Cancel Christmas – Jesus was born June 17, say scientists
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 9:57 AM on 09th December 2008
Researchers tracked the ‘Christmas star” to a reveal the date of Christ”s birth as June 17
It may not be too late to send the presents back, as astronomers have calculated that Christmas should not be celebrated on December 25 – but on June 17 instead.
Researchers tracked the appearance of the ‘Christmas star”, which the Bible states three wise men followed to find Jesus.
Australian stargazer Dave Reneke used complex computer software to chart the exact positions of all celestial bodies and map the night sky as it would have appeared over the Holy Land more than 2,000 years ago.
He discovered that a bright star really did appear over Bethlehem 2,000 years ago – but pinpointed the date of Christ”s birth as June 17, and not December 25.
Scientists claim the Christmas star was most likely a magnificent conjunction of the planets Venus and Jupiter, which were so close together they would have shone unusually brightly as a single ‘beacon of light” which appeared suddenly.
Mr Reneke says the wise men probably interpreted it as the sign they had been waiting for, and they followed the “star” to Christ”s birthplace in a stable in Bethlehem, as described in the Bible.
Generally accepted research has placed the nativity to somewhere between 3BC and 1AD.
Using the St Matthew”s Gospel as a reference point, Mr Reneke pinpointed the planetary conjunction, which appeared in the constellation of Leo, to the exact date of June 17 in the year 2BC.
Mr Reneke, who is editor of Sky and Space magazine, said: ‘We have software that can recreate the night sky exactly as it was at any point in the last several thousand years.
‘Venus and Jupiter became very close in the the year 2BC and they would have appeared to be one bright beacon of light.
‘We are not saying this was definitely the Christmas star – but it is the strongest explanation for it of any I have seen so far.
‘Astronomy is such a precise science, we can plot exactly where the planets were, and it certainly seems this is the fabled Christmas star. There”s no other explanation that so closely matches the facts we have from the time.
‘This could well have been what the three wise men interpreted as a sign. They could easily have mistaken it for one bright star.”
He added: ‘December is an arbitrary date we have accepted but it doesn”t really mean that is when it happened.
‘This is not an attempt to decry religion. It”s really backing it up as it shows there really was a bright object appearing in the East at the right time.
‘Often when we mix science with religion in this kind of forum, it can upset people. In this case, I think this could serve to reinforce people”s faith.”
Previous theories have speculated that the star was a supernova (exploding star) or even a comet.
But Mr Reneke says that by narrowing the date down, the technology has provided the most compelling explanation yet.
A leading theory behind why December 25 was chosen as the date to celebrate Christ”s birth, was that it was selected by the church as it aligned closely with a major pagan festival, which allowed the church to claim a new celebration for Christianity.
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தேவப்ரியா 
The Krishna and Christian Jesus Parallels
Robert Howard Kroepel
Copyright © 2001
The parallels (similarities) of the Hindu Krishna Myth to the Christian Jesus myth are strong evidence that Christianity stole/borrowed elements of the older myth.
In comparing the Krishna and Jesus myths, some of the references of the Jesus myth are stories found in the so-called Apocryphal Gospels, the early Christian writings which were not accepted for the Christian canon, which includes the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John, the Acts, and other letters.
Special note will be made of the Apocryphal Gospel references.
The Apocryphal Gospel myths are included because they give additional mythological information not found in the Canonic Gospels.
Because we are interested in the total Jesus myth, this additional information is included.
Here is a chart comparing the Jesus myth to the Krishna myth.
Comparison of the Jesus and Krishna Myths The Hindu Krishna Myth The Christian Jesus Myth
Krishna is the son of the Virgin Devaki. Jesus is the son of the Virgin Mary.
Krishna’s birth occurs while his foster father, Nanda, is in his native city to pay taxes to the king, King Kansa. Jesus’ birth occurs while his foster father, Joseph, is in his native city to pay taxes to the Governor.
King Kansa tried to kill Krishna by ordeing the slaughter of all males born on the same day as Krishna. King Herod ordered the slaughter of all infants born on the same day as Jesus.
Source: St. Matthew, 2:16.
The Virgin Devaki is told by an angel, “In thy delivery, O favored among women, all nations shall have cause to rejoice.” The Virgin Mary is told by an angel, “Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. … Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”
Source: St. Luke 1:28-33.
The nativity of Krishna is heralded by a star. The nativity of Jesus is heralded by a star.
Krishna is born in a cave.
The cave story is an indication of lower-class birthplace. Jesus is born in a cave.
Source: The Apocryphal Gospel entitled Protevangelion, supposedly written by James, the brother of Jesus.
The manger story (wherein Jesus was born in a stable) is an indication of a low-class birthplace.
Krishna is visited in the cave by three wise men bearing gifts. Jesus is visited in the stable/cave by three wise men bearing gifts.
The cave was mysteriously illuminated. The cave was illuminated so brightly Joseph and Mary’s midwife could not tolerate the light.
Source: The Apocryphal Gospel Protevangelion.
Nanda is warned by an angel to flee from King Kansa by crossing the Jumna River with the infant Krishna. Joseph is warned in a dream to flee from King Herod into Egypt with the infant Jesus and the Virgin Mary.
The baby Krishna began speaking to his mother shortly after birth. The baby Jesus began speaking to the Virgin Mary shortly after his birth, saying, “Mary, I am Jesus, the Son of God, that WORD which thou didst bring forth according to the declaration of the Angel Gabriel to thee, and my Father hath sent me for the salvation of the world.”
Source: The Apocryphal Gospel, The First Gospel of the Infancy.
Krishna performs miracles in Mathura. Jesus performs miracles in the town of Materea in Egypt.
Krishna is the second person of the Hindu Trinity: (1) Brahma, (2) Vishnu, (3) Siva. Krishna is the incarnation of Vishnu. Jesus is the second person of the Christian Trinity: (1) God, the Father, (2) Jesus the Son, (3) the Holy Ghost.
Krishna was crucified. Jesus was crucified.
During the crucifixion, Krishna was wounded by an arrow. During the crucifixion, Jesus was wounded by a spear.
At noon on the day of Krishna’s crucifixion, the sun darkened. From the sixth hour to the ninth hour on the day of Jesus’ crucifixion, the sun darkened.
Krishna descended into Hell.
He raised the dead.
He brought back two boys from Hell. Jesus descended into Hell.
He raised the dead.
He brought back from Hell two boys, the sons of the high priest.
Source: The Apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus.
Sources:
John G. Jackson, Christianity Before Christ, American Atheist Press, P.O. Box 2117, Austin, TX 78768-2117, 1985.
