It was not until 336 AD that leaders of the fledgling faith would declare December 25th Christ's birthday. This is the same day as the Roman holiday Saturnalia (the birthday of the god Saturn). Romans decorated their halls and homes with boughs of laurel and candles; gave presents to each other and feasted. It was supposed to be reminiscent of "the Golden Age" when Saturn ruled: a time before the world became corrupt with greed, disease and other woes.The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church says that it wasn't until the 4th century when Christians set a date for Christ's birthday. Several dates had been proposed, but in the end December 25 was chosen to compete with the Roman (read: pagan) feast of Natalis Solis Invicti, or the "Nativity of the Invincible Sun."
It wasn't until about 200 years after Christ's death that Christians even thought about celebrating his birth. No one knows the exact date of his birth. It is believed that December the 25th was chosen to turn people away from celebrating other holidays in this time of the year.
Christmas means Christ's Mass. Yes, it is a "Catholic" expression, but most of the world honours it with special deep attachments. It became an early celebration for the sacrifice of Jesus leaving heaven to come to earth to bring us light and salvation.
December 25th wasn't Christ's birthday. It was a day chosen by the mid-evil-period Catholic church to celebrate His birthday. The shepherds were watching their flocks by night... that only happens when the sheep are giving birth, which happens in the spring.
Clement of Alexandria says, "From the birth of Christ, therefore, to the death of Commodus (The Roman emperor who died on 31 December A.D. 192) are, in all, a hundred and ninety-four years, one month, thirteen days". If we suppose that he is using the Roman calendar, we deduce that Clement set Christ's birth on 18 November 3 B.C. But it is highly doubtful that this date, affirmed by no other ancient source, is the one he so confidently espouses. We arrive at a different date if we suppose that Clement, a resident of Egypt, is using the Egyptian calendar without intercalation. Measuring backward from Commodus' death an interval of 194 years (each exactly 365 days), one month (thirty days), and thirteen days brings us to 6 January 2 B.C. It so happens that before the church as a whole fixed the date of the Nativity as 25 December, the generally accepted date in the Eastern church and possibly also in the Western church was 6 January. Apart from Clement, the earliest sources affirming this date do not precede the fourth century, yet Clement's testimony proves that the association of Christ's birth with 6 January was a tradition rooted centuries earlier, perhaps in the early church itself, perhaps even in historical fact. Several considerations strengthen the probability that 6 January was the actual birthday of Christ.
Jesus Christ was never in Christmas. (Not until Constantine put Him there.) It's a lie to say He was. He has no part in a lie. When anyone takes the truth and mixes a lie with it, they no longer have the truth. They have changed the truth into a lie. Neither is it possible to take a lie and mix enough truth with it to change the lie into the truth. You still come out with a lie. One may say, "Well, I know it's not the truth, but I'll put Christ back in Christmas and glorify God in it then." No, you won't. Christ never was in Christmas. You cannot change a lie into the truth. It should in reality be Baal-mass, Nimrod-mass, Tammuz-mass, Mithras-mass, or Mary-mass. Christ-mass is a lie. Why use a lie as a good time for a cardinal truth (the incarnation) of the Christian faith?
The earliest celebrations of the Nativity were surprisingly late. There is no record of official observance of Christ's birth until the fourth century, when Constantine, a Christian convert, was emperor of Rome. The absence of a Nativity celebration before then, scholars say, reflects at least in part the fact that no one knew for sure when Jesus was born. While some church traditions place his birth between 6 B.C. and 4 B.C.--near the end of the reign of Herod the Great--the gospels are silent on the year, let alone the exact month or day.
The Romans decided that everyone ought to observe December 25th in honour of Christ's birth. But not everyone was ready to accept this rule. In fact, one ancient denomination (The Armenian Church) still observes January 10 in honour of the birth of Christ. To help their cause, the Romans began to say that December 25 should be observed because it was the true birthday of Jesus Christ!
