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Riley259
Guest
Is December 25th close to the actual birth of Jesus?
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Kristina_P
Guest
I’ve always heard that most scholars date His birth around April, so probably not.
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Jaypeeto3
Guest
We don’t know with any certainty the date Jesus was born.
As I have been taught, the church chose December 25th for the feast of Christ’s birth as a way of giving the Christians of the empire something joyous to observe so that they would not participate in the Roman Saturnalia, which took place also at the end of December.
Love, Jaypeeto3
As I have been taught, the church chose December 25th for the feast of Christ’s birth as a way of giving the Christians of the empire something joyous to observe so that they would not participate in the Roman Saturnalia, which took place also at the end of December.
Love, Jaypeeto3
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MilesXpisti
Guest
This is a difficult question, as the early Church put much more emphasis on the death and resurrection of Our Lord than his birth. I have seen several arguments placing it sometime in late September, specifically on or about the 29th of September, which is the Jewish Feast of the Tabernacles. Their support for this comes from the Gospel of St. John 1:14, in which the word “dwelt” in the original Greek is έσκήνωσεν, derived from the Greek word for tents, the tenements used during that holiday. Similarly, some translations of that verse render it as: “And the Word was made flesh, and tabernacled among us…” I can’t speak as to the validity of this argument and I don’t see that it really matters to Catholic theology. I suppose it’s just because we love the details.
Regards,
-John
Regards,
-John
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MamaSusie
Guest
We celebrated the feast of the Immaculate Conception today. Could Mary have conceived today and given birth 2 1/2 weeks later? No. These are just the days we choose celebrate events in Christ’s life, in the liturgical year. When they happened is of minor importance, IMHO, compared to the meaning.
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MilesXpisti
Guest
Ummm…correct me if I’m wrong but the Immaculate Conception deals with the conception of Mary without the stain of original sin, by a singular act of grace in view of the merits of Christ. It has nothing to do with the conception of Christ, at least not chronologically.
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awalt
Guest
correct Miles!
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joshua1
Guest
There is an interesting article in Catholic Digest this month adressing this very issue. Ill try to summarize it. The early Church believed that your life came full circle. For instance when the Bible says that Abraham lived 175 years, it meant not one day more, not one day less. So in a word you would die on the same day you were born. Now there are many clues as to when Jesus was crucified and died. Somewhere around March 25 or April 6. Some might say then that Jesus must have been born in late March or April. But wait, since we are talking about the Son of God, his incarnation or coming into being in the womb of mary would be more significant instead of his actual birth… So if Jesus died late March or early April, his Annunciation would have been in march or april. Now count forward nine months and bingo, you have late December as a possible birth date. And the article goes on to say that this will coincide with the January 6 date of the Epiphany as well. This is not official teaching, but it was interesting to read. If anyone would like to read the whole article, Its in the December issue of Catholic Digest. It also pretty much discounts the saturnalia festival theory because at that time, it was a fairly new festival not even practiced and celebrated on a wide scale.
Any thoughts???
Any thoughts???
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JimG
Guest
That’s a frequent misunderstanding, but as Miles pointed out, the feast of the Immaculate Conception has to do with the conception of Mary, not of Jesus. The conception of Jesus is celebrated as the Feast of the Incarnation, on March 25th, exactly 9 months before we celebrate his birth!
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estesbob
Guest
The Immacualte conception has nothing to do with when Jesus was conceived. it has t do with mary being conceived without original sn.
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