Toto

In the spirit of the season, James McGrath has an article on bibleinterp.com:

The New Testament Scholar Who Stole Christmas?

mountainman

Hans Christian's Emperor gets a mention.



Constantine discovered that the Saturnalia Midwinter festival in Alexandria and Rome was in fact something that could be stolen from the pagans, and we now all know that Constantine simply stole Christmas from the Midwinter Saturnalia.

Is James McGrath trying to shoot himself in the foot?

arnoldo

How do you explain Constantine's relation to Saint Nicolas which Wikipedia states was born in the third century to Christian parents?

Saint_Nicholas

Nicholas was born a Greek in Asia Minor during the third century in the city of Patara (Lycia et Pamphylia), which was a port on the Mediterranean Sea,[11] and lived in Myra, Lycia (part of modern-day Demre, Turkey), at a time when the region was Greek in its heritage, culture, and outlook and was part of the Roman diocese of Asia. He was the only son of wealthy Christian parents named Epiphanius (Ἐπιφάνιος) and Johanna (Ἰωάννα) according to some accounts and Theophanes (Θεοφάνης) and Nonna (Νόννα) according to others. He was very religious from an early age and according to legend, Nicholas was said to have rigorously observed the canonical fasts of Wednesdays and Fridays. His wealthy parents died in an epidemic while Nicholas was still young and he was raised by his uncle—also named Nicholas—who was the bishop of Patara. He tonsured the young Nicholas as a reader, and later as presbyter (priest).

mountainman

Saint Nick was probably sponsored by Constantine's donation. Saint Athanasius (297-373 CE) is generally regarded as the inventor of Christian hagiography with the production of his "Life of Saint Anthony" who was the first Christian Saint to appear in the literary landscape. See Arnaldo Momigliano on this. Saint Athanasius, the "Nicaean Father of orthodoxy" oversought the physical production of Bible codices for Constantius, just as Eusebius had done for Constantius' father Constantine. It was a closely knit business, and Constantius mass execution of family members c.337 CE made it even more so.

By the end of the 4th century the bones and relics of many Saints (such as Cosmas & Damien etc) had suddenly appeared and were associated with Christian basilicas all over the empire. However the phenomenom of the the Christian Saints chronologically follows the appearance of Saint Athanasius's Saint Anthony c.360 CE . Bah humbug to all the saints before Saint Anthony's ink hit the parchment in c.360 CE.

arnoldo

Thanks MM, for that info regarding the Emperor Constantine. Two of Constantine’s predecessors, Emperor Elagabalus and Emperor Aurelian may’ve played a role in the formation of this pagan/christian celebration.

Elagabalus (emperor 218-22) was the first to declare that Sol Invictus was the supreme god above even above the God of the Jews and Christians. However it wasn’t until Emperor Aurelian (emperor 270 -275) that the religion of Sol Invictus became the official state religion and dedicated December 25 as a day of celebration. Contrary to popular belief, Rodney Stark, in his book entitled Discovering God: The Origins of the Great Religions and the Evolution of Belief (or via: amazon.co.uk) writes the following regarding the date of December 25,

(emphasis mine)

mountainman

Also see the Midwinter Saturnalia (WIKI) or this article



Emperor Julian has also been described as a (solar) monotheist.



Thanks arnoldo. I have a few issues with basic and fundamental evidence behind the Stark "Early Christian demographic model". The statement above is probably formulated without any direct evidence whatsoever. Does Stark cite any evidence that the Emperor Aurelian ever mentioned or had knowlege of the Christians? Or is this another Stark guess?

arnoldo

I checked the footnotes of my book and Stark cites the following sources;
Talley The Origins of the Liturgical Year,
Tighe, "Calculating Christmas."

Toto

"Indeed, Halsberghe, without suggesting that there was already a Christian festival on December 25, presents the probability that one item in Aurelian's religious agenda was the provision of an authentically Roman alternative to the increasingly successful Christian mission."

"It is true that the first evidence of Christians celebrating December 25th as the date of the Lord’s nativity comes from Rome some years after Aurelian, in A.D. 336, but there is evidence from both the Greek East and the Latin West that Christians attempted to figure out the date of Christ’s birth long before they began to celebrate it liturgically, even in the second and third centuries. The evidence indicates, in fact, that the attribution of the date of December 25th was a by-product of attempts to determine when to celebrate his death and resurrection..."

mountainman

Thanks for the citations. There appear to have been no attempts for anyone to think of themselves as a pilgrim to the "Holy Land" before the 4th century, so before this time people did not really seem too enthusiastic about the history of their cult.

However the evidence alluded to is still not specified in the above, but by the sound of the statements, this evidence may represent Tertullian (Latin West) and some other Eastern "Church Father" to be found in the history of Eusebius, perhaps Origen. If this guess is correct, we have the situation that, on the basis of statements made by these "Church Fathers" via Eusebius, Stark (and others) have made the hypothesis that the Emperor Aurelian must have been aware of the Christian claims, and adjusted the calendar of the Roman Empire accordingly. IMHO this is a long shot - a very long shot.