Was Jesus Born on Christmas?

Do all the gospels have a story of Christmas? For that matter, do the stories agree as to the date of Jesus' birth?

Some people are surprised to find out that the story of "Christmas" is only recorded in two places in the NT, the first two chapters of Matthew and Luke. This means that Mark and John do not mention the birth of Jesus.

In order to determine the date of Jesus’ birth we must understand that Luke points out that Jesus was born “…in Bethlehem of Judea during the reign of King Herod…”

(Luke 2:1) This information, along with other sources outside of the NT, place the birth of Jesus prior to 4 BCE, or a full 4 to 6 years before year one of the CE!
Further proof of the year of Jesus’ birth can be found later in the gospel of Matthew. “When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who where two years old or under…” (Matt 2:16) Seemingly Herod did not know the exact age of the child, who was to be the messiah, so he ordered the death of all children under two.

Therefore if we add two years to the time of the death of Herod, which is established as 4 BCE, Jesus could have been born in any of the previous two years (coinciding with our previous material of the dates of the rulers when Jesus was born in 6 to 4 BCE).
Jesus' birthday was most certainly NOT on Dec. 25th, a date chosen later by Christian authorities to combat other "pagan" holidays...the first recorded "Christmas" on December 25th is in 377 CE. (Originally Jesus' birthday was clebrated on Jan. 6th)


Did you also know that Jesus was not born in year One of the Common Era (CE), and that he was actually born between the years of 7- 4 BCE?

The calendar in its present representation dates from the sixth century CE when a Scythian monk, Dionysius Exiguus, was assigned the task of calculating the year of the birth of Jesus. Based on assumptions and incorrect calculations by Exiguus, the present calendar is “off” by 4 to 5 years. So the "millenium" of 2000 was actually late, we should have celebrated the changing of the calendar in 1995 or 1996!