All Things Christmas (7 page)

The earliest writings
,
Paul and Mark
,
make no mention of Jesus’ birth.
Only t
he Gospels of
Matthew and Luke provide accounts of the event
although
, unlike the Passion narrative,
neither
attempts to anchor it in time
.
F
urther details of Jesus’ childhood
don’t appear until the Second Century
in apocryphal writings such as the
Infancy Gospel of Thomas
and the
Proto-Gospel of James
.
And, though they
provide the names of Jesus’ grandparents
and
details of his education
, they ignore
the
issue
of his birth
date
.

Accounting for the Date

Perhaps there is a different, and better, way to account for the origins of Christmas on December 25
th
— the Jewish tradition
that creation and redemption should occur at the same time of year
.
The Babylonian Talmud preserves a dispute between two early
S
econd
C
entury rabbis who share this view, but disagree
d
on the date
.
Rabbi
Eliezer
states
,
“In Nisan the world was created; in Nisan the Patriarchs were born; on Passover Isaac was born...and in Nisan they
(the Patriarchs)
will be redeemed in time to come.” The other rabbi, Joshua, dates these same events to the following month, Tishri
.

Establishing the Date of the Nativity

Could it be that
the dates of Christmas and Epiphany may well have resulted from Christian theological reflection on such chronologies
? Could
Jesus have been conceived on the same date he
died,
and
thus
born nine months later
?

Around 200 AD Tertullian reported his calculation that the 14
th
of Nisan, the day of the crucifixion according to the Gospel of John, equated to March 25
th
in the Roman (solar) calendar. March 25
th
, which comes nine months before December 25
th
, was later recognized as the Feast of the Annunciation, the commemoration of Jesus’ conception. If the ancient Christians believed that Jesus was conceived and crucified on the same day of the year, then the logical thing to do would be to establish his day of birth exactly nine months later…on December 25
th
.

This idea appears in an anonymous Christian treatise titled
On Solstices and Equinoxes
, which come
s
from fourth-century North Africa. It states, “Therefore our Lord was conceived on the eighth of the
kalends
of April in the month of March (March 25
th
), which is the day of the passion of the Lord and of his conception. For on that day he was conceived and on the same he suffered.”

Augustine, too, was familiar with this idea. In
On the Trinity
he wrote, “For he is believed to have been conceived on the 25
th
of March, upon which day also he suffered; so the womb of the Virgin, in which he was conceived, where no one of mortals was begotten, corresponds to the new grave in which he was buried, wherein was never
a
man laid, neither before him nor since. But he was born, according to tradition, upon
December the 25
th
.”

The Eastern Church

If you remain skeptical, consider one final point. The Eastern Church also links the dates of Jesus’ conception and his death. However, instead of working from the 14
th
of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar, Orthodox scholars used the 14
th
of the first spring month (
Artemisios
) in their local Greek calendar, which corresponds to April 6
th
. April 6
th
is, of course, precisely nine months before January 6
th
, the date on which the Easte
rn Church celebrates Christmas.

There is evidence that April was associated with Jesus’ conception and crucifixion in the East. Bishop
Epiphanius
of Salamis writes that on April 6
th
, “The lamb was shut up in the spotless womb of the holy virgin, he who took away and takes away in perpetual sacrifice the sins of the world.” Even today, the Armenian Church celebrates the Annunciation in early April (on the 7
th
, rather than the 6
th
) and Christmas on January 6
th
.

Here we have Christians in two parts of the world both calculating Jesus’ birth on the basis
that his death and conception took place on the same day (March 25
th
or April 6
th
) and coming up with two close but different results for his birth  (December 25
th
and January 6
th
). Connecting Jesus’ conception and death in this way may seem odd to modern readers, but it reflects the ancient belief of the whole of sal
vation being bound up together.

This begs the question, what about all those stories of Christmas being adapted from pagan holidays? In cases such as this it’s sometimes helpful to ask yourself, “Who benefits from such a theory?” Clearly such ideas bolster those who seek to disprove Christianity’s claims about Jesus and the saving grace He offers mankind. One might even go so far as to say that the ultimate beneficiary of such a claim would be the Evil One, the Father of Lies, the Prince of Darkness, in short, the
Satan
.

