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| Should Christians Celebrate Christmas? PART 2 |
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| Written by David Gaddy | |||
| Tuesday, 15 December 2009 13:25 | |||
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Part 2: Jeremiah and the Christmas Trees
As we saw in our first article, most of the supposed origins of Christmas traditions (whether we know it or not) come from Alexander Hislop's book, "The Two Babylons" (1853) which used very large leaps of logic to link traditional practices to pagan roots based solely on perceived similarities in practices. There is in fact, very little concrete historical evidence that some of these specific pagan practices even existing. If these practices did exist, Hislop failed to provide the exact ties binding them to the modern Christmas traditions. Instead he speculated that they must've come from Babylon simply because of noted similarities. The Christmas tree was one direct target. In Hislop's book, he attempted to tie any pagan practice involving trees to the Christmas tree specifically. This is simply not good history. His references to the palm trees used by Roman pagans does not substantiate a relationship to Christmas trees. There is a lot of talk in his book concerning the word "yule" in relationship with the Christmas tree because of the old traditions of burning a "yule-log" and replacing it in the morning with the Christmas tree. The word "yule", in norse means "wheel", however Hislop claimed it came from an older Chaldean word, "eol" which is Chaldee for infant or child. There is no historic evidence to link "eol" to "yule" at all, but Hislop assumed they were synonymous, therefore the burning of the yule-log was a symbol of child sacrifice by fire. This also allows him to tie in the supposed worship of Tammuz, the child God who dies and is resurrected every year (hence, the burned log becomes a trimmed tree). Even if yule did mean child or infant, it still makes sense if the focus was on Jesus' birth instead of child sacrifice. Other uses of the word like "yuletide joy", do not imply child sacrifice. The yule seems be honored in this phrase. The facts are, the origin of these traditions remains a mystery. Since the time of Hislop, these claims have been passed around so much, they have started to be accepted as fact. So much so, that now many of us may know these stories and do not even know who Alexander Hislop was. People have taken these theories as fact and have used scriptures to try and bolster the claims. To drive the point home, Jeremiah 10 is often quoted as proof that Babylon was using the Christmas tree and that God condemned the practice. First let's look at the passage in question: "Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good." -Jeremiah 10:1-5 Sounds like a Christmas tree right? And God is clearly condemning the practice mentioned here through his prophet Jeremiah. There are several problems with this interpretation. First, it is out of context. Jeremiah was God's prophet living in Jerusalem during the occupation of their land by the Babylonians. His goal was to convince the Jews that their oppression by the Babylonians was by God's spoken design and to help them refrain from the practices of the Babylonian religion. Now regardless of what Alexander Hislop said in "The Two Babylons", there is no historical evidence that the Christmas Tree originated in Babylon. The custom of erecting a Christmas tree can be traced to 16th century Northern Germany, though neither an inventor nor a single town can be identified as the sole origin for the tradition. The custom appears to have come from Christians who first decorated trees to represent the Tree of Life in combination with another tradition of decorating corner shelves with ornaments and a star on top in honor of the Star of Bethlehem. This is some 2000 years after the days of Jeremiah. So, if the Christmas tree originated in the 16th century, then what is Jeremiah condemning? Let's look at the text closer and pull in some surrounding verses. Some of the confusion is in the wording. If we look at the original language for help we can see it more clearly. For example in verse 3 the term "workman" is not a lumber-jack, he is an artisan or a wood-carver. The word "axe" is used here in reference to a carving tool. So verse 3 tells us that a tree from a forest is carved into a work of art. In verse 4, they deck it with silver and gold. This is not a reference to tinsel. It is talking about pliable metal being molded around the carving. The hammers and nails are not fastening the tree to a stand so the tree doesn't move, they are fastening the gold and silver onto the carving so the gold and silver doesn't move. But verse 5 is the most telling in this passage. The result stands upright like a man would but has no power to speak. It has to be carried because it can not walk and it cannot do good or evil. Why? Because it is simply a carving of wood. This entire passage is talking about the construction of idols to be worshipped, not tree decorating. Verse 5 implies that the final result has the image of a living entity, not simply a tree with ornaments on it. If we continue reading, the rest of the passage confirms this. Verse 9: "Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of cunning men." So the silver for this work is in plates (to be pounded onto the idol with a hammer). The gold is there by the hands of an artisan. The result is the work of cunning men (talented artists). And verse 11 drives the point further by tying this work to false gods: "Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens." Then verse 14-15 tell us in no uncertain terms that Jeremiah is talking about idols (graven images): "Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish." In short, Jeremiah 10, like many other passages in the Bible is simply condemning idol worship and has absolutely no reference at all to Christmas trees. We have simply projected that image upon the text because the wording of the text sounded familiar to us, even though Jeremiah had never seen a Christmas tree in his life. In fact, no one did until 2000 years or so later. Hislop never even used this passage to make his point, and you'd think he would have if it were condemning Christmas trees. In the 1966 book, "Babylon Mystery Religion" by Ralph Woodrow, Woodrow mentions it to make his point against Christmas trees, but then he admits it is simply a reference to idol worship. He would later expound of the improper use of this passage in his later book, "The Babylon Connection?". To be continued... Part 3: Jesus wasn't even born on Christmas Day.
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