The Scholars on Christmas
Compiled
by Minister Abdul Muhammad
The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious
Knowledge
pg. 47
There is
no historical evidence that our (Savior’s) birthday
was celebrated during (the time of the 12 apostles)…
The
American Book of Days
p. 658 by George Douglas says
The day
was not one of the early feasts of the Christian church. In
fact the observance of birthdays was condemned as a heathen
custom repugnant to Christians.
Encyclopedia
Briticanna
11th
Ed. Vol. 24 p. 231
Christmas
is a contraction of “Christ Mass” a Roman
Catholic observance designed as a compromise with the
heathen Roman feast Saturnalia.
The World Book Encyclopedia
(1962) “Christmas” p. 416
In 354,
Bishop Liberius of Rome ordered the people to celebrate
December 25th.
He probably chose this date because the people of Rome
already observed it as the Feast of Saturn, celebrating the
birthday of the sun.
About.com
“Mithras,
the sun-god, was born of a virgin in a cave on December 25,
and worshipped on Sunday, the day of the conquering sun.
The Complete Book of American Holidays
Luke's
account "suggests that Jesus may have been born in summer
or early fall. Since December is cold and rainy in Judea,
it is likely the shepherds would have sought shelter for
their flocks at night" (p. 309).
The
Companion Bible,
1974, Appendix 179, p. 200
Since Elizabeth (John's mother) was in her sixth month of
pregnancy when Jesus was conceived (Luke
1:24-36), we
can determine the approximate time of year Jesus was born
if we know when John was born. John's father, Zacharias,
was a priest serving in the Jerusalem temple during the
course of Abijah (Luke
1:5).
Historical calculations indicate this course of service
corresponded to June 13-19 in that year.
On
pgs. 190-191 of
The Mysteries of Mithra
by Franz Cumont translated by Thomas J. McCormack, he
states,
“Like
the latter, they also held Sunday sacred, and celebrated
the birth of the Sun on the 25th
of
December, the same day on which Christmas has been
celebrated, since the fourth century at least.”
Frederick
H. Cramer in Astrology in Roman Law and
Politics
on pg. 4 states;
A star
cult, sun worship, became (in the third century A.D.) the
dominant official creed, paving the road for the ultimate
triumph of Judaeo-Christian monotheism. So strong was the
belief in the Invincible Sun (Sol Invictus) that for
example Constantine I (d.337), himself at first a devotee
of the sun cult, found it, indeed perfectly compatible with
his pro-Christian sympathies to authorize his own portrayal
of Helios. And in 354 the ascendant Christian church in the
reign of his pious by unsavory son, Constantius II, found
it prudent to change the celebration of the birth of Jesus
from the traditional date (January 6) to December 25, in
order to combat the pagan Sun god’s popularity-his
“birthday” being December 25.
Walter
Woodburn Hyde writes in
Paganism to Christianity in the Roman
Empire
on pg. 60 states
Remains
of the struggle are found in two institutions adopted from
its rival by Christianity in the fourth century, the two
Mithraic sacred days, December twenty-fifth, dies natilis
solis [birthday of the sun], as the birthday of Jesus, and
Sunday, “the venerable day of the Sun,” as
Constantine called it in his edict of 321.
Adam
Clarke’s Bible Commentary
states in reference to Luke 2:8
…as
the shepherds had not yet bought home their flocks, it is a
presumptive argument that October had not yet commenced,
and that, consequently, our Lord was not born on the
25th
of
December, when no flocks were out in the fields; nor could
He have been born later than September, as the flocks were
still in the fields by night. On this very ground the
nativity in December should be given up. The feeding of the
flocks by night in the fields is a chronological fact,
which cast considerable light upon this disputed point.
Appendix
179 of
The Companion Bible
says,
Shepherds
and their flocks would not be found “abiding”
(Gr. Agrauleo) in the open fields at night in December
(tebeth), for the paramount reason that there would be no
pasturage at that time. It was the custom then (as now) to
withdraw the flocks during the month Marchesven (Oct.-Nov.)
from the open districts and house them for the winter.
