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Actually, that is not true. Quite the opposite, in fact, according to what history actually recorded, and you can look up these old records, they no longer belong exclusively to the narrow world of the academics. In 361, a new Emperor came to power, Julian, called "the Apostate" because of his...

Excellent post! And to add a bit more: Rabbinic law required that pens for cattle and sheep could not be kept close to a city, especially not the Holy City. If you have ever been anywhere near a stockyard, you can well understand why! And we are talking about tens of thousands of animals that...

It's not true that birthdays were not celebrated in the Bible, they just weren't called "birthdays." But the various stages of a child's development each had a specific name in Hebrew and were in fact celebrated by families, usually in the Biblical mode of celebrating, which is with a feast. The...

Actually, what Jeremiah, and many other passages in the Bible are speaking of here, has nothing to do with Christmas trees. These were the middle eastern version of "totem poles," (the word Asherim literally means "poles" and are called by archaeologists "pillar figurines"). They were lengths of...

I often hear this criticism of both Christmas and Easter, and while it is of course true that worship under the New Covenant lies not in observance of commandments prescribing the form and ritual that worship must take, the fact is that those who worship the Father and the Son in spirit and in...

I won't address the actual record of the early church, since I provided that information in the previous post, but it's not true that December 25 was ever celebrated by pagans. The winter solstice actually occurs on December 22/23, not December 25. The actual Biblical and historical evidence...

Hello. I am a New Testament historian and would like to offer a bit of history about Christmas and its origins. The claim that the Christian observance of Christmas on December 25 was some adoption of a pagan festival is not true nor does it have any actual historical support, and in fact runs...

"As often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death until he come." There are only two observances Christians are required to keep: The one above, the Lord's Supper, Communion, the Eucharist, Mass, whatever term you want to use, it is a public confession of faith...

The Gospels are not simply storytelling. They are the historical record of the birth of Jesus "in those days," so yes, they are chronological and recount events as they occurred. In fact, Luke states in the opening of his Gospel that his purpose was "to set forth in order a declaration of those...

An old photo of Bethlehem taken on Christmas Day c. 1898. The shepherd in the foreground is looking south toward Bethlehem on the ridge in the background. The valley between is the "Shepherd's Field," the pastures where in New Testament times Temple Shepherds kept watch over the flocks and...

Shalom aleikem, I understand and appreciate that you and I are talking about something completely different than what I am discussing with Ronald Nolette. But it was the claims about Christmas and Easter being “adoptions of paganism” that I encountered 35 years ago that led me to study New...

Ah, but that's just it, perhaps there are more things that can be proven with a reasonable amount of certainty than you realize, and even some things that can be proven with a very high degree of certainty. For example, this notion that the birth of Jesus was not celebrated until the 4th century...

As to your comments about where in Egypt the Holy Family may have traveled, of course it is not known with certainty. But it is doubtful that they would have just stepped across the border into Egypt and stopped in the middle of what was “the wilderness” of Sinai, the barren “wasteland,” without...

Well of course we are “making claims” to try to fill in the gaps where the Gospels are silent. That’s what historical reconstruction means, establishing a chronology based on, first and foremost, what the Scriptures actually say, and secondarily, on verifiable historical evidence based on all...

Shalom aleikem, mah shlomcha? For the most part I agree with your chronology, but I believe there may be a couple of issues. The first is, you say the accounts of the nativity take place over a 45-day period, which means all these things were accomplished by February 8. However, Herod did not...

Understood. Not everyone is equally interested in New Testament History and Archaeology. But I'm not so sure the explanation you are holding to is so much the traditional explanation as it is the popular explanation. The historical explanation is a December 25, 5 B.C. birth and the death of...

If you look carefully at the way Matthew’s account is worded, Herod did not ask when was the child born, but rather, the text of Matthew says, Herod asked them “ekribosen par auton ton chronon tou phainomenou asteros” (inquired exactly of them the time of the appearing star). So what Herod...

I would have been happy to provide documentation to substantiate my comments. In Christ, Pilgrimer

I'm not forgetting about Daniel, in fact it was most likely from his writings and influence that Zoroastrianism became the only other monotheistic religion in the region, and most likely why Eastern Astronomer/Priests would interpret the rare and very significant conjunction of Saturn and...