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Dispelling Myths of Christ's Birth and Childhood By Mario Seiglie How did December 25th come to be celebrated as the date of Christ's birth? Over the years, many legends have sprung up about Christ's birth and childhood. What does the Bible say about these events?
hat do we know about Jesus Christ's birth and early childhood? Today, some 2,000 years later, many myths surround the early childhood of Jesus Christ. One fable claims Jesus learned to do miracles from Egyptian magicians when His family fled to Egypt. Another describes the young Jesus making pigeons of clay and impressing other children by making them come to life. Also, millions believe He was born on December 25 and that He never had brothers and sisters. Jesus Christ embodied truth. Shouldn't His followers, then, also insist on accepting only what is true? Didn't He say: "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free"? (John 8:31-32, emphasis added throughout). The Scriptures provide facts that dispel myths and errors that have crept into the history of His childhood. By reviewing biblical prophecies and the four accounts of Jesus' early years, we can separate truth from error. A birth predicted 700 years in advance Prophecies predicted the manner, place and approximate date of Jesus' birth. Some 700 years before the birth of Christ, God challenged King Ahaz to ask for a sign or miracle so God could prove His greatness. When Ahaz refused to ask for a sign, the Lord spoke to him, saying:
In the New Testament, this prophecy was fulfilled with the birth of Jesus. "So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 'Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,' which translated, 'God with us' " (Matthew 1:22-23). Time and place of birth predicted Not only was the manner of his birth predicted, but also the place. Four hundred years before Jesus' birth, God inspired the prophet Micah to announce: "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting" (Micah 5:2). Was it evident that this was a prophecy of the birthplace of the Messiah? When King Herod heard the wise men were searching for the recently born Jesus, he asked the Jewish religious leaders where the Messiah was to be born. The priests and scribes quoted the same verse from the book of Micah and said, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet." (Matthew 2:5-6)
Even the time of Jesus' birth was roughly known through another prophecy. God had told Daniel by way of an angel: "Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until [the coming of the] Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks . . ." (Daniel 9:25). Therefore there would be 69 prophetic "weeks" from the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem to the appearance of the Messiah. Actually, in the original Hebrew, the text does not say 70 "weeks" but 70 "sevens", which can mean 70 groups of seven days, weeks or years. John Walvoord discusses this prophecy in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: "Daniel was first informed that God's program would be consummated in 70 'sevens.' Since Daniel had been thinking of God's program in terms of years (v. 1; cf. Jer. 25:11-12; 2 Chron. 36:21), it would be most natural for him to understand these 'sevens' as years. Whereas people today think in units of tens (e.g. decades), Daniel's people thought in terms of sevens (heptads) . . . Seventy 'sevens' then, is a span of 490 years" (Logos Software, 1996). Although there were several decrees issued by Persian kings concerning the rebuilding of Jerusalem, when fitted into this prophecy most would bring us close to the time of the appearance of Jesus Christ, either of His birth or of His ministry. Without going into detail, the main point here is that during Christ's lifetime there was an expectation among the Jews of the coming of the Messiah (Matthew 11:2-3; Luke 3:15; John 1:40-41). Expectation of the coming Messiah Josephus, a first-century Jewish historian, mentions the Jews had the belief that "about that time one from their country should become governor of the habitable earth" (Wars of the Jews, Book VI, Chapter V, Section 4). The Bible speaks of this expectation of the Messiah in Christ's time: "And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel [the fulfillment of the Hebrew prophecies about the Messiah], and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it has been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. So he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law, he took Him up in his arms and blessed God . . ." (Luke 2:25-27).
