Christmas. December 25th. Celebrated throughout the world as the day Jesus Christ was born.
It is a time of celebration and worship around the world as people put up the holly, decorate their Christmas trees, send out their Christmas cards, Sing Christmas carols, Give presents and children compile their list for Santa Claus. It is ingrained in the very fabric of society. One of the most important days of obligation in the Christian calendar as midnight mass takes place in churches and cathedrals the faithful gather to give thanks on the date that Jesus Christ was born on earth. LITERALLY. |
Only Jesus was not born on December 25th and has absolutely nothing to do with the date, the season or any of the festivities that are associated with December 25th. Depending on which book you read or which website you visit both secular and biblical scholars cannot even agree on the YEAR let alone the month of birth. Even Pope Benedict XVI states in the third volume of his latest book Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives, that Christians belief that Jesus born on December 25 is erroneous. He also said in the same book that there could be miscalculation in the actual year of birth of Jesus.
I suspect that very few Christians have ever heard of his book, or bothered to read it. But it has been widely reported in various publications such as Time Magazine. and CNN
Birthdays were not celebrated.
Birthdays in the Christian calendar were never celebrated, deaths were. The date on which a saint died was given special meaning and celebrated. A saint’s feast day is normally the day of their actual death, the Church only assigns a specific date when the date of the saint's death is unknown or if several other saints are already assigned to that day. Other calendar dates are sometimes chosen; such as the day that the saint was canonized. The number of canonized saints, however, is greater than the number of days in a calendar year. So two or more saints often share the same feast day. The same was true for Jesus. Easter is celebrated as is his baptism.
I suspect that very few Christians have ever heard of his book, or bothered to read it. But it has been widely reported in various publications such as Time Magazine. and CNN
Birthdays were not celebrated.
Birthdays in the Christian calendar were never celebrated, deaths were. The date on which a saint died was given special meaning and celebrated. A saint’s feast day is normally the day of their actual death, the Church only assigns a specific date when the date of the saint's death is unknown or if several other saints are already assigned to that day. Other calendar dates are sometimes chosen; such as the day that the saint was canonized. The number of canonized saints, however, is greater than the number of days in a calendar year. So two or more saints often share the same feast day. The same was true for Jesus. Easter is celebrated as is his baptism.
A Time line
The First mention of the 25th December.
NOWHERE in the bible does it state Jesus was born on 25th December. The earliest historical writings to have ever to have been discovered with a reference to the birth date of Jesus appeared in an old list of Roman bishops that was compiled in 354 AD In the record purported to have been dated 336 AD.
These words appear for the first time. "25 Dec natus Christus in Betleem Judeae." :- December 25th, Christ born in Bethlehem, Judea. This day, December 25th 336.
Pope Julius 1
Pope Julius 1 was pope from 6th February 337 to his death in 12th April 352. In 345 it was he who for the first time officially declared on behalf of the church that December 25th would be known as the birth day of Jesus.
The Epiphany had been celebrated within the church since about the 2nd century and is the celebration of the visit by the three wise men to the infant Jesus. It is also celebrated as the date of jesus’s baptism. The traditional date being the 6th January. So the Nativity was added and split from the Epiphany and declared to be on 25th of December.
NOTE:- This was using the Julian calendar.
Pope Julius 1 was pope from 6th February 337 to his death in 12th April 352. In 345 it was he who for the first time officially declared on behalf of the church that December 25th would be known as the birth day of Jesus.
The Epiphany had been celebrated within the church since about the 2nd century and is the celebration of the visit by the three wise men to the infant Jesus. It is also celebrated as the date of jesus’s baptism. The traditional date being the 6th January. So the Nativity was added and split from the Epiphany and declared to be on 25th of December.
NOTE:- This was using the Julian calendar.
Christians still celebrate Christmas on December 25 BUT we now use the Gregorian calendar which in the Julian calendar equates to January 7th.
Dionysus Exiguous
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The Gregorian Calendar
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Pope john 1
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The dating system at that time used the founding of Rome as its reference point. This was the Julian calendar. In order to have a before and after birth of Christ Exiguous used the reference date of December 25th known from the newly "found" record in 336 AD. Exiguous invented the new Christian calendar, the one still in use today and known as the Gregorian calendar, though it was not given that title until it was implemented by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582.