The crucifixion of Krishna: Thomas Inman, M.D., Ancient Faiths, Vol. I, p. 411, cited by Thomas William Doane in Bible Myths and Their Parallels in Other Religions, New Hyde Park, New York, NY, University Books, 1970, p. 186, cited by John G. Jackson, Christianity Before Christ, American Atheist Press, P.O. Box 2117, Austin, TX 78768-2117, 1985, p. 80.
Was Jesus Was Born in June?
December 10, 2008 8:12 AM
By Simon McGregor-Wood, Correspondent & Bureau Chief, ABC News Jerusalem
Christmas should be in June, June 17 to be exact, according to Australian astronomer Dave Reneke.
He believes the famous Christmas star of the Nativity story was in fact a spectacular conjunction of the planets Venus and Jupiter. They came together forming an unusually bright beacon of light that may easily have looked like a newly formed star….Using a computer program to track the planets’ movements through the centuries, he arrived at the date June 17 in the year 2 B.C.
Nm_nativity_star_081210_main
“Venus and Jupiter became very close in the year 2 B.C. and they would have appeared to be one bright beacon of light….We’re not saying this was definitely the Christmas star but it is the strongest explanation for it of any I have seen so far,” Reneke said. Widely accepted research into the birth date of Jesus places it somewhere between 3 B.C. and 1 A.D.
There have been other theories to explain the appearance of the star, including a supernova — an exploding star, or a comet. But Reneke has absolute faith in the technology used to come up with the new date. “Astronomy is such a precise science. We can plot exactly where the planets were, and it certainly seems this is the fabled star,” he said.
Reneke is quick to deny he is trying to undermine Christian tradition, claiming that his research only serves to support the whole story of the Nativity and the journey of the three wise men mentioned in the Gospels.
If his theory is ever accepted, Christmas in the Northern Hemisphere will never be the same. No more wintry scenes on Christmas cards and presumably a change in the Christmas menu.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/worldview/2008/12/jesus-was-born.html
Why Wasn’t Jesus Born in June?
Published on December 25, 2007 in Holy Shit! Lookit This!.
There would have been so many advantages if Jesus was born in June.
* Instead of Irving Berlin, we would be listening to The Beach Boys
* Longer nights to save energy on lights outside
* No travel delays because June is a light travel month
* The malls aren’t crowded
* Thanksgiving gets a better shake
* Steaks on the grill instead of turkey
* Kids born on December 25 get a real birthday
* Sandy beaches instead of snowy driveways
* New Year’s Day would be more fun
* Jews would be happier. Hanukkah top billing
* No more Frosty
* Credit card statements wouldn’t come when taxes are due. Weren’t Joseph and Mary on their way to pay taxes?
* Everybody can just GO OUTSIDE
* Salvation Army bell-ringers would be warmer
* Bikinis and Speedos
I hope the second coming is in June, it would be so much easier.
http://goinglikesixty.com/2007/12/25/why-wasnt-jesus-born-in-june/
Vatican changes nativity scene
17 Dec 2007, 0048 hrs IST, PTI
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2626604.cms
LONDON: The traditional nativity scene built each Christmas in front of St Peter’s Basilica has shown Jesus being born in a stable in Bethlehem for
25 years. But, this year, the Vatican will do away with the manger.
The Vatican has decided to abandon the traditional stable and the straw-ladden setting, shifting it to Nazareth, and placing Jesus in his father Joseph’s carpentry shop in a bid to reflect the more straightforward scenario as described by St Matthew.
“It’s time for a change and a return to St Matthew’s gospel,” Daily Telegraph quoted a spokesman of the State Department of the Vatican, which organises and builds the giant presepe, or the nativity scene, as saying.
“In fact, in place of the sheep and hay, there will be a model of three rooms. Jesus will lie in Joseph’s shop, complete with the typical work tools of a carpenter…On one side, the shop will be flanked with a covered patio, on the other there’ll be the inside of a pub, with its hearth.” The new setting was inspired by two verses in St Matthew’s gospel, Chapter 1:24 and 1:25, the Vatican said, which state: “When Joseph woke up, he did as the Angel of God ordered and took Mary into his house. Without them knowing each other, a child was born and he called his name Jesus.”
But, a decision has been made to place the nativity scene in Nazareth regardless, the spokesperson said. The traditional depiction of Jesus in a manger comes from St Luke’s gospel, which said there was no room at the inn”. But it is Matthew’s gospel which forms the basis for the Angelus prayer, and the view of Jesus in a carpenter’s workshop matches the Franciscan tradition. The nativity scene at St Peter’s for Christmas was started by Pope John Paul II in 1982.
Is Christmas a Pagan Festival?
Giving people something that they need is a good godly way to show love and help others. However, the giving season could be so much better with much more joy. Solving and avoiding the below problems will mean everyone will have a much happier time.
Man’s system is about giving, but it is about giving in the wrong way. It is about using the festive season to seek profit and gifts in return. It is about pride or showing others that you are better by being able to afford expensive gifts. It is about giving unnecessary expensive things that people often do not want.
Christmas actually started as a pagan festival. Nobody knows what day or month Christ was born. People claim that Christmas has now been turned into a Christian festival but the problem is that it is mainly not Christian. In fact, many of the things involved with Christmas are pagan or Satanic. Many people see Santa as a God. He is certainly distracting people from the real God. In the Bible other gods were condemned. There are many good gifts, but there are also many that are not useful and take over people’s lives. The believers in God in the Bible certainly did not go to the people with pagan gods, and turn their festival into a partly Christian festival while allowing pagan activities to continue. Pagan activities were totally removed from the living or worshiping presence of the believers. In the Old Testament are many examples of where God was angry if they did not totally remove the pagan idols.
Christmas and Easter have to a great extent lost their true meanings and are largely about buying unnecessary products from multinationals. This is giving multinationals more profit and power and causing financial misery for poor people. The commercialisation of Christmas and Easter and the buying of Easter eggs and gifts which people don’t need etc. are a way for the world system to focus people away from what they should be using their money and time for.
As indicated by the following reference the pagan roots of Christians stem from Mother and Child worship that begin in Babylon. They believed that the Goddess derived her godhead and glory from the son. The system of worship was passed down through later civilizations. The names of their gods were changed. The cults established holy days. On the Winter Solstice the birth was celebrated for the son of Isis the Egyptian Queen of Heaven.
The following section in italic print is quoted in an article by By Mark S. Watson.
“As time passed, this Mother Goddess religion transformed itself into various fertility cults that flourished in the ancient world. These mystery schools had special important ‘holy’ days that were celebrated. Consider this, it was during the Winter Solstice that the son of Isis the Egyptian Queen of Heaven, birth was celebrated. It is very interesting to note that these festivals were not celebrated by the Church of the first two centuries of its existence[iv].
