When was Jesus's actual birthday?
The date of birth of Jesus is not stated in the gospels or in any historical sources, but most biblical scholars generally accept a date of birth between 6 BC and 4 BC, the year in which King Herod died.
Although most Christians celebrate December 25 as the birthday of Jesus Christ, few in the first two Christian centuries claimed any knowledge of the exact day or year in which he was born.
December 25 was first identified as the date of Jesus' birth by Sextus Julius Africanus in 221 and later became the universally accepted date.
“The real reason for the selection of Dec. 25 seems to have been that it is exactly nine months after March 25, the traditional date of Jesus' crucifixion. … As Christians developed the theological idea that Jesus was conceived and crucified on the same date, they set the date of his birth nine months later.”
"Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel." "And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins."
Matthew 2:1–2
1 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, 2 Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.
The first official mention of December 25 as a holiday honoring Jesus' birthday appears in an early Roman calendar from AD 336. The celebration of Christmas spread throughout the Western world over the next several centuries, but many Christians continued to view Epiphany and Easter as more important.
The origins of Christmas stem from both the pagan and Roman cultures. The Romans actually celebrated two holidays in the month of December. The first was Saturnalia, which was a two-week festival honoring their god of agriculture Saturn. On December 25th, they celebrated the birth of Mithra, their sun god.
There are approximately 172,000 babies born on Christmas Day. Fewer babies are born on Christmas day making a Christmas birthday a very special birthday. Usually, on average about 220 000 babies are born each day but on Christmas day only about 172 000 babies are born.
Jesus' name in Hebrew was “Yeshua” which translates to English as Joshua.
What was Christmas originally called?
Christmas owes its roots to the ancient Roman holiday of Saturnalia, which was a pagan festival which was celebrated from December 17-25 each year. This custom was altered and absorbed into Christmas, and this allowed early Christians to gradually erase these old pagan holidays.
Dec. 25 is not the date mentioned in the Bible as the day of Jesus's birth; the Bible is actually silent on the day or the time of year when Mary was said to have given birth to him in Bethlehem. The earliest Christians did not celebrate his birth.
Millions of Christians do not observe Christmas. Among them are Quakers, Jehovah's Witnesses, and members of the Churches of Christ. Some of the half-dozen Christian faiths that do no celebrate Dec. 25 contend there is nothing in the Bible that says Christ was born on that day.
The earliest mention of 25 December as Jesus' date of birth comes from a mid-fourth century Roman almanac that lists the dates of death of various Christian bishops and martyrs. The first date listed, 25 December, is marked: natus Christus in Betleem Judaea: Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea.
Deuteronomy 16:21 says:
All in all, whether you put up a Christmas tree or not, the worship should always be about the Lord and nothing else. If that is your driving force, whether or not you put up a tree is solely up to you.
Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. He came to this earth to die willing for our sins on the cross.
The New Testament contains two Christmas stories, not one. They appear in Matthew 1–2 and Luke 1–2.
The events surrounding Jesus' birth are taken from two Gospels: Matthew and Luke. Each book was written during different times and in different locations.
“But Jesus wasn't born in a stable, and, curiously, the New Testament hardly even hints that this might have been the case.”
By God's grace, we have been able to prove both from the Bible and history that Jesus Christ was born in the month of October and not December, as is being claimed by many Christians.
Who decided Christmas should be on December 25?
The church in Rome began formally celebrating Christmas on December 25 in 336, during the reign of the emperor Constantine. As Constantine had made Christianity the effective religion of the empire, some have speculated that choosing this date had the political motive of weakening the established pagan celebrations.
Pope Julius I was the bishop of Rome from 6 February 337 to his death on 12 April 352. He is notable for asserting the authority of the pope over the Arian Eastern bishops, as well as setting December 25 as the official birthdate of Jesus.
Christians celebrate Christmas Day as the anniversary of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, a spiritual leader whose teachings form the basis of their religion.
In fact, when Civil War cartoonist Thomas Nast drew Santa Claus for Harper's Weekly in 1862, Santa was a small elflike figure who supported the Union. Nast continued to draw Santa for 30 years, changing the color of his coat from tan to the red he's known for today.
St Augustine of Canterbury was the person who probably started the widespread celebration of Christmas in large parts of England by introducing Christianity to the regions run by the Anglo-Saxons in the 6th century (other Celtic parts of Britain were already Christian but there aren't many documents about if or how ...
In Western astrology, December is considered the season of prosperity and success, according to Comen, so a Christmas baby is supposedly more likely to be quite career-driven.
December 25 (Christmas Day) is the least common birthday, while January 1 (New Year's Day) is the second least common.
Depending on the year and place, between 30% and 40% fewer babies are born on Dec. 25 than on the peak day of the year. One reason why these days have so few births is almost no cesarean births are scheduled by doctors to happen on public holidays or weekends. About one in three American babies are born this way.
He may have stood about 5-ft. -5-in. (166 cm) tall, the average man's height at the time.
