Posted on 12/18/2015 6:39:27 AM PST by NRx
As we enter into December, approximately 2 billion people will prepare to celebrate Christmas, a holiday dedicated to the birth of Jesus. We will also enter into a time of internet debate over the origins of Christmas. Many will stake their claim on its alleged pagan roots, claiming that the story of Christmas and its celebration on December 25th is simply a copy of paganism. Indeed, a quick look at YouTube will demonstrate just how popular it is to make videos pontificating on this subject. For many, it is an attempt to discredit a major world religion. On the other hand, one can find some videos made by Christians who think the majority of Christians are wrong and committing idolatry. One may even find videos of Muslim scholars utilizing the supposed pagan origins of Christmas to discredit Christianity. A more careful look at the history of Christmas, however, shows that Christmas was not a copy of a pagan holiday.
The strongest theory suggesting that Christians began Christmas celebrations in order to take over a major pagan holiday (allegedly dedicated to the Unconquered Sun) comes from Hermann Usener, who published his case in 1889. Yet, Usener’s theory is not the only one around. Gerald Massey (also in the 1800s) claimed Christians copied Egyptian mythology surrounding the Egyptian god Horus. There are problems with both of these theories and an honest look at each can help point us in the right historical direction.
Massey claimed Horus was born of a virgin and baptized in a river by Anup the Baptizer, who was later beheaded but there are a few problems with this. First off, what Egyptians believed and celebrated about Horus changed over time and it is only somewhat recently that archaeological evidence has allowed us access to all of this. Early Christians wouldn’t have had access to all the variations in order to try to make up what Massey claimed. Second, what we do know about the creation story of Horus is a very, very long stretch from what Massey said anyhow. Horus’ mother was a goddess (Isis) whose husband (Osiris) had been killed by Seth (the desert god) and then dismembered. Isis gathered Osiris’ body parts (here we have the mythological support for the practice of mummification) and revived him just long enough for the two of them to conceive Horus. This may be an improbable conception, but with overtones of divine necrophilia, it’s not at all what Christians claim about Mary when they speak of her conceiving while yet a virgin. As for Anup, there’s simply no evidence he ever existed. He’s made up. A few later scholars attempted to link Massey’s claim to the Egyptian god Anub. There are a few hieroglyphs that claim Anub washed the pharaoh prior to coronation, but there is no evidence this was put into any kind of practice, as it would require someone to stand in for the god Anub. Even if it had, it certainly would not be a baptism as Jews or Christians have understood it.
Usener’s theory, unlike Massey’s, has one possible piece of supporting evidence. We have a ninth century copy of a calendar document from Rome from the year 354. This document notes that 30 chariot races were to be celebrated in order to honor the birth of “Invictus,†which is normally taken to be a reference to the Unconquered Sun. This document is taken to “prove†that Christian began copying a pre-existing pagan holiday on December 25th, but in actuality, it is not proof that Christmas began being celebrated on December 25th around the year 354 in order to copy a pagan holiday. Other earlier sources give different dates dedicated to the Unconquered Sun (in August, October, and one day in December, on the 11th, not the 25th). Furthermore, pagans had begun to use chariot races rather than altar sacrifices beginning only in the 320s. This means both the date of December 25th and means of celebrating (chariot races) were recent developments. Therefore, it’s more likely that the holiday calendar from 354 actually shows a pagan reaction to a Christian holiday. Rather than showing that Christians decided to celebrate Christmas on December 25th only because a pagan god was celebrated that same day, the evidence suggests pagans likely began celebrating a pagan god on December 25th because Christians were already celebrating Jesus’ birth on that day.
So why December 25th then? Well, because of something called the liturgical calendar. Early Christians tended to assume that Jesus was born and died at the same time (normally dated March 25th). They counted an even nine months out and came to December 25th as the day he was born. It is, in fact, that simple. Now, this is not without pagan parallels. Pagans likewise believed that the acts of gods and the lives of heroes lined up. During the second and third centuries it was not only the Christians who were focused on calendars and computing holidays. Pagans were also very much into it. It was a part of society’s fabric.
So, in conclusion, what can we say about Christianity’s alleged pagan origins? Well, we can say that both Christians and pagans were a product of their time by being concerned with calendars and computing holidays and dates. What we cannot say is that Christians borrowed a story of a virgin birth from ancient Egyptian religion. Nor can we say that Christians began to observe December 25th as Jesus’ birth in order to copy (or even take over) a pagan festival. When Christians celebrate Christmas, they do so in order to celebrate the birth of Jesus, whom they believe was born from Mary, who remained a virgin. There is no evidence early Christians thought they were celebrating the birth of a pagan god. An honest look at the history of the holiday might not be as controversial as many YouTubers would have you believe, but it can help Christians and non-Christians alike better appreciate Christmas. In a season dedicated to someone called the “Prince of Peace,†(Jesus), that’s a healthier place to be anyhow.
