Translated from the
original by Costas Balomenos
"The Birth of Christ" portable
image Theophanes the Cretan, Stavronikita Monastery, Mount Athos, 1546
Speaking several times with multiple people, friendly or hostile to the Church,
we found quite a few times, they had great ignorance and confusion about matters
concerning Christ and Christianity.
And it is worthy of admiration, that
ignorance or confusion came more often than
not uneducated people,
but instead of educated
people and high intellectual
level...
When we
want to identify the causes
of this ignorance and confusion can say that usually are due to the following reasons.
The first and main reason is that many of
these people, faithful or not, they have complete ignorance of the
Bible and his religious knowledge is limited only to remember that
from school. Another reason
is that they confuse the real facts with the prevailing lore. Or
watching various performances
shown on images they think that the representations these
accurately describe the events themselves.
EVANGELISM OF THEOTOKOS
(THE ANNUNCIATION)
Classic example
of the above is the fact of the Annunciation. There are not a few times that we have been recipients of
irony - especially by people
hostile to the Church - for this event. “You want to believe, they say, that the Virgin Mary became pregnant
smelling the lily?” In our observation who saw it
written, almost all answered, that have
seen it in the Bible!
At this point, it is worth to mention
that the Bible for
particular individuals playing
the role which we have called - the “rubber”. Just as the rubber stretches
and you use it according
to your will, and so they “stretch”
the Bible to fit whatever
things of their imagination and their desire!
For the restoration of truth, and a reference to the fact of the Annunciation, worth to say that the Bible does not mention that the angel went in that a lily, let alone that the Virgin Mary sniffed and got pregnant! Instead, as described in the Gospel of Luke
chapter 1, verses 34-35, in
the query of how Mary would become
pregnant after having never known
a man, the angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the
power of God will cover you,
which is why the holy child to be born will
be called Son of God.” The faith that the Virgin sniffed the lily and became
pregnant, is due to the
confusion created by the
representation of the Annunciation in western type images, which depict the Archangel Gabriel holding
a lily, symbol of purity and chastity. Corresponding
images in the Byzantine style the archangel
holds a scepter. It symbolizes the power that God has given him to carry his will.
THE BIRTH OF CHRIST
Analogous confusion prevails on
the facts of the birth of Christ.
Most people namely believes that it is written
in the Bible - insists
already - the following:
• Christ was born on December 25.
• Year of birth the
1 AD.
• Currently he was born
snowing and everything was covered with snow.
• The Magicians bowed
the newborn Christ, on the night of his birth.
The answer to all the above is very simple,
and we believe that will shock many people. Because the
Bible does not mention absolutely
nothing about these issues!
Then from where and how it created the belief that?
In our attempt to answer, we need first to first to clarify what the Bible says about the first two events mentioned above. But it is worth to note, before turning to the Bible, that of
the four [1] only two
Gospels dealing with
the birth of Christ and these are of Matthew and Luke.
So in Luke Gospel, chapter 2, verses 1-3 we read about the time of the birth of Christ as follows: “In those
days happened to give
orders from Caesar
August to a census of the whole universe. This
was the first census
that took place when Kyrinios was liege
lord of Syria [2].” And after Luke describes in the following verses that Joseph with Mary arrive in Bethlehem for the census, says in verse 7: “And she
gave birth her son, the eldest born and wrapped him in swaddling
clothes and put him
in a manger to lie down,
because there was no place in the inn were
staying”. As we can ascertain, the
Bible does not define neither
the time nor the day of Christ's birth.
HOW IS
DEFINED THE YEAR 1 AD
The year 1, that we consider as the date of birth of Christ and the beginning of our chronology
has set several years after his birth. The adventure of this definition is as follows: In the 6th century after
the birth of Christ, and more specifically in 525 AD, a monk of the West,
Dionysius the Little (or Exiguus) [3], proposed to
be replaced the then current
system of dating with the system who he invented
and it was
based on the birth of Christ. Centuries later, the system prevailed
throughout the Christendom
and is what prevails
and is valid until today.
HOW WAS DEFINED DECEMBER 25th
Something similar happened with the date of December 25, which is as we said as Christ's day of birth. And it is defined by
the Fathers of the Church. Before
we look at how defined
the celebration of Christmas on December 25, we
think it is necessary to update about something that ignores almost all the
believers. Namely that for nearly 400 years, Christmas was celebrated on January 6! Initially i.e. the birth of Christ was set to be celebrated together with his baptism (Epiphany). This happened because the day of the baptism of Christ is like a kind of “birth”, since it sounds the voice of God the Father to recognize and endorses as God the person which baptized: : “Thou art my beloved Son, in you I delight” Luke
Gospel, chapter 3, verse 22. So thought the
Fathers of our Church, why not we celebrate the same day, two births?
