.- ‘Tis the season to be jolly, and, maybe, to have one’s social media inundated with memes about Christmas being nothing greater than a co-opted pagan vacation – possibly a winter solstice celebration – repurposed and baptized by Christianity.
“There are dozens of religions in mythology which have had visits by smart males, kings who’ve killed kids to cease the brand new king being born…there’s quite a lot of Christianity that’s conventional, and nonetheless great individuals assume the story is, it’s frankly not unique,” Stephen Fry, an actor and self-proclaimed atheist, mentioned in a mid-2000s Christmas episode of the British comedy present, QI.
Within the episode, Fry repeats some fashionable claims about Christmas and its origins, together with that the date of Christmas was stolen from pagan holidays, and that a lot of Christ’s traits – that he was born of a virgin, is the son of God, that he and died and rose to save lots of us from sin – had been merely borrowed from pagan gods and traditions that pre-date Christ.
Is there any fact to those claims? CNA spoke with a number of Catholic teachers to search out out.
Dr. Michael Barber, an affiliate professor of Scripture and theology on the Augustine Institute in Denver, Colo., mentioned there may be some fact to the concept that Christians “‘baptize’ pagan concepts.”
One instance, he famous, is the marriage ring, a practice with origins in historic Roman, Greek and Egyptian customs that pre-date Christianity. As we speak, Catholic weddings embody the blessing and alternate of wedding ceremony rings, as an emblem of the dedication of marriage, regardless that this didn’t originate as a Christian concept.
However the questions of pagan hyperlinks to Christmas specifically are one thing Barber has spent a lot time finding out, as he’s planning to publish a brand new e book entitled “Christmas: What Each Catholic Ought to Know.” It’s part of a collection that features the e book “Salvation: What Each Catholic Ought to Know.”
“[T]listed here are additionally components of the standard Christmas celebration which might be borrowed from pagan cultures. We’re not fairly positive how the tree, for instance, turned a part of the Christmas scene however actually there may be nothing in Scripture that establishes it with Christmas,” he mentioned.
Dr. Mark Zia, a professor of sacred theology at Benedictine Faculty in Kansas, mentioned Christianity “acknowledges, appreciates, and incorporates into her personal ‘Christian tradition’ something that’s good, true, and exquisite, even when these items have their origins in pre-Christian religions or cultures.”
Nevertheless, he added, the Church stands by the historicity of the particular person of Christ and the occasions of the Gospels.
“For the reason that 4 Gospels are the historic accounts of what Jesus actually mentioned and did whereas on earth, there isn’t a room for the suggestion that they comprise ‘myths’ or ‘elaborations’ or ‘exaggerations’ concerning the energy or id of Jesus,” he mentioned.
“The Gospels clearly educate that Jesus recognized Himself because the Son of God, that his audiences understood that he claimed to be God, that eyewitnesses noticed his nice miracles of energy, and in the end he actually rose from the useless. Not like all pagan myths, there may be nothing mythic or fictitious within the lifetime of Jesus.”
The origin of claims linking Jesus to pagan gods
Barber mentioned most of the claims about Christmas being a pagan vacation, and Jesus being in comparison with pagan gods, come from the 1999 e book “The Christ Conspiracy: The Biggest Story Ever Bought,” written beneath the pseudonym S. Acharya.
Within the e book, Acharya argues that Jesus was invented as a end result of varied gods, together with the traditional Roman gods of Mithras, Hercules, and Dionysus, to be able to unite the Roman empire with one state-sanctioned faith.
“The writer is definitely D. M. Murdock who by no means earned superior levels and was not an educational,” Barber mentioned. “Her work is in some methods like that of sure nineteenth century writers who additionally made wild claims that might not be substantiated by proof. Murdock’s e book has been roundly dismissed by students. Even students recognized for skepticism in direction of the historic reliability of the Gospels corresponding to Bart Ehrman have dunked the books claims.”
Barber famous that Ehrman wrote in his 2012 e book, “Did Jesus Exist”: “In brief, if there may be any conspiracy right here, it isn’t on the a part of historic Christians who made up Jesus however on the a part of trendy authors who make up tales concerning the historic Christians and what they believed about Jesus.”
One instance of a god that Jesus is usually in comparison with is that of Mithra, a pagan god of Iranian origin who was additionally a preferred Roman god till the 4th century. In response to a number of sources, Mithra (or Mithras) was thought-about a god of sunshine (or the solar), justice, and loyalty, and because of this devotion to him was inspired by emperors on the time. A preferred Mithrain ceremony included the sacrifice of a bull, in accordance with Encyclopedia Britannica.
Mithras is usually included as one in every of quite a few “crackpot theories” that Jesus was merely an concept that got here from pagan gods, Barber mentioned, including that any parallels which will exist between Jesus and Mithras or different pagan gods are incidental, and traditionally flimsy.
Christmas and December 25: Which got here first, the pagan or the Christian?
There are two main theories as to why Christmas falls on December 25, Barber mentioned, although the lengthy and wanting it’s that Christians have no idea for sure the precise birthday of Jesus.
The primary concept dates again to 1905, when German scholar Hermann Usener posited that December 25 was tailored by Christians because the date for Christmas as a result of it had been the birthday of the solar god, Sol Invictus.
In response to Barber, Usener claimed that Emperor Aurelian established Sol Invictus “because the official god of the Roman empire in 274 and established his feast day as December 25. Christians took components from this faith and reinterpreted them, making use of them to Jesus.”
