Why was Jesus born on 25th of December?

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St. Luke reports that Zacharias served in the course of Abias Lk 1:5 which Scripture records as the eighth course among the twenty-four priestly courses Neh 12:17. Each shift of priests served one week in the temple for two times each year. The course of Abias served during the eighth week and the thirty-second week in the annual cycle. …

Josef Heinrich Friedlieb has convincingly established that the 1st priestly course of Jojarib was on duty during the destruction of Jerusalem on the 9th day of the Jewish month of Av. Thus the priestly course of Jojarib was on duty during the 2nd week of Av. Consequently, the priestly course of Abias (the course of Saint Zacharias) was undoubtedly serving during the 2nd week of the Jewish month of Tishri—the very week of the Day of Atonement on the 10th day of Tishri. In our calendar, the Day of Atonement would land anywhere from September 22 to October 8.

Zacharias and Elizabeth conceived John the Baptist immediately after Zacharias served his course. This entails that Saint John the Baptist would have been conceived somewhere around the end of September, placing John’s birth at the end of June, confirming the Catholic Church’s celebration of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist on June 24.

__The second-century Protoevangelium of Saint James also confirms a late September conception of the Baptist since the work depicts Saint Zacharias as High Priest and as entering the Holy of Holies—not merely the holy place with the altar of incense. This is a factual mistake because Zacharias was not the high priest, but one of the chief priests Still, the Protoevangelium regards Zacharias as a high priest and this associates him with the Day of Atonement, which lands on the tenth day of the Hebrew month of Tishri (roughly the end of our September). Immediately after this entry into the temple and message of the Archangel Gabriel, Zacharias and Elizabeth conceive John the Baptist. Allowing for forty weeks of gestation, this places the birth of John the Baptist at the end of June—once again confirming the Catholic date for the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist on June 24.

…just after the Immaculate Virgin Mary conceived Christ, she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth who was six months pregnant with John the Baptist. This means that John the Baptist was six months older that our Lord Jesus Christ (Lk 1:24-27, 36). If you add six months to June 24 you get December 24-25 as the birthday of Christ. if you subtract nine months from December 25 you get that the Annunciation was March 25. All the dates match up perfectly. So then, if John the Baptist was conceived shortly after the Jewish Day of the Atonement, then the traditional Catholic dates are essentially correct. The birth of Christ would be about or on December 25."

Ancient quotes:

Saint Hippolytus of Rome, died 235AD:
“The first Advent of our Lord in the flesh occurred when He was born in Bethlehem on December 25th.”

Saint Theophilus, Bishop of Caesarea, died 181 AD,
“We ought to celebrate the birthday of Our Lord on what so ever day the 25th of December shall happen.”

God bless
 
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Gab123 said:
Pagan worship predated the gospel.
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Some of it did, some of it didn’t. The official cult of Sol Invictus with the date of 25th December was established by the emperor Aurelian in AD 274. The notion that pagan practices are automatically earlier than Christian practices can be a false assumption.
 
anhphan said:
It is said that December 25 was the day of Sun God and The Church took place that day by the day of Jesus born. Is it true? Thanks in advance.
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Alexandria – 25 Pachon (20 May)
Clement (about 200 A.D.): 28 March, they day the sun was believed to be created,
From De paschæ computus: Nativity, on 15 or 11 Tybi (10 or 6 January) with the Epiphany.

Ref: Martindale, C.C. (1908). Christmas. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03724b.htm
 
I had to read a lot of posts checking if anyone had already said that…🤨

Sometimes a pagan or otherwise festival was celebrated on a particular day and Christians took the same day for a Christian celebration because it was convenient for everyone, nothing subversive about it. Just common sense, if you live in a village or town expecting a party every year on a certain day why not just keep the same day and change the underlying sentiment. Sometimes it’s a seasonal event too, so it’s tradition and timely.

Similar with some churches in the UK, which are built on or near some old places of pagan worship. Sometimes there are foundations or natural materials in that place already and it’s convenient, etc.
 
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Lee1 said:
Sometimes a pagan or otherwise festival was celebrated on a particular day and Christians took the same day for a Christian celebration because it was convenient for everyone, nothing subversive about it.
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But this doesn’t seem to be the case for Christmas where the celebration of Christ’s birth on 25th December would seem to predate the equivalent pagan festival of the same date.

Pagan dates and practices are sometimes not as old as many people seem to think they are.
 
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Brendan_64 said:
this doesn’t seem to be the case for Christmas where the celebration of Christ’s birth on 25th December would seem to predate the equivalent pagan festival of the same date.
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As I said earlier, the Winter Solstice precedes both of these. It is also the likely basis for the timing of the late Roman solar festival, since pre-existing ceremonies were in place almost everywhere.

The association of Christmas with the solstice reflects the coherence of Christianity with the created world. While repudiating the excesses of the Roman cult, Christmas confirms the importance of the sun that lies at the base of sun worship.
 
