I'm a Christian. I've been a Christian all my life. I pretty much
believe everything I read in the bible... especially the New Testament.
Someone once told me that Christ wasn't really born on December 25,
that we celebrate his birth on that day because of tradition. You know
what? He was right!
Of course, it really doesn't make any
difference in my love for Jesus. But it is nice to be able to separate
the facts from the traditions. The fact is... the exact time of Christ's
birth was never recorded in the bible. Only that He was born in a
manger in Bethlehem.
But was it in December? I kind of doubt it.
December's in Bethlehem are cold. Joseph and were going to Bethlehem to
pay their taxes when the 'Son of God' was born. Roman leaders were very
good administrators. I doubt that they'd pick one of the coldest months
of the year for people to pay their taxes. After all, people had to walk
to get to the tax collectors. I'm sure the administrators wanted to
make it as easy as they could to collect taxes.
There's another
thing that makes me think Jesus wasn't born in December. The bible says
that angels appeared to shepherds watching over their flocks on the
night Jesus was born. Shepherds would never have had their flocks out at
night in the dead of winter.
So, why do we celebrate December 25
as the Christ's birthday? To start with, the early church didn't
celebrate Christ's birthday at all. It wasn't until 336 A.D. that
Christmas came about. That was the date the Roman emperor Constantine
decided to convert a pagan holiday into the 'Christian' holiday called,
Christmas. Even that date is in question with many scholars believing
that the Roman holiday wasn't officially called 'Christmas' until the
early 500s.
What isn't questionable though is that December 25th
had long been celebrated as the festival that marked the winter
solstice, the return of the sun, and honored Saturn, the god of sowing.
So,
when was Christ born? Most likely in the fall. Luke, in the New
Testament says that the Romans required a census and taxation to take
place after the fall harvest, during the Autumn. Which makes a lot of
sense as travel would be much more difficult later in the year.
Does
it really make any difference when Jesus was born? Not to me. This is
one of those things that the bible doesn't mention. We can deduce the
general time though by looking at the things that were happening around
him. It's easier to say why it wasn't December 25th, than to narrow down
an exact month. For me... sometime in the Autumn is close enough. I'm
fine going along with the crowd in using December 25th to celebrate his
birth. It may not the correct day, but it will do until He returns again
and sets us straight.
No comments:
Post a Comment