25 Christmas Myths and What the Bible Says (Myths 1 & 2)

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Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't, when we understand the text is an online

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Bible ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty. From now through Christmas, Pastor Gabriel Hughes will be introducing chapters from his latest book, 25

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Christmas Myths and What the Bible Says. Coming this month through our website www .tt

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.com in print, e -book and audio formats. With another Christmas myth, here's

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Pastor Gabe. Myth number one, Jesus was born on December 25th.

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Christmas is an annual holiday commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, the

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Son of God and promised Messiah, who came into our world as a baby born in Bethlehem over 2 ,000 years ago.

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Every year on December 25th, billions of people around the globe celebrate

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Christmas with worship, music, gifts, food, decor, lights, stories, and festivities.

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No other holiday, not even among the seasonal solstices and equinoxes, is as woven into so many cultures or endeared to so many people as Christmas Day.

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Christmas comes with many fond memories for me and my family. Perhaps it does for you as well.

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But not everything is peace on earth and goodwill towards men. The commercialization of Christmas can suck the joy right out of things.

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For some, the holidays are a time of stress, anxiety, and depression. The beauty of the gospel in the

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Christmas story has been shrouded by myth, legend, and paganism. Meanwhile, cynics clamor every year to defrock

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Christmas of its religious heritage and make the season more secular. Indeed, Christmas has its share of scrooges, grinches, and hereds, but no one can change the fact that Christmas has been and will continue to be a

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Christian tradition for generations. We live in a fallen world. Not all was calm and bright that first Christmas either, which we'll consider further as we open the scriptures and examine the specifics of the birth of Christ.

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Just because Christmas Day is a celebration of the birth of Jesus, that doesn't mean Jesus was born on that day.

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How December 25th became the birth date of Jesus is difficult to trace, but it did not come from the

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Bible. The scriptures do not tell us on exactly what day Jesus was born. Only two of the four gospels detail events around his birth, and there is no mention in the rest of the

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New Testament of anyone celebrating his birthday. The earliest church writers like Irenaeus, 130 -200

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AD, and Tertullian, 160 -225 AD, made no comment on an official observance of Christ's birth.

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In fact, Origen of Alexandria, 165 -264, mocked the idea of celebrating birthdays at all.

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He wrote, Of all the holy people in the scriptures, no one is recorded to have kept a feast or held a great banquet on his birthday.

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It is only sinners like Pharaoh and Herod who make great rejoicings over the day on which they were born into this world below.

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The most widely accepted theory is that the Roman Emperor Constantine Christianized an existing pagan holiday.

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In 274 AD, Emperor Aurelian chose December 25th as the birth date of Sol Invictus, the

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Roman sun god. But then, in 336 AD, Emperor Constantine changed

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December 25th into the birth date of Jesus Christ. No longer a celebration of the birth of the sun, it became a celebration of the birth of the sun.

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Get it? But that's a Christmas myth in itself. As repeated as it is, there's no proof

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Constantine was the one who chose December 25th as the birth date of Jesus. No one seems to question why

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Aurelian chose that date as the birth date of the sun. The winter solstice was on December 21st, the day the sun died according to pagan tradition.

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Aurelian may have thought of the sun being dead for three days, the 22nd, 23rd, and 24th, and then it came back to life on the 25th.

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Now where would he get that idea from? About 40 years before Aurelian dedicated his temple to the

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Roman sun god, Hippolytus of Rome, 170 -235 AD, wrote in a commentary on Daniel 4 .23

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that he believed Jesus was born on December 25th, before Hippolytus, Clement of Alexandria, 150 -215

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AD, believed Jesus was born on January 6th. December 25th would eventually win out as the popular date of Christ's birth, while January 6th would become known as Epiphany, a celebration of the day the

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Magi visited the Christ child. The 12 days between these two dates is where the traditional 12 days of Christmas come from.

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After Jesus died on the cross for our sins, he was buried in a tomb before coming back to life three days later.

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Is that where Aurelian got his idea for the death and resurrection of his sun god?

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I'm not saying it is or isn't. What I will say is this. If one wants to make the argument that a celebration of Christ's birth was meant to replace a pagan holiday, one could just as easily make the argument that a pagan holiday was meant to replace a day remembering

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Christ's birth. The Christian belief that December 25th is the birthday of Jesus precedes any pagan belief that December 25th was the birthday of a false god.

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Perhaps this answers the question of how December 25th became the accepted day of the birth of Christ, but it still doesn't mean we know on what actual day he was born.

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I'm afraid that's an answer we'll probably never know with any certainty this side of heaven. However, it's unlikely that he was born on December 25th or January 6th.

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Sorry, Hippo and Clem. In Luke 2, 8 -14, we read the following, And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night.

