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By Root 1328 0

to Jesus in Roman-era writings, everything we commonly know about the man people called the “Christ,” “Messiah,” and “Anointed One” comes from the New Testament, on the hearsay evidence of people who had unshakable faith that this man was also the Son of God who died for their sins and then rose from the dead. The Gospels were produced to awaken faith in Jesus as the Messiah and Savior. Just as the Hebrew scriptures contain multiple stories of everything from the Creation to King David and the destruction and rebuilding of Jerusalem’s Temple, there are conflicting accounts of Jesus as it is presented in the accounts of the four Gospels, complete with contradictions.

BIBLICAL VOICES

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matt. 1:18-21)

Was Jesus born on Christmas?

“Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire.” “On December 5 and 20, Fum, Fum, Fum.” “In the Bleak Midwinter.”

Throw these and most other wintry Christmas carols out the window. Jesus wasn’t born on Christmas. December 25 is basically a date chosen to win over pagan sun worshipers.

Bethlehem? Maybe not. Jesus said he came from Nazareth.

“We Three Kings”? Wrong again. They weren’t kings but Persian magicians. And there may not have been three of them.

The elaborate stories and songs woven around Christmas are all part of a complex set of myths and traditions that has little to do with the biblical account of Jesus’ birth. The English word “Christmas” literally means “Christ’s Mass,” the festival of the Christ’s birth. The earliest mention of December 25 as the feast day of the “Nativity”—the proper name for the birthday of Jesus—dates to 354 CE. In ancient times, December 25 was the date of the winter solstice, a pagan holiday celebrating the sun god. In Rome, the week preceding the solstice was the Saturnalia, an orgiastic festival that concluded with gift-giving and candle-lighting. Hmmmmm. Doesn’t that sound like a familiar holiday?

Early Roman Christians appropriated the date and then used it to win converts from paganism, a term for the Roman empire’s state religion, complete with its set of god and goddesses who had been expropriated from Greek mythology. The word “pagan” was coined by early Christians, loosely meaning “civilian.” In other words, anyone who hadn’t enlisted in “Jesus’ army” was a pagan. Early Christians did not think Jews were “pagan,” however, because they still worshiped the same God.

Christians then as now agreed on few things. Following the division of the Roman empire into eastern and western halves in 340 CE, Christianity was also largely split between East and West. Eastern Christians used a calendar in which the solstice fell on January 6, when the birthday of Osiris was still celebrated at Alexandria, Egypt. By about 300 CE, January 6 had become the date of the “Epiphany” (Greek for “manifestation”), a feast closely related to Christmas in the Roman Catholic calendar as the day on which the “wise men” or Magi visited Jesus. In the Eastern Orthodox church, Epiphany is even more popular than Christmas and commemorates the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River.

Okay, so Jesus wasn’t born on Christmas. At least the New Testament tells us what year Jesus was born. Right?

Sorry again. The New Testament actually offers several possible birth years. Pick the one you like. First we have to contend with the “Shifting Calendar” glitch. Since they were in Rome and did as the Romans do, early Christian writers calculated historical dates from the legendary foundation