birthdays - pagan - “christmas”

Steven Avery

Steven Avery

Administrator
reddit

Thanks!

Here are the three verses in the Authorized Version that references "birthdays".

Depending on the Bible edition
birth-day
birth day
birthday

Genesis 40:20 (KJV)
And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday,
that he made a feast unto all his servants:
and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants.

Matthew 14:6 (KJV)
But when Herod's birthday was kept,
the daughter of Herodias danced before them,
and pleased Herod.

Mark 6:21 (KJV)
And when a convenient day was come,
that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords,
high captains, and chief estates of Galilee;

Afaik, this is indicated in Bible texts in many languages, Greek, Latin, Syriac etc.

These are commonly quoted to show that birthdays were a practice in pagan religions. And connected with tragedies.

And it is argued that a pagan element was added to Christianity in the 4th century when Dec 25, or a nearby date, became a birthday celebration.

It is an interesting question as to whether this pagan connection was noted by Christian writers throughout the early centuries? (Definitely there was Puritan-style resistance to Christmas, but that was later.)

And I don't think there is a real case against these pagan birthdays occurring, as seems to be implied in the Russian article.

Steven
 
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Steven Avery

Steven Avery

Administrator
Facebook - 2025
Patristics for Protestants
https://www.facebook.com/groups/patristicsforprotestants/posts/25375373455455110/

Juan Enrique Zegers A
“The Church picked Dec. 25 to replace pagan feasts” or “Christmas is intrinsically a baptized Sol Invictus”?
Response:
1) The earliest Roman evidence is Christian, and it is simply a date-entry, not a replacement plan:
The Chronography of 354 (Depositio Martyrum / Roman list of commemorations) reads in Latin: “VIII kal. Ian. natus Christus in Betleem Iudeae” // “8 days before the Kalends of January [= Dec. 25], Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea.”

2) The same compilation also records a pagan observance on Dec. 25:
The Chronography of 354 (Philocalian Calendar / civic-festival notations) has this Latin abbreviation on Dec. 25: “N·INVICTI·CM·XXX” // “Natalis Invicti … 30 (races)”; i.e., games for “the Unconquered” (often taken as Sol Invictus).
Therefore, Dec. 25 was already being used liturgically/commemoratively in Rome. The calendar’s juxtaposition shows coincidence, not causation. It does not show (by itself) that the Church chose the date because of the pagan one.

3) John Chrysostom, Homily on the Date of Christmas (Antioch) reads in Greek: “This day was known from the beginning to those in the West … now it has been brought to us.”
Therefore, he explicitly frames Dec. 25 as a tradition received from the West, as a matter of ecclesial memory and proof, not “we set this to crush Sol.”

4) Augustine and Leo warn against syncretism, not encourage it.
Augustine (preaching on the Nativity) writes in Latin: “not as unbelievers do because of the material sun, but because of Him who made the sun.”
Augustine’s logic is not “we took the sun’s feast.” It is: if pagans misread the season cosmologically, Christians must read it theologically.
Leo the Great (in Rome), Sermon 27, condemns the practice of turning and bowing to the rising sun—explicitly noting that even some Christians were doing it: “before entering … they turn round and bow … towards the rising sun.”
That is the opposite of “the Church imported sun worship into Christmas.” Leo treats solar gestures as a corruption to be corrected.

5) A (possibly) earlier strand: Hippolytus uses Dec. 25 in a chronological computation in his Commentary on Daniel, where the Nativity is given as December 25th because it’s 9 months after March 25th, which stands for the Passion which in turn is linked to Incarnation in a schematic chronology

===============================
Michael Frost
Hippolytus makes NO mention of Dec 25, Juan Enrique Zegers A: "4. But that we may not leave our subject at this point undemonstrated, we are obliged to discuss the matter of the times, of which a man should not speak hastily, because they are a light to him. For as the times are noted from the foundation of the world, and reckoned from Adam, they set clearly before us the matter with which our inquiry deals. For the first appearance of our Lord in the flesh took place in Bethlehem, under Augustus, in the year 5500; and He suffered in the thirty-third year. And 6,000 years must needs be accomplished, in order that the Sabbath may come, the rest, the holy day "on which God rested from all His works." For the Sabbath is the type and emblem of the future kingdom of the saints, when they "shall reign with Christ," when He comes from heaven, as John says in his Apocalypse: for "a day with the Lord is as a thousand years." Since, then, in six days God made all things, it follows that 6,000 years must be fulfilled. And they are not yet fulfilled, as John says: "five are fallen; one is," that is, the sixth; "the other is not yet come."

