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| Should Christians Celebrate Christmas? PART 3 |
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| Written by David Gaddy | |||
| Wednesday, 16 December 2009 12:54 | |||
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Part 3: Jesus wasn't even born on Christmas day
Was Jesus born on December 25th? If not, then why was December 25th chosen as the day to celebrate Christ's birth? Was it adopted from the Roman festival of Saturnalia? Let's just start by saying, the Biblical text does not give us much to go on in determining the date of Jesus' birth. There are a couple of clues to the time of the year. One is the mention of shepherds in the fields with their sheep (Luke 2:8). Some use this as a reason why it could not have been December. They say that December is too late in the season for shepherds to have been in the fields. I'm not too sure why this is overly convincing. Sure, in the winter there is less open field grazing but the temperature in Israel is not too prohibitive in December. I've been in Israel in December and was quite comfortable in a light jacket at night. I also saw and took photos of sheep in the open field. Some might think the text indicates that it was lambing season, which was in the spring, but it would be just as realistic to suppose the shepherds would have been corralling sheep in December. At any rate, many believe this issue of the sheep is not a good indicator to determine the time of year. Let's look at the historical records for Jesus' birth date. There are hundreds of writings of early Christians, dating all the way back to the New Testament time. None of them mention a date of Jesus' birth until Clement of Alexandria in 200 AD. According to Clement various groups had associated differing dates to the birth, oddly December 25th isn't in his list. He mentioned May 20th and April 20th. Clearly, it was not certain by this time yet many were taking interest in finding a date. By the year 312 AD, we can find two primary dates were being used as Jesus' birthday. This still predates the actual establishment of the Catholic religion by about 100 years. The two dates were December 25th in the Western part of the Roman Empire and January 6th in the Eastern part. Most have now dropped the January 6th date (with the exception of the Armenian Christians). But the 12 days between those dates are often referred to as the "12 Days of Christmas". Hence that long and annoying Christmas Carol. The earliest mention we can currently find of December 25th being the birth date of Jesus comes from a Roman Almanac dated about 350 AD. We also find recorded at about 400 AD the record of the Donatists celebrating December 25th as Christ's birth, but refusing to celebrate January 6th because they considered it an "innovation of man". This sort of predates the practice, since history shows the Donatists to be a strict traditionalist sect dating back to to 312 AD. As staunch traditionalists, it is unlikely they would have changed their practices since then. But the question remains, why December 25th? Who chose it and why? The answer is, no one knows. Let me repeat that: The facts are inconclusive and no one knows who first chose December 25th and why. However there are a couple of theories. One of which is the most popular and the one I mentioned in my first article on this subject. It is also the one Alexander Hislop leaned on so heavily in his famous book on the subject, "The Two Babylons". This theory is that the date was borrowed from pagan traditions and festivals, most specifically the Roman Saturnalia festival. By 275 AD, the birth of Sol Invictus (the unconquered sun) was celebrated on December 25th by decree of emperor Aurelian. The theory goes that early Christianity chose the date in order to supplant the pagan festival with Christian practices in an attempt to help spread Christianity throughout the pagan world. Although this is the most used theory, it is not without it's problems. The fact is, once again we have hundreds of Christian writings available to us from this time frame and none of them mention this type of decision. Some mention the December 25th date, but none of them critique it as being established by the church to promote Christianity over paganism. Debates during this time were rampant on all kinds of topics. Surely some Christian groups would have opposed this move and condemned it in writing, but the record is completely absent of any such talk. Some writers in fact, implied the similarities between Jesus' birth date and pagan festivals as providential proof that God was placing His son over pagan religions. It wasn't until the 12th century, that it was even suggested in writing that the date was purposefully chosen to replace paganism. This was some margin notes in a manuscript by Dionysus. This theory in general also has date issues. It seems December 25th was in use before the Catholics started Christianizing many pagan practices. Who is to say that emperor Aurelian did not chose December 25th as Sol Invictus because Christians claimed that date for Jesus' birth? It is just as plausible since during that time Christianity was still illegal and Rome was doing their best to eradicate it. There is another theory not often looked at. But the theory is basically this: God put Jesus on this earth and removed him from this earth on the exact same day of the year. Talk of this is recorded as early as 200 AD when Tertullian calculated the date of Jesus' death (the 14th of the Jewish month of Nisan) during the year of His death to be on March 25th of the Roman Calendar. So if God placed Jesus on the earth on March 25th as well, then that would be the date of his conception in Mary, which just happens to be exactly nine months before December 25th. Augustine confirmed this in his writings as well around 400 AD. In the Jewish faith, the Babylonian Talmud mentions the month of Nisan as an important month for God. Great things happen in it say the Rabbis. They feel the Earth was created in Nisan, the passover happened in Nisan, and if the Rabbis are right about God's pattern, then it is plausible that Jesus would enter the womb during Nisan. After all we know for a fact that he died and was resurrected during Nisan. We also know God used the date before, not only at the Passover in Egypt, but also the date when Noah stepped off of the ark is given to us in scripture and translates to the 17th of Nisan (the pre-anniversary of Jesus' resurrection). So in the end, our questions still remain. Was Jesus born on December 25th? If not, why was it chosen? We may never know for a fact. We should just not be too harsh in our condemnation of December 25th without any facts. And just maybe the date has more to do with God's patterns and the Jewish passover than it does any pagan festival. Ultimately, it is unimportant to our soul salvation if we know Jesus' birthday or not, or if we celebrate it on December 25th or not. Yet, it is infinitely important to know that He was born and became God with us, so that through Him, the lost might be saved. To be continued in Part 4: Jesus Never Instituted Christmas Celebration
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