WHY THE DECEMBER 25 DATE OF CHRISTMAS Since Luke 2:8 says shepherds were in fields at Christ's birth some assume Christ wasn't born in December not knowing the Jewish Mishnah Seqal. 7:4 confirms flocks were kept in fields near Bethlehem even in winter.  Joseph and Mary traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem in winter not unlikely via the Jordan Valley as its roads were less rugged and at 689 to 1,306 feet below sea level protected them from colder December weather, though even then Israel is not terribly cold and snow unlikely due to the warm Mediterranean current.  The tax census was also likely in winter because then people's work had slowed, being largely agricultural with a winter lull.   Sheep wear natural wool keeping them so warm they can walk about even in Israel's rare snowfalls. Most sheep were also likely not taken indoors in winter as there were no large barns then due to no hay-making machines to make and store hay.  In winter shepherds brought flocks from cold mountains down to where snow had not killed as much grass closer to fields by homes where they could give better care.  Jacob had complained to Laban of suffering from cold frost as a shepherd at night (Gen. 31:40), proving there was  shepherding at night as noted in the Bible for when Christ was born.  Some poor homeless shepherds stay outdoors even in the cold.  Justin Martyr (100-165 A.D.) wrote Marcus Aurelius that Jesus was born at Bethlehem ''as you can ascertain also from the registers of the taxing" (Apologia I, 34). Tertullian (160-250) noted "the census of Augustus-that most faithful witness of the Lord's nativity, kept in the archives of Rome" (Against Marcion, Bk. 4, 7).  Cyril of Jerusalem (348-386) asked Julius to assign Christ's birthdate "from census documents brought by Titus to Rome," after which Julius assigned December 25th.  John Chrysostom (c. 347-407) wrote that Christ's December 25 date of birth was supported by the tax or census records still existing even in his day but not now known to exist which showed their registration at Bethlehem. Hippolytus of Rome wrote in his Commentary On Daniel in 202 A.D. that Jesus’ birth was December 25.  It had been deemed a forgery but more current scholarship suggests it is not.  The earliest record of a pagan Roman celebration December 25 is dated to 274 A.D., 72 years later.  The Watchtower Society over JWs and some other groups have claimed early Christians adopted December 25 because the pagan Roman holiday of Saturnalia occurred close to that date, but the opposite may be the truth. For the first few centuries early Christians distanced themselves from larger, public pagan religious observances such as sacrifices, games and holidays.   It has been noted that the date of Christ’s birth may tie into traditional Jewish observations that the date of at least some patriarchs’ deaths was the same as when they had been born.  The Babylonian Talmud records two early second century rabbis who though otherwise differing some did agree about this.  Rabbi Eliezer stated “In Nisan the world was created; in Nisan the Patriarchs were born; on Passover Isaac was born...and in Nisan they [our ancestors] will be redeemed in time to come.”  A rabbi named Joshua agreed on the events but gave the month Tishri.  If this belief carried over among Christians, then they believed Christ was conceived Nisan 14 (=March 25) and then born nine months later on December 25. About 200 A.D. Tertullian of Carthage noted Nisan 14 for when Christ died.  An anonymous treatise called On Solstices and Eqinoxes, apparently from fourth century North Africa, says “Therefore our Lord was conceived on the eighth of the kalends of April in the month of March [March 25], which is the day of the passion of the Lord and of his conception. For on that day he was conceived on the same he suffered.”  Augustine was also familiar with this association. In On the Trinity (c. 399–419)Augustine wrote “For he [Jesus] is believed to have been conceived on the 25th of March, ..... But he was born, according to tradition, upon December the 25th.” Although many to most encyclopedias like to suggest derivation of the date came from the nearly identical date for the pagan Saturnalia, there has long been an undercurrent of modern scholarly dissent going back to the French scholar Louis Duchesne in the early 1900s.  In the 2000s American Thomas Talley has further developed Duchesne's idea that the December 25 birthdate may be based on the date of death even more.   christianwitnesses.com SOURCES Each year a wealth of material has been posted at jehovahs-witness.com and at its successor website jehovahs-witness.net, and those have had a handy searchbox.  So that's been one good source.  Another has been by surfing the internet with keywords such as Christmas.  The online encyclopedia wikipedia.org has also been informative.  Jeffrey Schwehm who helps Catholic Ex-Jehovah's Witnesses drew my attention to what Hippolytus wrote: http://knockingonheavnsdoor.wordpress.com/2010/12/12/christmas-is-christian/   Talley's idea is detailed here: http://www.bib-arch.org/e-features/christmas.asp Of course references to the Bible itself are also made.

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