. . . Some of the early church fathers have commented on the exchanging of gifts at Christmas time as being an observance of Saturnalia, a pagan winter festival. The Babylonians had an old fable of an evergreen tree[v] that sprang out of a dead tree stump symbolizing Nimrod, later known among the mystery schools as Tammuz. The Bible makes some reference of these pagan customs and holidays (Jer 10:3-4; Ezek 8:13-14; 1King 14:23). These all occurred during the winter solstice, that is, the time the ‘Church’ celebrates Christmas. The risen ‘child god’ rises from the dead three days after the winter solstice. The celebration today is commonly referred to today as Christmas. This is clearly NOT a Christian holiday. Despite the traditions of men, passed of as truth in the modern American Pulpit, this Holiday, is deceptively decked with lots of goodwill, songs and presents in order to deceive the masses into rejecting the truth.
. . . The only day Christ commanded us to celebrate was the Last Supper, the church has even missed to boat on this too, as Christ COMMANDED us to drink wine and eat bread in remembrance of him.
. . .Easter is another Babylonian abomination that has made its way into the Christian mainstream. The name actually comes from Ishtar, the Goddess of fertility in Assyria. However, this is simply the Babylonian Goddess Astarte, who was the consort for Baal. Being the Goddess of fertility, it was only natural that the favorite symbol of fertility be used in the spring festival that we now call Easter, that being the egg. Easter Eggs are the most visible representation of the fertility aspect of the spring pagan festival. Pastors who celebrate this are in grave violation of the Commands of Christ when they conduct the passion of Christ during this time. The Scriptures are very clear when Jesus was crucified it was on Passover. We know exactly when Passover is and we know that is when Jesus was crucified. Why does the mainstream ‘Church’ continue in the pagan abomination? Many mainstream pastors will never speak out about these and other abominations in mainstream (Protestant and Catholic) Christianity, if they did they would find themselves no longer welcome on Christian T.V., lucrative Church Circuit speaking engagements and may find their books will not be published by large ‘Christian book’ publishing houses.”
THE PAGAN CHRIST
Published:
in Toronto, Canada by Thomas Allen Publishers
in Montreal, Canada by Boreal Press
in New York, USA by Walker Books
in Australia by Allen & Unwin Publishers
in the Netherlands by Ankh-Hermes bv
in Germany by Ansata Verlag, and in Japan
http://www.tomharpur.com/books/books_thepaganchrist.asp
Gospels are masked horror.
Mary mary.
In the catacombs at Rome are pictures of the baby Horus being held by the virgin mother Isis, the original “Madonna and Child.
Jesus as a reincarnation of Horus
http://www.near-death.com/experiences/origen046.html
NY Times Commentary on Freud’s Moses and Monotheism
LINK http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/09/magazine/09wwln-lede-t.html?pagewanted=1&_ r=1
http://www.bibliomania.com/1/7/68/2031/frameset.html
I saw following movie ad in a newspaper website
The God Who Wasn’t There
http://www.thegodmovie.com/?gclid=CNKKmv2ryJYCFRLoxgodQQ2hyA
A bOOK FOR Download analyses BIBLE on Theological level
http://www.esnips.com/doc/6bef363b-bf35-43c8-b8a7-38620b7f624f/ToJustinAgainst-C hristianity
Geza Vermes’s latest book is essentially a commentary on every word ascribed to Jesus by Matthew, Mark and Luke. It reaffirms the conclusion of his earlier New Testament works – that Christianity rests on a colossal mistake. The carpenter’s son from Nazareth performed exorcisms, healed the sick and preached the coming of the Kingdom of God. But he had no message for the Gentiles, still less any urge to found a universal church. He belonged solidly within his Jewish milieu, and his downfall resulted only from an act of prophetic zeal. “He caused a fracas in the merchants’ quarter in the Temple a few days before Passover,” Vermes writes.
“The nervous priestly authorities … sensed danger, and feared that the disorder might start a rebellion … Pilate, notorious for his cruelty, did not hesitate to put to death the ‘king of the Jews’, whom he believed to be an insurgent … Jesus expired on a Roman cross and was buried. But his disciples saw him in repeated visions, which persuaded them that he had been raised from the dead before ascending to heaven.”
It follows from this that historic Christianity must have come from elsewhere. Vermes sees the true source of doctrinal development in the writings of St Paul. When the Jewish roots of the gospel were transplanted into foreign soil through Paul’s mission, a human prophet addressing a local audience was recast as a divine redeemer for all humanity.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2003/dec/2…education.news2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geza_Vermes
How Jesus got a life
http://www.atheists.org/christianity/jesuslife.html
The History of Christmas
In the Western world, the birthday of Jesus Christ has been celebrated on December 25th since AD 354, replacing an earlier date of January 6th. The Christians had by then appropriated many pagan festivals and traditions of the season, that were practiced in many parts of the Middle East and Europe, as a means of stamping them out.
There were mid-winter festivals in ancient Babylon and Egypt, and Germanic fertility festivals also took place at this time. The birth of the ancient sun-god Attis in Phrygia was celebrated on December 25th, as was the birth of the Persian sun-god, Mithras. The Romans celebrated Saturnalia, a festival dedicated to Saturn, the god of peace and plenty, that ran from the 17th to 24th of December. Public gathering places were decorated with flowers, gifts and candles were exchanged and the population, slaves and masters alike, celebrated the occasion with great enthusiasm.
In Scandinavia, a period of festivities known as Yule contributed another impetus to celebration, as opposed to spirituality. As Winter ended the growing season, the opportunity of enjoying the Summer’s bounty encouraged much feasting and merriment.
The Celtic culture of the British Isles revered all green plants, but particularly mistletoe and holly. These were important symbols of fertility and were used for decorating their homes and altars.
New Christmas customs appeared in the Middle Ages. The most prominent contribution was the carol, which by the 14th century had become associated with the religious observance of the birth of Christ.
In Italy, a tradition developed for re-enacting the birth of Christ and the construction of scenes of the nativity. This is said to have been introduced by Saint Francis as part of his efforts to bring spiritual knowledge to the laity.
Saints Days have also contributed to our Christmas celebrations. A prominent figure in today’s Christmas is Saint Nicholas who for centuries has been honored on December 6th. He was one of the forerunners of Santa Claus.
Another popular ritual was the burning of the Yule Log, which is strongly embedded in the pagan worship of vegetation and fire, as well as being associated with magical and spiritual powers.
Celebrating Christmas has been controversial since its inception. Since numerous festivities found their roots in pagan practices, they were greatly frowned upon by conservatives within the Church. The feasting, gift-giving and frequent excesses presented a drastic contrast with the simplicity of the Nativity, and many people throughout the centuries and into the present, condemn such practices as being contrary to the true spirit of Christmas.