The Romans did not have a 0 in their numerical system, so Exiguous wrote the dates as 1 BC then missing the 0 straight to 1 AD. So the date of Jesus’s birth date became 25th December year 01. Prior to that and depending on various traditions the birthday of Jesus was anything from November to as late as March. He dated the birth of Christ using the Julian calendar which, translated had the beginning of recorded dates set as 753 years BC. BUT he got it wrong.
Exiguous documented that Jesus was born when Herod the Great ruled Judea. However, going from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar Herod died in 4 B.C. Exiguous undoubtedly got this from the only source in the world that has any mention of the birth of Jesus. THE BIBLE. And anyone who has actually read the bible will know the contradictions contained within that one book are vast. The accounts of Jesus's birth are no different.
The Romans did not have a 0 in their numerical system, so Exiguous wrote the dates as 1 BC then missing the 0 straight to 1 AD. So the date of Jesus’s birth date became 25th December year 01. Prior to that and depending on various traditions the birthday of Jesus was anything from November to as late as March. He dated the birth of Christ using the Julian calendar which, translated had the beginning of recorded dates set as 753 years BC. BUT he got it wrong.
Exiguous documented that Jesus was born when Herod the Great ruled Judea. However, going from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar Herod died in 4 B.C. Exiguous undoubtedly got this from the only source in the world that has any mention of the birth of Jesus. THE BIBLE. And anyone who has actually read the bible will know the contradictions contained within that one book are vast. The accounts of Jesus's birth are no different.
Which year?
Matthew2:1
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What Month?
Luke 2: 7
And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
The passage in Luke 2:7 states Jesus was born when the shepherds of Palestine were out with their flocks, this would have been in the spring / Summer not in the winter ( December).
So the year that Jesus is supposed to have been born spans 10 years from 4 BC to 6 AD. The Month that Jesus is supposed to have been born ranges somewhere from March to November. There is not a single written account by one single Roman, Greek or Egyptian Scholar or scribe ANYWHERE in the world at the time of this miraculous wondrous event. Then, 336 years later in a "list of Roman Bishops" a date appears 25th December ( Lucky that ) Finally add the switch form using the Julian calendar system to the current Gregorian calendar which added 13 days it now places December 25th on January 7th and leads to only one possible, logical conclusion.
That this date of obligation as decreed by the Roman Catholic church has no creditable argument or justification to be entertained or believed. It is a work of pure fiction made up by the church grasping at straws to associate a date and lend some sort credence to a supposed event that took place hundreds of years before the people making these extraordinary claims were even born; IF indeed such a person as Jesus Christ ever existed at any time in history.
And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
The passage in Luke 2:7 states Jesus was born when the shepherds of Palestine were out with their flocks, this would have been in the spring / Summer not in the winter ( December).
So the year that Jesus is supposed to have been born spans 10 years from 4 BC to 6 AD. The Month that Jesus is supposed to have been born ranges somewhere from March to November. There is not a single written account by one single Roman, Greek or Egyptian Scholar or scribe ANYWHERE in the world at the time of this miraculous wondrous event. Then, 336 years later in a "list of Roman Bishops" a date appears 25th December ( Lucky that ) Finally add the switch form using the Julian calendar system to the current Gregorian calendar which added 13 days it now places December 25th on January 7th and leads to only one possible, logical conclusion.
That this date of obligation as decreed by the Roman Catholic church has no creditable argument or justification to be entertained or believed. It is a work of pure fiction made up by the church grasping at straws to associate a date and lend some sort credence to a supposed event that took place hundreds of years before the people making these extraordinary claims were even born; IF indeed such a person as Jesus Christ ever existed at any time in history.
So Why that particular date?
If one takes the time to search the WWW you will find millions of websites on the myriad of gods throughout history who have links with December 25th I found About 7,660,000 results (0.41 seconds) SO MANY of these Deities and Gods have the virgin birth story and ALL PRECEDE the birth of Jesus. Some by thousands of years.