From When Was Jesus Born? | Catholic Answers
The Church chose December 25 due to its ancient origin and widespread acceptance. No other date was accepted by more Christians for a longer or older period of time. However, we should note that although the Church chooses this date to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, it is not declaring de fide that it is the literal date he was born.
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From Why is Christmas on December 25? | Catholic Answers
While these explanations of how December 25 came to be the date of Christmas are all plausible, we know one thing for sure: The evidence that this day held a special significance to Christians predates the proof of a supposed celebration of Sol Invictus or other pagan deities on that day.
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In the West, the birth of Christ was celebrated on December 25, and in the East on January 6.
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BartholomewB said:
That’s not what it says in Neh 12:17.
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Not being a biblical scholar, I am not sure how to count the priestly divisions described in Nehemiah. I think Dr. Marshall was just trying to show there were 24 divisions. ?? Not sure.
Nehemiah seems complicated.
I Chronicals 24:10 says eighth division is Abijah (Abia, I believe is the Latin translation of Abijah)
 
Exactly. 1 Chronicles says that but Nehemiah doesn’t. Taylor Marshall’s mistake was that he failed to notice the significant differences between the two lists of priestly families or “divisions.” His careless misattribution undermines his whole argument, which in any case is much less solid than he seems to think. As I said in an earlier post on this thread, matching up Luke 1:5 with 1 Chron 24:10 and “calculating” the date of John the Baptist’s birth on the strength of those two verses alone, unsupported by any other source, is a temptation that the wise man will resist. It will yield a conjectural date that is not altogether unreasonable, but it is no more than that, a conjecture.
 
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Because the 25th was the solstice/equinox when the Julian calendar was introduced?
I really have no idea. Are you suggesting the solstice had no connection to the date for Sol Invictus or Christmas?
 
Brendan_64 said:
Was the 25th of August the equinox on the Julian calender? The Julian and Gregorian calenders are pretty much identical and it seems the change was to do with previous leap years divisible by 100 (but not 400) no longer being counted as leap years in order to address drift over time. This wouldn’t seem to effect individual dates, but I may be wrong there.
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The equinoxes were March 25 and Sept 25, the solstices on June 25(?) and Dec 25 in 1st century.

The difference between Julian and Gregorian calendars is how well they approximate the solar year. The Julian is 365.25 days/y, Gregorian 365.33 d/y and the solar is 365.3346 d/y or something like that. The differences mean that the solar gets out of sync with the solar year, so that the solstice occurs about a day earlier each century. By 16th cent., the equinox was on March 11 instead of 21st, which was the date used in formulae that determined Easter (from 4th cent).
 
I suspect that would discredit the argument for some but for me there is so much more that points to Dec 25th in all of the article, that Nehemiah 12 vs 1 Chronicles 24 doesn’t bother me and 1 Chronicles 24 kind of proves the point.
Some of the other links people added helped also.
I also googled several other Jewish sites, which all describe the eighth priestly division as Abijah or Abias.

Also, for me anyway, I choose to trust that the Church chose December 25th because they just happen to know, at the time they made the decision, that the date Christ was born was December 25th. I imagine there are those who choose rather to doubt and accept other reasons for that being or not being the date and that is fine.
 
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I’m not casting doubt on the list in 1 Chronicles giving the 24 names and showing that Abijah came in eighth place. But what does that tell us about the date? There are at least two complications.
  1. At the time the two books of Chronicles were written, did the Hebrew calendar year begin with Nisan or Tishri? Nisan was then, and is now, the first lunar month of the Hebrew calendar, counting from the Exodus from Egypt. But it’s not quite as simple as that. Tishri also was then, and is now, the first lunar month of the Hebrew calendar, in which the New Year festival (Rosh ha-Shanah) is celebrated. So which of the two applies here?
  2. Did each of the 24 “courses” officiate for a week at a time, twice a year, or for two weeks at a time, once a year? As far as I’m aware, that question has never been conclusively answered one way or the other.
 
The Roman worship of Apollo the sun god was adopted from the Greeks centuries before Christ; Apollo’s first temple was established in Rome circa 430 BC that. One has to realize that all civilizations since the dawn of man have reasoned a creator, and formulated their own ideas of who the Creator is. Thus the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Vikings, the Aztecs, etc. have used their imaginations to flesh out a concept of who God is. Since man is finite and God is infinite, for man to truly know who God is, God Himself had to reach down to man and reveal Himself to man. We see this unfolding beginning with Abraham and culminating with Jesus Christ. Thus when GOD Himself came into the world and split history in two, it is Jesus Christ Himself who teaches us who God truly isbeing that Jesus Christ is the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. Thus blowing away and replacing all prior concepts that all civilizations had imagined bout God.
 
Anyway, It will be around that time… Nothing wrong to celebrate on 25th. Jesus is the Saviour and the son of God on whatever day he was born.
 
anhphan said:
It is said that December 25 was the day of Sun God and The Church took place that day by the day of Jesus born. Is it true? Thanks in advance.
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Nobody knows the date birth of Jesus or the date when he died and obviously nobody knows how old he was when he died. Scripture does not mention this and while it would be interesting to know it is of no importance.
 
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