Every last one of us leaves our mark on history. Whether youre a follower or not, the historic figure of Jesus Christ is inarguably one of the latter.
One of the widest-used calendars in the world today– the Gregorian Calendar– is timed from the birth of this person. It separates history into 2 big parts: B.C., “prior to Christ”, and A.D., “anno Domini”, loosely suggesting “year of the Lord”. When we move in between the 2, the birth of Jesus must clearly be.
Image credits Greg Montani.
At least, thats the theory. But its not that easy. Some historians think that Jesus was actually born in the year 6 AD, based on the writings of the Roman historian Tacitus. Others argue that Jesus was born earlier, possibly as early as the year 7 BC. To the very best of our knowledge, Jesus wasnt born on what we consider to be the 1st anno Domini. With that in mind, though, “the very best of our understanding” on this topic is rather muddy. Roll up your sleeves and lets dive right into it.
Lets get something directly first: it wasnt on Christmas day
This is also probably where we get the custom of presents during Christmas. Romans exchanged gifts with their friends for Saturnalia, although they were either small figures or gag products, and there most definitely werent any trees included.
So we already know the birth date is most likely off, although we do not know by just how much. The thing to keep in mind here is that the texts which make up books such as the gospel werent composed while Jesus was around, by individuals who were around him. They were composed a long time after– frequently, an extremely long time after– by people working primarily off hearsay. Its not a criticism on their part, its just the item of a day when writing was still a rare ability, and par for the course of the time.
They were preserved by individuals, and individuals are both imperfect and biased. Were likewise talking about thousands of years here, so there was probably a lot of failing and biased habits included. The dates are not as essential as the message, as far as they are concerned.
In the case of Rome, the end of December marked the start of Saturnalia. This was a celebration in honor of their god of the harvest (Saturn) and lasted in between the 23rd and 17th, roughly. Symbolically speaking, this was an excellent celebration to try and associate yourself with, as it was customary for everyone to enjoy flexibility during this time, so social standards would be laxer, even disposed of altogether. Well, to be more particular, Saturnalia saw an inversion of ones fate.
Many ancient individuals aligned their celebrations with significant natural events, such as the solstice. What is pertinent, nevertheless, is that by changing dates around a bit, Christian customizeds would better reflect the pagan ones they were contending against. It felt less like a totally brand-new event, and more of an upgraded, reskinned event– and, so, much easier to accept.
The Christmas date origin topic is way wider than I have a taste to enter into here, but the Washington Post has a good breakdown of it here.
In the Roman Empire, the biggest single neighborhood that Christianity was trying to enter into at that time, both of these issues were at work at the exact same time
This product was likewise heavily curated, modified, tweaked, and cleaned up by (most likely) well-meaning however (in my opinion) exceptionally prejudiced and damaging individuals as Christianity developed into a mainstream religious beliefs. It was a continuous process, not a single event, as many people who looked for power through faith desired a bible that would fit their narrative better than those of others.
Part of the problem is that Jesus wasnt born well-known, so nobody in fact bothered to tape the precise date. Theres likewise the issue that our current dating system was not even developed yet when it took place, and corresponding dates in between systems is imperfect at finest.
What we do understand is that at some point Christianity was an underdog of religious beliefs. People who were much better off were likewise careful of it, as embracing a brand-new faith would typically come with a social expense.
“Saturnalia” sculpture by Ernesto Biondi, in Buenos Aires. Looks like an enjoyable event.
Not exactly on time.
Slaveowners, for instance, would dress, feed, and captivate their slaves like they would a pal. The servants, in turn, might tell their masters their complaints during this time without worry of reprisal. It was an event suggested to reset your karma, so to speak. Gambling was likewise permitted on Saturnalia, and carnivals were common. In the grand scheme of things, someone celebrating Christmas would probably stick out far less throughout Saturnalia than any other time of the year.