Usener additionally claimed that Constantine modified December 25 from a celebration of this pagan god to the celebration of Christmas to be able to Christianize the empire.
Nevertheless, Barber mentioned, “our earliest proof for a December 25 feast day of a pagan god dates to the fourth century – and the identical doc additionally already mentions December 25 as Jesus’ birthday. Certainly, it’s simply as doable that the Christians’ celebration of Jesus’ beginning was copied by the pagans. In brief, the declare that Christianity got here out of the feast day of Sol Invictus is with out proof.”
Zia famous that some sources even date the celebration of the Christian Christmas on December 25 earlier than any data point out any pagan celebrations on that very same day.
“Historic sources inform us that the pagan pageant of Saturnalia in honor of the solar god was celebrated in Rome, starting in the long run of the third century AD, and held on December 25,” Zia mentioned.
“Provided that the date for the celebration of Christmas was not standardized till the fourth century, the idea was that the pagan feast got here first,” he mentioned, and that Christmas was later set on this date to “counter-act” this pagan pageant.
However there are causes to doubt this account, he mentioned.
“The earliest reference to the beginning of Christ on December 25 of which I’m conscious comes from St. Hippolytus (d. 235), whose writings predate by half a century the primary celebration of the pagan feast in honor of the solar god,” he mentioned.
St. Hippolytus wrote in a bit that’s traditionally “accepted as real that Jesus was born 9 months after the creation of the world, a date which the early fathers recognized as March 25. Thus now we have a transparent reference to Jesus’ beginning on December 25 earlier than there ever was established the cultic celebration of the solar god in Rome,” Zia mentioned.
Barber added that there are different causes to consider that it was in truth the pagans who had been copying the Christians, on this and different methods.
“Justin Martyr (in First Apology 66) accuses the followers of Mithras of imitating the eucharistic observe of the Church,” he mentioned.
The Church fathers’ understanding of March 25 because the date of the creation of the world can also be a key to understanding the theological view of why Christmas is on December 25, mentioned Fr. Michael Witczak, affiliate professor of liturgical research and sacramental theology at The Catholic College of America in Washington, D.C.
Because the understood date of the creation of the world, March 25 can also be fittingly celebrated because the feast of the Annunciation, or the day that Mary conceived Jesus by the ability of the Holy Spirit, he mentioned.
“December 25 is said to March 25. So March twenty fifth is the celebration of the feast of the Annunciation…and March twenty fifth is 9 months earlier than December 25,” Witczak mentioned.
Witczak added that the Church doesn’t know for sure that these had been the precise dates on which these occasions occurred, as these actual dates are usually not talked about in Scripture, and now we have few early historic paperwork on them. Even the yr regarded as that of Jesus’ beginning could also be off by just a few years, he mentioned.
However understanding Jesus as an historic one who really existed, and understanding him in his divinity, are two various things, he added.
“I do not assume any good historian would doubt the historicity of Jesus Christ or Saint Paul,” Witczak mentioned, “however figuring out that Jesus was a historic determine (versus) believing that he is the second Particular person of the blessed Trinity…it’s a matter of religion.”
Even when December 25 as a date for the celebration of Christmas had been taken from a pagan custom, Witczak mentioned, it doesn’t negate the particular person of Christ.
If December 25 was initially a pageant of a solar god, for instance, “as a Christian, I’d say, however the divinity shouldn’t be the solar, the divinity is the creator God who created the world and every little thing in it. That is revelatory of the presence of God in our life and in our world,” he mentioned.
“When Pope Gregory The Nice despatched St. Augustine to England to deliver the religion to the British individuals, he gave him recommendation about consecrate pagan temples to make use of as a Christian Church,” Witczak mentioned.
“In Mexico, there are some features of the best way that they have a good time All Souls Day, the Dia de los Muertos, which might be harking back to Aztec customs. The picture of Our Girl of Guadalupe, she’s wearing Aztec garments and the belt that she wears is the belt {that a} pregnant girl would have worn in pre-Christian days within the Aztec world,” he mentioned.
“So this dynamic of taking up issues from a earlier tradition after which utilizing it for Christian functions…it is type of half and parcel of the best way that the Church operates,” he mentioned.
Zia mentioned the claims of robust hyperlinks between Jesus and paganism inform of an absence of catechesis amongst believers, and an absence of religion amongst non-believers.
In actuality, “there may be ample room to incorporate pre-Christian components within the celebration of our Christian holidays” Zia mentioned, and “the core function of every particular Christian vacation is totally new and never a borrowing from pagan holidays.”
Zia inspired anybody who was actually within the parallels between Jesus and any variety of pagan gods to do their very own analysis, and never depend on the claims of books corresponding to Acharya’s.
“(D)epending on how a lot effort and time one places into the duty, one can discover occasional parallels between Jesus and nearly any pagan deity from any tradition,” Zia mentioned.
“But such comparisons are too few and too weak to counsel that Jesus is just the ‘Christian’ model of those former pagan beliefs. Once we have a look at your entire context of the id, life, mission, and teachings of Jesus, then it turns into abundantly clear that he’s totally distinctive within the historical past of the world,” he mentioned. “It is because of this that Jesus – and solely Jesus – might boldly proclaim, ‘Behold, I make all issues new!’”
