WHEN WAS JESUS BORN?

I hate to be the Grinch on Christmas by asking this question, but here goes!

The Year

This would seem to be a given since our whole calendar system is based on the year of Jesus' birth. However, we know from the Bible that after Herod's encounter with the magi, he determined to kill all the children in Bethlehem aged two years or younger. That was probably since the magi did not arrive until some time after Jesus' birth itself. But Herod died in 4 BC according to the latest calculation of scholars. That would mean that Jesus was actually born somewhere between 4-7 BC.

But even this may not be accurate. The traditional date for Herod the Great's death was actually 1 BC, using different lines of reasoning. And in addition, Herod's heir to the rule over Judea was Herod Archelaus, who may have had some hand in ruling the region even while his father was still alive. And the biblical account may have been referring to him instead of his father.

Then there is the census carried out under Quirinius to be taken into account. It turns out that the only recorded census under him that we know about occurred in A.D. 6-7. However, it has been proposed that Quirinius may have carried out an earlier census, of which we know nothing. Alternatively, “Quirinius” in the biblical text may have been confused with “Saturninius,” who was governor of Syria from 9-6 BC.

In addition, Geldenhuys notes, “Although no express mention of this enrollment has been found outside the New Testament and Christian writers, this does not by any means prove that Luke's statement is incorrect. For numerous important events are mentioned, e.g. in the works of Josephus, which are not mentioned elsewhere and yet no one will allege that all such statements of his are false.”

Finally, there have been attempts to couple the calculated date of Jesus' crucifixion with the biblical statement (Luke 3:23) that he was about 30 years old when he began his ministry. But any such back-calculations using that statement would be very approximate at best.

So actually, we have no sure way of knowing the exact year of Jesus' birth.

The Month and Day

Here there are even more uncertainties. Raymond Brown, in his exhaustive commentary The Birth of the Messiah, notes that between March and November is when shepherds would have been out in the fields, not in the colder months of the year. But another noted Roman Catholic commentator, Joseph Fitzmyer, states: “Attempts to date the birth of Jesus by this detail to certain months of the year have been legion, but they are more speculative than convincing.”

So where did December 25 come from anyway? The explanations are numerous, and here are just a few:

Actually, Dec. 25 was by no means the only date proposed for celebration. For example, the early Church Father Clement (ca. 200) cites traditions that Jesus was born on either May 20 or April 20-21.

The most usual explanation is that December 25 was officially chosen by the early church in AD 336 since it roughly coincided with the winter solstice, the rebirth of the sun god Sol, and the birthday of the Indo-European deity Mithras, who was god of light popular with Roman soldiers. This theory would fit with the early Catholic practice of replacing existing pagan celebrations with Christian ones.

On the other hand, it has been proposed that the date came from Sextus Julius Africanus, a Christian historian who dated Jesus' conception to March 25, the date he somehow calculated to be that on which the world was created.

Then there is the theory that Christians began with an assumed date of April 6 for the crucifixion during Passover and coupled it with an ancient belief that prophets died on the same day as their conception date. And that would end up with calculated birth date of roughly nine months later.

In addition, we have the uncertainty regarding which calendar to use for our calculations. Although the Western church picked December 25, the Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate on January 6-7 instead. That is because they use the Gregorian calendar while others go with the Julian calendar.

On top of all this comes an article in the Winter 2022 edition of Christianity Today (CT) magazine written by an assistant professor at Fairfield University, T.C. Schmidt. He cites an inscription on the base of a statue of an early church writer Hippolytus dated to AD 222. Selections from Hippolytus' earlier writings are found on this inscription, including one stating that Jesus' conception date was April 2, placing his birth somewhere close to December 25.

The important thing to note is that this very early evidence demonstrates that it is highly unlikely that December 25 was primarily chosen to coincide with a pagan holiday. This is especially true since Schmidt points out that this was well before the feast of Sol had begun to be celebrated on that day by the Roman world. And the earliest solid indication that Mithras' birthday was celebrated on December doesn't date until the middle of the 4^th century AD.

The Time of Day

We are all acquainted with the Christmas carol “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” which seems to settle the question as to the exact time of day Jesus was born. But where did the author of that song get the idea in the first place? It turns out that it comes from one of the books of the Apocrypha called The Wisdom of Solomon, written around 50 BC, although other proposed dates range anywhere from the second century BC to the first century AD. In Wisdom 18:14-15, it reads: “When all things were in quiet silence, and the night was half spent, Your all-powerful Word leaped down from heaven's royal throne.” This has been interpreted, whether rightly or wrongly, to be a prophecy of the birth of the Messiah.

Conclusion

I don't mention all of the above uncertainties to throw water on the celebration of Christmas on December 25. But I think that it may cause us to consider celebrating the earthshaking event of the Incarnation every day of the year instead of only once since, for all we know, any day of the year may mark His true birthday.