The earliest English reference to December 25th as Christmas Day did not come until 1043.
© Alan Williams 2000
Whose Christmas is it anyway?
image: [ Pagans celebrate the winter solstice, on December 21 ]
Pagans celebrate the winter solstice, on December 21
Apparently, the season of good cheer did not start out as exclusively a Christian festival. According to Pagans, the early Christian church hijacked December 25 to celebrate the birth of Jesus because they saw that everyone was already having a good time and decided to take advantage of it.
Historical debate has been raging for a long time over the exact date of the birth of Jesus Christ, with estimates ranging from sometime in September to much later in February.
But the most important date in the festive season for Pagans is the winter solstice which always takes place around December 21. Called Yule, it is one of the traditional Celtic fire festivals and marks the return of the light after the longest night of the year.
The Pagan Federation, an umbrella group for Pagan organisations, describes Paganism as a spiritual nature-venerating belief system rooted in the ancient nature religions of the world.
The term of Pagan covers Wiccans, better known as witches, followers of the Northern Tradition who base their beliefs on Norse and old northern European beliefs, and also Druidism.
Christians and the more secular Christmas revellers may be relieved to learn that Pagans in Britain do not tend to cavort around holly bushes stark naked, or “skyclad”, to celebrate their version of Christmas.
High Priestess
” We celebrate the rebirth of the sun, not the son,” said Kate West, High Priestess of a Wiccan coven in Cheshire.
[ image: The oak tree symbolises the summer]
The oak tree symbolises the summer
On the night before the solstice she meets with the members of her coven, which number anywhere between 12 and 20, at a local beauty spot, to “enact the battle of the oak and the holly king.”
The holly and the oak tree represent the two opposites of winter and summer respectively. Two male members of the coven wear crowns of either oak or holly and perform a ceremonial fight.
“Then we drum and chant to bring up the sun” said Ms West, whose coven, called the Hearth of Hecate, wears black robes for the occasion “because they don’t show the dirt as much as white ones.”
[ image: The holly bush represents the winter, it battles with the oak tree twice a year]
The holly bush represents the winter, it battles with the oak tree twice a year
Ms West said that the winter solstice was not the most important Pagan ceremony for Wiccans, that distinction goes to their new year at Hallowe’en.
She said that many Pagans do celebrate Christmas, but mainly for the children and “you are unlikely to see a nativity scene in a witches house”.
Ms West, who is also an author on the subject of witchcraft, estimates that there are roughly 20,000 Pagans in Britain today and says it was a rapidly growing religion: “It’s is the thinking person’s religion … with nobody to intercede between you and your god and no one to tell you what to think” she said.
“It’s certainly too cold at this time of year to run about with no clothes on,” said Dhyan Sargam, a witch from Berkshire.
He and his circle of about 20 warmly-dressed Pagans celebrate the festival of “light and healing” by holding a torchlit procession around a maze near Winchester.
They picked this area in particular because it is close to Twyford Down, the site of a contentious road bypass which some activists argued was environmentally damaging. When they get to the middle of the maze, they say a few healing prayers and go home and have a big party.
“For us we decided to have fireworks to mark the return of light. We took advice from the police because obviously people don’t expect fireworks at this time of year … we’ve done this now for years,” he said.
“I’m not a Pagan because I’m anti-Christian, I’m a Pagan because I believe in a variety of Pagan deities.” he said.
But, in common with many Christians, Mr Sargam said: “The commercialisation is not something we like … to make this time of year an overtly commercial affair is inappropriate.”
Eat, drink and be merry
[ image: Pagans light candles to welcome back the light]
Pagans light candles to welcome back the light
Seasonal rites vary among different sorts of Pagans from full-scale services with special robes, chalices and the lighting of candles to a little light meditation.
Many Pagans say that Christmas was superimposed over their great year-end festivals which were very popular in the Graeco-Roman world.
Firstly, the customs of giving presents, eating too much and generally having fun comes from the Roman festival Saturnalia which used to be celebrated around December 17.
Saturn was the Roman God of agriculture and plenty, and gift giving symbolised the redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor during the season of greatest hardship. Big feasts were generally laid on by the rich to feed their poorer neighbours.
The next big ancient festival was the solstice feast of Mithras, the Roman God of light on December 25. This was the one adopted by Christians sometime around the 4th century as the birthday of Jesus. Traditionally, this festival marked the renewal of hope.
For modern Pagans, the solstice is the most important time. It is often called Yule, after the Scandinavian tradition, or Mother-Night from the Anglo-Saxon tradition. On this, the longest night of the year, they celebrate the return of light and an end to darkness.
The third celebration is New Year’s Eve, originally dedicated to the two-faced Roman god Janus, who looked both forward and back. At this festival there were torchlit processions, lots of songs, present giving, fortune telling and people would decorate their houses with all sorts of greenery to symbolise new life.
Much of the ancient new year celebrations, such as gathering greenery in the form of a fir tree or holly, have now moved back to start at what is the beginning of the modern Christmas season.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/for_christmas/_new_year/pagan_christma s/37276.stm
lluminating the history of christmas
MARK ABLEY, Freelance
Published: Saturday, December 13
“Language is fossil poetry,” American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson once observed. Long ago, even “the deadest word” was “a brilliant picture.” Emerson realized that as words age over the centuries, their original sense is likely to disappear. Christmas is a time when the old meanings of many common expressions lie hidden from view – so in the spirit of Emerson, I’ll devote today’s column to verbal fossil-hunting. Let’s start with Christmas itself.
You could say it means “Messiah celebration.” That’s because the word “Christ” goes back to the Greek “christos,” or anointed one – a direct translation of the Hebrew “mashiah”(anointed, or messiah). “Mass,” referring to a celebration of the Christian Eucharist, has been an English word since the Anglo-Saxon era 1,100 years ago. But in its other senses – mass media, mass murder, a building of great mass, and so on – the word has a completely different origin: the Ancient Greek term for barley cake.
The 4th-century decision to celebrate Jesus’s birth on Dec. 25 had nothing to do with the Bible and everything to do with the politics of the late Roman Empire. Romans had long enjoyed the feast of Saturnalia around the winter solstice (a Latinate term that literally meant “sun stoppage”). And in the year 274, a pagan emperor had declared Dec. 25 a civic holiday in Rome, marking the birth of the god Mithra.
By selecting Dec. 25 as the date for their own celebration, Christians were in effect saying that their god was more powerful than every pagan alternative on offer.
Instead of stamping out all pre-existing holidays, they incorporated those holidays into their own. A famous example is Easter, which takes its name from an ancient
Germanic goddess of fertility; she would be honoured each year when the sun rose at the springtime equinox.
