I have seen a lot on the Internet of late about Christmas. One of the hot topics is the origin of the Christmas tree. What bothers me most about a lot of what I have read is that many people appear to simply throw assertions out with nothing to support their claims. Such as this comment by @Deathiepants, "Come on, let's be honest. A Christmas tree is just an Asherah pole anyway." No support given to support the claim, just the assertion that Christmas trees are Asherah poles. I read a Jewish cite condemning Christmas and Christmas trees. I even read an article from a Christian claiming that the entire tradition of Christmas is pagan and that God commands we not celebrate it at all. That being said, there are a great number of websites that cite credible sources regarding the origin of the Christmas tree—an excellent example is History.com.

There is no hard evidence which reveals exactly how the tradition of bringing an evergreen tree indoors and decorating it became intertwined with the Christmas celebration. There are a few facts that seem to indicate it came from a Germanic background. In this tradition, the evergreen tree was decorated with apples to recall the Garden of Eden and were popularly known as “Paradise Trees.” However, there were also traditions from many different cultures that would bring boughs of evergreen branches into their homes during the winter. The best explanation seems to be that the tradition was born out of Queen Victoria’s urging of Prince Albert to decorate a tree in 1848. This appears to be one of the singular acts that brought the Christmas tree into mainline Christmas tradition.

The claim that Christmas trees are really just Ashera poles bothers me because it is an assertion with no support. What is interesting is that many of those who claim this look to the Bible to try and claim support. The passage they regularly cite is Jeremiah 10:2-5, which reads:

This is what the Lord says: Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the sky, though the nations are terrified by them. For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter. Like a scarecrow in a melon patch, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good.

At this point, the claim is along the lines of “God condemns the putting up of pagan (Christmas) trees with this plain Bible command!” So does the Bible condemn Christmas trees? Well, when one takes this passage in context that is not what God was condemning at all.

The cultures around the nation of Israel (and even Israel at times) would create gods to worship. One of the typical methods of doing this was to cut a tree down from the forest and carve it into the rough shape of the idol they were making. Then, they would cover the idol with gold or silver. This is similar to our modern day gold plating. It is cheaper to use an inferior metal for the bulk of something, and then cover it in a coating of the more expensive precious metal. Can you imagine trying to build a seven-foot statue of Zeus from solid gold to be placed in all of the temples erected to worship him across the Greek and Roman empires? It would be nearly impossible to locate that much gold and keep people from trying to steal the statues. Neither could many other ancient cultures when creating the images they worshiped. The wood served as the bulk of the idol while the precious metals and stones were then fashioned as a covering.

This is clearly seen when you look at some of the other biblical passages that address using trees to make idols. Isaiah 41:7 mentions the craftsmen “nailing down” the idol so it will not topple, just as it is in Jeremiah 10. A much longer treatment is given in Isaiah 44:12-20. In fact, the Bible uses sarcasm when condemning idol worship in this passage. Another place that mentions them using silver and gold when fashioning their idols is Isaiah 46:5-7 where individuals weigh out gold and silver and hire a craftsman to fashion a god(s) for them to worship.

It is abundantly clear that Jeremiah 10 is not condemning Christmas trees. What is being condemned is idol worship. There is no doubt about this when one considers the other passages mentioned. Besides, if they were worshiping the tree itself, why cut it down? Why not simply go out into the woods and worship the tree in all of its glory as many of the nature religions do?

At this point, I must tell you that I am not condoning nor condemning the practice of putting up Christmas trees. I can tell you that real Christmas trees smell great, but I hate having to clean up all of the needles left behind when it is time to take them down. What I can say is that Christmas trees most certainly have some roots in pagan worship practices. The choice to place a Christmas tree in your home or not is a choice that your family will have to make. I only wanted to make it clear that the Bible does not expressly forbid Christmas trees. I think that there would still be nay-sayers if Jesus’ birth was celebrated almost any other day of the year. Somewhere, someone would find some connection to a pagan celebration and then explain that we shouldn’t celebrate the birth of Jesus.

As for me and my house, we will most certainly celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior. For without the advent of Jesus, there could not have been the greatest gift of all time—salvation.

Back to "Christmas: Separating the Fact from the Fiction"

There are not very many people who forgo celebrating Christmas in some way, shape, or form. But what is Christmas all about? Christmas is truly supposed to be a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. This naturally leads many people to ask the question, “Was Jesus born on December 25th?”

The short answer to that question is quite simply no; Jesus was not born on the 25th day of December. In fact, it is most likely that Jesus wasn’t even born anywhere close to December. We do not have an exact date for the birth of Jesus, but what we do have are some pretty good clues as to the season of his birth.

There are two major clues found in the Scriptures concerning the date of Jesus’ birth. The first is mentioned in Luke 2:1. This verse mentions the reason Mary and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem, where Jesus would be born. There was a census given by the Roman Empire that required everyone to return to his or her ancestral home. For Joseph, this was Bethlehem.

The exact date of this census is somewhat hard to determine because Luke’s choice of wording. He mentions the governor Quirinius. However, there is some confusion as to whether or not the census was issued during Quirinius’ governorship or if it was before his time as governor. This is because Quirinius became governor (4 AD) after Herod I had died (4 BC). This would have made the claim in Matthew 2:7-8, 16 about Herod seeking out the Christ child rather difficult as Herod would have been dead if the census was issued during the governorship of Quirinius. The most likely explanation is that the phrase “the first census” is better translated as “the census before Quirinius”—just as the same Greek word was translated in John 1:15.

