December 25, Jesus, and the Lambs

If you are like me, you have grown up with the notion that we celebrate the birth of Jesus on what once was a Pagan holiday. It is common to hear that Christians “baptized” pagan festivities. While there is evidence for this in later Christianity, there is nothing to demonstrate it as the model in earlier days.

Did Christmas Replace Saturnalia?

One theory regarding pagan festivities is that December 25 was chosen to replace a festival called Saturnalia, the festival of Saturn. The main claim for this seems to be the nearness of Saturnalia to Christmas. The dates do not appear to work for this, though. Saturnalia fell somewhere between December 17 and 23rd each year. Christmas is not within that timeframe. If the goal is to replace an existing celebration, why place it after the celebration is over?

Another objection is the nature of Saturnalia. According to Father Dwight Longenecker, the roots of Saturnalia “are in the old, ‘Let’s sacrifice some of our kids to appease the god so he’ll make our crops grow’ type of paganism”. It seems an odd choice to celebrate the birth of our King.

Or the Sun God Sol?

If December 25 was chosen to appeal to pagans, there is a better choice. There was, in fact, a pagan festival on December 25, celebrating the birthday of the Roman sun god, Sol. This one seems like a reasonably good comparison. It even commemorated “the coming of the light and victory over darkness“.

It seems to make sense to suggest that this is where Christmas came from. There is one significant problem with that theory, though. The first historical record of Pagans celebrating the Nativity of Sol Invictusis, also known as “Birthday of the Unconquered Sun”, is dated 354 A.D. This was well after Christians had chosen that day to observe the birth of Christ.

According to Taylor Marshall:

The date of December 25th only became the “Birthday of the Unconquered Sun” under the Emperor Julian the Apostate. Julian the Apostate had been a Christian but who had apostatized and returned to Roman paganism. History reveals that it was the hateful former Christian Emperor that erected a pagan holiday on December 25.

Father Longenecker and others bring up another objection to the pagan replacement theory. The first Christians rejected all forms of paganism. As Longenecker states, “That’s why the early Christians would not offer so much as one grain of incense to the pagan gods.”

The Birthing Season

Even if December 25 does not replace pagan celebrations, many point to Scripture as proof that Jesus was not born on December 25.  After all, Scripture proclaims shepherds were in the fields that night. Several sources claim that this would point to a spring birth for Jesus. They argue that it is children and teenagers that stay with the flocks except during the birthing season. Shepherds then keep watch in order to be able to dry off and warm the newborn lambs. These sources generally proclaim that lambs are born in spring.

It turns out lambs are born throughout the year. The time of birth depends on location.  Rebecca Salazar says this:

The Awassi sheep is a desert sheep, a fat-tailed breed that has existed in the Middle East for an estimated 5,000 years. It is the only indigenous breed of sheep in Israel. They are raised for wool, meat, and milk. Awassi sheep breed in the summer and drop lambs in the winter, when there is sufficient pasture for the ewes in milk. In Israel, the principal lambing season is December through January.

While this does not prove a December 25 birth, it does lend credence to our Savior being born in winter.

Evidence for December 25

Is there evidence for December 25? Some proclaim there is, and it comes from Scripture. Taylor Marshall argues that we can figure out when John the Baptist was born by using Scripture, starting with John 1:5 (NAB). From there, we can calculate the birth of Jesus. Of course, he and others who use the same method make some presumptions. For example, they calculate Mary’s pregnancy was exactly 9 months from her conception.

There is more to consider, though. It seems the early Church placed the birth of Jesus on December 25. Catholic Straight Answers says this:

St. Theophilus (AD 115-181), bishop of Caesarea, stated, “We ought to celebrate the birthday of Our Lord on what day soever the 25th of December shall happen.” St. Hippolytus (170-240) mentioned in his Commentary on Daniel that the birth of Christ occurred Dec. 25.

Those give us early dating for a December 25 birthday. There is a reason this timing is important. While Scripture doesn’t explicitly give a date, we know that the first Christians would be interested in everything about Jesus. They certainly talked to Mary about Him. Mary would know the date of her Son’s birth. Catholic Straight Answers reminds us:

Pope Benedict in his book Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives noted this very point: “Luke indicates from time to time that Mary, the Mother of Jesus, is herself one of his sources, especially when he says in 2:51 that ‘His mother kept all these things in her heart’ (cf. also 2:19) Only she could report the event of the Annunciation, for which there were no human witnesses.

Some will argue, of course, that it does not matter whether or not we know the specific day that Jesus was born. They would be right, in the sense that we can love and serve God without a specific date for the Incarnation. If knowing the date of Jesus’ birth was an issue important to salvation, it would be mentioned in Scripture.

Why Consider Christ’s Birth Date?

Yet, it is also not a worthless endeavor to consider when He was born. Joshua Gibbs gives us food for thought:

God wants us to know who gave birth to Christ (a fact which Scripture declares significant), the circumstances under which she gave birth to Christ (a fact which Scripture declares significant), the country where she gave birth, the kind of room in which she gave birth, the specific manner in which His birth was announced to Joseph (in a dream), to astrologers (by a star), to shepherds (in a manger)… Why would we assume the day on which He was born was not significant?

In looking into all of this, I have learned a lot. This information gives depth and meaning to the December 25th celebration for me. For example, now I know that Bethlehem was the place where Passover lambs were born and raised. Writing for The Stream, Father Longenecker tells us this:

So there, on the hills surrounding Bethlehem was a large farming community dedicated to the specialized task of breeding the huge number of lambs for the Passover sacrifice. Each December thousands of “Lambs of God” were born and set aside for the Spring sacrifice.

Considering this, Rebecca Salazar writes:

Of course Jesus, the Lamb of God, was born at the same time and in the same place as all of the Passover lambs.

Jesus, the Bread of Life, was born in a town whose name literally means “house of bread.” He was placed in a manger, a feeding trough. Given this level of detail, would He likely be born with all the Passover lambs?

As Rebecca Salzar says, of course.