Yule, an old word for Christmas, also has pagan roots. When the Vikings said “jol,” they meant a winter feast, and the Anglo-Saxons whom the Vikings raided took hold of the word and employed it for their own December revels. Gradually, “yule” became a synonym for the most vital feast of the British winter.
When it comes to the major religious festivals, the English and French languages draw on contrasting traditions. The French word for Easter, “Pâques,” goes all the way back to Pesach, the Hebrew term for Passover. And the French term “Noël” – which made its way into several Christmas carols in the English language – is ultimately derived from the Latin “dies natalis,” day of birth.
A brief geographical digression: Natal, the Portuguese word for Christmas, was for centuries the name of a province in South Africa (now called KwaZulu-Natal). That’s because the great explorer Vasco da Gama sighted its coast on Christmas Day, 1497.
Exactly 102 years later, the Portuguese created a settlement on the northeastern shore of South America and gave it the same name; today, the Brazilian city of Natal has more than one million residents.
Three days after Christmas, in the traditional calendar of the Western church, comes the Feast of the Holy Innocents – commemorating the infant boys of Bethlehem who were slaughtered, according to one of the four gospels, at King Herod’s order. (The other gospels don’t mention any such event.) The occasion used to be known as Childermas: an Anglo-Saxon combination of “children” and “mass.”
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DATING THE BIRTH OF JESUS OF NAZARETH
• New Testament Documents
• Church History Documents
Dating the year of Christ’s birth is as controversial as dating the day of His birth. St. Luke provided several historical references that are helpful in determining Jesus’ birth year in his Gospel in Luke 1:5, 2:1-3 and 3:1-2. St. Luke records: In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar’s reign, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judaea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of the territories of Ituraea and Trachonitis, Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, and while the high-priesthood was held by Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah, in the desert (Luke 3:1-2). The historical record can provide reliable dates for the most of the men mentioned in this passage:
Tiberius Caesar succeeded Augustus Caesar on the 19th of August 14AD.
Pontus Pilate was appointed governor of Judea from 26-36 AD.
Herod Antipas was tetrarch of the Galilee from 4BC/1BC to 39AD.
Philip Herod was tetrarch of Ituraea and Trachonitis from c. 4BC/1BC-34AD.
Annas was High Priest from 6AD-15AD and his son-in-law, Caiaphas, was High Priest from 18AD-36AD, but Annas still wielded the power (John 18:12-13).
The Roman Emperor Tiberius succeeded his step-father, Augustus Caesar, on the 19th of August in 14AD. Therefore, the 15th year of Tiberius’ reign, when St. John the Baptist began his ministry (as the Romans calculated their years) was from August 19th, 28AD to August 18th, 29AD. However, if St. Luke was using the Syrian method of calculating, then the reign of Tiberius would have been from September – October 27AD to 28AD (for a discussion of post-ascension dating see the document “How We Date the Reigns of Old Testament Kings”).
St. Luke also provided information concerning Jesus’ age when He began His ministry in Luke 3:23: When he began, Jesus was about thirty years old…. That both the priest St. John the Baptist and Jesus, the rightful Davidic king, were thirty years old when they began their ministries is significant: a priest began his full ministerial duties when he was thirty and King David began to rule over Israel when he was thirty years old (Numbers 4:34-35; 2 Samuel 5:4). But this is also information that is useful in calculating Jesus’ birth since St. Luke provided the information from the Angel Gabriel that St. John the Baptist was six months older than Jesus: And I tell you this too: your cousin Elizabeth also, in her old age, has conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month (Luke 1:36-37). From the year calculated as the beginning of St. John the Baptist’s ministry and the information concerning the difference in months between John and Jesus’ conceptions, it can be calculated that both St. John and Jesus’ births were probably in year 3/2 BC.
Testimony supporting the year of Jesus’ birth as 3/2BC is also found in the writings of the early Church Fathers. In approximately the year 200AD, St. Clement of Alexandria [150-215AD], head of the Christian catechetical school in Alexandria, Egypt, recorded that Jesus of Nazareth was born in the twenty-eighth year of the reign of the Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus. St. Clement was calculating the beginning of Augustus’ reign from the year 727 AUC (a dating system from the foundation of the city of Rome), or in our time, 27BC when the Roman Senate conferred upon him the title “Augustus.” St. Clement’s calculation gives the date 3BC for Jesus’ birth (Christianity and the Roman Empire: Background Texts, Ralph Novak, page 282). St. Clement’s calculation was supported by St. Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea Maritima in the Holy Land, and was recorded in Bishop Eusebius’ Church History written in the 4th century AD (Church History, V).
Concerning the month and day of Jesus’ birth, St. Clement reported that diverse opinions existed on the identification of both the month and day of the Savior’s birth. Some biblical chronologists dated Jesus’ birth to April 19th, some May 30th, and St. Clement assigned Jesus’ birth to November 17, in what would be in our calendar year 3BC. The Eastern Rite Church Fathers had a long tradition of celebrating the Nativity on January 6th, but there were also other Fathers of the Church who favored December the 25th, and this date became the official celebration of the Nativity of the Savior in the Roman Catholic Church.
There is firm documentary evidence that the birth of the Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and Savior, was being celebrated in Rome as a Christ Mass on December the 25th by the year 336AD. The Eastern Church kept January 6th as the celebration of the birth of Christ until the end of the 4th century and then joined in the observance of the December 25th date, agreeing to celebrate January 6th as the adoration of the Magi. But where and how did the Catholic Church in Rome, guided by St. Peter’s successor, settle on December 25th as the day the Savior’s birth? Successive attacks on the city of Rome by barbarian armies in the 5th century AD have destroyed any documentation that may have existed, but there may be a way to determine how the date of December 25th came to be the celebrated as the anniversary of the birth of the Savoir.
The earliest mention that I have been able to find identifying the birth of Jesus as December 25th comes from a document entitled The Constitution of the Holy Apostles. Modern scholars continue to debate the date when this early catechism of the Church was written. The Constitution of the Holy Apostles is not as old as the Church document known as the Didache, meaning “The Teaching,” that was written between 50-100AD and which is acknowledged as the first catechism of the early Church. Scholars agree that the Didache is the predecessor of the Constitution and the content of that ancient first catechism is, in fact, included within the eight books of the Constitution. There is no doubt, however, that the Constitution of the Holy Apostles is an extremely ancient document written by the Fathers of the Church. Most scholars agree that the first six books cannot be written later than the 300s and some scholars argue that it may have been written in the 200’s or even earlier. In the ancient writings of the Church that have survived, it is frequently quoted and appears to have been an updating of the Didache as the official catechism of the universal Catholic Church’just as the Church recently updated the catechism by the publication of the Universal Catechism in 1994. The Constitution of the Holy Apostles contains instructions on the celebration of the Holy Days. Book V, section 3 of the Constitution of the Holy Apostles begins with the subject heading and then addresses the Holy Days including the celebration of the Lord’s birthday: ON FEAST DAYS AND FAST DAYS: A CATALOGUE OF THE FEASTS OF THE LORD WHICH ARE TO BE KEPT, AND WHEN EACH OF THEM OUGHT TO BE OBSERVED. XIII. Brethren, observe the festival days; and first of all the birthday which you are to celebrate on the twenty-fifth of the ninth month…. The ancient date of the Constitution can be verified by the fact that its authors were still using the Jewish liturgical calendar. The “ninth month” in the Old Covenant liturgical calendar is our December, since their liturgical year began with the spring equinox which fell in late March/ early April according to our modern calendar, as did the old Roman calendar before Julius Caesar introduced his calendar reform.
