Why is Christmas on 25 December? Jesus Wasn't Born Then, Was He?

Let us begin by considering the The Christ Candle. It is the white candle in the center of the Advent Wreath. It represents that one flicker of sanity in a world blazing with the fires of pride.

About 5800 years ago, God said “Let there be light.” Christ was there then. He is the Light through whom all light was made (John 1). Here originated the placing of lights in our windows this time of year. In days gone by, Christians placed a candle in their window to tell passers-by that Christ is in this home, we celebrate His coming, and all who thirst for Him are welcome here.

If we celebrate Christmas, we proclaim that we are celebrating Christ, right? The world may have lost sight of that, but we cannot. Christmas is one of the two Christian holidays that just about everyone remembers, and I’ve often been asked why it was settled as 25 December.

Buckle up!!

No one knows the exact date of Jesus’ birth, and it really doesn’t matter in the great scheme of things. That He was given to us is the matter of importance. Both Matthew and Luke speak of where Yeshua was born, and Micah foretold it by name 700 years earlier – but nothing in Scripture indicates the precise date. For clarity in this message, please remember that the Roman calendar (Gregorian Calendar) we use today did not exist then. The calendar of the Bible is the Hebrew calendar, and they did not reckon years and months the way we do. We must be very careful NOT to interpret the Nativity story with a western mindset overlaid on a Roman calendar. The calendar we use today is named for Pope Gregory who sorted it out in 1582. Prior to the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar, the Roman Julian Calendar was used in the Gentile world. Caesar Julius – Julius Caesar – had established the Julian Calendar in 45 BC.

So… when was Jesus born? The Bible does provide clues...

·        Luke 1:5 - “There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.” 

Herod the Great ruled as king in Judea from 37 to 4 BC.

 

·        Luke 2:1-3 - “And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.”

Caesar Augustus was the Roman Emperor, reigning from 27 BC to AD 14.

 

There is secular recorded history that accurately fits into the calculus as well, but to keep this simple, most Bible scholars agree that Christ was born in 4 BC.

“But how can He have been born in a ‘Before Christ’ year?” one may ask.

Answer: The Roman calendar has been adjusted a couple times because of increasing abilities to accurately measure time. Dionysus Exiguus, a 6th Century monk, was the first to organize the dates for all of history that we commonly use today. He chose to begin with 25 December AD 1, the winter solstice and the beginning of the Roman solar year, as a base point. There was no year 0 – the calendar moves from 1 BC to AD 1. This has caused confusion because it “skips” a year. This fact also stipulates that decades and centuries begin on the year that ends in 1. It also helps explain why the crucifixion occurred in the month of Nisan (late March), AD 30 when Yeshua was 33 years old. Furthermore, sometimes adding to the confusion, a Hebrew Bible “year” is not quite the same length as a Roman “year.” Even though the Roman calendar has been adjusted according to the length of the solar day having been more accurately measured in later centuries, the Hebrew calendar, based on the lunar cycle, has remained generally constant.

As to what time of the year Christ was born, we can look again to the Word of God for clues:

·        Luke 1:26 -- “Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,” 

 

Again, we must be very careful not to read this with western eyes. The “sixth month” in this passage is not June – it is the Hebrew sixth month, the month of Elul. There are those who argue that the “sixth month” Scripture is referring to the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy with John. That may also be true, and it does not interfere with the first point. However, the following fact also comes into play…

 

Elul is 29 days in length, and occurs from mid-August to mid-September on the Roman calendar. Since human gestation lasts nine months, we can draw from this that Christ was most likely born around late May. Supporting evidence is found in Luke 2:8 with the shepherds who “… were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.”  Normally shepherds would have their flocks in the fold by night, but not during lambing season. During lambing, the sheep were allowed out in the fields, necessitating the shepherds keeping watch. When was lambing season in Judea? Mid-late spring!