Tiberius was Roman emperor from 14 AD to 37 AD during the time that Jesus was supposed to have lived. To these pre-Christian Romans, December 25th was their most important holiday. it was a festival in celebration of the Roman god Saturn known as Saturnalia. This was later renamed to ‘Sol Invicti’, which means ‘the unconquerable sun’, in honor of the Syrian sun-god Apollo. The Romans had been celebrating December 25th for hundreds of years, then in 274 The Roman Empire declared December 25th a holiday to celebrate the birth of their adopted Syrian god Sol Invictus. In 312 Roman Emperor Constantine AD 306–337), became a Christian, the following year in 313 he played an instrumental role in the Edict of Milan which declared religious tolerance and decriminalized Christianity in the Roman empire.
Christianity now imported this pagan holiday in the hopes of converting pagans. Christians succeeded in converting a large number of pagans by promising that they could continue to celebrate Saturnalia as Christmas indeed Constantine continued to allow traditional pagan worship as well. For that matter, there is some question as to the quality of Constantine’s own conversion to Christianity. While he raised his children under the Christian faith, he himself remained Pontifex Maximus, or chief priest of the College of Pontiffs, to the end of his life.
December 25th so ingrained in Roman society as they celebrated Saturnalia was now celebrated by Christians as the birthday of Christ the two entwined on the same date. In 379 Emperor Theodosius became Roman Emperor. On 27 February 380, together with Gratian and Valentinian II, Theodosius issued the decree "Cunctos populos", the so-called Edict of Thessalonica, recorded in the Codex Theodosianus xvi.1.2. This declared the Nicene Trinitarian Christianity to be the only legitimate imperial religion and the only one entitled to call itself Catholic. He also ended official state support for the traditional polytheist religions and customs. Catholicism was now the official religion. In 393, he banned the pagan rituals of the Olympics in Ancient Greece. Christianity was now state sponsored and promoted throughout the vastness of the Roman empire.
The rise of Christianity and the suppression of paganism or any other religion was now totally assured. December 25th is now only associated with Jesus Christ. A fantastic PR stunt that would please any business organisation, even if it did take a couple of thousand years to pull off.
As for the Christmas tree, Holly, gifts and all the other traditions well that is a long and huge subject of the same story. Stealing the traditions of others from throughout Europe and incorporating them into Christianity to make it all nice and wonderful and fluffy and heart warming for the masses. Again there are millions of websites explaining all this on the WWW IF ONE really wants the truth.
Christianity now imported this pagan holiday in the hopes of converting pagans. Christians succeeded in converting a large number of pagans by promising that they could continue to celebrate Saturnalia as Christmas indeed Constantine continued to allow traditional pagan worship as well. For that matter, there is some question as to the quality of Constantine’s own conversion to Christianity. While he raised his children under the Christian faith, he himself remained Pontifex Maximus, or chief priest of the College of Pontiffs, to the end of his life.
December 25th so ingrained in Roman society as they celebrated Saturnalia was now celebrated by Christians as the birthday of Christ the two entwined on the same date. In 379 Emperor Theodosius became Roman Emperor. On 27 February 380, together with Gratian and Valentinian II, Theodosius issued the decree "Cunctos populos", the so-called Edict of Thessalonica, recorded in the Codex Theodosianus xvi.1.2. This declared the Nicene Trinitarian Christianity to be the only legitimate imperial religion and the only one entitled to call itself Catholic. He also ended official state support for the traditional polytheist religions and customs. Catholicism was now the official religion. In 393, he banned the pagan rituals of the Olympics in Ancient Greece. Christianity was now state sponsored and promoted throughout the vastness of the Roman empire.
The rise of Christianity and the suppression of paganism or any other religion was now totally assured. December 25th is now only associated with Jesus Christ. A fantastic PR stunt that would please any business organisation, even if it did take a couple of thousand years to pull off.
As for the Christmas tree, Holly, gifts and all the other traditions well that is a long and huge subject of the same story. Stealing the traditions of others from throughout Europe and incorporating them into Christianity to make it all nice and wonderful and fluffy and heart warming for the masses. Again there are millions of websites explaining all this on the WWW IF ONE really wants the truth.