For the Jews, the celebration of one’s birth was a pagan custom. In the first century AD, religious Jews distained the pagan Roman birthday celebrations and Jewish-Christians may have also felt this prejudice associated with birth celebrations. The prejudice may have changed to acceptance as more Gentile converts embraced Christianity. While it is true that the 25th of December is not mentioned in Scripture, there may be a connection to a Jewish feast day and other Jewish traditions that could identify the birth day of the Christ or which could provide an explanation as to why the Church chose this date. The earliest Fathers of the Church came from a Jewish tradition, and even if they didn’t write about Jesus’ birth date, they had an oral tradition of Jesus birth, which is the information second century Church Fathers like St. Clement of Alexandria recorded. But it also may have been reasonable for them to deduce from certain Scriptural texts the date of Jesus’ birth. There are both New and Old Testament passages that could provide the necessary keys to solve the dilemma of the months of both Jesus’ and St. John the Baptist’s births.
The angel Gabriel appeared to the priest Zechariah as he was burning incense in the Temple and announced to the old priest that his wife was to bear a son in her old age who would be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb (Luke 1:8-11). It was shortly after this announcement that St. John the Baptist, the precursor of Christ, was conceived. Many biblical scholars, both ancient and modern, believe Zechariah’s service in the Temple was associated with an Old Covenant feast day of national repentance called Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) and that he was the officiating High Priest offering the incense when the angel announced the birth of St. John. St. John’s mission was to call the covenant people to national repentance and he began his mission on or near his 30th birthday. Only the anointed High Priest was to offer the sacrifices on Yom Kippur, but it was unlikely that Zechariah was the officiating High Priest during the Feast of Yom Kipper in the year 4/3 BC since there are comprehensive lists of all the ordained High Priests who served in the Jerusalem Temple from the 2nd century BC to the destruction of the Temple in 70AD, and a priest named Zechariah is not listed. It is, however, likely that Zechariah was the officiating priest performing the rite of burning the sacred incense on the golden Incense Altar in front of the Holy of Holies during the daily service of the sacrifice of the Tamid lambs on the day of Yom Kippur or near to the time of Yom Kippur (the High Priest offered the incense at only one service).
In the 1st century BC, at the time the priest Zechariah, father of John the Baptist, lived and served Yahweh in his priestly duties, there were about 20,000 priests throughout the country’far too many to minister in the Temple at one time. Since the time of King David, the chief priests had been divided into twenty-four separate groups called “courses” that may have been twenty-four families or clans, all of whom were descended from Aaron, the first High Priest. Each group, according to King David’s directions (1 Chronicles 24:3-19) took turns serving for a week in the Temple with the exception of the three pilgrim feasts (Exodus 23:14-19; Deuteronomy 16:16; 2 Chronicles 8:13) when the service of all the courses of the chief priests and the Levites (lesser ministers) were required at the Temple. During the two regular daily worship services, lots were drawn to assign the priestly duties. The priest Zechariah was a member of the Abijah division, on duty that eventful day recorded in the Gospel of St. Luke chapter 1. Each morning and afternoon (their “evening” was our afternoon since their day ended at sundown) a priest was to enter the Holy Place in the Temple and burn incense during the daily liturgy of the Tamid sacrifice (Exodus 29:36-42). The third daily lot cast decided who would enter the sacred room, and on this particular day the lot fell to Zechariah.
The drawing of the lot to burn the sacred incense was a once in a life time opportunity for Zechariah. Only a priest who had never been chosen to burn the incense could participate in the drawing of the third lot, but Zechariah’s selection was not a chance occasion. God was guiding the events of history to prepare the way for Jesus, the last lamb of sacrifice, the final sacrifice of atonement, to come to earth and to offer Himself for the sins of mankind. And that brings us to the phrase in the Gospel of St. Luke that reads …all the assembled worshipers were praying outside (Luke 1:10). Some scholars assume that this phrase refers to the gathering of the faithful at the Temple during the offering of the incense on Yom Kippur, but this assumption ignores the fact that twice a day in the Temple, during the most holy part of the worship service, the priest chosen for the honor burned the incense. As the holy smoke carried their prayers to heaven, the congregation gathered in the courtyard prostrated themselves facing the Sanctuary and prayed in silence.
Some biblical scholars focus on the day of Yom Kippur in association with Zechariah’s revelation because it was the only Jewish annual feast when the High Priest offered both incense and sacrificial blood on the Altar of Incense. But this assumption ignores the fact that Yom Kippur was not the only day a priest burned incense on the Altar of Incense, and St. Luke’s account does not identify Zechariah as an anointed High Priest nor does the Gospel record mention Zechariah smearing blood on the horns of the Incense Altar. On the day of Yom Kippur a great crowd of worshipers would be praying outside the Temple and facing the Holy Place as the anointed High Priest offered incense and smeared the blood of the sacrificed animal on the horns of the golden altar of incense (Leviticus 16:2-4, 11-17). These scholars are assuming that Zechariah was the anointed High Priest officiating on Yom Kippur. But, as we have noted since there are lists of the Jewish High Priests from the time before the reign of King Herod to the destruction of the Temple in 70AD, and Zechariah is not listed as an anointed High Priest on any of those lists, it is unlikely that he was offering incense as the High Priest. Instead, it is more likely that Zechariah was offering incense during either the morning or the afternoon daily liturgy of the Tamid sacrifice. In the offering of the daily Tamid lamb (one in the morning liturgical service and a second at an afternoon worship service at about 3PM), when the incense was offered the people turned toward the Sanctuary and prostrated themselves in prayer as a profound silence filled the Temple. With the exception of the offering of incense during Yom Kippur, there was no other time when a priest came into such close proximity with the presence of God in the Jerusalem Temple. Perhaps Zechariah was offering incense during the daily Tamid worship service either immediately before or immediately after the liturgical service on the annual day of Yom Kippur, or he was offering the incense during a daily liturgy on a day that was near to Yom Kippur. No matter how important an annual feast, it could not take precedence over the Tamid sacrifice which had to be offered twice daily so long as the Sinai Covenant between God and Israel endured (Numbers 28:11; Mishnah: Yoma, 2:4). If John was conceived in the early fall, around the time of Yom Kippur, his birth would be nine months later in the summer.
