• Shepherds would not have been watching their flock in December, which is historically very cold in Israel
  • The actual number of wise men is not recorded in the Bible

What we know: Long time ago in Bethlehem, as the holy Bible says, Mary’s boy child, Jesus Christ, was born on Christmas Day.

Most historians say that this is wrong.  The Biblical Jesus could not have been born on the modern Christmas Day, which is December 25. Shepherds would not have been watching their flocks at night in December, which is historically very cold in Israel.

Theory 1

One theory is that the church may have chosen the date that Saturnalia, a festival dedicated to the Roman god Saturn, took place, so that people would celebrate that instead of holding the pagan celebrations.

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Theory 2

Another theory that is widely accepted is that people believed that Christ was conceived and crucified on the same date (25).

Therefore, since it was believed Christ was crucified on March 25 on the Roman Calendar, nine months after that would have been December 25. So when was he born? Nobody knows.  It would have to be around a time when shepherds tended to their sheep in open fields during spring, rather than winter.

There have been many estimates varying from March to September, but biblical scholars generally place his birth in mid to late September.

Were there just three wise men?

Another often touted statement is that there were three wise men who visited baby Jesus. However, the actual number of wise men is neither recorded in the Bible, nor in any valid historical document.

This assumption may have come from the fact that the story mentions three gifts (frankincense, gold and myrrh), but the actual number of wise men may have been as little as two or a lot more than three. They also did not show up immediately after Jesus’ birth as is commonly depicted, but came many months afterwards.

Xmas or Christmas?

Many people like to say that referring to Christmas as ‘Xmas’ is taking the Christ out of Christmas, and therefore, ‘Putting the Christ back in Christmas’ is an often touted statement around this season.

However, the ‘X’ is actually the Greek letter ‘chi’ which is the first letter of the Greek word Χριστ?ς, which in English is ‘Christ’.