Dating Christ’s Birth: November 18 or December 25?

~ Bob Hayton

I just finished reading an essay by Paul Maier on the date of the birth of Jesus Christ. The essay is entitled “The Date of the Nativity and the Chronology of Jesus’ Life” and was a chapter in the book Chronos, Kairos, Christos:
Nativity and Chronological Studies Presented to Jack Finegan edited by E. Jerry Vardaman and Edwin M. Yamauchi (Eisenbrauns, 1989), now out of print. [HT: Justin Taylor]

Maier has written many popular level books bringing various Biblical stories to life. Click on the image above to see his book on the first Christmas which details many historical and archaeological details you may be unfamiliar with. Be sure to search inside the book, to explore it more fully. It promises to be a fascinating book.

Anyway, Maier writes as a scholar who also isn’t too keen on defending Luke’s Quirinius mention and some other historical details in the New Testament. Nevertheless, he reviews the data and concludes that November/December 5 B.C. is the most likely date for Christ’s birth. At the end of the essay he brings to bear the earliest and most specific reckoning of Christ’s birth in the church fathers. Clement of Alexandria pegs the month and day of Jesus’ birth to our November 18. Given some of the evidence Maier marshals, that date may well be preferred to December 25, which came about later. Still, one month and 7 days is not far from the mark!

The essay is an interesting read, but no matter what day you celebrate Christ’s birth on (the Orthodox still celebrate January 6th as his birth), be sure to spend some time celebrating and worshiping our Lord this Christmas.

11 thoughts on “Dating Christ’s Birth: November 18 or December 25?”

  1. I haven’t read the article yet, but does it take into account that shepherds normally only stay out with their flocks at night during the birthing season(spring)?

  2. Babistthinker,

    I used to rely on the “birthing season” reasoning until I read that the shepherds in Bethlehem were probably keeping sacrifical sheep for Temple worship, and were out all year long. Somehow I connect this with Eidersheim. Anyone know more about this?

    Cordially,
    Greg

  3. Yea I think the birthing thing would be secondary at best. The article goes off the explicit chronological mentions in the New Testament. He doesn’t go into that in this article, but I had read before that in the winter there is a second grazing season which is great for flocks.

  4. Nice article, Bob. Very timely.

    I’d always believed that early Christians chose Dec 25 due to Pagan Festivals, but it seems that opinion is a rather new/novel idea – resulting from comparative religion study rather than Christian history. I’ve been searching around the net for articles defending different dates and the many and varied approaches are very interesting.

    Last year, Parchment and Pen blog posted an interesting article from Harold Hoehner supports a winter birth. One of the commenters posted a link to an article at Biblical Archeology Review which sort of debunks the new theories and gives some credence to the old one:

    Links here:
    http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog/2009/12/on-what-date-was-christ-born/

    http://www.bib-arch.org/e-features/christmas.asp

  5. I started to read that article the other day. I don’t remember which blog linked to it before you did. But my ADD kicked in and it’s now resting in my locker at work.

    I’m excited, however, that you found Maier’s more recent edition of First Christmas. I heard it promoed on The Bible Answer Man podcast but when I went to order it from the CRI website I couldn’t find it. I wound up ordering the original 1971 edition which is much less ornate, and am currently reading it aloud with my wife. I’m sure when she hears that you’ve helped me find the edition we originally wanted, I’ll be instructed to order it immediately.

    Merry Christmas!

  6. I look forward to reading this tonight (I’m at work right now).

    However, as an Orthodox Christian, I would like to clarify the January 6th thing.

    All Orthodox celebrate Christmas on December 25th.

    However, Old Calendar Orthodox celebrate it on December 25th according to the Julian calendar, which happens to be January 6th on the Gregorian calendar that the rest of the civilized world uses. 🙂

    So no Orthodox would tell you that Jesus was born on January 6th. They just happen to be marking December 25th according to a different calendar.

    1. Great stuff, Craig. I liked this:

      “More interesting to me, though, is what I discovered some years ago as I considered this topic. According to Alfred Edersheim [1], his reading of the Mishnah [2] led him to conclude that the sheep kept around Bethlehem were, in fact, kept in the fields through the winter because they were sheep designated for slaughter at the Temple during Passover.

      Consider the symbolic significance of Edersheim’s suggestion: The shepherds standing watch over sheep destined for the Passover sacrifice were suddenly visited by the angel of the Lord who was announcing the birth of the Savior, who John later identified as the lamb of God. Yes, Jesus, the Lamb of God, destined to be sacrificed for the sins of the world at Passover, was born in Bethlehem, where the Passover lambs were traditionally raised.”

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