format_quote Originally Posted by
JustTime
Does it really matter
For you it does not matter at all. for everybody else who find this subject interesting, yes it really matters.
Personally, I find this question a bit nasty. If everyone thought like that, we would only focus on what really mattered...no one would investigate stuff and we would not develop much.
Thanks to people who are interested and investigate stuff which do not really matter at that time, we know what we know today in technology, chemistry, medical and other branches of science.
So I would say, be interested and curious. even if it seems like it doesn't really matters at first sight.
-----------------------------------------------------------
having that said, back to the topic.
I agree that available sources point to the direction of Christmas being originally pagan. I also agree that we do not know when Isa as was born...we have no clear evidence to point out the exact data.
The link provided by AZC (
https://rcg.org/realtruth/articles/1...0%2C6193161403) has roughly the same message as the first link with the McNeely guy...both provide arguments why it was unlikely that Jesus was born in late december because of the wheather and what we know about the customs of the shepherds mentioned in luke 2:8.
This sounds very plausible...
The thing I am objecting about...is that mcNeely has been adding something of his own to convince the reader...which makes the story less acceptable.
he speaks about
:
"the weather being cold and miserable."
"since the weather would not have permitted” shepherds watching over their flocks in the fields at night."
"No Roman ruler would’ve had a census taken in winter when temperatures often dropped below freezing and roads were in poor condition."
and
"Taking a census under such conditions would have been self-defeating, since it would have been too difficult for Judean residents to travel to be counted. Travel back then wasn’t as easy as it is today. We live in an age of heated vehicles and snowplowed roads, but back then the vast majority of people walked wherever they needed to go."
From this, I get am impression of siberian conditions in Judea late december.
This may sound very minor...but it results in rejecting the whole column...just because these arguments are weak.