It's been a few days since anyone has posted on this thread, so I thought I'd mention a couple of things regarding Christ's birthday...
Nowhere in the bible is the day or the month of Jesus' birth mentioned, but it is possible to get an idea of the year of the nativity.
Matthew (2:1) says Jesus was born while Herod was king of Judea and since Herod ruled from 37BC to 4BC it had to be sometime during that period - many Christians have decided that 6BC is the most likely year.
Luke (2:2) however, says that Jesus was born at the time of the census when Quirinius was Governor of Syria - and the historical record shows that this occurred in 6AD.
But when we get to Luke (3:1-23) we are told that Jesus was about thirty years old when he was baptised by John in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius. That 15th year was 29AD which means that Jesus was born in about 1BC.
And over in John (8:57) the Jews refer to Jesus as "not yet fifty". It's a vague statement, but they are surely referring to someone over forty and possibly closer to forty-five, which suggests that he may have been born as early as 15BC.
That's what the bible says.
Me? I think the whole Jesus story is a myth.
Nowhere in the bible is the day or the month of Jesus' birth mentioned, but it is possible to get an idea of the year of the nativity.
Matthew (2:1) says Jesus was born while Herod was king of Judea and since Herod ruled from 37BC to 4BC it had to be sometime during that period - many Christians have decided that 6BC is the most likely year.
Luke (2:2) however, says that Jesus was born at the time of the census when Quirinius was Governor of Syria - and the historical record shows that this occurred in 6AD.
But when we get to Luke (3:1-23) we are told that Jesus was about thirty years old when he was baptised by John in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius. That 15th year was 29AD which means that Jesus was born in about 1BC.
And over in John (8:57) the Jews refer to Jesus as "not yet fifty". It's a vague statement, but they are surely referring to someone over forty and possibly closer to forty-five, which suggests that he may have been born as early as 15BC.
That's what the bible says.
Me? I think the whole Jesus story is a myth.