In Antioch, on the feast of St. Philogonius, Chrysostom preached an important sermon. The year was almost certainly 386, by a long rearrangement of the saint's sermons 388. But between February, 386, when Flavian ordained Chrysostom priest, and December is ample time for the preaching of all the sermons under discussion. In view of a reaction to certain Jewish rites and feasts, Chrysostom tries to unite Antioch in celebrating Christ's birth on 25 December, part of the community having already kept it on that day for at least ten years. In the West, the feast was thus kept, its introduction into Antioch he had always sought, conservatives always resisted. This time he was successful; in a crowded church he defended the new custom. It was no novelty; from Thrace to Cadiz this feast was observed -- rightly, since its miraculously rapid diffusion proved its genuineness.
Besides, Zachary, who, as high-priest, entered the Temple on the Day of Atonement, received therefore announcement of John's conception in September; six months later Christ was conceived, i.e. in March, and born accordingly in December.
Many Roman Catholics would like to point to Pope Liberius, who in 354 A.D. decreed Christmas to be celebrated December 25th. In reality it was the Roman Emperor, Constantine who declared December 25th to be Christ's birthday in the year 336 A.D. The reason for this is because it was based on political pressure. Many zealous church members urged the decree.
Many speculated that since shepherds were in the field the night Christ was born, it must have been in spring or summer. Some said May 20; others fixed the date on April l9th or 20th. Still others thought March 25th most likely. No one really knew.
In 354, the Bishop of Rome started to observe December 25th as the date of Christ's birth. Four major Roman festivals were held in December, including Saturnalia which celebrated the returning Sun-god. It was easy to adapt this to the Christian celebration of the coming of the Son of God.
The birth of Christ is celebrated by Christians in different days. The Catholics celebrate Christmas in 25 of December every year. In contrast the Orthodox Christians celebrate it on 6th of January each year.
Encyclopaedia Britannica states. According to a Roman almanac, the Christian festival of Christmas was celebrated in Rome by AD 336. In the eastern part of the Roman Empire, however, a festival on January 6 commemorated the manifestation of God in both the birth and the baptism of Jesus, except in Jerusalem, where only the birth was celebrated. During the 4th century the celebration of Christ's birth on December 25 was gradually adopted by most Eastern churches. In Jerusalem, opposition to Christmas lasted longer, but it was subsequently accepted. In the Armenian Church, a Christmas on December 25 was never accepted; Christ's birth is celebrated on January 6. After Christmas was established in the East, the baptism of Jesus was celebrated on Epiphany, January 6. In the West, however, Epiphany was the day on which the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus was celebrated.
At the time of Christ's birth, the area of Jerusalem was very crowded with visitors, because of the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles. People took advantage of this journey to Jerusalem to pay their taxes (Luke 2:1-5), as they were collected at this time of the year. Leviticus 23:24-40 proves that the seventh month was the time in question. Put Luke 2:1-5 and John 7:2-10 and you will see that Jesus' parents travelling to Jerusalem for the spring and fall Holy Days. There is no evidence of Christ being born on December 25, there is a lot evidence that Jesus was born in early autumn. The world celebrates Christ's birth in a winter pagan (season) when, in fact, Jesus was born during an autumn festival season that actually pictures the salvation of mankind.
December 25th is not Jesus' real birthday. No one actually knows what day Jesus was born. The first mention of December 25th as his birthday appeared on a Roman calendar in the year 336. Jesus' birthday appeared on Roman calendars after the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity. But despite Constantine's conversion to Christianity the church was still embattled: There were plenty of pagans around. The December date wasn't the result of careful historical research; it was chosen because there was a pagan tradition of feasting and celebration around this time. The church fathers wanted to offer an alternative to it.
