Was Jesus (sws) born on Dec 25?

History of Jesus birth in Quran and Bible

Neither the date 25th Dec. nor any other date on Jesus's birth is mentioned in the Bible. It was not until the year 530 CE that a monk, Dionysus Exigus, fixed the date of Jesus's birth on Dec. 25th. “He wrongly dated the birth of Christ according to the Roman system (i.e., 754 years after the founding of Rome) as Dec. 25, 753". (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1998 ed.) This date was chosen in keeping with the holidays already indoctrinated into pagan’s beliefs.

Roman pagans celebrated Dec. 25th as the birth of their god of light, Mithra. "In the 2nd century AD it (Mithraism) was more general in the Roman Empire than Christianity, to which it bore many similarities" (The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, 1995 ed.)

Other pagan gods born on Dec. 25th are: Hercules the son of Zeus (Greeks); Bacchus, god of wine (Romans); Adonis, god of Greeks, and god Freyr of Greek-Roman pagans.

(ii) Is the Year of Birth Known?

The date of Jesus’s (sws) birth is not known exactly. “Many sources estimate the year of birth as 7-6BC”(Encyclopaedia Britannica), but biblical researchers have proposed as far as 12BC to as early as 4BC as the possible year of birth. The evidence is mainly based on an account of a census mentioned in Luke and viewing of “Star of Bethlehem” in Matthew.

(iii) Is there any clue in the Qur’ān?

There are two possible clues in the Qur’ān:

a. The Qur’ān says that at the time of birth, fresh ripe dates fell from a palm tree close to Mary (sws) indicating that Jesus (sws) was born between the end of July to the beginning of October (the months in which dates are ripe).

b. The Qur’ān has mentioned that Jesus (sws) would reach a mature age (The Qur’ānic word used is Kahl meaning a mature age). Given that, some Qur’ānic Scholars (Islāhī in his “Tadabbur-i-Qur’ān”) argued that Jesus reached a mature age before the alleged crucifixion which biblical scholars says happened at 27-28 AD. This could means that the year of birth was much early.

#Jesus #Christmas #Isa

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