Biblical scholars have noted that St. John’s statement that he must grow less as Jesus grew greater in John 3:30 was illustrated in the traditional dates which the Church celebrates as the dates of their births, with St. John’s birth coming after the summer solstice as the days of the year grow shorter and Jesus’ birth coming just after the winter solstice as the days of the year grow longer. If this is a clue from St. John recorded in John 3:30 that could be applied to their births, John’s conception had to occur nine months earlier in the fall and Jesus’ conception six months later in the spring.
Linking Yom Kippur to the announcement of John’s birth is significant. The Old Covenant feast day of atonement is a time of national repentance. This was to be John the Baptist’s mission; he was to prepare the way for the Messiah by calling the entire covenant people to a baptism of repentance for sin. In the book of Leviticus, Yahweh commanded that this feast was …to be a lasting ordinance for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month you must deny yourselves and not do any work…[..]. Because on this day atonement will be made for you to cleanse you. Then, before Yahweh, you will be clean from all your sins (Leviticus 16:29-30). According to the Jewish liturgical calendar this day of national repentance had to fall prior to the autumn equinox; the next Jewish feast, the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot), had to fall five days after Yom Kippur during the full moon either on or the first full moon after the autumnal equinox (the date of the autumn equinox is September 23rd according to our modern calendar). Since it has long been a tradition in the Church that the angel came to the priest Zechariah at a time association with the Old Covenant feast of Yom Kippur, it is interesting that the Church has for centuries celebrated the feast of St. John the Baptist on the day of his birth which the Church has determined is June the 24th (only St. John, Jesus, and the Virgin Mary have feast days associated with their births). If John’s birth occurred on June 24th, according to the Church’s liturgical calendar, then his conception would have been nine months earlier in September, near the time of the observance of the Feast of Tabernacles and just after Yom Kippur.
But how does that information help to determine the birth of Jesus? When the angel Gabriel came to Mary he informed her that her cousin Elizabeth was already six months with child: Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month (Luke 1:36). Six months from the autumnal equinox on September 23rd, by our calendar, gives us a date of March 23rd . The Church celebrates the Annunciation March 25th, very close to the spring equinox. When you add nine months to March 25th you have December 25th as the birth of our Savior. Is it a coincidence that all these significant dates associated with St. John and Jesus fall near the year’s four divisions? No, our seasons and the momentous events associated with the coming of our Savior are all part of God’s great plan since the creation of the world. Our seasonal divisions were established after the Flood (see Genesis 8:22) and the cycles of the moon determined the Old Covenant liturgical calendar.(1)
There is one more piece of evidence that may support the theory that the Church used this information to determine the birth of Jesus. According to the Fathers of the Church there was a tradition that Jesus died on the cross on the same day of the year that he was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Jesus died on the Feast of Passover, which falls during the first full moon after the spring equinox (end of March or early April is the yearly spread in calculating the date according to the moon’s cycle), and the Feast of the Annunciation has always celebrated in the Church on March 25th!
If the Church has determined that Jesus was born December 25th, why is it that the beginning of our civil calendar year, calculated by a Catholic Abbot in the 6th century AD (our liturgical year begins at Advent in early December), begins on January 1st? In 525AD mathematician, Abbot Dennis the Short, rejected the old Roman calendar which was dated from the founding of the pagan city of Rome and established a new calendar, which he dated from what he calculated as the year of the birth of Christ (designated as year 1 Anno Domini= “in the year of our Lord”). He decided to date the beginning of the civil calendar year with Jesus’ entrance into the Old Covenant faith according to the Old Covenant Law. This event was commanded, since the time of God’s covenant with Abraham, to take place eight days after the birth of a male child (Genesis 17:9-12; 21:2-4). Counting December 25th as day one, which was the ancient custom since there was no concept of 0-place value, the eighth day was January 1st.(2)
It is a shame that the calculations Dennis used to date the year of Jesus’ birth no longer survive. Other Christian scholars disagreed with Dennis’ year of birth calculations for Christ, supporting instead the testimony of Fathers of the Church like St. Clement of Alexandria (3rd century AD) and Bishop St. Eusebius of Caesarea in the Holy Land (4th century AD). Both these early Church Fathers agreed that Jesus was born three years earlier (see Clement of Alexandria’s Stomata, I and Eusebius’ History of the Church chapter 5). Eusebius wrote in his Church History: It was in the forty-second year of the reign of Augustus and the twenty-eighth after the subjugation of Egypt and the death of Antony and Cleopatra. These calculations place Jesus’ birth in 3BC (BC = Before Christ). Eusebius was dating Augustus’ reign from the death of Julius Caesar, in our time = 44BC and the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra in 30AD, our time. Dates before the year 1BC and 1AD (the year designated by Dennis the Short as the year of Christ’s birth) are counted in greater numbers counting backward from Christ’s birth and in greater numbers counting forward from His birth. There is no year 0. In calculating the dates of ancient times it is important to remember that it was not until the Middle Ages that the mathematical concept of a 0-place value was introduced into the West, and this concept was not employed in Jesus’ time, therefore, in counting sequences in ancient times the count always including the first in the sequence as #1. This was why Sacred Scripture records Jesus was in the tomb for three days instead of two days from Friday to Sunday (Luke 24:7, 46; Acts 10:40).
Today most modern scholars have based the year of Jesus’ birth on a calculation of a lunar eclipse originated by the report of the 1st century AD Jewish priest/historian Flavius Josephus that Herod the Great died after a lunar eclipse and before the annual remembrance feast of the Passover (Antiquities of the Jews 17.6.4 [167]). The Feast of the Passover and all the sacred feasts were based on the lunar calendar. The annual remembrance of the Passover sacrifice was commanded by Yahweh to commence on the 14th of Nisan, with the sacrificial meal celebrated on the night of the full moon on the 15th (Exodus 12:6,-8; Leviticus 23:5-6) which came after the vernal equinox.(3) In 1630, the great astronomer Johannes Kepler (d. 1630), in trying to identify Jesus’ birth year through Josephus’ information concerning Herod’s death associated with a lunar eclipse, identified the year 4BC as the year of a partial lunar eclipse on March 12/13, with the Jewish Passover twenty-nine days later on April 11th . He also found that there was a total lunar eclipse in 5BC, but with a lapse in time of seven months until the Passover this date seemed unlikely. Kepler also proposed that St. Matthew’s account of the star refers to several extraordinary conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn that took place in 7BC.