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And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.

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And the angel said to them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

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For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the

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Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.

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And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

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Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.

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Luke 2, 8 is enough to suggest that Jesus was not born in winter.

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First of all, the shepherds were out in the field. Shepherds took their flocks out to the field after the wheat and barley had been harvested, which would have been from late spring to before late autumn.

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The sheep and goats would eat the grain that had fallen to the harvest floor and also any extra grass or cut stalks.

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The fields would then be plowed and planted for the next year's crop. Secondly, the shepherds were keeping watch over their flock by night.

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Only in summer, also known as the dry season, were sheep pastured in the fields. Flocks grazed closer to home during the wet season, which went from November to March.

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At night, the sheep and goats were brought in and separated out into folds and pens where they would be protected from predators.

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So when was Jesus born? Likely sometime between March and October. What year was he born?

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The year zero, right? After all, the Gregorian calendar system that we use today separates eras into B .C.

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or those years that happened before Christ and A .D. or Anno Domini, which is

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Latin for in the year of our Lord, not after death as often assumed. Therefore, Jesus would have had to have been born in the year zero and everything before that happened before Christ.

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Well, there isn't a year zero. The calendar rolls over from 1 B .C. to 1

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A .D., which is why some calendar purists argue that the 21st century officially began in the year 2001, not in the year 2000.

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Anno Domini was devised in the year 525 by Dionysius Exigus, a

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Scythian monk who lived in Rome. Until he came up with this dating label, calendar years were identified by naming whatever

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Roman consul held office in the year referenced. When Dionysius first used

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Anno Domini, he was trying to avoid naming years marked by emperors who persecuted Christians, particularly

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Diocletian. It wasn't until the 8th century that this caught on when the venerable

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Bedi used Anno Domini in his work Ecclesiastical History of the English People. The Gregorian calendar system officially replaced the

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Julian calendar system in 1582 under Pope Gregory XIII. Unfortunately, Dionysius wasn't trying to be terribly precise with his dating.

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He was just trying to avoid using Diocletian's name. Anno Domini happens to be a few years off, and it's unlikely that Jesus was born in 1

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B .C. or A .D. In Matthew 2, when the Magi came to visit

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Jesus, Herod the Great was king in Jerusalem. The common belief is that Herod's reign began in 37

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B .C. until he died in 4 B .C., this according to the Jewish historian Josephus. Therefore, Jesus could not have been born in 1

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B .C., for that would have been three years after Herod's death. Rather, Jesus may have been born in 6

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B .C., since he would have been about two years of age at the time the Magi arrived in Bethlehem.

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We'll consider more about these dates and events later. No matter the discrepancies, it's amazing to consider that the most widely used calendar system in the world is based around the life of Jesus Christ.

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After all, Philippians 2 .9 says that God has bestowed on him the name that is above every name.

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Secularists have attempted to stifle the truth by changing B .C. and A .D. to B .C

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.E. and C .E., which stands for Before the Common Era and Common Era, respectively.

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This is nothing but semantics. It still doesn't change the fact that the very year in which we live was calculated according to the time it is understood that Jesus came to earth.

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Or as John 1 .14 puts it, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

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No event in the history of the world has been more important than the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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A reminder of his first coming is commemorated on your calendar every year.

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Christmas Day, December 25th. Christmas Myth 2.

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Mary wasn't married when she became pregnant. In Luke 2 .28 -38,

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God sent the angel Gabriel to a city of Galilee named Nazareth to appear to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was

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Joseph of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. Gabriel said to Mary, Greetings, O favored one, the

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Lord is with you. But Mary was stricken with fear. The angel said,

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Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name

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Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the

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Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

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Mary replied to the angel, How will this be, since I am a virgin? And the angel answered her,

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The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

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Therefore the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God. One of the most famous Christmas songs, if not one of the most famous of any song in the world, is

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Silent Night. Every Christmas it is sung the world over, Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright, round yon virgin, mother and child, holy infant, so tender and mild.

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Surely everyone who has heard of Christmas also knows the story of the Virgin Mary who gave birth to the baby

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Jesus. Since Mary was a virgin when she was found to be with child, she couldn't possibly have been married, right?

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After all, if Mary and Joseph were married, they would have already consummated their relationship and she wouldn't have been a virgin.

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But Mary and Joseph were married, and had not yet consummated their marriage, or as it is often joked,

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Joseph had not yet known his wife biblically. In fact, when it became known that Mary was pregnant,

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Joseph wanted to divorce her. Here is what we read in Matthew 1, 18 -25.

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Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the

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Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

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But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying,

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Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the

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Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you will call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

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All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name

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Immanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the

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Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name

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Jesus. The misunderstanding related to Mary's status as betrothed is a cultural misunderstanding.

