Gerry Bowler (5)
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Take, for example, the notion current in the ancient world that great men invariably lived lives of complete years: that they were born and died on the same date. Since Jesus was deemed to have been crucified in late March, he might have been expected to have been born at that time... perhaps it was more appropriate to consider his conception rather than his birth as the starting point in calculations: therefore, his earthly birth would have been in late December.Christmas in the Crosshairs, 8
The long-held association of December 25 as the birthday of Mithra (often said to be a virgin birth in the presence of shepherds) has now been contradicted by recent research that claims that there is no evidence that the date in question had any Mithraic significance and was certainly not celebrated as the god's birthday.Christmas in the Crosshairs, 7
In 243 an anonymous document produced in North Africa, known as De pascha computus, linked the birthday of Jesus to an analogous date in the creation of the world. As God was thought to have begun Creation on March 25 (the first day of spring), the birth of Jesus corresponded to the appearance of the sun and moon on the fourth day, thus making the Nativity March 28.Christmas in the Crosshairs (4)
By the year 200, Christian writers had begun to speculate about when the birth of Jesus had taken place. Clement of Alexandria noted that some in his city had calculated that Jesus had been born in the twenty-eighty year of the reign of Caesar Agustus, 3 B.C. by our calculation.Christmas in the Crosshairs (4)
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