It’s Christmas! – What does that mean?

As we are a website dedicated to biblical teaching we will first look at the date (25th December?) then look at the way we celebrate it – if we do – and finally the decision to go with it or not.

Let’s start by saying if you are a Christian and want to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on the 25th December (or any other day for that matter) that’s fine because the bible doesn’t say we should or shouldn’t celebrate birthdays. The best scripture to show this is perhaps Romans 14:5-6.

Now that we haven’t spoiled your fun, let’s take a serious look at the date – is that biblical? – Well nowhere in the bible are we given a date for Jesus’s entry into the world although there were prophesies that explain where He would be born (Bethlehem) and others that detail the circumstances and uniqueness of His birth (Born of a virgin). We can even work out the year approximately because historical records show that Herod died in 4BC and from Matthew chapter 2 we learn that the Magi visited Herod 2 years after seeing the miraculous star of bethlehem wherupon Herod ordered the killing of boys aged 2 and under in Bethlehem making the year of Christs birth around 4-6BC

So why was the 25th chosen? Who chose it and what did they base this on?

The Roman empire at the time of Emperor Constantine was already celebrating a pagan festival called saturnalia which took place on December the 25th, it appears that this was appropriated by Christian Emperor Constantine and made instead to be a celebration of the birth of Christ around the 4th century AD. This was taken up by the Catholic and Eastern churches and persisted to our present day.

Jesus was not born on the 25th December and we have several clues to this in the bible.

The first clue is in Luke’s gospel Chapter 2 and verse 8. Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 

According to the Talmud (Jewish rabbinic writings), shepherds do not keep watch by night in the middle of winter. So the range of possibilities is narrowed to the Spring/Summer months. We can narrow things further because the shepherds would only be out at night during the lambing season when sheep give birth and that only happens once in the year in the spring or around the Jewish month Nisan (nisan means beginning and is the first month of the Jewish year). This makes sense if you think of Jesus as the lamb of God and the Angels appearing to shepherds.

According to rabbinic writings, the lambs for the temple sacrifice were born in Bethlehem.

Some think that Jesus was born around tabernacles because of the scripture that says from John 1:14 “…and He tabernacled amongst us…” however the problem this presents is that Jesus’s earthly father Joseph would have to be in Jerusalem for that feast as is written in Exodus 23:16. So they then say well Jesus could have been born on the first day of tabernacles in Bethlehem then Joseph quickly scedaddles to Jerusalem to make it for the 8th day of that feast. Would any father leave his newborn son who had to be rescued from Herod and other dangers and leave his wife? Would he also miss his son’s circumcision? He could have but it does not fit well with scripture.

The first tabernacle was completed on the 1st of Nissan.

The solution is quite simple! The first tabernacle was built for God to indwell during the Israelites journey through the wilderness when Moses was leading them out of Egypt. From the conception of the tabernacle to its completion took 9 months. (About the same gestation period for a human baby). It was completed according to Exodus 40:1-2, in the first month (Nisan) on the first day of that month. Note that in Exodus 12:1 God changes the calendar so that the start of the year is now Nisan not Tishri. Tishri was the start of the civil calendar but Nisan the start of the religious one. So this all fits well with Jesus being born on the 1st day of Nisan and the date that God tabernacled amongst His people in Exodus 40:2.

So it makes biblical sense that Jesus was born on the 1st of Nissan and tabernacled amongst us.

Now to get an exact year and therefore date we go to Luke 1:5 Where it says that Zacharias was drawn by lots of the division of Abijah to serve in the temple. 1 Chronicles 24 tells us there were 24 priestly divisions that ministered to the Lord on a rota with the individual drawn by lots. The priestly calendar according to the Talmud tells us who was acting priest during the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD. We can then work that backwards to see when the house of Abijah was ministering in the temple in the day of Jesus and that identifies the year as 6BC. So putting this all together we find out what is the Gregorian calendar date of 1st Nisan in 6BC and we get March 20th 6BC.

So we can celebrate the birth of Christ authentically on the 20th March each year or whenever the 1st of Nisan falls.

How about it? What do you think?