But could December 25 be the date of Christ's birth? A careful analysis of Scripture, however, clearly indicates that December 25 couldn’t be the date for Christ’s birth. If Jesus Christ wasn’t born on December 25, does the Bible indicate when He was born?.
Table of contents
- Was Jesus Born on December 25
- Was Jesus born on December 25? Is December 25 Jesus' birthday?
- The Date of Christmas
How they got there reveals much about the young religion.
- When was Jesus Born? Is Dec. 25 Birthday Real?;
- Spiritual Shakespeares (Accents on Shakespeare).
- When Was Jesus Born and Why Do We Celebrate on December 25th??
- Was Jesus Born on December 25.
- The Lid!
- Seven Letters to Seven Churches: Lessons from the Book of Revelation;
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So why did the Roman Church adopt 25 December? Did they adopt Saturnalia, a Roman festival of gift-giving and feasting that was celebrated in December? Saturnalia was celebrated earlier in December and Christian writers don't mention adapting their calendar to fit in with it. Pagan revelry was adopted later. Did they adopt the Roman sun god, Sol Invictus, and simply replace Sol with Jesus as the 'light of the world'? Debate about 25 December preceded Rome's adoption of Christianity, so it wasn't where the date came from. But it could be why Roman Christians then favoured it.
Was Jesus Born on December 25
Early Christians were steeped in theology, using reason to increase their grasp of their religion. They would have had a rationale for picking 25 December. Early Christians mined the scriptures for symbolic meaning as well as facts. Could this have influenced their choice for Christmas? Christian authors writing in the 3rd Century were exploring theological arguments for when Jesus might have been conceived and therefore born nine months later.
Was Jesus born on December 25? Is December 25 Jesus' birthday?
This festival remembers when the Jews had escaped from slavery in Egypt about years before Jesus was born. Lots of lambs would have been needed during the Passover Festival, to be sacrificed in the Temple in Jerusalem. Jews from all over the Roman Empire traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival, so it would have been a good time for the Romans to take a census. Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem for the census Bethlehem is about six miles from Jerusalem. It's the festival that's mentioned the most times in the Bible!
It is when Jewish people remember that they depended on God for all they had after they had escaped from Egypt and spent 40 years in the desert. It also celebrates the end of the harvest. During the festival, Jews live outside in temporary shelters the word 'tabernacle' come from a latin word meaning 'booth' or 'hut'. Many people who have studied the Bible, think that Sukkot would be a likely time for the birth of Jesus as it might fit with the description of there being 'no room in the inn'.
It wouldn't have been practical for Joseph and Mary to carry their own shelter as Mary was pregnant. The possibilities for the Star of Bethlehem seems to point either spring or autumn. The possible dating of Jesus birth can also be taken from when Zechariah who was married to Mary's cousin Elizabeth was on duty in the Jewish Temple as a Priest and had an amazing experience.
There is an excellent article on the dating of Christmas based on the dates of Zechariah's experience, on the blog of theologian, Ian Paul. With those dates, you get Jesus being born in September - which also fits with Sukkot! The year that Jesus was born isn't known. The calendar system we have now was created in the 6th Century by a monk called Dionysius Exiguus.
He was actually trying to create a better system for working out when Easter should be celebrated, based on a new calendar with the birth of Jesus being in the year 1. However, he made a mistake in his maths and so got the possible year of Jesus's birth wrong! Before Dionysius's new calendars, years were normally dated from the reigns of Roman Emperors.
The new calendar became more widely used from the 8th Century when the 'Venerable Bede of Northumbria' used it in his 'new' history book! There is no year '0'. At that time in Europe, the number 0 didn't exist in maths - it only arrived in Europe in the 11th to 13th centuries! So whenever you celebrate Christmas, remember that you're celebrating a real event that happened about years ago, that God sent his Son into the world as a Christmas present for everyone! As well as Christmas and the solstice, there are some other festivals that are held in late December.
Hanukkah is celebrated by Jews; and the festival of Kwanzaa is celebrated by some Africans and African Americans takes place from December 26th to January 1st. Virtually every month on the calendar has been proposed by biblical scholars. So why do we celebrate his birth in December? The tradition for December 25th is actually quite ancient.
Hippolytus, in the second century A. Meanwhile, in the Eastern Church, January 6th was the date followed.
But in the fourth century, John Chrysostom argued that December 25th was the correct date and from that day till now, the Church in the East, as well as the West, has observed the 25th of December as the official date of Christ's birth. Though it may sound strange to our modern minds, it is likely that early Christians did not place any particular value on birthdays. This makes it hard to conclude when Jesus was really born. As we know, with time, the Western date prevailed and helped to determine the Sunday on which to celebrate Easter. It is a belief that the life of a Jewish prophet began and ended on the same day.
A third century Christian, Sextus Julius Africanus, added an interesting component to this theory. His case proves to be of particular relevance, because if Christ was conceived on March 25th, he would have been born 9 months later on December 25th, the date on which our discussion is focused. Interestingly, the Church later recognized March 25th as the Annunciation the date that Gabriel appeared to Mary to announce the birth of Christ and also believed to be the moment of conception notice the pro-life implications and December 25th as the birthday of Christ.
Most Christians assume that the Annunciation was determined by taking the date of Christmas and counting back nine months.
The Date of Christmas
On the contrary, it was probably the reverse. Jerome AD , an early church scholar, appealed to this symbolism to defend December 25 as the date of the Nativity: Up to this day, darkness increases; from this day on, it decreases; light increases, darkness decreases. However, it is equally possible that Aurelian was attempting to co-opt a date that already had significance for believers.
Aurelian decided to seize on an opportunity to bring a monotheistic cult to the Roman Empire, and it is likely that his motivation was to compete with Christianity — a growing monotheistic religion that he saw as a threat to the empire. It appears that the primary goal of the Church was to determine an appropriate date — one that Christians expected to be rich in symbolism.
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In modern times, the traditional date has been challenged. Modern scholars point out that when Jesus was born, shepherds were watching their sheep in the hills around Bethlehem.