How did the pope know Jesus was born on Dec 25th?

the world may never know…

Horay!!! So what can I do with my points??? ;)

I don’t think it’s really his birthday so much as a day celebrating his birth.

Yeah, they don’t really know that he is born on the 25th of December, but they would like a day to celebrate his birth. It’s hard to say really when he was born. It was by Cesar Augustus in 8 B.C. I think, according to history.

I know that Pope Liberius ordered for Christmas to be celebrated on the 25th of December MANY MANY MANY years ago 352-366 …

MM,,GOOD ??? I GUESS HE HAS HIS BELIEFS ..WHERE AND WHY I DUNNO.

He wasn’t. When the churches realized that people weren’t willing to convert because of theur holidays they tried to convert the Pagans yule, or winter solstice. They set the date to Dec 25 so it wouldn’t vary from year to year. Supposedly there was a doc. found saying Jesus was born in June. Same with Ostra(Easter) & Samhain (Hallose Eve)

The best I can tell Biblical descriptions would point to Jesus’ birth being in the Fall, not Winter.

Lots of saviors were born on December 25. Krishna, Mithra, Horus and Buddha were all supposedly born on December 25. One might suggest that the Jesus story liberally borrowed from the heros/saviors of earlier religions.

kloaiza86, well done, you get the bonus points ;)

What I find interesting though is the irony: in Muslim countries, you can’t celebrate X-mas without being “Christian” even though history shows there was many holidays there before Christ was considered to have been born then.

Not to mention it took centuries after the announcement for Christians to subdue Europe at large…

Um…I hadn’t thought that far ahead. Sorry :(

Eventually we might have some kind of points system on the site…but that’s a bit of a ways off, and not on topic :)

…in regards to the date… it’s origin goes back to origin of Roman Christianity, when Constantine effectively created a new religion that combined pre-Nicene Christianity with the cult of Sol Invictus - the Roman state sun god.

Dec. 25th was the culmination of the festival of Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, introduced by Emperor Elagabalus around 220 CE.

The wiki page has lots of good info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_Invictus

It’s known to be a convenient ‘adding on’ of a Christian festival to the mid-winter celebrations which were already happening. Obviously some Christians (like Oliver Cromwell and his Puritans) didn’t like that and avoided celebrating Christmas, but for the rest of us, why not? The Queen of England has a real birthday and an Official Birthday. I always see Dec 25th as Jesus’ ‘Official Birthday’.

PS I think kloaiza86 wins your bonus points!

the bible is a blatent copy of past religions… they just changed the names (in a very obvious way)

anyway religious ‘scholars’ from that era spoke for it (supposedly)

Its all about man, and his power, over what God intended… there are many other things that do not line up with the original…