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Christ in Egypt: Born on December 25th

#98: Aug. - Sept. 2011 (Non-Fiction)
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Robert Tulip

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Christ in Egypt: Born on December 25th

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Born on December 25th


This chapter of Christ in Egypt contains the following sections.

Overview
Ancient and Modern Voices
Hieroglyphic Evidence
Calendrical Considerations
Monumental Alignments
Clockworks
Winter Solstice Festivals
Festivals of Osiris
Dual Birthdays of Horus
Festival of Ptah
Feast of Sokar
Festivals of Isis
Christian Sun Worship?

I will go through these sections one by one, starting in this post with the overview. D.M. Murdock kindly drew attention to this chapter in her post in the Christ in Egypt: Introduction thread.
D.M. Murdock wrote:Hi everyone!

I wanted to stop by to say that I appreciate you discussing my book here. There is so much fascinating material I've managed to dig up and share in this book. I hope you enjoy discovering it as much as I did.

For example, in the discussion of the Egyptian recognition of the winter solstice, I obtained the hieroglyphic "Wörterbücher" or dictionaries of Dr. Heinrich Karl Brugsch, handwritten in 19th-century German. These were difficult to translate even for the native German speaker whose assistance I gratefully enlisted. To my knowledge, other than Budge, no one had focused on Brugsch's fairly lengthy discussion of the Egyptian winter-solstice recognition and celebration, which is so very interesting to me.

Included in Brugsch's dictionary was the fascinating hieroglyph of the goddesses Isis and Nephthys holding the baby sun over the life-giving ankh or Egyptian cross, an obvious reference to the "birth" of the sun at the winter solstice.

Image

In the chapter "Born on December 25th" I spend some 40 pages (79-119), including images, demonstrating that Egyptian winter-solstice motif and its relationship to the Horus the Child and other Egyptian gods.

There was much more of this sort of data that, with great difficulty at times, I was able to bring to a modern English-speaking public in my book.
This thread is devoted to discussion of all the data regarding December 25th, and analysis of its implications for Christian origins.

In the overview to the chapter Born on December 25th, Murdock provides quotes that show the pagan origins of Christmas. Leading astronomer Edwin Krupp says the Romans had an ancient winter festival around the solstice, which he calls an important date in most parts of the world as the 'annual rebirth of the sun's light'. Krupp says that choosing this date for Christmas successfully integrated these long-standing popular traditions. The Catholic Encylopedia directly links the Roman festival of the birth of the sun with the choice of the date of Christmas. (p79)

Interestingly, the declaration of December 25 as a US public holiday in 1870 was resisted by some fundamentalists for being 'too pagan'. These guys seem to want to pretend Christianity is totally alien from nature. But as Murdock notes, the absurdity of claiming a birth date for a myth is lost on popular believers who merrily assume the myth is literal history. "In actuality, it would be highly refreshing for the facts regarding the true meaning of Christmas to be known around the world: to wit, Christmas - or the winter solstice - represents the birth of the sun god dating back thousands of years." (p80)

The politics of Christmas, and its origins in pagan sun worship, are highlighted with the observation that "Christ's birth at the winter solstice was not formalized until the fourth century - and this fact demonstrates a deliberate contrivance by Christian officials to usurp other religions, as we contend the entire Christian religion was specifically created by human beings to do."

Just as the Vatican plonked itself down on the old site of the main temple of Mithras, Christmas stole the date of the festival of the unconquered sun.

Christmas is not actually the solstice, but the first day after it, when the northward movement of the position of the sun at dawn becomes perceptible. So we have the solstice, the three days in which the sun rises in the same spot, as the death of the old year, and Christmas, the first day of movement, as the birth of the new year.

For ancients who were dependent on natural cycles, it is hardly surprising that they eagerly watched for this moment, and measured it with massive temples, to celebrate the path back towards summer. The appalling thing is that Christians have destroyed popular understanding of this natural framework in the name of an alien supernatural fantasy.
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Re: Christ in Egypt: Born on December 25th

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Ancient and Modern Voices


Plutarch, one of the greatest Greek historians, writing in the first century AD, said Horus was born at the winter solstice. This makes complete sense considering that Horus was equated by the Egyptians with the rising sun. The sun is weakest at the winter solstice, it grows to its strongest energy at the summer solstice, and then weakens again until beginning a new cycle again at the next winter solstice, forming the cycle of the seasons. This pattern matches to human life, starting weak as a baby, growing strong as an adult, and weakening again in old age. It would not make sense to imagine Horus as the rising sun being born at any time other than the quickening of the light from the winter solstice, first detectable on Christmas Day. Murdock says Plutarch's observation "is vitally important," despite "much denial and censorship." (p84)

