BUT NO ONE believes JESUS WAS BORN DEC. 25 – DO THEY?
Col. John Eidsmoe
They’re celebrating
your birthday! But you’re not invited,
and they’d prefer your name not be mentioned.
That’s the way many want to celebrate
Christmas today. The secularizers note that
America is more diverse than it used to be, that we shouldn’t offend others,
that saying “Merry Christmas” might be bad for business, and that public
Christmas observances might even violate the First Amendment.
Then they deliver their crowning blow: “Besides,
everybody knows Jesus wasn’t born in December.”
But saying “everybody knows” begs the
question, as saying “all scholars agree” defines anyone who doesn’t agree as a
non-scholar. Some build their
reputations by debunking traditional wisdom, but I sometimes enjoy debunking
debunkers.
At the risk of flying in the face of this
collective modern wisdom, I suggest that there is substantial, though not
conclusive, evidence that Jesus was born in December, and probably December 25.
The Biblical Evidence
What does the Bible say about the date of
Jesus’ birth? Luke 2:6 tells us that “the days were accomplished that she
should be delivered,” so we assume Jesus was a full-term baby, born nine months
after His conception. Luke 1:26 says the angel Gabriel announced the conception
of Jesus to Mary in the sixth month of her cousin
Elizabeth’s pregnancy with John the Baptist. So Jesus was conceived about six
months after John the Baptist was conceived.
So when was John the Baptist conceived? That’s
more difficult, but the Scriptures suggest some answers. John’s father was Zacharias, a Levite priest “of the course of Abia [Abijah]” (Luke 1:5).
According to I Chronicles 24:7-19, King David had divided the priests into 24
orders, and these orders took turns serving in the Temple for a period of eight
days twice a year, separated from their wives and children. Zacharias
and the other priests of the course of Abia served
during the 10th and 24th weeks of the Jewish year.
The angel of the Lord spoke to Zacharias “while he executed the priest’s office before God
in the order of his course” (Luke 1:8), that is, while he was performing his
service in the Temple. After his course was finished, he left
the Temple, returned to his wife, Elizabeth, and John was conceived (Luke 1:23-24).
If this was after the second course, that is, the 24th week of the year, John
would have been conceived around September or October and born around June or
July. Jesus’ conception six months later would have occurred around March or
April and His birth around December or January.
I’m not saying this is certain, recognizing
that the Jewish 360-day calendar may have varied over the centuries. But based on the scriptural account of Zacharias’s service in the Temple, it is well within the
realm of possibility that Jesus was born in December.
The Extrabiblical
Evidence
St. John Chrysostom
(AD 347-407), whose status in eastern Orthodoxy is comparable to that of St.
Augustine of Hippo in the West, argued strongly for a Dec. 25 birthdate because of the course of Zacharias’s
priestly service. But Chrysostom he also noted that
Pope Julius (served AD 337-352) ascertained the date of Christ’s birth “from
the census documents brought by Titus to Rome” after the destruction of
Jerusalem in AD 70. Julius determined
the date of Christ’s birth to be Dec. 25.
Pope Julius was not the first to set the
December 25 date. Theophilus
of Caesarea (AD 115-181) wrote that “we ought to celebrate the birth of our
Lord on December 25.” Sextus Julius Africanus (AD
160-240) concluded that Jesus was conceived on March 25 and therefore born
December 25. Hippolytus
of Rome (AD 170-240) gave the date of Jesus’s birth
as “eight days before the calends [first days] of January.” Irenaeus (AD
130-202) came to the same conclusion.
Julius and Chrysostom were not alone
in their reliance upon the census documents. Justin Martyr (AD 100-165), in a
detailed statement of the Christian faith addressed to Emperor Marcus Aurelius,
stated that Jesus was born in Bethlehem "as you can ascertain also from
the registers of the taxing.” (Apology, I, 34).
