For most, Christmas conjures up images of a baby in a manger, the three wise men, Joseph and Mary with glowing halos, shepherds, and of course, Santa Claus, reindeer, mistletoe, and most importantly, the Christmas tree with its bright decorations and gifts. If asked, most people will rattle off that Christmas celebrates the birthday of Jesus Christ, although few can tell you from whence originated all the different customs and imagery. The paradox is that every year many of the same people voice the same criticism—that we need to "put Christ back into Christmas!"
Now, I'm accustomed to living in a "Christian" society. I don't mind using terms like "AD" ("Anno Domini," Latin for "in the Year of Our Lord") or "BC" ("Before Christ") when I write. I don't mind seeing someone sporting a cross on their lapel, or dangling one around their neck. Heck, I don't even mind it when I hear "merry Christmas" a couple hundred times throughout most of December. But what does stick in my gizzard is that stuff about "putting Christ back into Christmas!" That's why I've decided to remedy the situation by answering once and for all the question of whether or not Jesus Christ was ever in Christmas. To do that I'll start by asking another question:
Well, it's not important to me, since I don't profess to believe in the divinity of Jesus or any other advertised god. But for those who acknowledge Jesus as Lord and who claim to follow their bibles, then I ask you to seriously consider a few scriptures, such as the warning of Jesus in Mark 7:6:
He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." You might want to also consider Matthew 7, which supposedly contain the words of Jesus: 13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. 15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. 21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
The reason I start my examination of Christmas with bible verse is to gently suggest to all believing Christians that before celebrating anything in the name of your Lord and Savior, you should know what it is you do lest ye find yourself like the unfortunate fruitless fruit tree above!
In my article How Christianity Got Its New Testament, I briefly covered the history of the powerful fourth century Roman Emperor Constantine, who is remembered as the first Christian emperor of Rome. From the history of the Christian Church itself I showed how the sun god Mithra, who was identical to the sun gods Apollo and Adonis, was mingled with Jesus Christ by the former pagan Constantine after his conversion. We also learned how the early Christian Church Fathers prostituted both themselves and the Church in order to win the emperor's favor, for which they and the Church were richly rewarded with gleaming new churches, gold, silver and huge numbers of converts. It was these Christian Church Fathers, acting on the orders of the emperor, who replaced the Passover with the pagan Easter celebration—a celebration whose roots go back into the very heart of the ancient Babylonian mystery religion.
With the half pagan, half Christian Constantine at the helm of the Christian Church, and Church Fathers who were for sale, it should be no surprise to find the date December 25th becoming an important date on the Christian Church calendar, since that day was important to the worship of Mithra—Constantine's favorite sun god.
Now Mithra was not the original Roman sun god. He was but one in a succession whose sacred births were celebrated on December 25th. Called Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, or "the birthday of the unconquered sun," the reasoning behind the date was that December 25th was considered to be the date of the winter solstice, which the Romans called "Bruma;" and, despite the shortened daylight hours, the sun still proved itself "unconquered." On the Julian Calendar, introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BC, December 25th was the approximate time of the solstice. This date was changed by the present Gregorian Calendar (sponsored by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 as a corrected version of the Julian Calendar), causing the solstice to fall on December 21st or the 22nd.
Dies Natalis Invicti was celebrated as a Roman Imperial holiday by order of the Emperor Aurelian (270-275 AD), who was, as Clement Miles notes: "an ardent worshipper of the Syrian sun-god Baal. With the Sol Invictus was identified the figure of Mithra, that strange eastern god whose cult resembled in so many ways the worship of Jesus ..."1 The famous mythologist, Sir James Frazer, records that not only did the Romans celebrate Mithra's birth on December 25th, but the evening before a midnight mass was celebrated to announce his birth, which certainly puts one in mind of the Christmas Eve Midnight Mass held every year to mark the birth of Jesus. At that time, Mithra's priest cried out "the Virgin has brought forth!"2
In the early Roman empire several solar deities were honored with the title of Unconquered Sun, including Elah-Gabal, a Syrian sun god; Sol, the favorite god of Emperor Aurelian (AD 270-274); and the Persian Mithra, who was enormously popular with the Roman legions, and hence Constantine's loyalty to the god.3 Such history is why the editors of the Catholic Encyclopedia candidly admit that " . . . the feast of Natalis Invicti or the Nativity of the Unconquered Sun, celebrated on 25th December, has a strong claim on the responsibility for our December date [of Christmas]."4 In fact, it holds more than "a strong claim" since Christians, for centuries after Constantine's time, continued to call "Christmas" the "Nativity of the Sun."5 Eventually the "Nativity of the Sun" was forgotten in favor of the "Mass of Christ" (or Christmas), but a remnant of the old name remained: "Natalis" or "Nativity," which literally means "the birthday"—a designation that is still used in reference to the birth of Jesus.
