The Jesus Dynasty / James Tabor

December 25th as the date of the birth of Jesus can be traced back to the early 3rd century AD though it did not achieve more univeral recognition until the late 4th century. It is often asserted that “Christmas is pagan,” and that it originated because of the popularity of the Roman winter festivals of Saturnalia (Dec 16-24), and Sol Invictus, that marked the Winter Solstice (Dec 21st), or “birth of the sun.” It is ineed likely that the celebration of such winter festivals in various cultures where Christianity spread might have contributed to the seasonal popularity of December 25th, and there is no doubt that lots of “Christmas” customs (decorations, trees, Yule logs, mistletoe, gifts, parties) developed from such celebrations. However, as far as we can tell the designation of December 25th as the date of the brith of Jesus had nothing to do with pagan customs and practices. Rather it was based upon the chronological calculations of early Christians such as Julius Africanus (c. 200 AD). Africanus put the conception of Jesus around the Vernal Equinox (March 20th), which gave him his date of December 25th, nine months later, for Jesus’ birth. It is possible that the view common in some Jewish circles that Adam was created in the Spring, at the time of the Equinox, contributed to the idea that Jesus, as a “second Adam,” was incarnated on this day as well.

The New Testament gives us precious little about the chronology of the birth of Jesus. No month or season is explicitly mentioned in either Matthew’s or Luke’s birth stories. Luke does mention three things that chronologists, both ancient and modern, have used to attempt to get a more precise date. He puts the conception of John the Baptist shortly after Zechariah, his father, carried out his priestly duty in Jerusalem as part of a cycle of priests known as the “Abijah” group (Luke 1:5, 8; see 1 Chronicles 24 where these “courses” of priests are listed). He then tells us that Jesus and John are about six months apart in age (Luke 1:26), and he notes that when Jesus is baptized he is “about 30 years old” (Luke 3:23). According to Josephus each priestly section served for periods of eight days, from noon on one Sabbath to noon on the following Sabbath, twice a year, with everyone serving during the three festivals, Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. The cycle began on Nisan 1st, which was in the Spring, just before Passover, and the “Abijah” group was eighth in line. Scholars have worked this out in various ways and the major proposals are surveyed in Jack Finegan’s masterful study (covering this and many other chronological questions related to the Bible), A Handbook of Biblical Chronology.

My own reconstruction of the chronological framework for the birth, life, and death of Jesus, as presented in The Jesus Dynasty, puts the baptism of Jesus by John in the Fall of 26 AD, around the time he turned 30, which would also place his birthdate in the Fall (September), rather than the Winter (December). I base this also on my own best judgment of the time of the birth of John the Baptist, six months earlier (March), which in turn I relate Zechariah’s service in the Temple as part of the Abijah section that finished its duty in June of the previous year. Thus we have:

Conception of John the Baptist: late June, 6 BC

Conception of Jesus: late December, 6 BC

Birth of John the Baptist: late March, 5 BC

Birth of Jesus: late September, 5 BC

If I am correct, from a strictly historical point of view, this time of year, Christmas, turns out to be the time of the young teenaged Mary becoming pregnant, with Jesus’ birth in late September, nine months later. The source of that pregnancy is a matter of heated debate among conservative believers in a literal “virgin birth,” (Jesus had no human father), most academic scholars of early Christianity (his father was Joseph and the virgin birth story a myth), and the view current in some Jewish and Roman circles in the 2nd century AD that Jesus’ father was a man named Pantera. All of this I discuss in book and my own conclusion is that Jesus’ father remains “unknown,” to us, but that Mary and Jesus faced the scandal and gossip throughout their lives associated with the charge that his conception was out of wedlock. What I do try to argue, however, is that it is entirely possible to “believe the best” regarding the virtue and character of Mary, even in such circumstances, and that the “illegitimacy of Jesus” might actually be seen as something positive, indeed a courageous and spiritual act on her part (see my post on September 29th on this subject titled “Joining the Slanderers“).

So, as Christmas comes around again I am thinking mostly of honoring the mother of Jesus, in whose heart were kept secrets to be judged only by her and by God, including the possibility of the deep love she had for Jesus’ father, whoever he might have been, and the hard times she must have endured during the ensuing months of her pregnancy through that Winter of 6-5 BC. Given those thoughts it is hard to say “Merry Christmas,” or even “Happy Holidays,” and it is surely the case that Saturnalia type winter festivities do not seem to mix so well with such sober thoughts…I am thinking rather of “Silent Night,” but with new words more appropriate to what I think might have been the situation that December 25th.