In
reference to the census being taken on December 25 Geikie
Cunningham in his book
Christmas at Bethlehem
Holy-days and Holidays
states
…could hardly have been at that season [December
25], however, for such a time would surely not have been
chosen by the authorities for a public enrollment, which
necessitated the population’s traveling from all
parts to their natal districts, storms and rain making
journeys both unsafe and unpleasant in winter, except in
specially favorable years.
According
to
the Encyclopedia Americana
1944 edition
“Christmas…was,
according to many authorities, not celebrated in the
Christian church, as the Christians usage in general was to
celebrate the death of remarkable persons rather than their
birth…”
The
1908 edition of the
Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 3 pg. 724 states,
In the
Scriptures, no on is recorded to have kept a feast or held
a great banquet on his birthday. It is only sinners who
make great rejoicings over the day in which they were born
into this world.”
The
1983 edition of the
Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church
on pg. 280 states in reference to the birth of Jesus,
“Though
speculation as to the time of year of Christ’s birth
dates from the early 3rd
century,
Clement of Alexandria suggesting the 20th
of May,
the celebration of the anniversary does not appear to have
been general till the later 4th
century.
The earliest mention of the observance on Dec.
25th
is in
the Philocalian Calendar, representing Roman practice of
the year 336. This date was prabably chosen to oppose the
feast of the Natalis Solis Invicti [nativity of the
unconquerable sun] by the celebration of the birth of the
‘Sun of Righteousness’ and its observance in
the West, seems to have spread from Rome.”
Roman
Catholic writer Mario Righetti in
Manual of Liturgical History
1955 vol. 2 pg. 67 states
“…to
facilitate the acceptance of the faith by the pagan masses,
the Church of Rome found it convenient to institute the
25th
of
December as the feast of the birth of Christ to divert the
from the pagan feast, celebrated on the same day in honor
of the ‘Invincible Sun’ Mithras, the conqueror
of darkness.”
Henry
Chadwick in his book
The Early Church
published in 1967 on pg126 says concerning Christmas being
on December 25th
“Moreover,
early in the fourth century there begins in the West (where
first and by whom is not known) the celebration of December
25th,
the birthday of the Sun-god at the winter solstice, as the
date for the nativity of Christ. How easy it was for
Christianity and solar religion to become entangled at the
popular level is strikingly illustrated by a mid-fifth
century sermon of Pope Leo the Great, rebuking his
over-cautious flock for paying reverence to the Sun on the
steps of St. Peter’s before turing their back on it
to worship inside the westward-facing basilica.”
In
Holy Blood, Holy Grail
by Michael Baigent writes about Constantine
His
primary, indeed obsessive, objective was unity –
unity in politics, in religion and in territory. A cult or
state religion that included all other cults within it
obviously help to achieve this objective…In the
interest of unity, Constantine deliberately chose to blur
the distinctions among Christianity, Mithraism, and Sol
Invictus…”
2000
Edition
Encyclopedia Britannica
Vol. 11 p. 390
The
feast of Sol and Victus on December 25th
was
celebrated with great joy, and eventually this date was
taken over by the Christians as Chirstmas, the birthday of
Christ.
On
pg. 192 of
Survivals of Roman Religion
by Gordon J. Laing says,
“Cults
of the sun, as we know from many sources, had attained the
great vogue during the second, third and fourth centuries.
Sun-worshippers indeed formed one of the big groups in that
religious world in which Christianity was fighting for a
place. Many of them became converts to Christianity and in
all probability carried into their new religion some
remnants of their old beliefs. The complaint of Pope Leo in
the fifth century was that worshippers turned away from the
altar and faced the door so that they could adore the
rising sun is not without its significance in regard to the
number of Christians who at one time had been adherents of
some form of sun-worship. It is of course impossible to say
precisely in what way their influence manifested itself. We
do know, however, of analogues between Christ and the sun:
he was designated the Sun of Righteousness; and our
Christmas falls on the date of the festival of a popular
sun-god in Rome.”