Another ancient source, the fourth century saint Epiphanius, describes a pagan festival in early January where the virgin Persephone (Core) gives birth to Aion (Aeo). Symbolically, this could represent the purity of time producing the dynamism of salvation. Various scholars, including Joseph Campbell, have speculated about the identity of these characters with Isis and Osiris, and we see in this myth an obvious precedent for Mary and Jesus. Murdock says it shows that "Christianity constitutes little more than the mysteries turned inside out and broadcast openly." (p87)

Murdock comments that the story of Epiphanius is rather like a mystery thriller. The above story of the virgin birth in winter appears in the old texts, but is censored out of newer ones. Murdock observes that this was "apparently for the sole purpose of preventing information damaging to the Christian tradition from being known." (p88) The older versions are confirmed in other independent sources, notably Macrobius, who said "at the winter solstice ... the god is shown as a tiny infant."

Old Greek calendars call December 25 "the birth of the sun, the light increases". This entry was deleted over the centuries of bigotry, and was first published again in modern times in 1910.

Egyptian sources show that Pharaohs assumed the title of the little Horus, associating this name with the winter solstice. The great Egyptologist Budge notes this association of the young Horus with the 'weak sun', and confirms that "a large portion of [Plutarch's Isis and Osiris] is substantiated by Egyptian texts." (p91) Murdock suggests that Budge's Christianity deterred him from exploring this topic in depth, despite the presence of abundant Egyptian source material on it, in view of the continuing threat of similar censorship like the debacle around Epiphanius. Murdock's view is that the intentional suppression of material on this topic of Egyptian attitudes to the winter solstice reflects religious prejudice. Ignorant mainstream Egyptologists call the claim that Horus was born at the winter solstice "a fantasy" reflecting how severely their fear of Christian intimidation has corrupted their scholarship. Murdock calls this attitude a "thorough ... lack of common sense." (p92)

Considering the obvious astrotheological meaning of the birth of the sun god at the winter solstice, and the recording of this in numerous ancient independent sources, Murdock concludes "there exists a mountain of evidence that the Egyptians knew well and revered the winter solstice as the birth of the sun god thousands of years ago." (p93)
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Re: Christ in Egypt: Born on December 25th

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It is rather interesting that the Epiphanius account was censored. And there's really no speculation about it, Campbell said that Kore and Aion were a 'hellenized transformation of Isis and Horus.' We should pull the entire quote and show the censored version beside the uncensored version during discussion of this chapter, just for those looking in who don't have the book and can't see this for themselves.
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Re: Christ in Egypt: Born on December 25th

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Hieroglyphs

Murdock continues this theme of the selective distortion of Egyptian solar myth by Christian writers in the next section, on hieroglyphs. Just as publishers of Epiphanius in the Middle Ages deliberately left out paragraphs in his writings that incriminated Christianity for fraud, modern Egyptologists have been highly selective, to put it charitably.

Budge, who Murdock calls “arguable the most prolific and famous Egyptologist”, appears to have deliberately omitted abundant hieroglyphic evidence about the winter solstice and Horus. As Murdock says in the comment quoted in the opening post, she had to personally arrange translation of handwritten nineteenth century German scholarship in order to gain access to the material she has presented in Christ in Egypt. And the result is illuminating: “in all of Budge’s voluminous works there appears to be only one mention of a hieroglyph for the winter solstice … the impression given … is that the subject was of little interest to the Egyptians themselves … Yet … Brugsch provides a number of individual hieroglyphs symbolising the winter solstice… [showing that] the Egyptians abundantly recorded and revered the time of the winter solstice… That it was Horus who is depicted in the later winter-solstice glyph signifies that it was Horus who was born at the winter solstice, precisely as Plutarch relates.” (p93-5)

All this material points to paradigms in collision. Egyptian material on the solstice shows that they regarded their language about gods as allegory for forces of nature, and that the popular tales of supernatural entities were grounded in actual observation. Christianity climbed the ladder of Egyptian myth and then kicked away the rungs in order to pretend their new mutant version of the myth as historical incarnation was original and true.

