History of Christmas from Answers in Genesis

[Carol]

I have heard that Jesus wasn't really born in December and that he
wasn't born on Christmas because Christmas is actually a pagan holiday
Is it true that Christians today worship a Pagan holiday thinking they
are worshiping the actual birthday of Jesus Christ?
-E., U.S.

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Thank you for contacting Answers in Genesis. This is a common, but
good question-especially around this time of year-and the answer is
much deeper than most realize. Up front, the Bible simply doesn't give
us the date of Christ's entrance into the world, so any estimates
would only be inferences. But first, let's discuss this pagan holiday.

This celebration was the pagan holiday Saturnalia,1 which was the
Roman festival for their god Saturn.2 It ran from about December
17-23. Saturn is the Roman god analogous to the Greek god "Cronus" or
"Kronos."

Saturn/Cronus Goes Back to a Bible Person
The land of Greece was inhabited by the descendants of Noah's grandson
Javan. In fact, the Hebrew name for Greece is still Javan. Javan had 4
sons, and they were:

1.. Elishah
2.. Tarshish
3.. Kittem (Cethimus)
4.. Rodanim (Dodanim)
In Greece and the surrounding area, these names are still a reflection
on the landscape. Many of Javan's sons' names and variants have
cities, islands, and other geographical features named for them. Paul,
the biblical author of two-thirds of the New Testament came from
"Tarsus," a variant of Tarshish. There were also the "Taurus"
mountains in Turkey, and the "Tanais" is the old name for the Don
River flowing into the Black Sea.

Eliseans was the old name of the ancient Greek tribe now called the
Aeolians. Cethimus inhabited the island Cethima, from which the name
of the island Cyprus was derived. (Josephus, a Jewish historian about
2,000 years ago, elaborated on these relationships in more detail.)

Many of the characters of Greek mythology are based on real historical
figures who were raised up to godlike status. One example here is
"Hellen," the alleged mythological patriarch and god of the Aeolians
(or Elisians). Hellen (?????) is likely a variant of Elishah.3 Even in
other cultures, ancestors were often deified; for example, in Germanic
and Norse mythologies there is Tiras (Tyras, Tiwaz, Tyr), who was the
king of the gods and also happens to be one of Noah's grandsons
(Genesis 10:2).

So it makes sense that Cronus/Kronos (??????), a variant of
Cethimas/Kittem, could have been raised up to godlike status.
Considering that Noah and his early descendants were living such long
lives, it should be obvious why many of these ancestors were raised up
to be "god-like." Not only did they live long lives, but they were
obviously the oldest people around and would seem to be the people
(gods, demigods) that started civilization. Noah would have been
roughly 500 years older than anyone else and his sons approximately
100 years older. We know this was because of the Flood, but the true
message would quickly be changed to fit the pagan ideas. Thus it is
interesting that this pagan festival was likely born as a result of a
suppressed view of a biblical character.

When Was Jesus Born?
When we turn in the Scriptures (Luke 1:26-37), it says:

Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of
Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was
Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And having
come in, the angel said to her, "Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord
is with you; blessed are you among women!" But when she saw him, she
was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting
this was. Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you
have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb
and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. He will be
great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God
will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over
the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end."
Then Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I do not know a
man?" And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will
come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you;
therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the
Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a
son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was
called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible." [Emphasis added.]
We learn two things here: approximately when John was conceived and
when the Holy Spirit came upon Mary for the conception of Christ. John
would have been conceived around the previous year's final month or
perhaps the first month of the year. Then Elizabeth, John's mother,
could have been in her sixth month during the sixth month of the
Jewish year.

This meeting with Gabriel was presumably close to the time when the
Holy Spirit would come upon Mary. In fact, it could have been almost
immediate, as verse 28 indicates "the Lord is with you," but it was
likely soon after, as verse 35 says "will come upon you" (emphasis mine).

In the Jewish calendar, there are 12 months of roughly 30 days each
with a leap month every so often to get them back to about 365 days.
The Jewish calendar equivalents are shown below:

Month Name Scripture Reference Modern Gregorian Calendar Equivalent
First Nisan Esther 3:7 March-April
Second Iyar (Iyyar) N/A April-May
Third Sivan Esther 8:9 May-June
Fourth Tammuz N/A June-July
Fifth Ab (Av) N/A July-August
Sixth Elul Nehemiah 6:15 August-September
Seventh Tishri N/A September-October
Eighth Marchesvan (Heshvan) N/A October-November
Ninth Chislev (Kislev) Nehemiah 1:1; Zechariah 7:1 November-December
Tenth Tebet (Tevet) Esther 2:16 December-January
Eleventh Sheni (Shevat) N/A January-February
Twelfth Adar Esther 3:7, 9:1 February-March
Leap month (intercalary) Adar Sheni (second Adar) N/A February-March
on leap years

This would have put John the Baptist at about six months in the womb
around August/September. Assuming about nine months for pregnancy,
John would have been born about November/December by the modern calendar.

If the Holy Spirit did come upon Mary in the sixth month (Elul) or
around August/September, as it seems to indicate in Scripture, then
Jesus should have been born about nine months later, which would place
His birth around May/June. Since John the Baptist was still in the
womb of Elizabeth when he leapt for joy in Jesus' presence (Luke
1:39-42), this means that the conception had to take place within the
next three months or so of the visit by Gabriel-before John was born.
Regardless, by this reckoning, the birth of Christ isn't even close to
Christmas on the modern calendar.

