Was Jesus born on December 25?

Many might criticize the Christmas holiday as having been co-opted by crass materialism. Some might even suggest refocusing upon the “reason for the season,” which is remembrance of the birth of Christ, or the First Advent. Why is that so?

The exact month and day of Jesus’ birth can only be speculated. The birthday of Jesus was said to be December 25th by Hippolytus (AD 165-235), which was also set by John Chrysostom (AD 345-407), and this is the day Western Christians observe Christmas; however, the Armenian Church observes Christmas on January 6th, and the biblical evidence does not rule out either possibility.1

Wasn’t Christmas a pagan festival? A major Mithraic festival did occur on December 25th at the time of the winter solstice; but evidence indicates this mystery religion did not become established in Rome until AD 168, which makes its genesis after Christianity.2 Still, the Romans celebrated the Saturnalia festival at the close of December, but they also observed the pagan feast of Sol Invictus, the Unconquerable Sun, and Christianity sought to replace the pagan festivals with a Christian celebration honoring the “sun of righteousness,” a common epithet for Jesus as Messiah.3 December 25th then appears to have been chosen for reasons related to the triumph of Christianity over paganism rather than the date on which He was actually born. Christmas is not the Christianization of a pagan festival but a rival celebration setup by Christians on December 25th serves as an on-going tribute to the Son of God’s invasion into time and space.4

No one really consciously worships the pagan gods in the way the ancients did on the 25th of December, albeit there may be some modern folks engaging in pagan like revelry on the occasion. The most desirable thing to do is to continue celebrating the historical event of Jesus’ birth to honor and draw attention to our Lord before the eyes of a lost and unbelieving world. Maybe we can give up the crass materialism?

“Joy to the world, the Lord has come, let earth receive her King…”


1. B. Witherington, Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, ed. Joel B. Green, Scott McKnight, and I. Howard Marshall (Downers Rove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992). 68.

2. Ronald Nash, The Gospel and the Geeks: Did the New Testament Borrow from Pagan Thought (Richardson, TX: Probe Books, 1992), 146-148.

3. Paul Maier, In the Fullness of Time: A Historian Looks At Christmas, Easter, and The Early Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 1991), 29.

4. Hank Hanegraaff, Bible Answer Book (Nashville, TN: J. Countryman, 2004), 86

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Grappling with the Craziness of an Election Year with the Book of Kings

Image
Well this is another election year, which makes the Tuesday after the first Monday in November the terminus ad quem for all the political madness that comes beforehand in the USA. With all the mudslinging, rioting, and overall incivility, it is hard to believe were still have over five months to go. I am going through the Book of 1-2 Kings at the moment, and the refrain “Only the high places were not taken away” caught my eye, and as I began to meditate upon them, I found them to be a bit helpful in grappling with all that goes on during these turbulent election years. Here a little background is needed. After the days of Solomon there came about a civil war that divided the children of Abraham living in the promise land into two nations—the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. There eventually came about a series of rulers in the kingdom of Judah whose reigns the biblical writer describes this way: Jehoash did right in the sight of the LORD…Only ...
Read more

The Good Thing About God and Judgment

Image
Today, I was continuing my trek through the extensive Paul and the Faithfulness of God by N.T. Wright. There is so much content in this extensive two-volume work, I can only soak in a small percentage of it. Working through Wright is always a work in progress. He is just one of those astute theologians who leaves no stone unturned in developing a point. Wright makes this observation about the way the larger story of the New Testament conveyed in Paul’s works concerns God’s judgment in the world, which is part of the way he has come to setup his rule over the world. On p. 481 Write notes,  The word “judgment” has of course been allowed to slip into negative mode in the contemporary western world, with “judgmentalism” one of the classic postmodern villains. But even a postmodernist whose car has been damaged by a drunk driver wants a court to pass “judgment” against the offender. “Judgment” is in fact a positive thing. It is what restores health to a society, a bala...
Read more

As the Dust Settles in Haiti…

Last Sunday as I was getting my groceries totaled up, the checker asked if I would like to make a donation to Haiti, which I did. The amount was practically nothing, but it did remind me that for the entirety of the previous week, it seemed as if the entire world zeroed in on what was going on that half of the Island of Hispaniola, which was devastated by a massive earthquake on January 12, 2010. News sources consider this the largest earthquake that country had experienced in the last 200 years, and many report an estimated 50,000 lives perished. Events like this always remind me that human life is so precious, yet at the same time, one can never know when life’s flame shall be extinguished. There were lots of voices chiming in on the Haiti situation, and many of them were quite helpful, instructing people on what they could do to help survivors. I even had an acquaintance share his intention to travel to the island to do some aid work. I say Godspeed! I also heard a few disheartening...
Read more