When was Jesus born?

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15 Oct 2023, 10:07 am

Thats not what I wanted to ask really because I don't give a f*ck.

My question is: why do people give a sh*t about when Jesus was born?

Why does it it matter so much to people?

I lived in a house where I didn't even know when my own siblings birthdays were.

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Honey69
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15 Oct 2023, 10:19 am

https://www.indiatoday.in/information/s ... 2021-12-25

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blitzkrieg
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15 Oct 2023, 1:45 pm

babybird wrote:

If people believe Jesus is/was the son of God, an almighty God at that, which people are dependent upon to go to a favorable destination in any afterlife that might occur, then people might be interested in the birthday of Jesus simply because he is a person of interest, to persons of religious faith, i.e, Christians.

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15 Oct 2023, 1:59 pm

blitzkrieg wrote:

Except that the more one studies him (for example, to pin down an actual birth date, and other details) the less one becomes a "person of religious faith." A "person of religious faith" will simply go with whatever the church tells him.

Now, if it is true that Joseph dragged Mary, who was about to give birth, from Nazareth in Galilee, all the way to Bethlehem in Judea, to enroll in a Roman census (which most likely never would have happened), then Jesus would have most likely not been born during December.

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naturalplastic
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15 Oct 2023, 2:00 pm

I dont know if you mean "when" on the calander? This birth DAY.

Or when "in history"? His birth YEAR.

In the US we celebrate the Birthdays of presidents and other figures like MLK Jr. So why not make a holiday out of ...son of god? So thats why they make a holiday out his supposed birthday on December twenty fifth.

The early Church agreed upon his birth year as being what is now the year one AD. AD meaning "annio Domini" (the year of our lord). The Vatican decreed that we all should start counting from Christ's birth. So thats why this year is 2023. Its two thousand and 23 years after the supposed birth year of Christ. Modern historians think Christ was born four years "before Christ"...or thats the most likely date. We just dont know fer sure.

In the Muslim calander its only something like the year 1327 because they start their counting from the life of Mohammed...six and half centuries after Christ.

In contrast the Jews start counting the years from...Creation itself...or when Creation happened according to the Bible. So the Jewish year is high up in the 5000s..

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15 Oct 2023, 2:03 pm

When I was a Christian, I didn't care about when he was born. It didn't seem to matter that much. According to Christian theology, Jesus was alive before his birth anyway, so yeah, I didn't get why it mattered in all honesty.

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blitzkrieg
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15 Oct 2023, 2:08 pm

Honey69 wrote:

blitzkrieg wrote:

I think my post sufficiently demonstrates why people would be interested in Jesus and his birth date.

I am not making any claims as to the validity of Jesus as a theological symbol or his relevancy to people at large.

I understand that there are plenty of non-Christians and I also know that there are many historical points of contention regarding Jesus & his life, which is to be expected since the history is fairly old now.

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15 Oct 2023, 2:11 pm

naturalplastic wrote:

I meant on the calendar.

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envirozentinel
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15 Oct 2023, 2:19 pm

It probably wasn't on a freezing midwinter night as so poetically described in several well known Christmas carols.

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15 Oct 2023, 2:24 pm

Isn't it the case that Christians chose the date to try and absorb the existing Roman festival of Saturnalia and other traditional celebrations around the winter solstice? Successfully, if so.

I believe in early Christianity, Easter was the big one as far as celebrations went.

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15 Oct 2023, 2:27 pm

DuckHairback wrote:

Isn't it the case that Christians chose the date to try and absorb the existing Roman festival of Saturnalia and other traditional celebrations around the winter solstice? Successfully, if so.

Yep, that’s true. JWs don’t celebrate Christmas for this reason. They think it’s “pagan.”

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15 Oct 2023, 2:47 pm

I bet people didn't even bother with birthdays at all in those days.

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15 Oct 2023, 2:56 pm

babybird wrote:

I bet people didn't even bother with birthdays at all in those days.

They were celebrated back then. King Herrod had John the Baptist beheaded on his birthday.

Quote:

On Herod's birthday, Herodias' daughter (whom Josephus identifies as Salome) danced before the king and his guests. Her dancing pleased Herod so much that in his drunkenness he promised to give her anything she desired, up to half of his kingdom. When Salome asked her mother what she should request, she was told to ask for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Although Herod was appalled by the request, he reluctantly agreed and had John executed by beheading in the prison.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beheadi ... he_Baptist

No mention is ever made of celebrating Jesus’s birthday in the Bible, though, except when he was born. Jesus instructed his apostles to celebrate the Passover, but that’s it.

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15 Oct 2023, 10:22 pm

Due to the differences between the Jewish lunar calendar and the Gregorian calendar (the one we use), it is likely Jesus was born in May or June.

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