While I don’t think it is too theologically significant what month Jesus was actually born in, I do find it interesting how closely tied the Christmas season and celebration of Christ’s birth has become with all things winter. The wonder and magic of Christmas lights, candles, trees, snowy landscapes, and cozy festivities enhance the wonder and yes, I’ll say magic, of the Savior’s birth.
Still, it’s interesting to think that, for centuries, Christians have celebrated Jesus’ birthday on the (technically) inaccurate day. I wonder if we will still celebrate Christmas in heaven, and if so, will it be in December??
I guess who knows if we will even keep time with these same months. Probably not!
The Christmas season often makes me ponder these kinds of questions. I feel it is a time when the Holy Spirit allows me to be more open to wonder and less cynical.
What about you? Do you think it matters when Jesus was born or when we celebrate his birth?
I have heard the shepherd argument and it is somewhat convincing. It might be more accurate to use the six months after John the Baptist was born as his conception can be calculated using the Levitical temple rotation schedule.
Either way I do not see it having much significance.
Wait, let me just check in and see if I read that right. It’s not “theologically significant” what Jesus Christs birthday was? Theology means the study of God, so anything pertaining to God is theologically significant. If you don’t believe that the exact date of Christ’s birth is meaningful, that means you either don’t believe that he was god, or that you don’t believe he ever lived at all, which is it?
No one of serious theological study claims December 25th was literally the day Jesus was born. That is the day most Christians celebrate it. It was the darkest day of the year. Your logic does not follow. As the previous poster mentioned, there is no significance to the exact dat. What is a date?
Do you count the occurrence of full moons? Do you count a tropical year or a sidereal year? Do you know that if you leave Earth time itself changes?
“Time dilation affects satellites due to their speed (Special Relativity) and weaker gravity (General Relativity), causing their clocks to run slightly faster than Earth clocks by about 38 microseconds daily; this difference, primarily from gravity, must be corrected for GPS to work accurately, as uncorrected errors would quickly accumulate, making locations useless.” –Google AI
December 25th was the winter solstice in early Christianity, the darkest day of the year, so it seemed fitting to celebrate. The calendar was slightly off, which is why December 21st will be the solstice for 2025. There was a leap year, but it did not account for the drift that occurred over the centuries. Every year that ends with 000 does not have a leap year, unless it is evenly divisible by 4 (such as 2000). That is why there was no Feb 29, 1900 but there was a Feb 29, 2000 as 2000 is divisible by 4.
Early Christians really didn’t read and a hand written bible was only affordable by the wealthy. It was similar to before Christ. Jews did not have a leather bound scroll in their home. It was read from at church.
That isn’t what my response entailed. Some people thing the winter solstice is a holiday, and I’m certain that a demonstration of the solstice varying from year to year and being effected by the lunar cycle would be absorbing.
But the shortest day of the year has what connection to… anything?
Run that by me again? Early Christians were fillers of Jesus of Nazareth, who most likely knew him from his local synagogue or church community and read Hebrew scrolls at their own bar and bat mitzvahs sane as he did.
Handwritten bibles were translated by crusaders. They couldn’t “be afforded” at all, they weren’t for sake and had to be translated from Hebrew into the crusaders language. Also, even after the crusaders got them home, they still weren’t for sale, and actually the governments used to pay the scribes with the best handwriting to copy them, promulgate them, publish them, and essentially, you were required to accept one, or you couldn’t get into college or anything.
It was literally like taxation in the opposite direction. Some things you had to pay them for, and some things they paid for and you had to accept.
I am sure there are some neo-pagan groups that celebrate the solstice. The problem with your post is that it didn’t make any sense. The exact date of Christ’s birth is totally unrelated to not believing in God. Anything related to God is significant… okay, did Christ have diarrhea? Was he regular? Did he go in the morning or in the evening? Did Christ use the bathroom at all? Dates are arbitrary. Let’s suppose Christ was born on the winter solstice, December 25th. Should we use December 25th or the solstice?
Christ is the light of the world and picking a date to read from the Gospels about his birth seems appropriate.
I am not accusing you of this, but I have no doubt many Christians out there believe early Christians brought their bible to church where Pastor steve would spend most of the time on some narrative he wrote and have people open their bibles to John x.y.z because that is how their group does it.
The reality was that Christians didn’t own bibles as they were horribly expensive, being hand written and most could not read. So, the Gospel for that Sunday was read and reflected on. Most Christian Churches continue this and these ancient churches are typically called liturgical.