For the first 300-plus years of Christianity, Christmas – or an organized celebration of the birth of Christ – did not even exist. In a history of the Roman church, we find the following Latin entry: AD 336: ‘25 Dec.: natus Christus in Betleem Judeae.’ English translation, “25 Dec., Christ born in Bethlehem, Judaea.” Emperor Constantine I was dictatorial in determining the day we know as Christmas, here established to have first been observed on 25 December 336. It was also he who legalized Christianity in the Roman world, making it the official state religion. When the emperor decreed that a certain day was this or that, you did not argue with it if you wanted to avoid the axmen! It was Constantine who designated the date of 25 December, in an early attempt to be "inclusive" and "tolerant" of the many different beliefs of the time.

The name “Christmas” literally means “Christ’s Mass,” a term derived from the same usage of “mass” practiced today by the Catholic Church – a gathering of believers to worship God.

Pagan cultures held festivals on 25 December because it marked the winter solstice. The 1582 Gregorian calendar adjustment shifted solstace to the 21st. The Germanics held the yule festival, and Celtics associated the winter solstice with Balder, the Scandinavian sun god struck down by a mistletoe arrow. Hebrews celebrated Hanukkah (the Festival of Lights), and Romans held the feast of Saturnalia, a major component of which – not unlike Hanukkah – was almsgiving. Church leaders of the time sought to end the drinking, carousing, and sexual immorality that accompanied most pagan festivals. To that end, they welcomed the formalizing of Christmas as a Christian Holy Day free of sinful pagan practices.

“Holy Day,” by the way, is the origin of our word “holiday.”

When we gather to celebrate Messiah’s nativity, it is sometimes difficult to see beyond the secular noise surrounding Christmas, and all too easy to lose sight of what it really means. Jesus was born to save us – we all know that with certainty. However, His death and resurrection is even more important, isn’t it? Without His victory over death and His triumph over the enemy, we wouldn’t have reason to think about His birth, or even much remember who He was. He would have been, as islam wrongly teaches, just another prophet.

There are an astonishing array of parallels with Christ found in Genesis. The story of ultimate sacrifice occurred as Abraham prepared to offer up the life of his son Isaac on Mt. Moriah. Who carried the wood of his own death up that hill? Isaac did. Centuries later, the Son of God carried the wood of His death up the exact same hill, then called Golgotha. It is with good and divinely-inspired reason that Matthew recounts Christ’s genealogy beginning with Abraham. Yes, it was because the Son of God was resurrected and given to us a second time that we celebrate Him being given to us the first time.

The Joseph of Genesis gave his family the bread of life, but he refused payment for it. We can’t buy the bread of life, either – Yeshua’s grace is free of charge. We give gifts out of gratitude because we have received out of grace. This is a reason for giving gifts at Christmas; Hanukkah traditions are similar. In addition to lighting one candle per day on the hanukkiah, the festival includes daily readings of Scripture, the recitation of Psalms, almsgiving (which later morphed into gift giving), and the singing of a special hymn. Jewish families typically read Hanukkah stories so children come to understand the Jewish faith. They strive to keep it simple and family-oriented, a lesson Christians ought to take to heart in our Christmas celebrations.

The world tells many lies. It wants to destroy the truth about Christmas, to water it down, mock it with distractions like “Jesus wasn’t really born on Dec 25th, you know,” and wipe out the joy of the celebrations. Let no mere man ever erase the mystery and majesty of the birth of Yeshua Ha Meshiach – Jesus the Messiah – from our hearts, our minds, or our culture.

As we celebrate our holidays, let it be our prayer that we can experience the hope of the ancients, the anticipation of the prophets, and the great joy of the lowly shepherds who saw the Promised Child. Shut out the hustle and bustle of the secular holiday and focus instead on the Holy Day when God’s love came down from glory in the form of a tiny baby laid in an animal’s feed trough, but destined to save the world. If only everyone would accept this wonderful gift!

You see, it really does not matter on what day the ancients chose to celebrate it. We honor Him and glorify Him. That’s what matters. What is your highest authority in life: God and His Word, or what other people say?

Yes, from the corruption of the world, we shall be delivered by standing not only like a rock, but also upon the Rock that is Christ, Messiah, Deliverer, Redeemer – a gift so great that God gave Him to us twice!

Merry Christmas!