The one “birth” as God and
other birth as a human
being. And thus they defined the January 6 as
the day of birth and baptism
of Christ.
But later (4th century), the celebration of Christmas was separated from the Epiphany and was transferred on 25 December for the following reason : At the same date the peoples of the Roman Empire, the majority of whom were pagans, were
celebrating the birthday of Mithra, one very dear to them god, of
the god - sun of the Persians.
The festive events of the followers of Mithras were so rich celebration in order to drift to these and many Christians who were weak in faith. The Fathers of the Church, therefore, to antagonize
this great celebration of paganism, made a very smart
move.
Transferred the birthday of Christ from
6 January in 25 December, with the result those two celebrations (birthday of Christ and
Mithra) to coincide. Moreover in doing so
forced the Christians, weak in faith, to
choose. Or they will be with
Jesus or be with Mithras.
It is not the first time that the Fathers of our Church, take manners and customs of the pagan world - since they do not risk the substance and the dogma of Christianity - and give Christian color and meaning. Most are unaware that
regarding marriage i.e.
the wedding wreaths, the rings, the bridal veil, the bridesmaid's
presence, etc., received them Christianity from Greek antiquity,
as we said give them new meaning and
content. (see encyclopedia “Papyrus
– Larousse” in the word «marriage»).
The celebration of Christmas in December 25, was first launched in Rome by Pope Liverio the year 354 AD, and from there to East between 378-381 AD.
Direct information
from Patristic source for the
celebration of Christmas in January 6, we was transferred from the Ecclesiastical
Father Clement of
Alexandria.
(around 210 AD).
Another source
is John Chrysostom (344-407), which starting his speech about the birth of Christ, says that just 10 years ago,
the Church in Antioch began to celebrate Christmas on December 25.
IT WAS
SNOWING WHEN JESUS BORN?
The prevailing
impression now is
that, when Christ was born it
was snowing and everything was covered
with snow. This is due to the following: In the countries where Christianity was spread in principle and constituted the known then
world, December 25 is winter - because these
countries are in the northern hemisphere
- and usually snows. So the Christians believing
that Jesus really
was born on December 25,
and ignoring what the Bible writes, believed that it was snowing at
the moment he is born. But, as
we have mentioned, the Bible not only writes nothing about snow, but
instead shatters any idea about this. In the Gospel of Luke,
chapter 2, verse 8 we read about the time of
the birth of Christ: "In the same region there were shepherds who they stayed out in the fields and were guarding at night
watching their herd".
So the shepherds were
crazy, taking out their herd
in the snow at night, so they and their sheep to frostbite?
THE
ADORATION OF THE MAGI
Another confusion relating to the birth
of Christ has to do with the Adoration of the Magi. Many
believe - influenced by the images and nativity scenes, showing
the Magi with the
shepherds – that the
adoration of the Magi became the same night of his birth. Of course not. According to
historians the Magi (the word
is Persian origin,
referring to highly educated
people, especially in astrological
and astronomical matters), coming
from Persia,
should be done three
to six months to reach Christ. At this helps us once more the Gospel. Thus in Matthew, chapter 2, verse 11, we read: “And when they entered the house they saw the child with Mary his mother and fell
into the earth and worshiped
˙ then opened
their treasures and offered him for gifts, gold
and frankincense and myrrh.” We
see namely the magi
to worship Christ at home and not at the
manger of the inn,
where he was born.
Moreover, a little below in verse 16 of the same chapter and Gospel, we see Herod commands to be slaughtered children under two years according to the time he ascertained from the Magi. The fact namely of the slaughter of children from two years and under - otherwise Herod would command
to be slaughtered children
below that age - is another
indication that the Adoration of the Magi became long after the birth of Christ. Another point
about the Magi is that we do not know the
exact number of them. From the
number of gifts we
consider possible that they was three. His names are Gaspar, Melchior and Belshazzar,
they have rescued from the "apocryphal"
Gospels. (Not original
texts of the Gospels. Was named thus because their authors claimed
that they was derived their information from some secret sources to the many).
However whenever Christ he was born, that fact is one and grander, which you do not fit the human mind. That love of God is
so immense that not only condescends to become
a man, but also was sacrificed in a manner painful to save man from
sin.
FOOTNOTES
[1] The Gospels are four and not
twelve as many think. The wrong impression created
because the evening of Good
Thursday is read twelve
excerpts from them.
[3] For the definition of year 1 AD, we are
up short, because this is not only complex, but it needed and his article.
Writer
Christos Pal
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου