Jesus' birth date?

Question

Does the Roman Catholic church now accept that Jesus' birth date was not 25th December but infact in September ( i have heard it could even be in March)? Do they now also accept that he did have at least one brother - James (again i have heard, it was 4 brothers and 1 sister) ?

Many thanks
Dug

Many thanks to all for taking the time to reply - it is much appreciated.

Dug

Answer 1

The Catholic Church has never claimed to know Jesus's birthday. There are a number of reasons for celebrating the gift of Christ to the world at the time of the winter solstice, but we have no reason to believe it is his birthday. The Roman's celebrated birthdays, the Jews didn't.

Originally, the early church celebrated Jesus's baptism on the sixth day of January in the Roman calendar. Since the event was recorded, it's likely to be the right date. It was eventually pushed back to the following Sunday, and the feast of the revelation of Christ to the nations was celebrated on January 6th - with the gospel of the day being Matthew's narative about the visitation of the Magi.

It was not until the Edict of Milan in 321 that we started celebrating Christmas on 25th December. This was to replace the birthday of Sol in the Mithraic religion that had been popular up to that time. That gave us 12 days until 6th January - and a cue for a song. The Eastern Church doesn't celebrate Christmas as such - their feast is still on 6th January.

As for brothers - it's all down to translation. In Jesus's day, extended families were the norm. That's how his parent managed to leave him behind in Jerusalem when he was 12 and not notice for 4 days. Aramaic has only one word for members of your generation in your extended family, so we don't know whether "Your mother and brothers are outside" refers to actual brothers or cousins. It's likely that James, John, Peter and Andrew were all cousins of Jesus.

All the members of the early church in Jerusalem called themselves "Brothers of the Lord". That's how they are described in Acts. Two important figures from this church produced the Epistles of Jude and James - both describing themselves as Brothers of the Lord. It's unlikely that either of them was related to Jesus.

Muslim tradition is that Jesus had 4 brothers and 1 sister. This was influenced by the Nestorian Church who were part of the Aryan heresy. Christian tradition is that he was the physical son of God and that his mother remained a virgin. The historical facts are not recorded with sufficient accuracy for us to know - and it's not particularly important for salvation. If you came up with his birth certificate, the Catholic Church would survive.

Answer 2

Anyone who has read the bible knows that Jesus wasn't born on December 25th and that he had four brothers - James, Joseph, Simon and Judahs (Matthew 13:55). I don't know how many sisters he had, girls were considered to be part of the family they married into so weren't really mentioned too much.
I noticed one person said here that Mary was a virgin and so it is impossible for more children, but she obviously lost that after Jesus was born - she was married and only human!

I think the church chose December 25th because its a cold day, at the end of the year, its been winter for ages so everyone is depressed, and Christmas is meant to cheer people up, but I think there was also a Pagan festival around that time and Christians have sort of 'adopted' it. Nobody really knows his birthday, people say it is in Autumn because Easter is in Spring (and he was thirty three and a half when he died) but then again nobody would know the exact date he died either. But as long as we have one day dedicated to Jesus' birth then that should be ok.

Answer 3

Jesus was born during tax time which was figured to be around July or a bit later. Not sure if it was as late as September though.

December is actually a the time when the Pagan God is born of the Goddess, between December 21-23 its called Yule or Winter Solsctice. The Christian church took that date to try to get the Pagans to change over to the Christian religion. They figured that date would be more platiable to the Pagans, so the kind of borrowed it to put it nicely.

They believe he had one brother, as for other siblings it has not been proven. Perhaps more dna testing will answer the questions. But lets face it, we are going WAY back in time. Which makes facts sketchy.

Blessings, light and love,
Aviana

Answer 4

I pretty sure everyone knows that Jesus was not born on Dec 25th.

We really don't know when he was born.

The Bible tells us that Jesus had four younger brothers and at least two sisters.

The brothers are named in the Bible, the sisters are not named.

We do know that there were at least two sisters.

Matthew 13:55-56 (NIV)

55"Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? 56Aren't all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?"

Here is the same quote from the New American Bible, which is the official English translation of the Bible done by the American Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church:

55
Is he not the carpenter's son? Is not his mother named Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas?
56
Are not his sisters all with us? Where did this man get all this?"

Pastor Art

Answer 5

Neither the Roman Catholic or any authentic church believes that our Saviour was born on 25 December. We don't know the precise date and 25 December was chosen to get rid of one of the many pagan feasts.
Many scholars of the Bible accept that "brothers" referred to in the New Testament could mean literal brothers, it could be family as in cousins or in fact the "brothers and sisters" may have been from an earlier marriage of Joseph.
All this arguing detracts from the central message that Jesus, Son of God came to earth to fulfill the promise of God sending a messiah.

Answer 6

His birthday was August 8th, 8 B.C. He had 8 younger siblings and his father died when he was 14. James was Joesph and Mary's second baby, born in the early morning hours of April 2, 3 B.C. Miriam, his first sister was born on the night of July 11, 2 B.C. Joseph, was born Wednesday morning, March 16, A.D. 1 , his third brother, Simon, was born on Friday evening, April 14, of the year A.D. 2. Jesus' second sister, Martha, was born Thursday night, September 13, 3 A.D. On Wednesday evening, June 24, A.D. 5, Jude was born. On Sunday night, January 9, A.D. 7, his baby brother, Amos, was born. On Wednesday evening, April 17, A.D. 9, Ruth, the baby of the family, was born, and to the best of his ability Jesus endeavored to take the place of his father in comforting and ministering to his mother during this trying and peculiarly sad ordeal. (His father Joesph had died September 25th the year before) For almost a score of years (until he began his public ministry) no father could have loved and nurtured his daughter any more affectionately and faithfully than Jesus cared for little Ruth. And he was an equally good father to all the other members of his family.

Answer 7

Science tells us that Jesus was born around the middle of March. This being the time of lambing in the old middle east. Lambs were reported as being with the shepherds. Mary had four other children. James ( the oldest) known as James the Just. Martha and Tabatha, the two girls, and then John(the youngest)known as the beloved one, and the auther of both Revelations, and part, possably most, but not all, of the gospel of John.
John took care of his aged mother at Ephesus, Where she was buried (her tomb is still there)
John died at the age of 94 in Ephesus.102 AD
James was murdered in the outer temple in Jeruselem in 62
AD
I have never come across any reference or documentation as to what became of the two girls.

Answer 8

I don't think the Catholic Church ever said that Jesus' birthday was Dec. 25, only that we celebrate it on that day.

They wouldn't accept He had brothers and sisters because He didn't - the word used meant anyone in the general area or related family(similar to "brotha" in modern times, or "cousin" in medieval language)


lost.eu/21618

Answer 9

The church does not accept the theories and i have heard of james but 4 brothers and 1 sis is new to me

Answer 10

Based on historical events - actual birthday
Oct 1 in the year 5 BC

the universal church does not accept this nor the fact that he had brothers and sisters.