The first proposal that Christ’s birth was on December 25th was in AD 220, by Sextus Julius Africanus – a good hundred years before Constantine, and a time when Christians were persecuted by pagan culture. The reasoning for the date had nothing to do with paganism, but with the belief that Jesus was crucified on March 25. A belief in serendipity that was common at the time led to the idea that he must have been conceived on the same day he died, and December 25th is 9 months after March 25th. March 25th was officially set as the day of the Annunciation a few centuries later.

In addition, the Feast of Epiphany is OLDER than Christmas, was always at the beginning of January, and used to start the Church Year. It was very natural, when fixing a date to celebrate the Nativity, to place it slightly before the Epiphany.

There is no hard evidence of any pagan origin for the date. No document that says, “We’ll make it on December 25, and here’s why.” The evidence is all “connect-the-dots” evidence, and dots can always be connected in different ways.

There was also no suggestion from anyone that the date had a pagan origin until centuries later.

If Christians choose to more closely emulate their Savior at this time of year, doing good, visiting the sick, and feeding the poor, I can hardly complain. I still see Christmas more as a tradition and less as a mandate from God, but I observe traditions, too and find great meaning in them. I only ask that those of us who are believers and who choose not to celebrate Christmas, for many of the reasons you state in your re-worked article, not condemned by the mainstream Church.

Just to clarify, my prior comments were made in response to the original content of this article. The content has since been reworked to appear as it does currently (as of December 23rd).

As far as Bible interpretation is concerned, I’m OK with applying Occam’s Razor, that is, all things being equal, the simplest explanation is the best. In this case, the literal meaning of Zechariah’s prophesy seems to be correct. As I recall, the Messiah will rule for what most people believe to be a 1000 year period before the final battle, according to Revelation. I don’t have a problem believing that, prior to the New Jerusalem coming down from Heaven, all the nations will come together in the current Jerusalem to celebrate Sukkot with Jesus.

Thanks for your reply … I am aware that it is fairly likely that Jesus was born in the season of Sukkot; however I skipped that as it is not widely agreed. On timing and dates… there can be a lot of reasons for dates to be changed; yet I don’t think that celebrating something on the wrong day means that we don’t celebrate at all!

On your interpretation of all nations sending representatives to Jerusalem to worship each year, such an interpretation does make sense and is the literal meaning of the passage; yet given e.g. John 4:21-24 and the discussion in the Book of Revelation of the New Jerusalem I am of the opinion that it is not in fact a literal reference to the City of David.

I would certainly stop short of suggesting that Zechariah prophesised Christmas; my suggestion is more that what Zechariah prophesised is foreshadowed / imperfectly fuflilled in Christmas, if we take Christmas at it’s very basic meaning of an annual celebration of when Christ dwelt with us.

I particularly appreciated your reference to John and the word becoming flesh. I do realise that the Birthday Party version of Christmas is fairly common, yet surely that is not the real significance of what we celebrate… it is not about the birth of Christ, for he existed from the beginning, but that he came into the world to dwell with us. Just as he dwelt amongst the tents of Israel in the wilderness; and as he dwelt in the temple in Jerusalem.

On Channukkah, my reference was more to that it was originated in the restoration of the temple to the worship of God, rather than to suggest that the festival itself had a role in Zechariah.

I really appreciate your comment; thank you so much

Once a year, in Messianic days, all of the nations of the Earth are to send representatives to Jerusalem to give honor to the King of Creation, God’s Messiah, Yeshua (Jesus). It’s not a birthday celebration. The reason the Bible doesn’t make the birth date of Jesus explicit (my opinion) is that there is no current Heavenly mandate to celebrate his birthday. In the future, we will all celebrate Sukkot (I didn’t wait, I celebrate it every fall) to give honor and glory to the King…not to have a birthday party.

No, Zechariah wasn’t talking about Christmas but rather Sukkot. Chanukah isn’t really related, especially since Chanukah is a minor holiday, not one of the Moadim (Appointed Times) such as Sukkot, Pesach (Passover), and Shavuoat (Festival of Weeks).

Blessings.