Interestingly enough, the first suggestion that Jesus’ birth celebration was deliberately set to coincide with the time of pagan feasts didn’t surface until the 12
th
Century. A marginal note on a manuscript of the writings of the
Syriac
biblical commentator Dionysius bar-
Salibi
states that in ancient times the Christmas holiday
might have been
shifted from January 6
th
to December 25
th
so that it fell on the same date as the pagan
Sol
Invictus
holiday. In the 18
th
and 19
th
centuries, Bible scholars developed the study of comparative religions and picked up on this idea. They claimed that because the early Christians didn’t know when Jesus was born, they simply assimilated the pagan solstice festival for their own purposes, claiming it as the time of the Messiah’s birth and celebrating it accordingly.

Don’t you believe
it.

Chapter Eight

SAINT NICHOLAS versus SANTA CLAUS

An Icon of St. Nicholas

Saint Nicholas versus Santa Claus?
Hmmm, sounds a bit like a promo for an upcoming event on the Wrestling Channel, doesn’t it? Let’s take a closer look…

Bursting with excitement, the announcer says, “Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen. You’ve tuned into the smack-down of the century, a match made in heaven. At the end of this evening only one man will remain standing. Who will it be?”

The announcer continues as the camera focuses on a slim wrestler in gold trunks as he
stretches and tests the ropes. The white robe he’s wearing has a gold crown on the back. “Here we have the perennial champion…St. Nick. They used to call him
Jolly old St Nick
, but we haven’t seen that famous grin of his lately. With his popularity tanking I guess he doesn’t have much to smile about. Even the church ladies have sworn off Nick.
T
imes change and today’s favorite can be tomorrow’s has been. I can’t help wondering if he’s bitten off more than he can chew tonight. Could this be the match that forces him
into permanent retirement?”

Loud cheers and shouts interrupt the announcer. The sound of people stamping their feet reverberates throughout the arena. The camera quickly pans to the opposite corner of the ring where an overweight man in a red spandex suit, mask and cape
is climbing through the ropes.

The announcer must shout to be heard over the crowd. “There he is, folks. This is what the crowd’s been waiting for…the man who thinks he can unseat Old Nick. The crowd is going crazy. Listen, they’re chanting his name. In all my years I’ve never seen anyone as wildly popular as Mr. C. They say he flew in from up north especially for this match. This Mr. C is more than just a wrestler; he’s a jugge
rnaut...an overwhelming force.”

The retired wrestler who provides color commentary leans close to the mike. “Sure he’s popular, but we know nothing about this Mr. C character. I mean, it’s like he’s been created out of thin air by the media. Who, or what, is hiding underneath that mask and red suit?”

The announcer shakes his head and smiles. “He’s a man of mystery, all right. No one knows anything about him, but for some unexplainable reason they love him anyway.”

The bell rings and the two men step forward to meet with the ref
eree at the center of the ring.

The Real Saint Nicholas

St. Nicholas was born in 271 and died around 342 or 343 near the town of Myra
in what was called Asia Minor, present day Turkey.
At the time of his death, Nicholas served as Bishop of Myra. The story of how he achieved that office is an interesting one. During the last official Christian persecution by the Roman Empire, t
he bishops from
the surrounding
cities and villages
were called together
to choose a successor
w
hen the
B
ishop
of Myra
died.

Nicholas
made it a habit to rise
early and go to church to pray.
Th
at
morning an
elderly priest
greeted
him
when he entered
the sanctuary.
“
Who are you, my son?
”

“
Nicholas the sinner,
”
the young
priest
replied
,
“
a
nd I am your servant.
”

“
Come with me,
”
the old priest
sai
d.

Nicholas followed him
in
to a room where the bishops had assembled. The elderly
priest
addressed the gathering.
“
I had a vision that the first one to enter the church in the morning should be the new
B
ishop of Myra. Here is that man
,
Nicholas.
”

Nicholas
ended up leading
his
congregation through the worst, and last, official Roman persecution of the Church
.
Diocletian had been Emperor for 19 years when he began a widespread persecution of Christians in the year 303. Diocletian left office two years later, but his successor, Galerius,
continued the harassment.

Nicholas was exiled and imprisoned during this period and only returned to his diocese in 311 when the Edict of Toleration ended the persecution. T
wo years later in 313 Constantine
’s
Edict of Milan
made Christianity a legal religion
.
Nicholas is also said to have participated in the Council of
Nicaea in 325, although his name is not listed among the attendees.