Since the late 19th century most biblical scholars have accepted Kepler’s discovery as proof that Herod died in 4BC and therefore assume that Jesus must have been born in year 7 or 6BC, completely ignoring St. Luke’s testimony in Luke 3:1-2 in determining the year of Jesus’ birth. Recently, however, modern astronomers using more sophisticated and accurate instruments have calculated that in year 1BC there was full lunar eclipse viewed from Jerusalem on the night of January 9/10 and the Passover Feast of that year was celebrated just twelve and a half weeks later on April 8th. This information has caused some biblical scholars to reassess the calculations of Jesus’ birth year from 7BC to the year 3/2BC, in agreement with Sts. Clement and Eusebius and with St. Luke’s testimony that St. John (and Jesus) were 30 years old in the 15th year of the Emperor Tiberius, which would be the year 28AD, providing a birth year of 3/2BC.
Dr. Ernst Martin has also discovered that there was an even more striking stellar event than the one Kepler identified in 7BC. During the year 2BC the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus must have caused a spectacular stellar display. With Venus rising in the east the conjunction with Jupiter would have appeared in the sky as a single brilliant light. The inspired writer of the New Testament book of Revelation refers to Jesus as “the bright morning star” in Revelation 22:16, a reference which links the planet Venus, the morning star, to Christ and any stellar event involving the giant planet Jupiter was always viewed by the ancients as the birth of a king, as the event of the sign in the stars was interpreted by the Magi. Dr. Martin’s Christmas star theory has been accepted by many of the world’s prestigious observatories, including the Griffith Observatory in Lost Angeles and is featured in their annual Christmas program.
The date of Herod the Great’s death based on the eclipse of the moon which took place in 4BC would place Jesus’ birth sometime between 7 and 4BC and does not agree with St. Luke’s information of the beginning of St. John and Jesus’ ministries in the Gospel of Luke. However, Clement’s information of a 3/2BC date supports St. Luke’s account and is also supported by the modern astronomers’ finding that a full lunar eclipse occurred in year 1BC, which could be the lunar eclipse Josephus referred to, with a spectacular conjunction of planets in 3/2BC, which could be the “star” of Bethlehem. If the 1BC lunar eclipse is what Josephus associated with Herod’s death, then the 3/2BC birth date for Jesus is in agreement with the biblical account.
It has also been determined that scribal error compromised other accounts first century AD Jewish historian Flavius Josephus’ dates concerning Herod’s family. Copies of his history after the year 1544 indicate Herod actually died later than previously believed in the year that would correspond to our year 1BC. In all copies of Antiquities of the Jews 18.106 prior to 1544, Josephus placed Herod the Great’s son Philip’s death in the twenty-second year of the reign of the Roman Emperor Tiberius, after ruling for thirty-seven years after the death of his father Herod the Great instead of in the twentieth year of Tiberius as recorded in many copies of the history after 1544. The copyist evidently mistakenly failed to write 22 and instead recorded 20 years and the mistake was repeated by other copyist. The older account from Josephus’ history, therefore, places the death of Herod in the year 1BC our time (see The Works of Josephus, page 483, footnote c). If King Herod died in year 1BC, according to our modern calendar, and if Herod believed Jesus to be just under 2 years old when he ordered the murder of the babies in all villages around Jerusalem, then a birth date of fall/winter 3/2BC for Jesus would agree with both St. Clement’s and Bishop Euseibus’ accounts as well as the calculations that can be made from the information provided in the Gospel of St. Luke. All the available information supports a birth date for Jesus of Nazareth on about December 25/January 6th, 3/2BC, with the beginning of His ministry when He was thirty years old in 28AD and His death during the Passover of 30AD.
Michal Hunt copyright Dec. 1999; revised February 2004, June 2007, December 2008
Endnotes:
1. The vernal equinox occurs when the sun changes from south to north of the celestial equator, appearing to cross the celestial equator and intersecting the constellation Pisces. The sun appears to cross the celestial equator at this point on about March 21st each year. This is the vernal equinox, which means the “green time of equal nights and days.” Because of the sun’s position at this time of the year over the earth’s equator, the day is evenly divided for a brief period between sunlight and darkness. At this time, spring begins in the northern hemisphere and autumn begins south of the equator. The opposite point of intersection is in the constellation Virgo where the sun appears to cross the equator from north to south. This is the autumnal equinox. The sun reaches this point each year on about September the 23rd. Autumn begins north of the equator and spring comes to the southern hemisphere. The solstice, on the other hand, marks the extreme northern or southern position of the sun in its apparent annual journey. The sun appears to reach its most northern position, known as the summer solstice, on about June 21st when summer begins north of the equator. The opposite point is the winter solstice, is reached on about December the 21st. This marks the most southern position of the sun and the beginning of winter in the Northern Hemisphere. The summer solstice is located at the intersection of the stars of Gemini and the winter solstice is marked by the crossing in the constellation of Sagittarius. The procession of the earth has shifted the solstices in their positions. In ancient times the summer solstice was in the constellation of Cancer and the winter solstice in Capricorn.
2. Christianity and the Roman Empire , page 282; Calendar: Humanity’s Epic Struggle to Determine a True and Accurate Year, page 189; Mapping Time: The Calendar and its History, pages 77-78, 81. This is why Scripture records that Jesus was in the tomb three days from Friday to Sunday, instead of two days as we would count it. The ancients counted time the way we count objects.
3. Philo of Alexandria, 1st century AD Jewish theologian wrote: And there is another festival combined with the feast of the Passover, […]. This month being the seventh [in the civil calendar] both in number and order, according to the revolutions of the sun, is the first in power; on which account it is also called the first in the sacred scriptures. And the reason, as I imagine, is as follows. The vernal equinox is an imitation and representation of that beginning in accordance with which the world was created. [..]. And again, this feast is begun on the fifteenth day of the month, in the middle of the month, on the day which the moon is full of light, in consequence of the providence of God taking care that there shall be no darkness on that day (Special Laws, II. 150-155).
Sources:
1. Fr. John Laux, M.A., Church History
2. The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Vol.7, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions
3. The Age of Faith, Will Durant.
4. Eusebius, Church History
5. Clement of Alexandria, Stromata
6. Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews
7. Jack Finegan, Handbook of Biblical Chronology
8. The Works of Josephus, translated by William Whiston, Hendrickson Publishers, 1998.
9. Christianity and the Roman Empire: Background Texts, Ralph M. Novak, Trinity Press International, 2001.
10. Bible Review: December 1999, “Why 2K? The Biblical Roots of Millennialism,” by James Tabor, pages 16-27.
11. Calendar: Humanity’s Epic Struggle to Determine a True and Accurate Year,
12. Mapping Time: The Calendar and its History