When was Jesus born?

[Nooj]

Anyone know the day?

 

[BobW188]

No, nor the month.

 

[Nooj]

So why celebrate it on December 25th? Seems a bit arbitrary to me. Why not on any other day in any other month?

 

[ebia]

So why celebrate it on December 25th? Seems a bit arbitrary to me. Why not on any other day in any other month?

If one doesn't know the real date, any date is as good as any other.

There was a certain amount of logic along the lines of an assumption that Jesus' incarnation would have lasted an exact whole number of years, the best guess at the time for the date of his death was 25th March, so that was set as the feast of the Annunciation (ie his conception) and Christmas day set 9 months later.

But the reality is 'we don't know - so pick a date and run with it'. It's good to have a date to celebrate Jesus' birth and concentrate on the incarnation, what date we do that is entirely arbitrary.

 

[AV1611VET]

Anyone know the day?

Not to my knowledge --- and in cases like that, it's usually protocol to pick a day that most will agree upon and go with that.

The day my mother-in-law was born on was contested, but arbitrarily celebrated on a given day; and the year my mother was born was in question, and also arbitrarily set.

 

[Proud Christian 2]

What's Christmas but a celebration of Jesuses birthday. The exact year? I don't know. But it is on Christmas day, which is why there are songs like The First Noel, Angels We Have Heard On High, and songs like that, sung on Christmas.

 

[AV1611VET]

What's Christmas but a celebration of Jesuses birthday. The exact year? I don't know. But it is on Christmas day, which is why there are songs like The First Noel, Angels We Have Heard On High, and songs like that, sung on Christmas.

Yesiree, indeed!

Welcome to CF ---

 

[BobW188]

As has been pointed out on other threads, the winter solstice and the days near it were often marked as the birth of pagan gods; and the fact is that the early church simply stole the day, on the theory that, if people were going to celebrate the birth of a god, it might as well be the right one.
We can narrow down Jesus's birth year to roughly 7-4 BC, but the month and date are lost to us, were never recorded that we know of.

 

[Apodictic]

Anyone know the day?

March 8th, 0023 at 1:53:75 AM

Couldn't keep a straight face

We do not know for sure

But it really is not important

Have you never celebrated someone's birthday a day early? Or a special event some days before or after? I have. It does not diminish the thought.

 

[AV1611VET]

Anyone know the day?

I explain my pov very in-depth in this thread: 21 .

 

[heron]

If you look up information on the star of Bethlehem, you will find some very specific dating estimates. None conclude that December 25th was the date, but some say the arrival of the magi was close to that time. There are enough hints at the date due to Jewish holidays, planet convergence, locations of Herod and other events written about, that people tend to conclude it was September, between 3BC and 3 AD.

We could dig up links if you'd like, but it would probably be as quick if you did. Here's a start.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast16may_1.htm
http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/1203.html
http://www.mazzaroth.com/ChapterSix/TheStarOfBethlehem.htm
http://scicolloq.gsfc.nasa.gov/Molnar.htm