What about Other New Year's Days on the Jewish Calendar?
We need to exercise some caution since we were using some assumptions
(e.g., no leap month and the date of the Jewish New Year. Esther 3:7
points out that Nisan is the first month of the Jewish calendar, and
that is still acknowledged today. In Judaism, however, there are other
"new year's" days as well. The most popular is called Rosh Hashanah,
literally meaning "head of the year."

Rosh Hashanah is celebrated on the first of Tishri, which is normally
the seventh month (Leviticus 23:24) and is the start of the civil
year. If this were the reference point for the news when the angel
Gabriel met Mary, then the sixth month from this would have been the
twelfth month on the normal Jewish calendar (or February/March) , and
if this were the case, then Jesus would have been born nine months
later in November/December. So, it is not without biblical merit that
December may have been the date of Christ's birth if we use Rosh
Hashanah as the start of the new year.

Around A.D. 220 Julius Africanus, an early Christian writer, reckoned
that Jesus was conceived on March 25. Hence, nine months later-about
December 25-Jesus was born. Other Christians have made cases for the
December Christmas-time as well. Ultimately, we can't know exactly
when He was born.

To clarify some points though, we, nor other Christians, do not
"worship" a pagan holiday or any holiday. We "worship" God on the day
that is set aside as Christmas. We take time to "remember" (not
worship) the birth of Christ on that day. This is important because we
often get wrapped up in the wrong things, and sometimes we need to
step back and remember:

Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth. (Psalm 46:10)

The Church has often failed during Christmas-time because we simply
talk about the birth of Christ without talking about why He came.
Whether Christmas happens to occur at the same time (or close to the
same time) as a pagan holiday is irrelevant. There is nothing
inherently wrong with celebrating a Christian holiday at the same time
the pagans celebrate. Do Christians refuse to take communion if it
falls on a pagan holiday like Halloween? Absolutely not. On Halloween,
some celebrate Reformation Day, because of what Martin Luther did.
Many would contend that Easter is based on ancient pagan holidays, as
well, but even if the timing is close to these spring holidays, we
remember it because Christ's resurrection occurred at that time. Of
course our timing is based on the Passover, which just happens to be
about the same time as many of the pagan equinox celebrations.

What should be of greater concern to Christians is the extent to which
we have adopted some of the pagan practices during Christmas-time.
Some have gone overboard on this, and we should be cautious of making
Christmas about mythical images like Santa, Charlie Brown, Rudolph,
etc., rather than the birth of Christ and why He came to save those
who were lost.

What is important is that we understand the implication of the
omnipotent Son of God leaving His heavenly throne to empty Himself!
Why would the Creator of the universe choose to do this, knowing he
would be raised by sinful parents in a sinful world to be rejected and
to die a horrible death? Unbelievable as it is, it was to pay the
penalty for the sin of humankind (Romans 3:23; 6:23) so that we,
undeserving, hateful sinners-doomed to die, could instead live with
Him in paradise for eternity. Now, that is worth celebrating! Find out
more about this wonderful gift at
www.answersingenesi s.org/about/ good-news.

With kindness in Christ,
Bodie

Footnotes
1.. This is not be confused with a Sol Invictus, which was a day of
worship to a Roman state supported sun god. This began around 274 AD
and was well after other dates previously mentioned for Christmas.
2.. We use "god(s)" in lower case to refer to the "gods" of
mythologies; it is not giving an endorsement of these as "gods." There
is only one God, the triune God of Scripture.
3.. Set spellings of names were not necessarily common until recent
times (really after the printing press). Various languages often had
variant spellings of the same name - even same language cultures often
had variant spellings. We even see this in the Bible with Jeconiah or
Jehoiachin; Xerxes and Ahasuerus, etc.

[Carol]

That is personally my take on it too, but I don't have the info on hand to back myself up, so I'm glad to have that link, Cindy.

Carol

[Carol]

Okay. More valid points to think about...

[Sombra]

Valid points - Yes, those who celebrate Christmas from a Christian Point of View - those who claim Jesus is the Reason for the Season - yes - they are worshiping Him - not Idolatry.
Yes, we can worship Messiah any day of the year, even those days which the Pagan's have claimed for themselves.

What renders these points invalid though - is that though they are worshiping HIM - they are not doing it in the fashion in which the Lord Himself Asked us to.

While it's lovely to say we're celebrating, or setting apart, or observing, or remembering.. the birth of Christ, no where in scripture are we asked to do that, and if we were, the date of his birth would have been made obvious - and from this article, the confusion about when exactly He was born is not clear.. and the way I recon His Birth "season" is again a completely different way of reconning than the author - I recon He was born at Sukkot.. and I completely recognize I might be wrong.

But even more than the fact that we are not asked - commanded or encouraged.. to celebrate His Birth.. the argument that those who worship Him by celebrating His birth.. is the same as those who claim to be worshiping HIM by offering sacrifices in the three places designated in the Northern Kingdom. They claimed to be worshiping HIM when they designated a new Priesthood. They claimed to be worshiping Him when they placed asherah poles in the Temple. They claimed to be worshiping HIM when they made the golden calf... there are many examples of how they claimed to be worshiping the Lord.. but if we're not worshiping HIM.. and remembering HIM, and celebrating HIM.. the way He asked us too.. WHAT ARE WE DOING? - THEY got sent into Exile for their form of worship.. is that what we want?