Likewise, Tertullian (AD 160-250) wrote of “the census of Augustus – that most faithful witness of
the Lord’s nativity, kept in the archives of Rome” Contra Marcion,
Book 4, 7).
These census records are missing today. If they still exist, they are lost in the
archives of the Vatican. (This is not
surprising; I find stuff in my own files that’s been missing for decades!) But the men of the ancient world were
careful scholars, and perhaps the better part of wisdom bids us to assume that
these Church Fathers had access to information that we no longer possess, and
that they knew what they were talking about.
Why Not December 25?
Some have said that Jesus couldn’t have been born in December
because shepherds did not keep their sheep in the fields past late autumn. But
Alfred Edersheim, in his classic work The
Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah
(1883), cited ancient Jewish
sources to the effect that flocks of sheep “remain in the open alike in the
hottest days and in the rainy season – i.e. all the year round” (Book 2, p.
186). There was also a special class of Levitical
shepherds who kept sacrificial lambs in the field all year round because they
were used for sacrifice every month of the year.
Winters can be cold in Palestine; but they
vary greatly, and some Decembers are rather mild. A recent study of stalagmites
and stalactites in caves near Jerusalem strongly suggests that the average
annual rainfall dropped nearly 50 percent from about 3 feet in AD 100 to about
1.6 feet in AD 700. Average winter temperatures may have varied as well. If
Mary could have given birth to a baby in a Bethlehem cave or stable, then hardy
shepherds could have watched their flocks in the fields at the same time.
Edersheim concluded, “There is no adequate reason for
questioning the historical accuracy of this date (Dec. 25). The objections
generally made rest on grounds, which seem to me historically untenable.”
Stolen From Pagans?
Then we’re told December 25 was a pagan
holiday, and the Church appropriated the day to celebrate the birth of Christ.
That raises a preliminary question: If a Christian holiday and a pagan holiday
coincide, why do we assume that Christians stole the day from pagans? Why not the other way around? And what holiday was stolen?
The Roman festival Saturnalia is one
possibility. But they celebrated
Saturnalia December 15-22 (or 23), not December 25.
The Winter Solstice is another. But that was December 21(or sometimes 22),
not December 25.
Claims that the Roman god Mithras
or the Indian/Persian god Mithra were born December
25 are pure fantasy. See Tim O’Neill, The
Great Myths 2: Christmas, Mithras, and Paganism, (2016)
historyforatheists.com; for
an entertaining presentation see “Horus Ruins
Christmas,” https://lutheransatire.org/media/horus-ruins-christmas/;
see also, Ronald A. Stephens, “Why December 25?” The
Lutheran Witness, December 21, 2022 https://witness.lcms.org/2022/why-december-25/. When you live in a New Age or neo-pagan
fantasy world, you can create your own mythology and call it history.
Merry Christmas,
Regardless!
Does this mean Christians must celebrate
Christmas? Some believe we should not
celebrate Christmas because the Bible never commands us to celebrate Jesus’birth. I
respect that belief, but I agree with Luther that we may and should celebrate
and proclaim Jesus Christ in any way that Scripture does not forbid. As Paul says, “One man esteemeth
one day above another: another esteemeth every day
alike. Let every man be fully persuaded
in his own mind.” (Romans 14:5) I
believe we have liberty on this point.
In the end, no one’s Christian faith should depend upon whether Dec. 25 is the date of Jesus’s birth, nor do such questions give us any reason to
take Christ out of Christmas. I’d welcome responses from anyone who can prove
or disprove this thesis. But sometimes it is reassuring, and even fun, to learn
that ancient scholars and ancient traditions may have been right all along.
And Merry Christmas, one and all – on Dec.
25!
Col. Eidsmoe is
Professor of Constitutional Law for the Oak Brook College of Law &
Government Policy (www.obcl.edu) and Senior Counsel for the Foundation for
Moral Law (www.morallaw.org). You
may contact him for speaking engagements at eidsmoeja@juno.com. Those
with constitutional concerns may call the Foundation at 334/262-1245.