-lots of scholarly writing (and guessing) on
Jesus's real date of birth...I read one
book that thought March 25th was more true
to the real date, which means this year Christ would
die on his birthday.
http://www.cornerstonechurchofskippack.com/pastorsdesk/questions/qa21.htmlQuestion: What is the date of Christ's birth?
Answer: This question would be much less difficult to answer if the angels had announced to the shepherds the exact date as an annual celebration! But, of course, they did not, and we are left to research (guess?).
Neither is the ancient church of any real help in this regard, for although it celebrated Christ's resurrection from the beginning (indeed, every Sunday!), it did not celebrate His birth until the mid-fourth century. By this time birth records were long gone.
Luke, the inspired historian, helps somewhat by naming Caesar Augustus of Rome and Cyrenius of Syria (Luke 2:1-2). This, along with the aid of secular history and archaeological findings (Roman records, etc.), allows us to pinpoint the very year (almost!): about 6 B.C. Yes, that's right, our calendar is now known to be about 6 years off.
But what about the day - December 25? That guess may be as good as any. The Eastern church observes January 6. But many feel that on those cold, wet, windy, winter nights in Judea, shepherds may not be so easily found "in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night" (Luke 2;8). Perhaps March or April is a safer guess - lambing season.
Another problem: December 25 was for a long time a pagan holiday. It seems that "Christians" joined the celbration adding a new flavor: rather than worshipping the sun god, they could worship "the Sun of Righteousness" (Malachi 4:2), observing a "Christ's Mass" the same day. Perhaps their intention was to Christianize the pagans. Perhaps it was to remove the distinction between Christianity and the Roman cult and so make them more acceptable. But with the decline of Roman influence, Natalis Invicti, the pagan sun festivals, fell into the shadows. The Christmas custom remained - by that time it was solid Christian tradition.
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