The shocking truth is that egg nog isn t in the Bible, yet Christians continue to drink it at Christmas time.
Yes, but how do you penalize a chariot racer for "taunting"?
One of my confirmation class church history recollections (dim after so many years) is that the early Christians might have wanted to use a pagan festival as cover. If the date was approximate anyhow, it was prudent during the era of the underground church to wait until the jpagans were lining up for their roast goose and Yorkshire pudding, and blend in with the crowd.
As best I understand, these objections are based in the legacy of how the early historical church evangelized pagan societies. The church suggested different meanings for the symbols that were important to the pagans. These were generally accepted, and the result was that both the church and the new converts celebrated in this manner.
It worked so well that hardly anyone of the common people remembers the old pagan deities. And thus it could stay such until the end of history, except for people who bring the old deities back to mind for various reasons, either because they are anti-Christian and want to mock a weak version of Christianity back, or because they believe they have the “only correct style.”
Now as a rascally evangelical I have to say that sometimes the historical church went too far and invented doctrines that the scriptures don’t show any way of getting to — i.e. not new witnesses to old truths like most of the “Christmas” symbols are, but new claims to truth as it were. But this really is an independent topic of concern. It is so easy to lump together everything you hate about a situation and then just damn it. That’s not illuminated from Christ. That is darkened from pride. Christ looks for something to move forward with, even amidst the darkest situation. Our pride says we refuse to bear with the flaws while this is going on. Our pride says that Christ can’t be more powerful than hypothetical opportunities for evil.
My $0.02 and Christians may differ and I understand that they do. But what I have said is where I believe the heart of Christ is.
It’s understandable how that could happen, but frankly to me that represents a Christian society that was diminishing in its boldness.
If you aren’t pushing through Christ, then you will find the world, flesh, and devil pushing you. Does not for a moment mean you aren’t destined to heaven, but your reward is then less than it could be.
Pit drive through on the next lap.
I concur in eggnog at the holidays being quite a fitting symbol for Christ, who really is God’s deluxe treatment for a lost humanity. We probably ought to dress like beggars when we consume it, and share it with our poorest neighbors, to heighten the contrast, but of course it isn’t absolutely required.
Judah - there is no law in the arena...
Thinking of biblical metaphors of “winning the race.” Maybe it’s like in Calvinball; you apologize if you did it wrong. (Could be worse ways.)
Jer 10: 2 Thus says the Lord:
“Do not learn the way of the Gentiles;
Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven,
For the Gentiles are dismayed at them.
3
For the customs of the peoples are futile;
For one cuts a tree from the forest,
The work of the hands of the workman, with the ax.
4
They decorate it with silver and gold;
They fasten it with nails and hammers
So that it will not topple.
Heh, heh, someone had to bring this up.
And the calm Christian answer is, please have this ready in case anyone actually ever worships a Christmas tree.
Where does it say they were Mary’s children?
... Generally, one of two things tend to be worshiped around the Christmas season. Either (per faith) it is Christ, or else (per secularism) it is self. The first is infinitely preferable, but neither one entails worshiping the Christmas tree. Not that such a thing is theoretically impossible (and I knew a secular guy who got a tree so big he couldn’t even get it into his house without cutting it further down... pretty good effort for a Selfmas), but we’re barking up an empirically inapplicable tree here. That doesn’t help the worship of the Lord at all.
Just my $0.02
I remember that as a young person I became very disturbed to learn that there were ancient pagan beliefs that bore similarities to beliefs in my own religion.
In time, I came to realize that the human heart is programmed by our Creator to seek to learn His truths and that these people were glimpsing just parts of the the whole picture.
5
"Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field are they, And they cannot speak; They must be carried, Because they cannot walk! Do not fear them, For they can do no harm, Nor can they do any good."
(Jer 10:5, NASB).
He's clearly not talking about a Christmas tree.
Also we notice that nobody counterfeits $3 bills. Forgers ape what is genuine because, as mentioned, people are made so that they may look for such things. It’s pretty silly the atheists who refuse to believe because they might be attracted to God. They might as well refuse to eat because they might like the food.
This is a sad kind of thing that says, because you can damn something that has a superficial similarity to something else you have been deeming good, you have to back off from that something else too.
We might need to accommodate people of weak faith. If a Christmas tree offended someone who did not fully understand, I would never force a Christmas tree on that person.
But it’s another thing for the offended person to go around telling us we’re all wrong because he’s offended. A better case needs to be made.
Ever since the proto-evangel—”And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”—Satan has been sowing his lies. He had NO idea what God kept hidden for long ages, though. Humiliation was fittingly given when Christ triumphed over him through the Cross!
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