Bible
scholars and researchers have revealed that Jesus Christ was not
actually born on the 25th of December as popularly thought.
Scholars have revealed that Jesus was not actually born on the 25th of December
Although millions of people celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on
Dec. 25, most scholars agree that he wasn't born on that day, or even in
the year 1 A.D.
Researchers believe the Roman Catholic Church settled on Dec. 25
for many reasons, such as that date's ties to the winter solstice and
Saturnalia, a festival dedicated to the Roman deity Saturn. By choosing
this day to celebrate Jesus' birthday, the church could co-opt the
popular pagan festival, as well as the winter celebrations of other
pagan religions.
But nobody really knows exactly when Jesus was born.
Some scholars think that he was born between 6 B.C. and 4 B.C.,
based partly on the biblical story of Herod the Great. Not long before
Herod's demise, which is believed to have occurred in 4 B.C., the ruler
of Judea supposedly ordered the death of all male infants who were under
the age of two and lived in the vicinity of Bethlehem, in an attempt to
kill Jesus.
But historians disagree about Herod's actual year of death. What's
more, the horrific mass infanticide is legend, not fact, Reza Aslan, a
biblical scholar and author of "Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of
Nazareth" (Random House, 2013), told PolicyMic.
To pinpoint Jesus' birth year, other scholars have tried to
correlate the "Star of Bethlehem," which supposedly heralded Jesus'
birth, with actual astronomical events. For example, in a 1991 article
in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, astronomer
Colin Humphreys proposed that the fabled star was actually a slow-moving
comet, which Chinese observers recorded in 5 B.C.
Scholars also debate the month of Jesus' birth. In 2008, astronomer
Dave Reneke argued that Jesus was born in the summer. The Star of
Bethlehem, Reneke told New Scientist, may have been Venus and Jupiter
coming together to form a bright light in the sky. Using computer
models, Reneke determined that this rare event occurred on June 17, in
the year 2 B.C.
Other researchers have claimed that a similar conjunction, one
between Saturn and Jupiter, occurred in October of 7 B.C., making Jesus
an autumn baby.
Theologians have also suggested that Jesus was born in the spring,
based on the biblical narrative that shepherds were watching over their
flocks in the fields on the night of Jesus' birth — something they would
have done in the spring, not the winter.
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
No comments:
Post a Comment