On the one hand, Christianity claims a literal historical account of supernatural intervention as the sole truth. On the other hand, evidence shows that Christian ideas had direct continuity with older myth. They cannot both be true. Christian efforts to suppress the evidence that undermines their myth has all the hallmarks of desperate denial. Just as the anomalies in geocentric cosmology were ignored by the church in the face of a new elegant explanation by Galileo, and just as the absurdity of creationism is still defended against the superior paradigm of evolution, adherents of the Christian literal mindset can only hold to their beliefs by ignoring the evidence of their error.
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Re: Christ in Egypt: Born on December 25th

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On Page 86 of CiE:

“Epiphanius’s of the Kikellia or winter-solstice festival continues with him relating that the celebration took place at the large Egyptian city of Alexandria “at the so-called Virgin’s shrine.” …Epiphanius next describes this festival as follows (51, 22.9-10):
“First at Alexandria, in the Coreum, as they call it; it is a very large temple, the shrine of Core. They stay up all night singing hymns to the idol with a flute accompaniment. And when they have concluded their nightlong vigil torchbearers descend into an underground shrine after cockcrow…and bring up a wooden image which is seated naked <on> a litter. It has a sign of the cross inlaid with gold on its forehead, two other such signs, [one] on each hand, and two other signs, [one] actually [on each of] its two knees – altogether five signs with a gold impress. And they carry the image itself seven times round the innermost shrine with flutes, tambourines and hymns, hold a feast, and take it back down to its place underground. And when you ask them what this mystery means they reply that today at this hour Core – that is, the virgin – gave birth to Aeo.”
Here we find a Pagan sacred icon with a cross on its forehead, like that made by Catholic priests on the heads of Christian worshippers. We also discover this sacred image constitutes the divine son of the holy virgin mother within Paganism! This Pagan virgin mother was styled Core or Kore, meaning “maiden,” as another name for the Greek nature goddess Persephone, who descended each year into the underworld, to return at spring time, bringing life back with her. This descent into the underworld and the resurrection to life are echoed in a number of myths, including that of Jesus, a subject treated more fully later in the present work. Kore’s son Aeo or Aion is called “the eternal,” whose birth from a virgin constitutes as mystery, presumably ages prior to the Common Era. The fact that the virgin-birth motif represents a mystery explains why it is currently not widely known to have existed long before the purported advent of Jesus Christ and his alleged virgin birth, because evidently it was written down frequently, and where even rarely it was memorialized, many reference may have been destroyed or hidden. In this regard, it is our contention that Christianity constitutes little more than the mysteries turned inside out and broadcast openly. Moreover, the fact that there was a “very large temple” at Alexandria devoted to the worship of the virgin mother, even named after her, is indication of her worship as both widespread and ancient. …Regarding Epiphanius’s account, in a chapter entitled “The Virgin Birth”, Joseph Campbell writes:
We learn from the fourth-century saint and churchman Epiphanius (ca. 315-402), for example, of an annual festival observed in Alexandria on January 6, the date assigned to the Epiphany and (originally) the Nativity of Christ, and to his Baptism as well. The pagan occasion was in celebration of the birth of the year-god Aion to the virgin goddess Kore, a Hellenized transformation of Isis.”
Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection

Also recorded by Epiphanius (51,22.11) on page 87:
This also goes on in the city of Petra, in the idolatrous temple there. (Petra is the capital city of Arabia, the scriptural Edom.) They praise the virgin with hymns in the Arab language and call her Chaamu - that is, Core, or virgin - in Arabic. And the child who is born of her they call Dusares, that is, "only son of the Lord." And this is also done that night in the city of Elusa, as it is there in Petra, and in Alexandria.
Murdock continues:
Thus, in Aion - the "only begotten son of God" - we posses a sun god born of a virgin who is in turn identified with the goddess Isis. ...To summarize this very significant testimony: In Epiphanius's writings appear important details about the Alexandrian festival celebrating the winter solstice, when the days and sun's light begin to increase, and culminating with an image being carried forth of a child with a golden cross who was born at that time of a virgin! Nowhere does Epiphanius apparently attempt to claim that this widely celebrated non-Christian virgin birth at "Christmas" had been copied from Christianity, leaving us to conclude that any borrowing occured in the opposite direction.