Verse 56 mentions that Jesus had sisters. The sisters are not named, but since the word is plural there were at least two of them. John 7:5 tells us his brothers didn't believe in Jesus, and all three synoptic gospels tell of a time when his mother and brothers came to speak with Jesus.
What language did Jesus speak?
Most religious scholars and historians agree with Pope Francis that the historical Jesus principally spoke a Galilean dialect of Aramaic. Through trade, invasions and conquest, the Aramaic language had spread far afield by the 7th century B.C., and would become the lingua franca in much of the Middle East.
From ancient times, the season that we now know as Christmas was a midwinter celebration called The Winter Solstice, or Yule. A pagan festival, The Winter Solstice was a time to celebrate the fact that the worst of winter was over, and the people could look forward to longer days with more sunlight in the near future.
Much earlier, the American cartoonist Thomas Nast fashioned Santa Claus's image on the pages of the American magazine Harper's Weekly. The character of Santa Claus is believed to descend from Bishop Nicholas of Myra, who lived in the 4th century.
The first Christmas ban was in 1644, as it coincided with Parliament's monthly day of prayer & fasting in the hope of bringing about an end to the war, and a specific ordinance was passed to emphasise this. Church services were not to be carried out that day.
Nobody knows, but it may have been the result of “a calculation based on an assumed date of crucifixion of April 6 coupled with the ancient belief that prophets died on the same day as their conception,” according to religionfacts.com. By the mid-fourth century, the birthday celebration had been moved to Dec. 25.
There are the same traditions as ours here on Earth, such as decorating pine trees with ornaments and lights, exchanging gifts among friends and family members, and singing classic songs created for the season.” “Christmas is also celebrated in heaven on December 25 in the presence of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.”
Jehovah's Witnesses do not celebrate most holidays or events that honour people who aren't Jesus. That includes birthdays, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day and Hallowe'en. They also don't celebrate religious holidays such as Christmas and Easter in the belief that these customs have pagan origins.
They saw Christmas as a wasteful festival that threatened Christian beliefs and encouraged immoral activities, to (in Stubbs' words) the 'great dishonour of God'.
To be clear, the Bible does not explicitly specify the precise date of Jesus's crucifixion and it is not an essential salvation truth.
Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. It is celebrated by the majority of Christians. The Roman Christian historian Sextus Julius Africanus dated Jesus's conception to March 25, which, after 9 months, is December 25. Hence, the birth date was decided.
How old was Jesus when Joseph died?
Although born in Bethlehem, according to Matthew and Luke, Jesus was a Galilean from Nazareth, a village near Sepphoris, one of the two major cities of Galilee (Tiberias was the other). He was born to Joseph and Mary sometime between 6 bce and shortly before the death of Herod the Great (Matthew 2; Luke 1:5) in 4 bce.
As the Christmas season approaches, the image of Jesus' birth in the manger — complete with Mary and Joseph kneeling over the infant, the three wise men, an angel and the animals looking on — will be seen everywhere. But research reveals that there was most likely someone else in the background. A midwife.
Of course, Jesus was a Jew. He was born of a Jewish mother, in Galilee, a Jewish part of the world. All of his friends, associates, colleagues, disciples, all of them were Jews. He regularly worshipped in Jewish communal worship, what we call synagogues.
Birth of Jesus
From the age at which Jewish maidens became marriageable, it is possible that Mary gave birth to her son when she was about thirteen or fourteen years of age.
We often refer to Jesus as Jesus Christ, and some people assume that Christ is Jesus's last name. But Christ is actually a title, not a last name. So if Christ isn't a last name, what was Jesus's last name? The answer is Jesus didn't have a formal last name or surname like we do today.
After Jesus' death, the most controversy around Mary Magdalene's life would unfold. In all four Gospels, she is the first to witness Jesus after his resurrection. Believed to be the Jesus' favorite by the apostles, Mary is asked to reveal secret teachings given to her by Jesus while consoling the apostles.
Bethlehem lies 10 kilometres south of the city of Jerusalem, in the fertile limestone hill country of the Holy Land. Since at least the 2nd century AD people have believed that the place where the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, now stands is where Jesus was born.
Christianity. According to the American publication, the Orthodox Study Bible, 777 represents the threefold perfection of the Trinity.
Dec. 25 is not the date mentioned in the Bible as the day of Jesus's birth; the Bible is actually silent on the day or the time of year when Mary was said to have given birth to him in Bethlehem. The earliest Christians did not celebrate his birth.
Who was the first person to see Jesus when he was born?
The Shepherds and Angels. Why were the Shepherds the first people to find out about the birth of Jesus? And what an amazing way they found out about it!
Conventional Christianity has mostly held that there is just one baby Jesus depicted in the Bible.
The Gospels speak of a time of solitude for Jesus in the desert immediately after his baptism by John. Driven by the Spirit into the desert, Jesus remains there for forty days without eating; he lives among wild beasts, and angels minister to him.