Why did Christians celebrate the Birth of Jesus on the
25th of December?
In
my previous
post, I talked about how Hippolytus of Rome (around the year 200)
took for granted that Jesus was born on the 25th of December. This places the dating of Christmas well
before Theodosius made Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire (380), before
Constantine made Christianity a legal religion in the Roman Empire (312), and
also before Sol Invictus became the Pagan holiday on December 25th
(274). This of course leads to the
natural question, where did early Christians get the idea of celebrating the
birth of Jesus on December 25th.
I
believe the answer to such a question can be gleaned from the New
Testament. The Day of Atonement/ Yom
Kippur takes place on the 10th day of the month of Tishrei, which is
nine days after Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year). The joys of working with a Jewish calendar
versus the Julian or Gregorian calendars is that there is not a one to one
correspondence. This means that,
according to the calendars of the goyim, Yom Kippur falls somewhere between
middle September to middle October. All
of this is relevant because of some dating in Luke’s Gospel.
If
we take that Yom Kippur happens sometime around the beginning of October or late
September, and we add that the priest only entered the Holy of Holies on Yom
Kippur, then we can do simple math to figure out the date when Jesus was born.
In
Hebrews 9:7, we are told about the Holy of Holies that “only the high priest
goes, and he but once a year.” This
means that only once a year would a priest enter the Holy of Holies to burn
incense and sprinkle blood on the altar inside the Holy of Holies.[1]
Turning
to Luke, we find that Zechariah was “was chosen by lot to enter the temple of
the Lord and burn incense” (Luke 1:9). Luke goes on to tell how “the whole multitude
of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense.” (Luke 1:10). At this moment, Zechariah saw the angel of
the Lord standing on the right of the altar of incense. The angel announced that Zechariah and
Elizabeth would have a son in their old age.
This all happened between the middle of September and the middle of
October.
Then we arrive at the important (for the
purpose of their inquiry) statement in Luke 1:23–24:
“And when his time
of service was ended, he went to his home. After these days his wife Elizabeth
conceived.” This is important because
Elizabeth conceived after Yom Kippur.
But how soon? This is the weakest
part of the argument. I think that the
best understanding for the phrase “after these days” is that the conception of
John the Baptist took place directly after Zechariah’s time of service. If this is the case, then we can plot out the
timeline fairly easily.
“Elizabeth
conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, "Thus the
Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach
among people." In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a
city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was
Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary.” (Luke 1:24–27)
Following the timeline, Elizabeth was six months
pregnant when Mary conceived Jesus. Now
for the math:
John the Baptist was conceived somewhere between
middle September to the middle of October (tradition puts this on the 23rd
of September).
Six months later, Mary conceived sometime in March or
April (tradition puts it at March 25th)
Nine months after March or April puts us into late
December or early January.
This is terribly imprecise, but it shows that December
25th is a biological and mathematical possibility for the birth of
Jesus. Thus when taken together with
early Christian attestations for the birth of Christ being on December 25th,
the onus is put squarely on those who argue for a date other than December 25th
for the birth of Jesus. It is an
argument against Scripture and Tradition.
[1]
See also: Leviticus 16:12–13 “And he shall take a censer full of coals
of fire from the altar before the LORD, and two handfuls of sweet incense
beaten small, and he shall bring it inside the veil and put the incense on the
fire before the LORD, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat
that is over the testimony, so that he does not die.”
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