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In our modern Western society, marriage is often preceded by engagement. While a marriage is legally binding, an engagement is not.

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One or both parties may break up an engagement at any time without much fuss, where the law is concerned anyway.

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The word betrothed is not terribly common in our culture. If and when we refer to the betrothed, it's often in the context of an engagement, and it can apply to either a man or a woman.

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A fiancée might refer to her fiancé as her betrothed, and that means they are promised to be married.

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She's got a ring, they've made the announcement, they've sent out save -the -date cards ahead of the invitations, then there are the invitations themselves.

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Showers, parties, photo shoots, the caterer has been booked, the venue has been scheduled, colors have been selected, dresses tried on, china pattern chosen, stores registered.

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Lots of money will probably be spent. But the couple is still not legally obligated to one another, until the wedding happens and the marriage license has been signed and issued.

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In a first -century Jewish culture, more emphasis was put on the marriage than the wedding.

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If a woman was betrothed, she was legally bound to a man as his wife.

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She spent that betrothal period learning how to be a wife, and he spent that time establishing his livelihood and preparing a house in which to raise a family.

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The marriage would not be consummated – to put it bluntly, sex was not involved – until after the wedding, and the wife moved into the home her husband had prepared.

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Arranged marriages were common. A father could give a daughter to be married with or without her consent.

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Between Joseph and Mary, likely they caught one another's eye. He expressed to Mary a desire to be wed, and Mary told her father that she wanted to be

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Joseph's wife. Joseph met with Mary's father, some exchange of promises or goods took place, and Mary was legally promised to Joseph and no other.

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They were, for all intents and purposes, married. Now, lest you think

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Mary was regarded as property or subjected to some indentured joyless servitude, she loved

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Joseph, and she wanted to be his wife. This was an exciting time for a young woman, likely between 14 and 17 years of age.

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During her betrothal, which would have lasted about a year, Mary may have lived with Joseph's family and worked with the other married women, learning how to be a wife and raise children.

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According to the tradition of that time, a man chose a bride from within his own tribe, so their two families were related by lineage, and they were close.

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Joseph practiced the trade of his father, which we know to be carpentry. We might think of a carpenter as someone who builds with wood, but in 1st century

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Palestine that would have included any local building material, whether wood, stone, or metal.

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Every town had a master builder who would supervise all of the building projects for that community and surrounding villages.

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Joseph assumed that responsibility from his father, and Jesus would have worked that job as well.

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In Mark 6, 3, in his hometown of Nazareth, Jesus is called the carpenter.

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As was the custom for all bridegrooms, Joseph had the responsibility for preparing a home for his bride, while Mary was learning to tend to her household.

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Included in this preparation was the setting of a room where Joseph and Mary would consummate their marriage, and these two persons from different families would become one flesh, forming one new family.

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Jesus referenced this custom with his disciples, using wedding language to describe his relationship with his followers.

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In my father's house are many rooms, he said. If it were not so, would

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I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you,

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I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also.

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John 14, 4 -3 Even now the church is described as the bride of Christ, and Christ as our bridegroom.

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Our union with Christ has not been consummated, which doesn't happen until Christ returns and receives his own.

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In Revelation 19, 7 we read, Let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory, for the marriage of the

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Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Then we will all gather at what's referred to as the marriage supper of the

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Lamb, described in Revelation 19, 6 -10. We are, in this moment,

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Christ's betrothed. We are his bride, legally promised to Christ, sealed by a covenant, though we have not yet come into the dwelling place that he is preparing for us.

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So this was the case also with Joseph and Mary. At the time Mary became with child, she was married to Joseph, though their union had not yet been consummated.

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Again Matthew 1, 19 reads, And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

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Here Joseph is described as her husband, and to separate from Mary would have been to divorce her.

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He would have given her a certificate of divorce, breaking their marriage covenant. Under the law, unfaithfulness was a permissible reason for divorce.

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Joseph knew he wasn't the father of the child she was expecting, so logically he believed she had to have been unfaithful.

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Being a just man, he wanted to keep the law of God, so he resolved to divorce

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Mary, and decided to do so quietly. He knew that if she had been unfaithful, the law was already on his side.

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There was no reason to justify himself further by making a spectacle of her. But an angel spoke to him in a dream, and said,

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Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the

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Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

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Of course, we know that Joseph decided to remain married to Mary, but he never knew her biblically until after Jesus was born.

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Joseph was a strong man, several years older than Mary, and more than able to take care of his young virgin wife and the

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Christ child, a marriage that God the Father had so providentially arranged.

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This has been When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. Find all our resources online at www .wutt

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.com. On behalf of our church family, my name is Becky, thanking you for listening.