Obviously, none of this really shows that Christmas was moved around the calendar to make it more tasty to pagans. Its extremely most likely that it was, due to the fact that were seeing too lots of coincidences. Additional evidence that the 25th of December date isnt true to the historical date of Jesus birth is that the Orthodox Church in the Byzantine half of the Roman Empire set the date of Christmas at January 6th. If one church can alter the date, why could not another?
For starters, although most Christians commemorate the birth of Jesus at Christmas (25th December), were quite sure thats not actually when it occurred. It was not till the 4th century that the Church of Rome acknowledged December 25 as the date to commemorate the birth of the Messiah. And it did so understanding well that there were no historical or biblical reasons to position Christs birth on that day.
When was Jesus born?
However, there are some premises to believe that Herod in fact passed away around the year 1 B.C., which would put Jesuss birth around the year 3 B.C.
It also loosely fits with the Aemilius Secundus engraving, a tablet found 300 years earlier in Beirut, Lebanon, which tells of a census purchased by Quirinius, the guv of Syria, in 12 B.C., according to biblical scholar Jim Fleming. This census is mentioned in the texts, although different gospels disagree on whether Jesus was born prior to or after it.
Since we cant yet understand for sure exactly when it took place, this small incongruency will need to stick around for a bit longer. With that being said, our calendars are made so useful concerns like historic occasions or yearly tax records can be kept in an arranged style that future generations will still have the ability to use, should they need it. We believe of years as either prior to or after Christ, they are mainly a sequential tool, not a doctrinal one.
Reasonable Theology makes a worthy effort of approximating the birth date of Jesus drawing mainly from scripture here (its a quite fascinating read). Im not that knowledgeable about whatever going on in the bible, so Ill need to take their word for it, however the conclusion they draw from a number of passages is that Jesus was born sometime between 6 and 5 B.C. This, once again, fits with the previous evaluation and is a bit more trusted as it ties occasions going on in the story to historic figures such as Emperor Caesar Augustus and Governor Publius Sulpicius Quirinius, which are somewhat well-anchored in history.
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All things thought about, we can approximate with some certainty that Jesus was born between 6 and 4 B.C., and with less certainty that it happened a couple of years later on. Everyone is quite positive that he– ironically– was not born in the first year of the lord.
. The story likewise holds that Jesus birth was declared by a star– the Star of Bethlehem. It has been proposed that this star was really a slow-moving comet, one that Chinese observers recorded around 5 B.C. This fits well with our previous estimation, which is a plus, however it also generally come down to “hey these two events fit so they might be the very same”. This isnt necessarily an incorrect conclusion, but it certainly isnt proof.
One of the first attempts in this regard was to date the birth of Jesus using the figure of Herod the Great, a puppet ruler selected by the Romans to supervise order in Judea. In the bible, right after Herod dies, the brand-new ruler of Judea orders all male babies under 2 years of ages in the Bethlehem region (where Jesus was born) to be killed. The bright side here is that we have a rough timeline for when Herod passed away: around 4 B.C. The bad news is that thats not a reliable date by any stretch and that the rest of the story appears to be made up. Still, if we take these at stated value, Jesus was most likely born between the years 6 and 4 B.C
While spiritual texts arent reliable as direct sources, they do provide beneficial context. Context which we can then bash against what we understand from historic records and archeological digs to hopefully come to the reality.
Whether youre a believer or not, the historical figure of Jesus Christ is inarguably one of the latter. Part of the problem is that Jesus wasnt born popular, so no one actually bothered to tape-record the exact date. Further proof that the 25th of December date isnt real to the historic date of Jesus birth is that the Orthodox Church in the Byzantine half of the Roman Empire set the date of Christmas at January 6th. One of the first attempts in this regard was to date the birth of Jesus utilizing the figure of Herod the Great, a puppet ruler appointed by the Romans to oversee order in Judea. Still, if we take these at face value, Jesus was likely born between the years 6 and 4 B.C