The pertinent parts of Epiphanius concerning the winter solstice celebrations in Egypt, with the festival at that time of the virgin Kore giving birth to Aion, as well as the same virgin - birth celebration taking place among the Arabs at Petra, are cited in the Williams translation to be in Heresy 51 at section 22.3-11. However - in a twist worthy of a mystery / thriller - in the Migne edition, which contains the "original" Greek alongside with a Latin translation, these crucial sections are entirely missing. In fact, the Migne text does not resume until 22.19, with a discussion of Christ's birth in the 42nd year of Augustus's reign, completely lacking all mention of Egypt, the winter solstice, and the Pagan virgin birth.
...Hence, in the Epiphanius passage we possess a case of deliberate and egregious censorship of an ancient author's work apparently for the specific purpose of preventing information damaging to the Christian tradition from being known. We contend that there have occured many such instances of censorship concerning numerous correspondences between Christianity and pre-Christian religion, which is another reason why, if some of these important "mysteries" were nonetheless well known in ancient times, they are not today. This particular example of textual tampering removed not only the reference to the Pagan winter-solstice celebrations in Egypt and Greece but also Epiphanius's discussion of the Pagan virgin birth associated with it. Thus, in one fell swoop references to two highly important parallels between Christianity and Egyptian religion were obliterated from the historical record. We can only wonder what else has been suppressed in the same manner, and we can see from erroneous and fallacious commentaries in popular publications and forums, as well as mainstream education, that the effect of such censorship has been thorough.

Fortunately, the earlier manuscript of Epiphanius survived, and we also possess the testimony of Plutarch, as well as that of the writer Macrobius in the fourth century, to verify the facts concerning the Egyptian winter-solstice festival...
I found this chapter especially interesting. And it's not very surprising either because as the book goes along it becomes more and more obvious as to why the Christian mobs would have set their sights on Alexandrian destruction and chaos. There were a lot of unflattering activies and information found there which were quite damaging to the faith as it begin to spread out and take power. There's just no telling to what extent the censorship campaign has reached over the years. But it's made for a rather uniformed modern world and that's for sure. We can know that these festivals and mysteries were addressed to the seasons, personified as if the sun and seasons were these various gods and goddesses. And we can also know that Christianity came in behind these old seasonal myths and sought to place a newer god-man in the place of what had previously been Horus, or a hellenized Aion figure, or any number of solar attribute god-man myths addressed to the sun. The apologetic debate fall out from the internet movie Zeitgeist is merely the result of an uninformed general public. And I look forward to watching that change year by year and seeing the general public have the opportunity to see these motif's for what they have always been in reality.
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Re: Christ in Egypt: Born on December 25th

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As elsewhere, you guys have covered this subject so well, there's not much more for me to say!

Naturally, I'll find something, and I really appreciate this forum for giving me the opportunity to share my experiences with doing this research. :D

The Egyptian Winter-Solstice, Virgin-Born, Babe-in-a-Manger Celebration

My experience in digging up the account of the Egyptian winter-solstice celebration by early Church father Epiphanius (c. 310–320 – 403) is one of those moments scholars and researchers never forget. In retrospect, we tend to block out how much effort some things required, this being one of them. It took me weeks to research just this one little passage alone - that's how difficult it was to track down.

In the first place, the texts in which I had to look for this passage consisted of double-column pages jam-packed with difficult-to-read Greek. Because the standard text of Epiphanius, the Migne edition, had excised this section, I spent hours looking in vain for the passage, once I had even gotten hold of the proper volume - Migne created a massive compilation of Greek writings. Secondly, the translations I sifted through were not clear as to the edition of the Greek Epiphanius in which the passage had appeared, so I had to poke around for days before I found the right place in Migne - only to discover it wasn't there!

Once I found the passage in another Greek edition of Epiphanius, based on the Codex Marcianus, I compared the two, noting that, indeed, Migne had censored it! I'm rather glad I wrote about my experiences in CIE, because I can't recall all the details at this point, but it was quite thrilling to unearth this development, which was not necessarily unexpected, in consideration of the enormous amount of destruction and censorship over the centuries.

The fact is that Epiphanius is crucial to our discussion of the pre-Christian Egyptian winter-solstice celebration of bringing out a virgin-born babe in a manger, as is fairly proved by the deliberate removal of the passage by Migne. As readers of CIE such as Robert and Tat know well, I am meticulous in citing these various texts to make it easier for interested parties, so that you will not have to go through the same process I did when writing this book! (Some may recall that I became very chronically ill during this period, fearing for my life - CIE really took the stuffing out of me!)