Nevertheless, the Romans would never have ordered a census to be conducted in the middle of the winter. Not only would it have been difficult for the people to travel and be counted, but also it would have been difficult for the officials of the Empire to travel about and conduct the census and gather the results.

The second major clue as to the birth of Jesus is found in Luke 2:8—And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. The sheepherders would not have been found in the open fields in December. It would have been much too cold and the fields would not have enough vegetation to support their flocks. The shepherds would only have been found in the fields from about the end of March to the beginning of September.

Taking these two pieces of Biblical evidence together, it can only be concluded that Jesus was not born in December, much less the 25th day of the month. But this is not really any surprise; biblical scholars have known for many years that Jesus wasn’t born on December 25. At this point, you might be wondering to yourself why we celebrate the birth of Christ on a day that we know isn’t correct. It is because of a couple of things that did take place on and around this date.

There was a Roman emperor who ruled about 150 years before Jesus was born. Antiochus IV is responsible for creating some of the historical traditions that eventually led to Christmas being celebrated on December 25. The story goes that Antiochus began to utterly despise the Jews. He began outlawing many Jewish religious rituals. If that wasn’t enough, he also required them to begin worshiping the Greek gods.

Antiochus went so far as to seize the temple. Then he proceeded to dedicate the temple to Zeus. In an official act of commencement, he slaughteed a pig on the altar to indicate the temple was dedicated to Zeus from that point forward. This was also a way that Antiochus was thumbing his nose at the Jews because pigs were detestable to them. For Antiochus, it was not enough to take the temple from them (their national religious symbol), but he had performed an act of desecration as well by slaughtering the pig. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the day that Antiochus performed this sacrifice was December 25th. This began a rebellion by the Jewish people known as the Maccabean Revolt.

Eventually the rebellion was successful and Jerusalem was recaptured. Before restoring proper worship in the temple, the Jews removed all traces of idol worship from the temple and held a ceremony to mark its cleansing and dedication back to the worship of Yahweh. Part of this celebration was lighting the menorah. Due to the rebellion, there was only enough oil to burn the lights for one day. The day of this celebration was the 25th of Kislev. However, the Talmud records that the candles miraculously burned for eight days. This sparked an annual celebration known as Hanukkah. This is also known as the fest of dedication or the festival of lights.

This celebration is mentioned in the Bible. It is found in John 10:22. Jesus was teaching in the temple courts. Specifically, what was known as Solomon’s Colonnade. At this point, the Jews approach him and ask, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” They were asking a very specific question. They wanted Jesus to state whether or not He was the Messiah, God in the flesh. This is particularly interesting as Hanukkah marked a time of renewed Jewish nationalism as they remembered a time of their ancestors overcoming an empire and restoring Israel to national independence. They believed the Messiah would also bring the nation of Israel independence. So their question naturally flowed from the celebration. At this point, Jesus clearly proclaimed, “I and the Father are one.” Thus indicating that he was the Messiah.

Even more interesting is the fact that the passages directly preceding this one are clearly intended to demonstrate that while Hanukkah was not a festival established in the Old Testament, Jesus still fulfilled it. In John 8:12 Jesus declared, “I am the true light.” Then in Chapter 9, John records Jesus’ healing of the man born blind. In other words, Jesus brought light into this man’s life of darkness.

It is for these reasons that it is certainly fitting and proper that we would celebrate the birth of Christ, the coming of “the light of life” (Jn 8:12). It is a time when Jesus proclaimed his message of salvation, his message of freedom from spiritual darkness. December 25th is a time to tell our children, family, and friends how we used "to be darkness, but now [we] are light in the Lord" (Ephesians 5:8). It is a time to proclaim the gospel of salvation with renewed fervency.

Back to "Christmas: Separating the Fact from the Fiction"

There is a guest author posting today here at Mr. Hyde's Blog. His name is Demian Farnworth and he is the keynote blogger for Fallen and Flawed. He is kicking off the series titled "Christmas: Separating the Fact from the Fiction." After you finish reading his post, you should head on over to Fallen and Flawed and check out his blog.


Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar.

Do those names sound familiar? Should, they're the names of the three kings who brought gifts to the baby Jesus.

Only problem, the Bible never names the three kings. In fact, the Bible never specifies how many kings actually visit the baby Jesus.

Yes, it specifies three gifts: frankincense, gold and myrrh, but Matthew 2:2-12, which narrates the visit of the kings, allows for the visitation of a hundred kings.

It's that wide open.

And while we're on the topic, those kings...well, they weren't actually kings. That's right. The Bible states "Magi from the east came to Jerusalem."

Well, how did they become kings then? The most popular theory suggests that after 350 A. D. someone wanted to endorse the role of Christian monarchs--and voila, the magi became kings.

But what's a magi? Think Zoroastrian priest. In Latin, the singular form of magi--magos--refers to the religious caste in which Zoroaster was born.

The biblical equivalent would be the religious caste of Levi.

What did Zoroaster and his priests caste do? They studied astronomy, medicine and mathematics--and, you guessed it, astrology--the art of interpreting how stars influence human affairs.

So, where did the those names come from? Well you have to wait about 500 years before the names crop up in a Greek manuscript found in Alexandria.

After that, they just stuck.

Okay, if so much of what we know about the story of the Magi's is wrong, what's true? Well, we know this much: They humped it across the desert to Bethlehem following a star, found baby Jesus in a cave and bowed before him.

Then they gave him gifts fit for a king.

Gifts that were a beautiful reflection of their spiritual adoration. An adoration you and I would be wise to imitate.