There is no certain date for the birth of Christ. Current estimates based on historical and astronomical records put it at around February 6, 6 B.C.) A December festival to celebrate the birth of Christ didn't exist until the fourth century when Christians simply adopted the popular Yule celebrations for their own use. Roman churchmen favoured the Mithraic winter solstice festival, which they themselves had adopted from the Persians called the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun. On the old Roman calendar, December 25 (not December 21) was the date of the winter solstice. The winter solstice was also the traditional date to honour the birth of the pagan Divine Child, and Norsemen celebrated the birthday of their lord, Frey, at the winter solstice. After much argument, Pope Julius selected December 25 as Christ's Mass, or Christmas, in 350 A.D.-in part to counter persistent pagan solstice rites, but also because people of the time were already used to calling it a god's birthday.
Uncertainty about Jesus' birthday in the early third century is reflected in a disputed passage of the presbyter Hippolytus, who was banished to Sardinia by Maximin in 235, and in an authentic statement of Clement of Alexandria. While the former favoured January second, Clement of Alexandria enumerates several dates given by the Alexandrian chronographers, notably the twenty-fifth of the Egyptian month Pachon (May twentieth) in the twenty-eighth year of Augustus and the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth of Pharmuthi (April eighteenth or nineteenth) of the year A.D. 1, although he favoured May twentieth. This shows that no Church festival in honour of the day was established before the middle of the third century. Origen at that time in a sermon denounced the idea of keeping Jesus’ birthday like that of Pharaoh and said that only sinners such as Herod were so honoured. Arnobius later similarly ridiculed giving birthdays to “gods.” A Latin treatise, De pascha computus, placed Jesus’ birth on March twenty-first since that was the supposed day on which God created the Sun (Gen. 1:14–19), thus typifying the “Sun of righteousness” as Malachi (4:2) called the expected Messiah. A century before Polycarp, martyred in Smyrna in 155, gave the same date for the birth and baptism placing it on a Wednesday because of the creation of the Sun on that day.
For two centuries after Christ's birth, no one knew and fewer people cared, exactly when he was born. Birthdays were unimportant, death days counted. Besides, Christ was divine and his natural birth was deliberately played down. The Church even announced at one point that it was sinful to contemplate observing Christ's birthday "as though He were a King Pharaoh."
Jesus was not even born in the winter. When Christ was born there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night (Luke 2:8). This never could have occurred in Judaea in the month of December. The shepherds always brought their flocks from the mountainsides and fields and corralled them not later than October 15, to protect them from the cold, rainy season that followed that date. The Bible itself proves, in Song of Solomon 2:11 and Ezra 10:9, 13, that winter was a rainy season not permitting shepherds to abide in open fields at night.
At the time of Jesus birth (Luke 2:1, 3) it was decreed that, "all the world would be taxed...And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city." This couldn't have taken place in the winter. Caesar Augustus, the ruler of Rome, would certainly not call for such a taxing in the depth of winter. Travel at this time of the year is extremely difficult, hence, it would be virtually impossible for everyone to comply with the decree if it had been given then. Jesus Himself testified to the rigors of travelling in winter, for He told the people to pray that their flight at the end of this age would not be in winter (Matthew 24:20).
The tradition for December 25th is actually quite ancient. Hippolytus, in the second century A.D., argued that this was Christ's birthday. 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.
For as far back as 335, after the death of Jesus, Christians have been celebrating their master's birthday to pay homage for this super human being who arrived on earth ' to take on the sins of others' and to uphold love and charity and to show the mankind how service and sacrifice are pathways to the Kingdom of God within oneself.
Many Roman Catholics would like to point to Pope Liberius, who in 354 A.D. decreed Christmas to be celebrated December 25th. In reality it was the Roman Emperor, Constantine who declared December 25th to be Christ's birthday in the year 336 A.D. The reason for this is because it was based on political pressure. Many zealous church members urged the decree.
