When Was Jesus Born?
By Dr Muhammad Solaiman
Millions of Christians and non-Christians celebrate Christmas. The Church encourages the observation of this winter festival “in honour of Christ’s birth”. This raises an important question: Was Jesus born in winter?
No birth date of Jesus Christ (PBUH) in the Bible
Birthday celebrations are only mentioned twice in the Bible and are associated with the ego and self-centeredness of pagan Kings (Genesis, 40:20-22; Matthew 14:6-12). On the contrary, there isn’t a single verse in the Bible describing the birth dates or the celebration of births of any of the prophets of God, like Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, etc. The birth date of Jesus Christ (PBUH) also goes unrecorded in the Bible. Therefore, as the apostles and the early Christians did not celebrate the birthday of Jesus (PBUH), its exact date is not known.
Evidence in the bible that Jesus was born in autumn
In the Gospel of Luke (15:23-24), an angel informed Zacharias, John the Baptist’s father, that his wife was going to have a son. Zacharias’ wife conceived about the middle of June. After nine months, John the Baptist would be born about the middle of March. As Jesus (PBUH) was conceived about six months after John (Luke 1:24-31), he would then be born around the middle or late of September.
In the Bible at the time of the birth of Jesus (PBUH),“there were shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night” (Luke, 2:8). If Jesus was born on December 25th, it would have been too cold in the highlands around Bethlehem for the shepherds to abide with their flocks in the fields.
In Bethlehem, the weather in December is very cold and is sometimes accompanied by snow (left photo). Shepherds in this cold weather need to bring their sheep into protected shelters at night.
The Qur’an confirms the Birth of Jesus in autumn
In the Holy Qur’an, Mary (PBUH) ate ripe dates after her delivery of Jesus (PBUH). Dates ripen in early autumn, a fact which also confirms the birth of Jesus (PBUH) in autumn and not in December.
“(O Mary) shake the trunk of date-palm towards you, it will let fall fresh ripe dates upon you. So eat and drink and be glad”(Qur’an, 19:25-26).
Why is Jesus’ birth celebrated in winter?
December 25th always played a significant role in the pre-Christian pagan calendar of sun worshipers. It marked what was known as the Winter Solstice, which signals the shortest day of the solar calendar. The Winter Solstice was celebrated by sun worshippers in different ways all over the world.
At Winter Solstice, the Babylonians held a festival for their god Marduk. In ancient Egyptians, December 22 marked the winter solstice, which was the day when the sun god Amun Ra was born. Therefore, the ancient Egyptians built the Amun Temple at Karnak, so that a shaft of sunlight illuminates the dark sanctum of the Karnak temple, in the Luxor, in December.
In winter solstice, the sun falls perpendicularly on the sanctum of the temple of Karnak, Luxor, Egypt.
In Rome, Winter Solstice Marked Saturnalia, which was celebrated in honour of their sun god Saturn. Furthermore, Mithras, the most widely worshipped sun god in Europe, was born on the Winter Solstice. Pagan Scandinavia celebrated a winter festival called Yule which was held in the late December to early January. In England, Yule is synonymous with Christmas, and the word Yule is still in use in some European countries. Another pagan winter festival is Koliada/Koleda which is a Slavic pre-Christian winter ritual. Koleda was later incorporated into Christmas, and it is still used in the Old Church Slavonic language.
The followers of sun worship gods like Saturn, and Mithras and used to have their festivals in December.
To conciliate between pagan sun worshippers and Christianity, the Church amalgamated their festivals and produced a blend called Christmas. The festivals is not found anywhere in the Bible, and was never celebrated by Jesus (PBUH) or the early Christians. Ironically, the celebration of pagan festivals is forbidden in the Bible.
“You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices”(Leviticus, 18:2-4).