|
Christmas'
Jewish Heritage
There are two schools of thought about whether or not a modern
Christ-followers should celebrate Christmas. One group of believers that
represents minority holds that Christmas should not be observed. They say that
because: 1) Christmas is not sanctioned by the Scriptures as other biblical
feasts are and 2) The traditional day for the birth of Jesus (Dec.25) is most
positively incorrect, 3) December 25 as a date has pre-Christian pagan
roots.
The other group of people that constitutes absolute majority of modern
Christ-followers holds that there is nothing wrong with both Christmas not being
commended in the Scripture and the date of actual birth of Jesus being unknown.
They argue that Christians do many good things that are not commanded such as
celebrating “Thanksgiving” and personal birthdays, or using hymnals or
PowerPoint slides in their church worship services for that matter. The
Christmas day, they argue, as Jesus’ birthday is symbolic. It does not matter
when exactly it took place, what matters is that it surely did!
Although usually the conviction that worldwide Christian church has
departed from its Jewish roots of the first-century Jesus (Yeshua) movement is
characteristic of the first group it is not limited to them. Many from the
second group agree with them wholeheartedly. Explore
my books HERE.
Most in both groups, however, miss out on a very interesting Christian
liturgical connection of Christmas - New Year to the Jewish roots.
Emperor Constantine (the guy we love to hate), whatever his other faults
may have been, believed that the faith in Christ Jesus needed to replace and
eradicate paganism that was deeply entrenched into the Empire. The decision was
made that all celebrations of week-long festival of Saturnalia that culminated
on December 25, celebrated as "Birthday of the Unconquerable Sun", must
stop.
Instead the citizens of the Roman Empire were to begin dedicating this very
day to the birthday of Unconquerable Son Jesus Christ. But what
about the New Year celebration on January 1? Where did this idea come
from?
The answer may surprise you: The New Year in Christian liturgical calendars
used to commemorate the Circumcision of Jesus! Just count 8 days from December
25 and you will get to January 1. Basically, if Christmas is Jesus’ birthday,
New Year is his Circumcision. ( Explore
my books HERE.)
Whether or not we agree with the logic behind these decisions that changed
history, establishing new traditions, we certainly can see that in its origins
the Israelite heritage was once imperfectly, but deeply honored. (Explore my
books HERE.) | 
Posts