Answering Abhisek Joshi on Christmas Date issue by brother Shanta Tamang

 

#If it was to steal, it would have been much better, not December 25, but October 19-22

#Respond to Abhishek Joshi on his claim that, “Date of Christmas was taken from pagan culture, the date on which roman used to worship their sun god. Christmas is the attract on the religion of roman.

Usually, there are two theories when it comes to date Christmas.

1. History of Religions theory

2. Calculation theory

History of Religions theory – According to which how Christmas was created by church politics to take over a dangerous pagan of great significant.). ( strong proponent German philologist Hermann. Usener, 1893, two sources the first is scholiast to the Syriac author Bar Salibi) and Second from homily.

Problem: It is misleading and  possess problem. Usener  mistranslated “birthday of the sun god (polytheist religion)” while Syriac merely mentions ‘feast day of the rising of the sun(cosmic symbolic)’, he also presented the objective statement to the polemic one

Calculation Theory- according which Christmas date was based on the belief that Jesus was conceived on the Passover. Supporter uses these sources to show that Passover was an important date for making the beginning of Jesus’s life. (strong proponent, Thomas J.Tally ,Clement of Alexandria, Hippolytus, and Julius Africanus.

What is our earliest official source?

Early reference is in 336 CE in Depositio Martirum of the chronography of 356 , for both Sol Inviticus and birth of Christ.

As hijmans point outs the problem is we most fist establish what kind of solar feast was celebrated on December 25th, how old was it and what it means when we say that the feast was over taken by Christians?

SOL THE SUN in the ART AND RELIGIONS OF ROME- Stephen Hijmans

The calendar of 356 mentions the following three festivals of Sol;

1. August 28; Sol and Luna; 24 chariot races

2. October 19-22: ludi Solis, 36 chariot races; - not annual but a quadrennial celebration. there is direct evidence that in 274 AD aurelian instituted quadrennial agones in honour of Sol, and the calendar would seem to suggest that they were held from oct 19-22

3. December 25: Natalis Invictus, 30 chariot races; natalis means anniversary or celebration which can be use for emperor, gods and heroes and even events.

A feast day on the dec 25 is not mentioned until eighty years later, in the calendar of 354 and subsequently, in 362 Julian in his oration to king helios where he states the “the most magnificent agon” for Sol is celebrated at the end of the December right after the Saturnalia. But julian clearly considers the agon he ascribes to Numa to be unrelated to those quadrennial agones.

Closer look at the four ludi for sol entered in the calendar of 354 for oct 19 -22nd provides us with addition evidence that these must be the game instituted by Aurelian

Mouseion, 2003, SOL INVICTUS, THE WINTER SOLISTICE, AND THE ORIGINS OF CHRISTMAS by Steven Hijmans, …

” The question is whether they chose it because of or despite that pagan significant….it must be stressed, pace Usener, that December 25 was neither a longstanding nor an especially important official feast day of Sol. It is mentioned only in the calendar of 356 and as far as I can tell the suggestion that it was established by Aurelian cannot be proven. In fact, there is no firm evidence that this feast of Sol on December 25 antedates the feast of Christmas at all. The traditional feast days of sol as recorded in the early imperial fasti were august 8, august 9, august 28, and December 11”.

One must conclude that that in early fourth century A.D. any surveying the festivals in honor of sol would identify the period from October 19 to October 22 as far more important than December 25.

In roman empire the nature of sol is ambiguous…as an heavenly body, the sun was often used-together with Luna-as a cosmic symbol or allegory for eternity. The astronomical reality of the sun and the moon precluded such symbolism from being exclusively pagan …. the evidence suggests it was readily adopted by Christians. it was cosmic symbolism of this type which inspired the church leadership in Rome to elect the winter solstice, December 25 as the birth day of Christ and the summer solstice, June 25, as that of john the Baptist, supplemented the equinoxes as their respective dates of conception. While they were aware of that pagans celebrated a festival in honor of Sol Invictus on that day, this did not concern them, and it certainly did not play any role in their choice of date for Christmas.

Austrian Pyperologisy (2007) Hans Foster, attracts both HOR and CT. his view is that Christmas date emerged as the result of fourth-century holy land tourism.

EARLY CHRISTIAN CHRONOLOGY AND THE ORIGINS OF THE CHRISTMAS DATE, 2013, BY C. PHILIPP E. NOTHAFT

A chronological parallelism between the dates of Christ’s passion and birth could be justified by recourse to Jewish haggadic tradition, where important biblical figures were considered to have born and die on the same date, in particular at the time of Passover. Studies o Venance Grumel, August Strobel and others showed that chronographers and computists from this period repeatedly attempted to construct overarching chronological systems that agreed with the data provided nu lunisolar calendar cycles (used to calculate the date of Ester which also suiting their assumptions about the temporal dimensions of the history of the salvation.

Calculating December 25 as the birth of Jesus in Hippolytus’ canon and chronicon by Thomas C. Schmidt (2015)

argues that around 235 CE Hippolytus of Rome placed the birth of Jesus on the December 25 from Hippolytus’ canon and his chronicon. The canon makes the Passover as the conception of Jesus, a word which scholars have previously thought refers to birth. Secondly the article shows that in his chronicon he placed Jesus’ birth exactly nine months after the anniversary of the world’s creation. Calculations in his chronicon and canon indicates that Hippolytus thought the world was created on march 25 meaning that he likely believed that Jesus was born on December 25.

Julius africanus most likely also chose dec 25 in 221 using similar method …100 years before its explicit attestation in chronography 354.

Get the awesome answering video: Here

[Note: The short description and the video has been published here under the permission of the authority]  

About brother Shanta Tamang:

-Guitarist,Composer,Song Writer and Apologist(Science and Scripture,Evolution Theory,Historical Jesus)

-Guitar, Music Instructor and Apologist at Exodus Ministry

-Studies MA/Msc. Mathematics at Central Department of Mathematics Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal (T.U).

-Completed BTh from Nepal Korea International College