The Bible certainly does not reveal the date of Christ's birth. And from its records of the nativity scene, Jesus would not have been born in winter at all. Luke states that in the night that He was born, "there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night" (Lk 2:8). In October or November, the winter rains and cold weather begin in Judea. Up to this time, the flocks would have been in the open fields. But once the rainy season begins, the shepherds can no longer be out in the field until the winter months are over.
Millions around the world celebrate Christmas, and many think they are paying respect to Christ. The practice is worldwide and so long established that most people think it is a Christian holiday observed by divine authority and approval of God. If the Bible is true and a revelation of God's will to us, then it is without doubt that God has not willed such a religious observance. There is no reference in the Scripture to Christmas among early Christians and it has no mark of divinity upon it. The New Testament is a sealed book, the apostolic office removed from the earth, and the man's sin had begun to rear his head before Christmas was ever known.
The basis for observing Christmas as the birth of Christ is man's religious authority (Catholicism & paganism). It started centuries after the time of Christ. It is not commanded in anyway in the New Testament. The virgin birth of Christ is absolutely true, but God has not authorized us to celebrate the birth of Jesus, and to do so is a violation of His Will.
Star of Bethlehem
Lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. That description of what has come to be known as the Star of Bethlehem appears in the biblical Gospel According to St. Matthew (ii: 9). Its beacon had first heralded the birth of Jesus Christ and now it would guide King Herod's deputies, the wise men, to the village where their Messiah had been born.
On Wednesday Christians will celebrate that Nativity, surely the central event of their religion. To most of them the Star of Bethlehem is simply a part of their unquestioning faith, but to a few it also invites scientific confirmation. Too often science and religion come into conflict, but this time such a problem does not arise. That does not mean, however, that scientists agree on what was the Christmas star.
It is remarkable how astronomers can recreate the appearance of those heavens two millennia ago. They wind history backward or forward as though they were H. G. Wells' fictional character manipulating his time machine. From information gathered about contemporary skies, they extrapolate through centuries with amazing speed and accuracy. This is done today with the power of computers, but it is humbling to note that Johannes Kepler performed similar computations 400 years ago, long before the most elementary calculation devices were developed.
Many astronomical phenomena could have served as that unusually bright Star of Bethlehem. If we knew the year of the original Christmas, we could choose among them, but unfortunately the history of those times is not accurate enough. Those of you who think -- as I did -- that Christ's birthdate marked the zero of our calendar, the separation between B.C. and A.D., are in error. Even December 25 was chosen centuries after the event, evidence pointing to a spring or fall date for Christmas.
But historical and biblical detective work narrows the window. The birth must have occurred between 8 B.C. when Augustus Caesar's census required Joseph to return to Bethlehem and either 4 or 2 B.C. when Herod died.
In that time frame here are some of the Christmas Star candidates:
7 B.C. -- Jupiter and Saturn appear close together in the skies three times. In January of the next year they regroup with Mars joining them. We will witness that rare proximity of those three planets again in the year 2000. March, 5 B.C. -- Chinese astronomers record a comet.
April, 4 B.C. -- This time the Chinese witness a "tailless comet," which may have been a supernova. Supernovas are stars that suddenly flare up, emitting hundreds of times as much light for a few months. In 1573 Tycho Brahe witnessed one so bright that it was visible in daytime.
August 12, 3 B.C. and then again June 17, 2 B.C. -- Venus and Jupiter align so closely they appear as one light source. Later that year the "king" planet Jupiter approaches the "king" star Regulus in the constellation Leo. Other possibilities include meteors, fireballs, ball lightning or even zodiacal light.
Different authors have supported one or another of these candidates. For example, in David Hughes 1979 book, "The Star of Bethlehem: An Astronomer's Confirmation," he argues for the Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions and from this conjecture and other information goes on to nominate September 15, 7 B.C. for Christ's birthday.
The faithful require none of these computations. That science provides choices among these physical phenomena is intriguing but unnecessary. To them the Star of Bethlehem is simply another miracle.
(The Buffalo News. Published on Monday, December 23, 1996)
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