This Is How Mythology Grows - Not History

[Minimalist]

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/dail...=ZE7ADTZ02

How December 25 Became Christmas

The Bible offers few clues: Celebrations of Jesus’ Nativity are not mentioned in the Gospels or Acts; the date is not given, not even the time of year. The biblical reference to shepherds tending their flocks at night when they hear the news of Jesus’ birth (Luke 2:8) might suggest the spring lambing season; in the cold month of December, on the other hand, sheep might well have been corralled. Yet most scholars would urge caution about extracting such a precise but incidental detail from a narrative whose focus is theological rather than calendrical.

The extrabiblical evidence from the first and second century is equally spare: There is no mention of birth celebrations in the writings of early Christian writers such as Irenaeus (c. 130–200) or Tertullian (c. 160–225). Origen of Alexandria (c. 165–264) goes so far as to mock Roman celebrations of birth anniversaries, dismissing them as “pagan” practices—a strong indication that Jesus’ birth was not marked with similar festivities at that place and time.1 As far as we can tell, Christmas was not celebrated at all at this point.

In any shitty fish story - the fish always gets bigger!

[ignoramus]

No wonder he turned water into wine himself.
No bastard would shout him a drink for his birthday.

[Minimalist]

Another of those "miracles" that the other 3 gospel bullshitters don't seem to know about.  I guess they were pretty much making it up as they went along by then.

[JackRussell]

Well it was Christmas, they were probably pissed.

[Secular Elf]

Yeah, you nailed it Min. The "Mass of Christ" was not officially celebrated/started until the Fourth Century CE.

[Wyrd of Gawd]

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/dail...=ZE7ADTZ02

How December 25 Became Christmas

The Bible offers few clues: Celebrations of Jesus’ Nativity are not mentioned in the Gospels or Acts; the date is not given, not even the time of year. The biblical reference to shepherds tending their flocks at night when they hear the news of Jesus’ birth (Luke 2:8) might suggest the spring lambing season; in the cold month of December, on the other hand, sheep might well have been corralled. Yet most scholars would urge caution about extracting such a precise but incidental detail from a narrative whose focus is theological rather than calendrical.

The extrabiblical evidence from the first and second century is equally spare: There is no mention of birth celebrations in the writings of early Christian writers such as Irenaeus (c. 130–200) or Tertullian (c. 160–225). Origen of Alexandria (c. 165–264) goes so far as to mock Roman celebrations of birth anniversaries, dismissing them as “pagan” practices—a strong indication that Jesus’ birth was not marked with similar festivities at that place and time.1 As far as we can tell, Christmas was not celebrated at all at this point.

In any shitty fish story - the fish always gets bigger!

The purpose of the wise men bringing gifts to baby Yeshua was to illustrate the sentence in the 4th Commandment about "And none shall appear before Me empty-handed."  By bringing gifts it showed that the guys recognized baby Yeshua as a living deity although they had no relationship to his family at all or to anyone in Bethlehem.  The current date of December 25 is irrelevant to the the fairy tale and totally meaningless.  

Today most people exchange gifts on December 25 as a way to maintain social bonding and not as a religious observance.   

If we followed biblical holidays we would be observing the Feast of Unleavened Bread (the 3rd Commandment) and the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Ingathering at the year's end (the 6th Commandment).  Then there's always the new moon festivals.

[Fireball]

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/dail...=ZE7ADTZ02



In any shitty fish story - the fish always gets bigger!

The purpose of the wise men bringing gifts to baby Yeshua was to illustrate the sentence in the 4th Commandment about "And none shall appear before Me empty-handed."  By bringing gifts it showed that the guys recognized baby Yeshua as a living deity although they had no relationship to his family at all or to anyone in Bethlehem.  The current date of December 25 is irrelevant to the the fairy tale and totally meaningless.  

Today most people exchange gifts on December 25 as a way to maintain social bonding and not as a religious observance.   

If we followed biblical holidays we would be observing the Feast of Unleavened Bread (the 3rd Commandment) and the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Ingathering at the year's end (the 6th Commandment).  Then there's always the new moon festivals.

Which version of that fiction are you using?

3rd Commandment- "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain"

4th Commandment- "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy" 

6th Commandment- "Thou shalt not kill"

[Minimalist]

I was wondering about that, too.  But then, there are so many variants of that happy horseshit that he could well have found another.

[GUBU]

The purpose of the wise men bringing gifts to baby Yeshua was to illustrate the sentence in the 4th Commandment about "And none shall appear before Me empty-handed."  By bringing gifts it showed that the guys recognized baby Yeshua as a living deity although they had no relationship to his family at all or to anyone in Bethlehem.  The current date of December 25 is irrelevant to the the fairy tale and totally meaningless.  

Today most people exchange gifts on December 25 as a way to maintain social bonding and not as a religious observance.   

If we followed biblical holidays we would be observing the Feast of Unleavened Bread (the 3rd Commandment) and the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Ingathering at the year's end (the 6th Commandment).  Then there's always the new moon festivals.

Which version of that fiction are you using?

3rd Commandment- "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain"

4th Commandment- "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy" 

6th Commandment- "Thou shalt not kill"

WoG is right, what christians consider the ten commandments aren't the real commandments. The real ones are what bible "scholars" call the ritual decalogue, which contains ten actual commandments, mostly about how to worship yhwh but also condoning the mass murder of non yhwh worshipping neighbours and taking their wives and daughters as sex slaves.

[vulcanlogician]

WoG is right, what christians consider the ten commandments aren't the real commandments. The real ones are what bible "scholars" call the ritual decalogue, which contains ten actual commandments, mostly about how to worship yhwh but also condoning the mass murder of non yhwh worshipping neighbours and taking their wives and daughters as sex slaves.

Yeah. And correct me if I'm wrong but the ten commandments that the fundies want to post everywhere aren't the ones which made it into the arc of the covenant. The bizarre ones (concerning boiling a goat in its own mother's milk etc.) are the ones with nazi face-melting powers. I'm not sure, but I think this is the case.


In case anyone is unfamiliar, here is a link:

http://fayfreethinkers.com/tracts/tencommandments.shtml

Here is the replacement set, identified as the "ten command-ments," which Moses was given the second time around. (Exodus 34:14)

1. Thou shalt worship no other god.
   
   
2. Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.
   
   
3. The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep.
   
   
4. Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day rest.
   
   
5. Thou shalt observe the feast of weeks.
   
   
6. Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord God.
   
   
7. Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven.
   
   
8. Neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left until the morning.
   
   
9. The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the Lord thy God.
   
   
10. Thou shalt not seeth a kid in his mother's milk.