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The truth is that when we look at actual historical documents they do in fact support a December birth. You may call the writings of a Christian theologian that date to within 100 years of the Apostles “meaningless” and toss it in the trash if that’s the way you treat historical documents, but...

My apologies for assuming you might find all this historical information interesting. I will confine my comments to just the facts, but at least I am presenting facts. So far, the only evidence given against Christmas is “you said somebody said that somebody said.” The priestly services during...

Thank you FHII, for a kind and thoughtful response. You didn’t comment on the Scriptural evidence. I would think that would be considered the most weighty. Jacob spent 20 years tending Laban’s flocks, and he speaks of being consumed by the drought during the day and the frost by night, so there...

The truth is always illuminating. If this is a subject you are interested in then bear with me, we have only just barely scratched the surface, there is a tremendous amount of information available to us that will shed ever more light on the nativity. In Christ, Pilgrimer

Look Suhar, I've got some downtime with the flu and I really don't want to waste it fending off your pointed arrows. I have been researching this issue of the historical evidence for the date of the nativity for over 20 years and I'm always willing to look at new or additional evidence. So if...

You mean you wouldn't know Jesus was a man if the Gospels had not recorded his birth? The multitudes of Jews knew he was a man, so did the Romans, and they didn't know the story of his birth. Mark and John didn't include it in their Gospels, do you think maybe they didn't know he was a man? The...

No Suhar, what is clear is that you cannot offer a shred of evidence that shepherds wouldn't be in the fields in December. If God didn't want Jesus' birth to be remembered, why did He include it in the Gospels? But enough of the spitting contest. What other problems do you have with the...

You were the one who said, "Shepherds are not with sheep on pastures in December," and I started with all the Scriptural evidence and then included historical information and even meterological data that proves what you said is simply not true. Your response should have been to offer your...

That's your response to someone who made an effort to treat you as a serious Bible student?

Pardon me if I take leave to doubt the accuracy of that report. There wouldn't be any "Israeli shepherds" in Bethlehem. Bethlehem is in the West Bank and under the control of the Palestinian Authority. If you want to talk with shepherds in the Bethlehem district you'll have to talk to...

I didn't say the Bible gives a date, or that a date was found inscribed on some ancient document. I said the "evidence" from all these sources "supports" the December 25 date. Whereas there is no actual historical or archaeological evidence to support those who proffer other dates. For example...

Well, first of course would be what the Gospel accounts of Jesus' birth actually record, but we also have to take into account all the Scriptural information that sets limits and parameters to the nativity account. Then there's the Jewish sources, primarily the Talmudic writings which go into...

The notion that 1st century Jews did not know or track the dates of their births is not true. Particularly for Jewish children, there are eight different names given to children to designate each year of the advancing stages of development of child life from birth (Chethub 60). But even more...

It is under the New Covenant that believers find rest in Christ. Under the Old Covenant the 7th day Sabbath, as well as dwelling in the promised land, were shadows and types of the rest that we now find in Christ. Because our race is not yet run, as Paul explains: “Take heed brethren, lest there...

My understanding is that for Christians Jesus is our Sabbath, our rest, as Jesus himself promised: "Come unto me ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest unto you soul." Paul also...

Perhaps you might try gently explaining to your nephew that, for children, the Gospel is beautifully expressed in the idea that their father so loves them that even while they lay wrapped in the darkness of slumber he was busy at work bringing them a joyous gift, wrapped in sheets of white, tied...

Hello Wormwood, I’m afraid I’ve lost track of exactly what you see as a problem with what I’m saying. So let me try again to narrow this down to my former point. The war that destroyed the nation of Israel and ended Old Covenant worship was not some random, unforeseen event. It was precisely...

I’m quite familiar with Saturnalia. It was one of the primary festivals of ancient Rome. Saturnalia was a holiday instituted in 217 B.C. to raise the morale of the Roman citizens after they suffered a crushing military defeat at the hands of the Cathaginians. The festival was celebrated for one...

That’s actually not true. There is no historical record, not an ancient document or letter or an archaeological inscription or artifact, that shows that any pagan religion celebrated anything on December 25 before Christianity. The Christian evidence for that date as the celebration of the feast...

It may seem that my responses are all over the map, but it’s because all these things, eschatology, the Law, Israel, 70 A.D., the war, OT prophecies, they all tell the same story, speak of the same things… the institution of the New Covenant … and the end of the Old Covenant. If you don’t...