Even the learned Romans had heard of the Jewish prophecies of the coming Messiah, for they applied them to one of their rulers--a contemporary of Jesus, Caesar Augustus! Suetonius, a Roman historian, tells us how the Romans turned the prophecies upside-down: "There had spread over all the Orient an old and established belief, that it was fated at that time for men coming from Judea to rule the world. This prophecy, which refers to the emperor of Rome, the Jews applied to themselves" (Life of Vespasian, 4:5). Tacitus, another Roman historian, writes of the same belief that "there was a firm persuasion . . . that at this very time the East was to grow powerful, and rulers coming from Judea were to acquire a universal empire" (Histories, 5:13). It was no surprise, then, to note the expectation of some and the dismay of others when a group of wise men came to Jerusalem searching for the newly born Messiah. They asked, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him" (Matthew 2:1). The Jews were filled with hope, but also with apprehension, for they knew of Herod's ruthlessness when he felt any threat to his throne. This is precisely what later occurred with the massacre of the infants in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16). A prophecy continued The Jewish people were well aware that the last Old Testament prophet predicted the coming of the Messiah to the temple (Malachi 3-4). They also knew God would first send a messenger to prepare the way for the Messiah. "Behold, I will send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple" (Malachi 3:1). It is fitting then, that the first scene of the New Testament, chronologically speaking, opens with the description of that coming "messenger." This first scene is found in Luke 1 and is actually a continuation of Malachi 3-4! It begins with the priest Zacharias in that temple being told by an angel that he would father the very "messenger" (John the Baptist), who would prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah. The four Gospels begin where the Old Testament prophecies leave off, continuing and complementing them and showing their fulfillment in the events around Jesus Christ's coming. Importance of genealogies Other prophecies concerned the physical lineage of the Messiah. The official genealogies of Jewish ancestry were kept in the temple. These genealogies perished when the temple and the archives in Jerusalem were burned by the Romans in 70 A.D. Since it was prophesied that the Messiah would descend from Abraham and David (Genesis 12:1-7; Jeremiah 33:15), it was necessary for anyone who claimed to be the Messiah to be able to verify his ancestry through these official genealogical records. If he was of Abrahamic descent, this confirmed his religious, hereditary and biological rights. If not, he was considered a Gentile and wasn't regarded as part of the Israelite nation or of its inheritance. So in Jesus' time, if one claimed to be the Messiah, he would have to prove through his genealogy that he descended from Abraham and David. To prove this was the case for Jesus, His genealogies are placed at the beginning of Matthew (Joseph's genealogy) and in Luke 3 (Mary's genealogy) for all to see and verify. The Bible Knowledge Commentary points out: "Matthew's genealogy answered the important question a Jew would rightfully ask about anyone who claimed to be King of the Jews. Is He a descendant of David through the rightful line of succession? Matthew answered yes!" (Logos Software, 1996). Once the official genealogical records were destroyed in 70 A.D., there was no way to confirm if one who claimed to be the Messiah was descended from David. Now no Jew can officially prove that he is descended from Abraham and King David. The birth date of Jesus It is remarkable that while the manner, place and genealogy of Jesus are carefully described in the opening chapters of Matthew and John, none of the Gospel writers mentions the date--or even the month--of His birth. There is no recorded celebration of the birth of Christ for the first four centuries. The first recorded "Christ mass" was not observed until several hundred years after the birth of Christ. Cambridge historian Henry Chadwick explains when and why December 25 was chosen to celebrate the birth of Jesus: "Moreover, early in the fourth century there begins in the West . . . the celebration of December 25th, the birthday of the Sun-god at the winter solstice, as the date for the nativity of Christ" (The Early Church, 1967, p. 126). Gerard and Patricia del Re explain: ". . . The tradition of celebrating December 25 as Christ's birthday came to the Romans from Persia. Mithra, the Persian god of light and sacred contracts, was born out of a rock on December 25. Rome was famous for its flirtations with strange gods and cults, and in the third century [274] the unchristian emperor Aurelian established the festival of Dies Invicti Solis, the Day of the Invincible Sun, on December 25. "Mithra was an embodiment of the sun, so this period of its rebirth was a major day in Mithraism, which had become Rome's latest official religion with the patronage of Aurelian. It is believed that the emperor Constantine adhered to Mithraism up to the time of his conversion to Christianity. He was probably instrumental in seeing that the major feast of his old religion was carried over to his new faith" (The Christmas Almanac, 1979, p. 17). The origins of Christmas cannot be traced back to either the teachings or practices of the earliest Christians. The biblical Holy Days of Jesus and the apostles were neglected by later religious leaders who instituted a new set of holidays in their place. Jesus not born in December The Bible records two circumstances relating to Christ's birth that show that December--or any time during the winter season--was a highly unlikely time for Christ's birth. These were the Roman census that took place at the time of His birth and the fact that shepherds were in the fields at night. The Romans periodically conducted a census for taxation and military recruitment purposes. In the book Holy-Days and Holidays, author Cunningham Geikie explains: "This census could hardly have been at that [winter] season, however, for such a time would surely not have been chosen by the authorities for a public enrollment, which necessitated the population traveling from all parts to their natal districts, storms and rain making journeys both unsafe and unpleasant in winter, except in specially favorable years."
