The first evidence of Christians celebrating December 25th as the date of the Lord’s nativity comes from Rome some years after Aurelian, in A.D. If this be the case, the pagan festival of the “Birth of the Unconquered Son” instituted by the Roman Emperor Aurelian (an opponent of Christians) on 25 December 274, was perhaps an attempt to create a pagan alternative to a date that was already of some significance to Roman Christians, whose strength was growing at a time when the Roman empire was under threat. (Many older parishes have an octagonal Baptism font to symbolise this.) Jesus is laid to his Sabbath day of rest in preparation for the new creation at Easter. This on a Friday, the sixth day of creation when heaven and earth were completed with all their array (Genesis 2:1). If this is how it developed, then the date of 25 December arises from considering 25 March as the date of the death of Jesus, in the fullness of time when all is accomplished. If the death of Jesus occurred on the same day as his conception (they were well aware of the nine months gestation), this would lead directly to 25 December as the date of birth. We know this is not accurate, but consider the date: 25 March. By the time of Tertullian some second-century Latin Christians in Rome and North Africa appear to have concluded that he died at Passover, 25 March in the years 29. Numbers in Scripture often have symbolic value: seven days of creation, ten Commandments, twelve tribes of Israel, forty years on Mount Sinai or in the desert (for Israel and Jesus), and David’s reign of forty years, 144,000 chosen.Įarly Christians were concerned more about the date of the death of Jesus than his birth. We already know Jesus was born perhaps four to six years B.C.! It’s the symbolic value we look for rather than mathematical accuracy. Early Eastern and Western Christians had different concerns, and we still differ on the date for celebrating Christmas and Easter. How does this relate to Christmas? It can get complicated with different calendars (Jewish, Greek, Roman) and calculations. The sermon of Peter as presented in Acts 2 quotes from Psalm 16 and Psalm 110, both of which are subtitled “of David.” There is also a Jewish tradition that King David was born and died at the Feast of Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks (7×7), what we call Pentecost, the day the Torah was given. Operatically, Moses blesses the tribes, and goes to Mount Nebo for his death (34:5). God then instructed Moses (32:48) that same day to climb Mount Nebo, where he would die. Moses then presented the Law in writing to the priests, and recited a long song.
He spoke to the people: “Today I am 120 years old and can no longer be your leader…” The number 120 years represents a “fullness of years”, symbolic of divine blessing. In Deuteronomy 31 we have the story of Moses. It goes back to a Jewish tradition that people specially chosen and blessed by God for a central role would die on the same date as that of their birth, in the fullness of years. The other possibility seems to have deeper roots. Bible scholars in the 18th and 19th century latched onto this, and so we have the common story today. It’s not until the 12th century that we find the first suggestion, by the Syrian Dionysius bar-Salibi, that Jesus’ birth celebration was deliberately set at the time of pagan feasts. (Ireland was well ahead with Newgrange.) Before this, celebrations associated with Rome’s two temples of the sun were not linked in any way to solstices or equinoxes. Even a possibility that the Sol Invicta festival date may have been chosen to try to outshine the feast of the birth of Jesus! The Roman festival was inaugurated in 274 by Emperor Aurelian. A much publicised story is that this date was chosen because it was the Roman festival of Sol Invicta: the sun, unconquered at mid-winter. But we celebrate his birth on 25 December. One of our known unknowns is the birth date of Jesus: we simply do not know the date of his birth. 25 December and Sol Invicta and all that!
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