![]() As such, evidence shows the celebration of Christmas Dec. Īfter Constantine legalized Christianity in 313, the church was able to establish universal dates for the celebration of feast days, including Christmas and the Annunciation. Hippolytus (170-240) mentioned in his Commentary on Daniel that the birth of Christ occurred Dec. Theophilus (AD 115-181), bishop of Caesarea, stated, “We ought to celebrate the birthday of Our Lord on what day soever the 25th of December shall happen.” St. Telesphorus (125-136) instituted the tradition of celebrating midnight Mass, which means Christmas already was being celebrated. Saunders noted in another article:Ĭcording to the Liber Pontificalis, Pope St. It shows definitively that Zachariah served as a Temple priest in September.Įarly Christian history corresponds to this, as Fr. Shemaryahu Talmon, Professor Emeritus in the Bible Department at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and a top Scroll scholar, in 1958 published an in-depth study of the Temple’s rotating assignment of priests and the Qumran scrolls to see the assignment during New Testament times. Nine months from March 25, or six months from June 24, renders the birth of Christ at Dec. Luke also recorded how the Archangel Gabriel told Mary that Elizabeth was six months pregnant with John (Lk 1:36), which means the Annunciation occurred March 25, as we celebrate. For this reason, we celebrate the Nativity of St. Thereupon, they conceived John, who after presumably 40 weeks in the womb would have been born at the end of June. While on duty, the Archangel Gabriel informed Zechariah that he and Elizabeth would have a son (Lk 1:5-24). Josef Heinrich Friedlieb has established that the priestly class of Abijah would have been on duty during the second week of the Jewish month Tishri, the week of the Day of Atonement or in our calendar, between Sept. Each class served one week in the temple, twice a year. Zechariah was a priest of the class of Abijah (Lk 1:5), the eighth class of 24 priestly classes (Neh 12:17). John the Baptist to his elderly parents, St. Luke related the announcement of the birth of St. William Saunders, in one of his consistently excellent articles for The Arlington Catholic Herald ( 12-19-13), wrote: In other words, it was derived from considerations having nothing whatsoever to do with Roman festivals or any other December-related cultural or non-Christian religious activities.įr. Teaches adult education courses in Latin, archaeology and ancient history and has publicly lectures widely and passionately, on cruises and tours and for museums such as the British Museum & Ashmolean, national press, universities, literary festivals, and diverse societies including Classical Associations, the U3A and the National Trust.Īlso London-based for lectures in the South-East.First of all, the date of December 25th for the birth of Jesus, is a straightforward deduction from Scripture, analyzed in conjunction with historical knowledge about those who worked in the temple. Forthcoming Latin Yesterday, Today and For Ever, and A Mediterranean Tour: Not just a Load of Old Stones. Publications include Visiting the Past: A guide to finding and understanding Britain's Archaeology and Roman Britain. Ex-BBC, lecturer for British Museum and York University, an award winning writer and author who specialises in relating the ancient world to our modern lives, in person, in the field, on line and in the media (most recently on BBC News Channel, Radio 4 Today programme and BBC World Service). BA (Hons) Latin and Ancient History, Exeter University, and then branched out into archaeology.
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