Good morning on this Saturday, December 8th. The genuine Christmas scene as recorded in the Bible is considerably different from the Christmas scenes depicted in modern manger scenes and most of today's Christmas plays. For those of you who are Christmas sentimentalists I will now provide a spoiler alert to hide the children (maybe I need to hide myself also after this article). Here are some important differences highlighting the fact and fiction of the events associated with Christ's birth.
December 25th, the day we traditionally celebrate the birth of Christ, is probably not the actual date of Christ's birth. It is unlikely Christ was born in December because the Bible reports that the angels appeared unto the shepherds announcing His birth "While shepherds were abiding in the fields watching over their flock by night" (Luke 2:8). Shepherds did not usually abide in the field by night during the cold of December. The birth of Christ has been identified with any and every month of the year by various scholars and the exact date is unknown, although it was likely before December 25th.
Biblical Archeology Review reports that the earliest writing associating the birth of Christ with the date of December 25th was from a mid-fourth-century Roman almanac. The early-church father's writings do not associate the December 25th date with Christ's birth. Two prominent theories have emerged about why December 25th was chosen as the traditional Christmas date. The first suggests that a pagan holiday was "Christianized" and adapted to become a celebration of Christ's birth. The second was that upon the calculation of the date of Christ's death, and working backward through the various events of Christ's life, the December 25th date was set. But I remind you that some of the intermediate dates are quite suspect making the results of the process potentially flawed. One thing we know for sure is that if God would have wanted us to be certain of the exact date, He would have made certain that we knew. Perhaps God did not want the remembrance of His Son's birth to become too "commercialized" or "perfunctory" as many would argue it has become today.
The Wise Men did not come to the manger scene. Scripture says they came to the house and saw the young child (Matthew 2;9-11). Scholars place the time of their arrival somewhere between days after Christ's birth up to two years later.
We do not know how many Wise Men there were. The tradition of three Wise Men came from the number of the gifts they brought, i.e., gold, frankincense, and myrrh. It was assumed that if there were three gifts there must have been three men but that may be incorrect. Two men could have brought three gifts or four or more men could have brought three gifts. Their number is speculation and nothing more.
Christmas trees became associated with the celebration of Christmas in Germany in the 16th century. Martin Luther is credited with first placing candles to light the Christmas tree to simulate the beauty of the moonlight on the outdoor trees at night.
These are some of the major discrepancies between the Biblical account and modern tradition. But we must always remember to make Christ the center of our Christmas celebrations and traditions. All of the surrounding Christmas traditions are nice but we are celebrating the Savior's birth, and all that it represents, not the carols, gifts, trees, lights or bells. Christmas is about CHRIST!
So there are no misunderstandings, I celebrate Christmas with all the usual traditions, decorated Christmas tree, lights, exchanging of gifts, eggnog, mistletoe (only with Barb), feasting and all the trimmings, but if these supersede Christ in Christmas, we are missing what Christmas is really all about.
I hope to see you in church tomorrow and every service during this Christmas season.
Mel Brown
