Posts from December 2021

Recent research, while not conclusive, points to 1 BC as the year of Jesus’ birth, not earlier as has been most commonly held. The following post is from Gene Edward Veith. “There have been many attempts throughout the centuries to ascertain exactly when Jesus was born. Researchers in Italy have offered a new approach to the question. Looking at the timing of Elizabeth’s pregnancy with John the Baptist, Jewish religious festivals, and some new astronomical data, they conclude that Jesus…

Luke 2:8, we read: ”And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.” You may have read or heard arguments that sheep are born in the spring, not the winter. But my own congregation members with sheep will strongly disagree with that notion. Here, January is the peak month. In Montana and some other places, late December is quite busy. The springtime lambing claim seems based on some European, American,…

The most loudly touted theory about the origins of the Christmas date(s) is that it was borrowed from pagan celebrations. The Romans had their mid-winter Saturnalia festival in late December; barbarian peoples of northern and western Europe kept holidays at similar times. To top it off, in 274 C.E., the Roman emperor Aurelian established a feast of the birth of Sol Invictus (the Unconquered Sun), on December 25. Christmas, the argument goes, is really a spin-off from these pagan solar…