In all fairness to Constantine's memory, we should add that long before his time Christian leaders were trying many avenues to gain acceptance in the Roman Empire—meaning that we can't dump every pagan-to-Christian transformation at Constantine's feet. Working with the New Testament scriptures equating Jesus with the sun, some notable early Christian writers went out of their way to make the point that their god was one with the sun. "O, how wonderfully acted Providence that on that day on which that Sun was born . . . Christ should be born" wrote the early Christian writer, Saint Cyprian (Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus, died 258), Bishop of Carthage!6 Old Cyprian had a point, as a careful reading of the New Testament makes clear. The most useful scriptures were these:
Matthew 13:43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
Matthew 17:2 And was transfigured before them and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.
1 Cor 15:41 [There is] one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for [one] star differeth from [another] star in glory.
Rev 1:13 And in the midst of the seven candlesticks [one] like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. 14 His head and [his] hairs [were] white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes [were] as a flame of fire; 15 And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. 16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance [was] as the sun shineth in his strength.
Add to these scriptures the tales of Jesus being born of a virgin, and the springtime shedding of his blood on a tree to cover the sins of humanity—all tenets of the ancient pre-Christian pagan mystery religions so near and dear to the hearts of pagan Rome—and we can see why winning Roman sun worshipers over to Jesus wasn't as difficult as some Christian historians would have us believe. In fact, Christian artists borrowed the sun-halo of pre-Christian sun gods and gave it to Jesus, which is why we seldom see a painting of "the Lord" without his famous halo!
The reassignment of the ancient sun god's birth date to the Christian Jesus is a fact of history. Why it happened is also a fact of history—the big payoff from the empire in the form of government recognition, well-paid political offices for Christian clergy, masses of converts via cash incentives for pagans converting to the new religion, and the endowment of richly-adorned church buildings. (See my article How Christianity Got Its New Testament for a complete history of this subject.) But once the former sun worshipers were ensconced inside the Christian faith, it became prudent to stamp out the custom of openly venerating the sun. This early Christian hymn is but one example of Church Fathers trying to neutralize open sun worship: "The sun revealed in silence his worshippers to his Lord; it was grievous to him, a servant, to be worshipped instead of the Lord . . . But now when all knew he is a servant, in his course his Lord is worshipped . . . The day of the All-Lightening exults in his birth; a pillar of radiance which drives away, by its beams, the work of darkness. After the type of that day, . . . the radiance of our Saviour's birth, came in to sunder the darkness that was on the heart."7
Within a few generations of Constantine's time, Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople (349-ca. 407 AD) tried to put distance between his Jesus and the sun with a false argument: "But our Lord, too, is born in the month of December . . . the eighth before the calends of January (25 December) . . . But they call it the 'Birthday of the Unconquered'. Who indeed is so unconquered as Our Lord? . . . Or, if they say that it is the birthday of the Sun, He is the Sun of Justice."8 By the fifth century Pope Leo I was still battling the problem of open sun worship—in particular Christians who, on the very doorsteps of St. Peter's, would turn to adore the rising sun before entering!9
By 529 AD the adoration of the sun was but a distant memory in an empire that had made Christianity its state religion. By then Christmas, December 25th was beyond question, and became a civic holiday by order of the Emperor Justinian I (483-565). In 567, the Council of Tours proclaimed the twelve days of Christmas (December 25-January 6) as a sacred time for all Christians. Those who openly disputed the date might well find themselves standing before ecclesiastical and civil courts. At last, by imperial command, the old sun gods were reborn as Jesus Christ, and the road was paved for future generations to worship that which they knew not.
To underscore the importance of sacred caves to early Christian worship, let's note one particular sacred cave located right on Vatican Hill in Rome. In pre-Christian Rome the cave was the center of Mithraic worship until the Christian Church confiscated it in AD 376 and rededicated it to the worship of Jesus—on Jesus' alleged birthday, December 25th, no less!12
Getting back to the virgin birth, many gods in pre-Christian history were given a little extra divine boost when they were proclaimed "immaculately conceived." This all goes back to the Babylonian savior god Tammuz, who was supposedly conceived immaculately, earning his mother the title of "Eternal Virgin."13 In other words, being born of a virgin was the "in" thing in the pre-Christian religion business, so those who invented the legend of Jesus Christ decided to go with a proven formula: Like so many before her, Jesus' mother would be an impregnated virgin who birthed a savior god to die for the sins of humanity. Heck, those who made up the story even gave Jesus' virgin mother the name of a pre-Christian Semitic goddess, Mariamne, who anciently bore the title Queen of Heaven!14
Sir Gardner Wilkinson, the famous Egyptologist, gives us more insight into the pre-Christian legends of the Virgin Mary when he writes: "Thus, too, the relationship of deities in many mythologies may be recognized: representing as they do the same original idea . . . 'the child bearing' goddess of the Arabs and Assyrians, the Anaitis of Persia, the Syrian Astarte, and Venus-Urania, Cybele, and 'the Queen of Heaven' the 'Mother of the Child' found in Western Asia, Egypt, India, ancient Italy, and even in Mexico, and the prolific Diana of Ephesus . . . " Comparing the Virgin Mary to very popular mother goddesses (such as Isis), Sir Gardner concludes that "modern custom has made a variety of madonnas from one virgin."15 How right Sir Gardner was!
