead of “holidays”, there would be more focus on God. All most people care about is santa and presents on christmas and chocolate and the easter egg hunt. Technically, Jesus has nothing to do with santa or with rabbits. I would not call myself Messianic, simply because I am not Jewish. I am simply a Gentile Christian, but I do keep these days according to the Biblical Calendar, (not the Jewish Rabbinic calendar… that’s a whole different story) simply because I think its the right thing to do. Yes because my family has strong ties to the church, I will show up for christmas and easter with everyone else, but they aren’t as big of days for me as they were a few years ago. I guess, you could say I’m a Bible believer, and would rather stick to the Word than the traditions of the church. I don’t think Jesus came to get rid of Judaism, rather He came to get rid of Rabbinicism. He wasn’t trying to make a new religion. “I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” Fulfill in this sense is misunderstood, because I think we should still be keeping Torah. How could Jesus say I have not come to abolish, but to abolish”? It does not make sense. He then clarifies in the very next verse in Matthew that “until heaven and earth passes away not one yod or one letter will be removed from the Torah”. Well, the way I see it is, the earth is still here. We are still here. Therefore, Torah is still in effect. Jesus came to show us how to live the Torah. Not to get rid of it. He is the living Torah. Why would he get rid of something he worked so hard to create? It is like at the end of Noah’s ark when he says “I will never again destroy the world.” Why would he destroy then, the Covenant (Old Testament)? Jesus wouldn’t even be here if the Covenant didn’t happen in the first place! Also Jesus did say that the 2 greatest commandments are love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind and love your neighbor as yourself. Well, how do we love God? People say, by loving our neighbor, and that is wrong because Revelation tells us we cannot add or take away from the Word. Jesus did not say love God by loving your neighbor. The “by” is adding to the word. So therefore, how we love God is by keeping his commandments, keeping the Torah. Also, Torah is always misunderstood as “law”. Torah does not mean “law” it means “guidelines and instructions” in Hebrew sense. Sure, we cannot keep all the Torah perfectly, as Jesus was the only one who ever could, but we can at least try our best. The problem with most christians today, is that they don’t read the front of the book (especially the first 5). The Bible does not start with Matthew, it starts with Genesis, Bereshit which means “In the Beginning”. I really do think that the church should “wake up”, and start living by the Word. Also it would bring less division between christians and jews and would ultimately make for a better world. Just my thoughts…