We Know Jesus Wasn't Born on December 25, Don't We?
12/12/24
This is an issue that comes up fairly reliably about this time every year. It's usually in the form of a statement, rather than a question. The line of argument, if we can call it an argument, goes essentially as follows.
"We know that Jesus wasn't born on December 25, but that the date was chosen by people who wanted to fill out the calendar somehow."
The data, or lack thereof:
a) The New Testament never tells us what time of year Jesus was born.
b) Early Christians wanted to recognize the birth of Christ.
c) The early Christians wanted to adopt a useful symbolic date in the cultural calendar.
d) Christmas wasn't actually celebrated widely until the late part of the 4th century.
e) Power-hungry people assigned the date of December 25 as a pragmatic attempt to take over the culture.
e) (alternative) The Christians needed to give people hope during the darkest part of the year so they chose the solstice.
Let's play with this a little bit.
First, it's important to acknowledge that we don't have definitive information about the actual date of Jesus' birth. Though it seems very likely that Mary, his mother, would have treasured up that time as well as the other things she is recorded as treasuring up and remembering, we don't have an actual record of the birth date. However, within Israel with its complex series of festivals and other observations, as well as within the broader Mediterranean culture of the time, keeping track of a date was not exactly rocket science. And when someone knows she has held God Incarnate in her arms, she's highly likely to remember what day that was. After the death of Christ, Mary was under the care of John the son of Zebedee, who lived into the second century. It's entirely possible that John would also have been aware of Jesus' date of birth.
The date of Jesus' birth, however, was not considered to be as important as the date of his resurrection. In a way, though the resurrection could not have happened without the incarnation, the timing of the resurrection was much more significant. It coincided with the Passover, a well established date, and a date which commemorated the start of the exodus from Egypt. Symbolically, it evokes the entire idea of God rescuing his people. Further, according to Israelite tradition, the Passover happened at the very same time of year that humans were created in the beginning. Just the same, as time passed, interest in the events of Jesus' life certainly grew. Many Christians did want to commemorate Jesus' birth as an important time.
Did the Christians, then, decide to adopt a date pulled from the cultural calendars and pass it off as the date of Jesus' birth? While this may have been a tendency in later history, prior to the middle of the fourth century it would not have been likely. Christianity made every attempt to distance itself from paganism. Additionally, if we analyze the proposed dates carefully, this theory of a choice of a date for Christmas falls flat. The most common suggestions of a pagan origin are that of Sol Invictus, Saturnalia, or Mithras. However, none of those festivals can be identified as falling on December 25. The winter solstice likewise is not December 25. If Christians wanted to adopt a pagan festival, we would expect they would get the date correct.
An interesting complication is the difference between the Julian calendar and the Gregorian calendar. January 6 in the Julian calendar, the date on which Epiphany has been celebrated, happens to line up with December 25 in the Gregorian calendar. This, by the way, explains the difference between celebrations in most of the eastern church and the western church.
There are some statements from second century sources indicating that Christians may want to remember the date of Christ's birth, but those statements don't tell us what the date is. However, an interesting thing happened on December 25 of the year 360. The consecration of a nun was regularly taken as akin to her marriage to Christ, becoming, so to speak, the bride of Christ, as the church is. Before Christmas celebrations were commonly held, Liberius, consecrating Ambrose's sister Marcella as a nun, commented on the "festival of [thy] bridegroom" (Schaff Church History, p. 2144), indicating that the consecration was happening on Jesus' birth day. This is interesting as it is an almost offhand comment and it was before Christmas was a holiday recognized throughout the church.
So we don't know that Jesus was born on December 25. We also don't know that he wasn't born on December 25. We do know that he came to rescue the world, which lay in the darkness of sin and the assaults of the devil. And he has done that, delivering all who believe on him from sin, death, and hell, into his kingdom of forgiveness and life. December 25 is a great time to remember his birth!
12/12/24
This is an issue that comes up fairly reliably about this time every year. It's usually in the form of a statement, rather than a question. The line of argument, if we can call it an argument, goes essentially as follows.
"We know that Jesus wasn't born on December 25, but that the date was chosen by people who wanted to fill out the calendar somehow."
The data, or lack thereof:
a) The New Testament never tells us what time of year Jesus was born.
b) Early Christians wanted to recognize the birth of Christ.
c) The early Christians wanted to adopt a useful symbolic date in the cultural calendar.
d) Christmas wasn't actually celebrated widely until the late part of the 4th century.
e) Power-hungry people assigned the date of December 25 as a pragmatic attempt to take over the culture.
e) (alternative) The Christians needed to give people hope during the darkest part of the year so they chose the solstice.
Let's play with this a little bit.
First, it's important to acknowledge that we don't have definitive information about the actual date of Jesus' birth. Though it seems very likely that Mary, his mother, would have treasured up that time as well as the other things she is recorded as treasuring up and remembering, we don't have an actual record of the birth date. However, within Israel with its complex series of festivals and other observations, as well as within the broader Mediterranean culture of the time, keeping track of a date was not exactly rocket science. And when someone knows she has held God Incarnate in her arms, she's highly likely to remember what day that was. After the death of Christ, Mary was under the care of John the son of Zebedee, who lived into the second century. It's entirely possible that John would also have been aware of Jesus' date of birth.
The date of Jesus' birth, however, was not considered to be as important as the date of his resurrection. In a way, though the resurrection could not have happened without the incarnation, the timing of the resurrection was much more significant. It coincided with the Passover, a well established date, and a date which commemorated the start of the exodus from Egypt. Symbolically, it evokes the entire idea of God rescuing his people. Further, according to Israelite tradition, the Passover happened at the very same time of year that humans were created in the beginning. Just the same, as time passed, interest in the events of Jesus' life certainly grew. Many Christians did want to commemorate Jesus' birth as an important time.
Did the Christians, then, decide to adopt a date pulled from the cultural calendars and pass it off as the date of Jesus' birth? While this may have been a tendency in later history, prior to the middle of the fourth century it would not have been likely. Christianity made every attempt to distance itself from paganism. Additionally, if we analyze the proposed dates carefully, this theory of a choice of a date for Christmas falls flat. The most common suggestions of a pagan origin are that of Sol Invictus, Saturnalia, or Mithras. However, none of those festivals can be identified as falling on December 25. The winter solstice likewise is not December 25. If Christians wanted to adopt a pagan festival, we would expect they would get the date correct.
An interesting complication is the difference between the Julian calendar and the Gregorian calendar. January 6 in the Julian calendar, the date on which Epiphany has been celebrated, happens to line up with December 25 in the Gregorian calendar. This, by the way, explains the difference between celebrations in most of the eastern church and the western church.
There are some statements from second century sources indicating that Christians may want to remember the date of Christ's birth, but those statements don't tell us what the date is. However, an interesting thing happened on December 25 of the year 360. The consecration of a nun was regularly taken as akin to her marriage to Christ, becoming, so to speak, the bride of Christ, as the church is. Before Christmas celebrations were commonly held, Liberius, consecrating Ambrose's sister Marcella as a nun, commented on the "festival of [thy] bridegroom" (Schaff Church History, p. 2144), indicating that the consecration was happening on Jesus' birth day. This is interesting as it is an almost offhand comment and it was before Christmas was a holiday recognized throughout the church.
So we don't know that Jesus was born on December 25. We also don't know that he wasn't born on December 25. We do know that he came to rescue the world, which lay in the darkness of sin and the assaults of the devil. And he has done that, delivering all who believe on him from sin, death, and hell, into his kingdom of forgiveness and life. December 25 is a great time to remember his birth!
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