If you go to a store front church in a strip mall, where you open your bibles to different passages throughout the speech the pastor prepared, and they have a Christmas “service” the date would seem odd. It would be the same if you filled up an arena whose pastor comes up with a topic foe that Sunday. You’d ask, is that really Jesus’ birthday and the answer is most likely no.
Today is the Second Sunday of Advent. In the Catholic, Episcopalian, and Lutheran Churches the reading is from Matthew 3:1-12. John the Baptist is preaching repentance for the coming of Christ.
“Run that by me again? Early Christians were fillers of Jesus of Nazareth, who most likely knew him from his local synagogue or church community and read Hebrew scrolls at their own bar and bat mitzvahs sane as he did.””
Obviously the very very first followers of Christ would have encountered Him personally. Early Christians received the news from those that went out and spread it.
“Handwritten bibles were translated by crusaders. They couldn’t “be afforded” at all, they weren’t for sake and had to be translated from Hebrew into the crusaders language.[/quote]
Uh, no. Bibles had nothing to do with the Crusades. The texts were in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek and translated into a common language, in western and central Europe that would be Latin. They were copied generally by monks and they were for sale. Crusaders were from various nations speaking different languages.
“Also, even after the crusaders got them home, they still weren’t for sale, and actually the governments used to pay the scribes with the best handwriting to copy them, promulgate them, publish them, and essentially, you were required to accept one, or you couldn’t get into college or anything.”
They had bibles since the beginning. They were generally copied by monk and sold to educated families if they wanted one. Most preferred a prayer book that had passages to reflect and pray on. The notion that you need to be given a bible to “get into college” is the most absurd thing I I have recently read. Most wealthy families had a tutor. Universities came later.
“when scripture is studied you will find Jesus said to remember his death”
Oh, obviously I haven’t studied scripture. I never knew that remembering His death means not remembering His birth. That is a bit confusing since two of the Gospels record the circumstance of His birth. I will follow your logic and rip those sections out of my bible and promptly forget them.
not questing that he was born , prophesy said it would happen .
Ecclesiastes 7:1 states, “A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death is better than the day of birth”
at birth a person has not proven them selves . at death the world will know what’s been lost.
Okay, so what was your point because it implies death is the only thing that mattered.
“when scripture is studied you will find Jesus said to remember his death”
Remembering His birth does not come at the expense of forgetting His death. That is why you find both mentioned in the Gospel. If you agree then I see no point in mentioning this.
It can certainly be interesting and worth looking into and studying, but whether you believe Jesus was born on Dec. 25th, in the spring, or any other time of year I don’t believe is truly important. What is important is that we believe he was born as Scripture said—from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and that he came to earth as Emmanuel to seek and save us from our sins and separation from God. If you believe in the person of Jesus, both who he is and what he has done, I think the literal date of his birth pales in order of importance. It’s interesting, but not essential to know since the Bible doesn’t clearly give us a date, just like it doesn’t give us an exact date for his Second Coming.
when we get right down to it the 25th of December is a ancient celebration of the days or the amount of sun shine is getting longer . it was ancient Christianity that mix’ed factors of pagan in with Christian which locked the date to December 25. it all means you are not celebrating the birth of the son but the birth of the sun
Oh. I’ve always just tried to focus on the teachings. If Jesus is God, his teachings are timeless, and if the four gospels are true, he didn’t really die anyway due to the resurrection.
Even if Jesus isn’t God, I actually know enough geometry and logic from Euclid and Aristotle to prove that the parables of the kingdom of heaven, comparing heaven to Jerusalem, are mathematically sound, as lateral reasoning, so it’s a good enough morals tale for a logician.
“when we get right down to it the 25th of December is a ancient celebration of the days or the amount of sun shine is getting longer . it was ancient Christianity that mix’ed factors of pagan in with Christian which locked the date to December 25. it all means you are not celebrating the birth of the son but the birth of the sun”
The creation of the Holy Day itself had nothing to do with anything pagan. You do not really seem to get how time or dates work. Google AI:
A year is a unit of time based on how long it takes the Earth to orbit the Sun. In scientific use, the tropical year (approximately 365 solar days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 45 seconds) and the sidereal year (about 20 minutes longer) are more exact. There is not objective, perfect, static day of the year. Hannukah and Ramadan are calculated by a lunar calendar. They change dates according to our western Gregorian calendar. Easter follows the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring such that the Jewish passover will hopefully coincide with Easter. Next year passover is April 1-9 with Easter on April 5.