Epiphanius on the Egyptian Winter-Solstice Celebration


As I note in CIE (84), Epiphanius's works traditionally have not been made readily available in English or other languages, perhaps because his chronicle of Christian origins contradicts the received Church history. I reiterate Epiphanius's account here, for emphasis:
First, at Alexandria, in the Coreum, as they call it; it is a very large temple, the shrine of Core. They stay up all night singing hymns to the idol with a flute accompaniment. And when they have concluded their nightlong vigil torchbearers descend into an underground shrine after cockcrow...and bring up a wooden image which is seated naked <on> a litter. It has a sign of the cross inlaid with gold on its forehead, two other such signs, [one] on each hand, and two other signs, [one] actually [on each of] its two knees—altogether five signs with a gold impress. And they carry the image itself seven times round the innermost shrine with flutes, tambourines and hymns, hold a feast, and take it back down to its place underground. And when you ask them what this mystery means they reply that today at this hour Core—that is, the virgin—gave birth to Aeo.
This festival refers to the Kikellia or Kronia, which Epiphanius has previously mentioned and which I discuss on p. 84ff. This festival occurred during the winter solstice, which was not strictly celebrated on only the 21st or 22nd of December, but which was also perceived to have occurred on January 5th or 6th - very important dates also within both the Egyptian religion and Christianity, as I further discuss in CIE. We can see from the following image from my 2010 Astrotheology Calendar how the entire month of December, as well as the last couple of weeks of November and the first half of January, have been considered the time of the winter solstice in numerous places worldwide for hundreds to thousands of years.

Image

Thus, this Egyptian festival was not necessarily celebrated on the 21st, 22nd or even the 25th of December, although these were indeed dates of various winter-solstice celebrations, as demonstrated thoroughly in CIE.

The Winter Solstice and December 25th

Indeed, a clarification is warranted here concerning the placement of the sun god's birth on December 25th, rather than the 21st or 22nd, which are the traditionally scientific dates of the solstice. From the evidence from antiquity, the placement of the solar birth on December 25th is not a calendrical "mistake," as has been asserted by not a few. This deliberate specification occurred across several cultures and centuries, during which time it could have been corrected, if it had truly been an "error." However, it is clear that the ancients viewed the solstice time as only beginning on the 21st-22nd and lasting for three days - thus the three-day motif of the gospel story and its "Jonah" precedent in the Old Testament.

The ancients evidently noticed that for three days the sun "stands still" - the meaning of the Latin word "solstice" - signifying that its shadow remains in roughly the same place on the sundial, after which point it begins to move in north again. (Speaking from a geocentric perspective in the northern hemisphere.) Hence, the solstice began on December 21st at midnight and ended on December 24th at midnight - the 25th.

The Solar Baby God Sokar

It is a fascinating fact that during the week of the winter solstice - that of the 21st - centuries before the common era and Christ's alleged birth, the Egyptian god Sokar was brought out of the temple in an "ark" for all to view, precisely as related centuries later by Epiphanius. I submit that the fourth-century Epiphanius is indeed reflecting this ancient tradition, which is thus demonstrably pre-Christian.

Sokar is often identified with both Osiris and Horus and in reality appears to be yet another manifestation of that hybrid god(s). Sokar is depicted as a baby falcon/hawk and is solar in nature, representing resurrection in particular. Hence, in Sokar we have a solar resurrection god born at the winter solstice. In CIE (101), I quote Griffith Observatory director, astronomer Dr. Edwin Krupp, concerning the "High Room of the Sun and Sokar chapel" of Thutmose/Tuthmosis III's "Festival Hall":
[Gerald] Hawkins embraced Barguet's interpretation of the High Room of the Sun and saw in its orientation an allusion to the annual renewal of the sun at the winter solstice—another kind of defeat for darkness and chaos. This idea of cosmic restoration is a central theme in Egyptian religion and belief.
Sokar as the "reborn sun" was conceived at least 3,400 years ago, as related by English astronomer Dr. Hawkins, famed for his work on the archaeoastronomical alignments of Stonehenge:
In Kherouef’s tomb, circa 1400 B.C., it says, "The doors of the underworld are open, O Sokaris, sun in the sky. O reborn one, you are seen brilliant on the horizon and you give back Egypt her beauty each time the sky is pierced with rays..."
Here we find some of the purist astrotheological ideation one can encounter - a major reason I study this fascinating material! :D

There is much other such information in the lengthy, 40-page chapter in Christ in Egypt concerning the birth on December 25th, including several fascinating images. There is also the following, which I colored for my 2010 Astrotheology Calendar and which shows the solar falcon baby god Sokar in an ark or "manger," brought out during his birth at the winter solstice, when he is approached by three dignitaries, the syncretic god Ptah-Osiris-Sokar. The parallel between this motif and the birth of Jesus Christ seems hard to miss.