https://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/hippolytus-exegetical.html


Juan Enrique Zegers A
Michael Frost I read it and wrote it diagonally, I admit. He does not "mention" it, but it cannot be said that Hippolytus does not say so "implicitly", if we pay attention to this article https://tcschmidt.com/.../Vigiliae-Christianae-Schmidt....
That is why I wrote “possibly”, because I understand that it is a conjecture, like that of Julian the African, of which we cannot be absolutely certain. It is not expressly stated or written down, but it is implied by the direction of their calculations.
Can we call them indirect testimonies?
This text also appears copied and pasted on various website, although I am uncertain of its value: what plausible explanation makes the date of Jesus' birth depend on the date of his incarnation, which in turn was related to the date of his death. An anonymous treatise on solstices and equinoxes states that “our Lord was conceived on the 8th of the Kalends of April in the month of March (March 25), which is the day of the Lord's passion and his conception, for he was conceived on the same day that he died” (B. Botte, Les Origenes de la Noël et de l'Epiphanie, Louvain 1932, l. 230-33).
 
Steven Avery

Steven Avery

Administrator
"who were the earliest writers who referred to the Christmas celebrations as pagan festivals?"

AI Overview


While many sources discuss the theory of pagan origins, the idea that Christmas was a deliberate Christianization of Roman pagan festivals was more explicitly argued by later writers like German Protestant Paul Ernst Jablonski (18th century) aiming to discredit Catholicism, though early Christian figures like Origen (3rd century) questioned celebrating birthdays at all, suggesting early Christian discomfort with the concept of celebrating a birth date like pagans did. However, Tertullian and other early writers warned against pagan idolatry, setting a tone, but the prominent link to specific pagan festivals (like Sol Invictus) as direct ancestors was solidified later, with figures like Bede (8th century) describing Anglo-Saxon pagan Yule celebrations, linking winter solstice customs to that time, notes this source.

Early Christian Voices (Questioning, Not Necessarily Calling Pagan):

  • Origen (c. 185–254 AD): This early Church Father argued against celebrating Jesus's birthday (or any birthday), viewing it as a pagan practice, stating only sinners like Pharaoh celebrated their birthdays.
Writers Linking to Paganism (Later Development):

  • Bede the Venerable (c. 672–735 AD): In his De temporum ratione, Bede described Anglo-Saxon pagan practices, linking the months of December and January (Yule) to the winter solstice, showing awareness of pre-Christian winter festivals.
  • Paul Ernst Jablonski (17th/18th Century): A German Protestant who argued extensively that Christmas was a deliberate paganization of Christianity adopted by the Roman Church, a key figure in popularizing this specific theory, notes this source.
Key Context:

  • The debate isn't about whether pagan winter festivals existed (they did, like Saturnalia and Sol Invictus), but whether Christmas replaced them or if the pagans co-opted an already significant date for Christians.
  • The idea that Christmas is a pagan festival, in the sense of being stolen from pagans, was a significant argument used by Puritans in the 17th century, leading to its ban in some places, notes this source.
  • Scholars debate the origin of Christmas in December
    Dec 22, 2012 — This alternative explanation is sometimes deployed to dismiss the notion that the holiday had pagan roots. In a 2003 a...

    Columbia Daily Tribune


  • The “Pagan” Origins of Christmas - Leben
    Dec 14, 2016 — In 1743, a German Protestant named Paul Ernst Jablonski, in an effort to discredit the Roman Catholic Church, claimed ...

    leben.us



  • Yule - Wikipedia
    In the 8th century, the English historian Bede wrote that the pagan Anglo-Saxons called both December and January Giuli. Bede link...

    Wikipedia
 
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