Christ and The Early Christians Refused to Celebrate Christmas ? – Did You Know That?

[Bible Speaks]

Christ and The Early Christians Refused to Celebrate Christmas ? – Did You Know That?

https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/watchtower-no6-2017-november/christian-christmas-bible/#?insight[search_id]=0a22656b-7d35-4c52-8a57-e01d8ca57e9d&insight[search_result_index]=3

 

[Melinda Mills]

"The first recorded date of Christmas being celebrated on December 25th was in 336, during the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine (he was the first Christian Roman Emperor). A few years later, Pope Julius I officially declared that the birth of Jesus would be celebrated on the 25th December."

 

It would be unlikely that Jesus and the early Christians would have had to refuse to celebrate Christmas, since Christmas was introduced about three hundred years after Jesus left the earth.  It might be correct to say they did not celebrate birthdays  or the Roman Saturnalia.  The idea of celebrating birthdays was something foreign to Jewish custom in Jesus day and would have been considered a pagan practice.   The apostasy started around the time of Roman Emperor Constantine, so those who started to celebrate Christmas were apostate Christians.

 

 

[Bible Speaks]

12 hours ago, Melinda Mills said:

"The first recorded date of Christmas being celebrated on December 25th was in 336, during the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine (he was the first Christian Roman Emperor). A few years later, Pope Julius I officially declared that the birth of Jesus would be celebrated on the 25th December."

 

It would be unlikely that Jesus and the early Christians would have had to refuse to celebrate Christmas, since Christmas was introduced about three hundred years after Jesus left the earth.  It might be correct to say they did not celebrate birthdays  or the Roman Saturnalia.  The idea of celebrating birthdays was something foreign to Jewish custom in Jesus day and would have been considered a pagan practice.   The apostasy started around the time of Roman Emperor Constantine, so those who started to celebrate Christmas were apostate Christians.

 

 

@Melinda Mills

Thank you for your support! Jehovah Bless!

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[JW Insider]

On 12/8/2017 at 9:31 PM, Melinda Mills said:

and would have been considered a pagan practice.

Agree 100%. In fact, the Christians would probably not have considered birthdays a pagan practice as much as a "impractical" practice. It was usually only the very rich who could afford to give a feast on birthdays, so it became the purview of kings and persons of high station. Christians, like Jews, would have had no problem with excuses to enjoy a feast. Jesus participated in marriage feasts that lasted several days. He also used feasts in his illustrations. (Matt 22)

Jesus even went to a "tax collector party":

• (Luke 5:27-30) . . .Now after this, he went out and saw a tax collector named Leʹvi sitting at the tax office, and he said to him: “Be my follower.” 28 And leaving everything behind, he rose up and began to follow him. 29 Then Leʹvi spread a big reception feast for him in his house, and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others who were dining with them. 30 At this the Pharisees and their scribes began murmuring to his disciples, saying: “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

Jesus even gave instructions for feasts that had no specific reason behind them.

• (Luke 14:12-16) 12 Next he said also to the man who had invited him: “When you spread a dinner or an evening meal, do not call your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbors. Otherwise, they might also invite you in return, and it would become a repayment to you. 13 But when you spread a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; 14 and you will be happy, because they have nothing with which to repay you. For you will be repaid in the resurrection of the righteous ones.” 15 On hearing these things, one of the fellow guests said to him: “Happy is the one who dines in the Kingdom of God.” 16 Jesus said to him: “A man was spreading a grand evening meal, and he invited many.

Since feasts were expensive, it appears that Christianity itself made it easier to afford feasts as part of the meeting arrangements, probably because it no longer depended on the generosity of a single rich person, but the sharing among all of them.

• (Jude 12) 12 These are the rocks hidden below water at your love feasts while they feast with you, shepherds who feed themselves without fear; . . .

And of course, even Jesus refers positively to the feast that took place on the 25th of the winter month that usually corresponds with December. (Kislev 25) Jesus went up to Jerusalem during the Hanukkah celebration, on the 25th of the month, even though Hanukkah was a feast that was not commanded in the Bible but was initiated during Maccabean times. (See John 10:22 in the NWT Reference Bible)

 

 

 

[Melinda Mills]

@JWInsider    Shows you can learn a lot from topics highlighting things that appear simple and obvious. Like how you added the information on feasting in general. I learned something from it and I am sure Bible Speaks appreciated your contribution to the topic.