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Re: Christ in Egypt: Born on December 25th

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Following up DM Murdock's picture of the three kings by the boat, I would like to again draw attention to an original interpretation of this theme that I presented last year, and posted at booktalk here. The three kings (Orion's Belt) travel west from the eastern horizon at Christmas. As they culminate, the deck of Noah's Ark (Argo) rises in the east. If the Ark is also considered the manger of Christ, we see three stars in a line kneeling beside it, matching the Biblical image of the three magi, and similar to the Egyptian image that Ms Murdock has just provided.

I really find it surprising that people do not look at the sky, as this interpretation is obvious if you do. But you have to live south of the USA and Europe, so it is not surprising this observation is ignored in view of the prevalence of North Atlantocentrism. In the picture below the third Magi is right on the meridian so is a bit hard to see. A clearer picture and more detail.

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Re: Christ in Egypt: Born on December 25th

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Here's a recent blog about the winter solstice and Christmas or December 25th with a couple video clips:

Christmas and the ancient winter festivals of light around the world
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Re: Christ in Egypt: Born on December 25th

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How December 25 Became Christmas

On December 25, Christians around the world will gather to celebrate Jesus’ birth. Joyful carols, special liturgies, brightly wrapped gifts, festive foods—these all characterize the feast today, at least in the northern hemisphere. But just how did the Christmas festival originate? How did December 25 come to be associated with Jesus’ birthday?
The Bible offers few clues: Celebrations of Jesus’ Nativity are not mentioned in the Gospels or Acts; the date is not given, not even the time of year. The biblical reference to shepherds tending their flocks at night when they hear the news of Jesus’ birth (Luke 2:8) might suggest the spring lambing season; in the cold month of December, on the other hand, sheep might well have been corralled. Yet most scholars would urge caution about extracting such a precise but incidental detail from a narrative whose focus is theological rather than calendrical.

The extrabiblical evidence from the first and second century is equally spare: There is no mention of birth celebrations in the writings of early Christian writers such as Irenaeus (c. 130–200) or Tertullian (c. 160–225). Origen of Alexandria (c. 165–264) goes so far as to mock Roman celebrations of birth anniversaries, dismissing them as “pagan” practices—a strong indication that Jesus’ birth was not marked with similar festivities at that place and time.1 As far as we can tell, Christmas was not celebrated at all at this point.

This stands in sharp contrast to the very early traditions surrounding Jesus’ last days. Each of the Four Gospels provides detailed information about the time of Jesus’ death. According to John, Jesus is crucified just as the Passover lambs are being sacrificed. This would have occurred on the 14th of the Hebrew month of Nisan, just before the Jewish holiday began at sundown (considered the beginning of the 15th day because in the Hebrew calendar, days begin at sundown). In Matthew, Mark and Luke, however, the Last Supper is held after sundown, on the beginning of the 15th. Jesus is crucified the next morning—still, the 15th.a
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Re: Christ in Egypt: Born on December 25th

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The article posted above is by Andrew McGowan originally from 2002 and has nothing to do with the book of this thread, "Christ in Egypt" by DM Murdock.

DM Murdock was cited in a recent CNN article on Christmas:
"...In fact, midwinter festivals, including Saturnalia and Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, were broadly celebrated in ancient Rome. In ancient Egypt, there was a festival that marked the birth of a child sun-god, Horus, whose mother (called Isis) was a virgin. Indeed, this child was "laid in a manger," one of many similarities with the Christmas story.

Scholars have been all over this, going back to one of the earliest Christian writers, St. Epiphanius of Salamis, who noted the similarities. (The details of this connection will be found in a recent book by Barbara G. Walker and D.M. Murdock, "Man Made God: A Collection of Essays".)"

- Where Christmas really came from
The links cited in the article are:

Born of a Virgin on December 25th: Horus, Sun God of Egypt

Man Made God

Other articles of interest:

When Was the First Christmas?

The True History of Christmas

A Brief History of Jesus's Winter Solstice Birthday
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