Flight to Egypt Sometime after the birth of Christ, Herod received the disquieting news about the birth from the wise men. Since Herod wanted to destroy Him, he waited impatiently for the men to return so he could find exactly where Jesus lived and have Him killed. But an angel warned the wise men not to return to Herod. "Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way. Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, 'Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.' When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod . . ." (Matthew 2:12-14). From this account, some popular books speculate the young Jesus might have learned His miracles from the Egyptian magicians. Yet a careful reading of the text shows Jesus was only in Egypt a short time during his infancy--"until the death of Herod." A comparison of Roman and Jewish historical records and the Bible shows that Herod died within months or at most a year or two of the birth of Jesus. What did Joseph do when he heard of Herod's death? The Bible explains: "Now when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, 'Arise, take the young Child and His mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the young Child's life are dead.' Then he arose, took the young Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel . . . and dwelt in a city called Nazareth" (Matthew 2:19-21,23). We see that Christ was only in Egypt for only a short time during the first years of His life, and He could not have learned from any Egyptian magicians. Christ's childhood years Some point out there is little information in the Gospels about the childhood years of Christ. This is perfectly understandable. The focus of the Gospels is primarily on His ministry beginning at 30. Yet, there is more information in the Bible about His youth than first meets the eye. For instance, we know during his youth Jesus kept Israel's religious feasts every year with his family. "His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when He was 12 years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast" (Luke 3:41-42). We also know Jesus lived most of his life up to the age of 30 in the environs of Nazareth. "So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read" (Luke 4:16).
Some have tried to say these brothers and sisters of Jesus were only "cousins" in order to claim that Jesus was an only child and Mary, through a special method of childbirth, remained a perpetual virgin. Yet the Greek term used here is the normal word for "brother," adelphos, whereas the Greek term for cousin, anepsios, is not used here (though it is used elsewhere in the New Testament, in Colossians 4:10.) The New Testament writers had a specific Greek word for "cousin" if this were the case, but instead they used the term for a physical brother. Other references to the physical "brethren of the Lord" are:(Matthew 12:46-47; John 2:12; 7:3-5; 1 Corinthians 9:5 and Galatians 1:19). As for the supposed virginity of Mary after having given birth to Jesus, both Matthew 1:25 and Luke 2:7 call Jesus her "firstborn Son" (prototokos). They do not use the term "only child" or "only son" (monogenes), although the term for an only son is used elsewhere in the Gospels (Luke 7:12). Clearly, the use of "firstborn Son" to describe Jesus means that other children were later born to Mary. Facts or fiction? Another persistent myth tells of Christ doing miracles as a child. This goes back to legends told of Him during the first centuries. Yet this contradicts the biblical account, for we read in John that the first miracle done by Jesus was turning the water into wine in the wedding feast in Cana. "This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed Him" (John 2:11). If Christ would have performed miracles before this time, under the inspiration of God, John could not have written that the miracle at Cana was the first sign or miracle performed by Jesus Christ. There is sufficient information in the Gospels to dispel the myths that have crept into the extra-biblical accounts of Christ's life through the centuries. Most of His life in the Gospels deals with His ministry, because this was the time of His public teaching. His early life is briefly mentioned to confirm how He fulfilled prophecies about the Messiah and to establish the background for His all-important ministry. One of the responsibilities of a Christian is to believe and faithfully transmit biblical teachings in all their purity and to avoid all falsehoods. It is important to have the record straight about Christ's life. It is the only way we can follow the biblical principle, "no lie is of the truth" (1 John 2:21). Copyright 1999 by United Church of God, an International Association All rights reserved. |
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