The Hittites had Wurusemu, Queen of Heaven; the Irish had Dechtere, the mother goddess who conceived the soul of the sun god Lug, reborn from her mouth, thus causing her to remain a perpetual virgin queen.16 In Ephesus she was Diana, the same virgin mother goddess mentioned by St. Paul in Acts. She, like the modern Virgin Mary was a queen of heaven and associated with the moon. Her feast day was on August 15th, the same day as the Christian feast of the Assumption of Mary. All of this is important to the present day Christmas celebration since the Virgin Mary, like the multitude of pre-Christian madonnas before her, is a vital ingredient in the “Nativity” legend!
Since her story is vital, I’ll ask that the reader forgive me if I go into some involved background on pre-Christian virgin mother goddesses here. (If you feel you’ve had enough, then skip down a few pages and pickup the story there!)
To understand Mary’s true place in the Christian Nativity, let's first see how Christian writer Greg Dues explains her importance in his Catholic Customs and Traditions: "Little children built Mary altars [where they] crowned a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary . . . Women, men, and children carried rosaries and many prayed the rosary daily with meditation on mysteries that were thoroughly familiar. A grotto with flickering vigil lights was a familiar feature on parish grounds. An altar dedicated to Mary was an obvious fixture in every church. When the congregation sang in the vernacular, chances were that the song told of the praises of Mary. Public prayer services featured communal recitation of the rosary and litanies. Devotees followed exciting news of apparitions. They obeyed and promoted the messages of the Lady in blue. Legion of Mary members became important lay ministers in parishes."17
The above is rather mild when compared to some of the quotes we’re going to be reading in the coming pages. But the long and short of it is that the Blessed Virgin Mary is THE dominant deity of Christianity! Now this wasn’t always so. In fact, the cult of the Blessed Virgin did not originate until about the fourth century AD, or about the time that hoards of former virgin goddess-worshiping pagans flooded the ranks of Christianity. In other words Mary made her stage debut about the time the pagan-turned-Christian Constantine the Great introduced his pagan concepts to Christianity. In fact, within a hundred years of Constantine's time the veneration of Mary became an official doctrine by proclamation of the Council of Ephesus in AD 431.18 Actually, such a radical departure from the teachings of the primitive Christian Church puts one in mind of St. Paul's warning to the Galatians: "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other htan the one we preached to you let him be eternally condemned ... now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted let him be eternally condemned. Am I now trying to win the approval of men or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ." (Galatians 1:6-10)
Okay. I want to be fair to Constantine here, even if he was one of history's premiere murderous bastards. When they sought to introduce their new religion to Rome, the Christian Church Fathers would have been dead in the water had not their Gospel stories featured a carbon copy of the ancient pagan tales of a spirit-impregnated virgin giving birth to a savior god who was sacrificed for the sins of humanity. The fact is that whoever composed the prototype "gospel" story of Jesus—and there is evidence that at least some portions were either composed or heavily edited during the third century—he "borrowed" the ancient tales of Babylonia, Egypt, Greece, etc., to enhance the new Christian religion. It was a brilliant move since the immaculate conception doctrine paved the way for the birth of a universal church. Since this is something I've covered in my New Testament study, we’ll move past this point to the consequences of the pagan-inspired Gospel virgin birth narrative, by which I mean we’ll more closely examine the cult of the Blessed Virgin.
As the Christian cult of the virgin grew, so did the Virgin Mary's many titles; and it was no coincidence that her titles accumulated as former pagans from different parts of the Roman empire swelled the ranks of Christianity. Not surprisingly, these titles correspond more or less to the titles enjoyed by the numerous pre-Christian virgin mother goddesses! For instance, the Babylonian title for their goddess was Baalti (or Belti) which in English is translated "My Lady." The Greek mother goddess Hera, as well as the Egyptian virgin goddess Isis, were known as "Our Lady."19 In Egypt the virgin goddess Isis was also called "Our Lady." These all correspond to the same Latin title applied to the Virgin Mary—"Mea Domina" or "Madonna," meaning either "My Lady" or "Our Lady."20
Actually, a Christian queen of heaven really isn’t surprising given that the ancient Israelites also worshiped such a deity. Back in the book Jeremiah 17:17 we read of a time when the Israelites were worshiping the same deity, although under a different name: "Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judea and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes of bread for the queen of heaven."21 (One may wonder if it was just coincidence that the an old Christian European custom once included making cakes to honor their queen of heaven on her sacred feast day? The answer is “no—it goes back to the mother goddess of ancient Babylon!” In fact, despite Jeremiah’s warning, the Jewish people retained a form of mother goddess worship that has remained right down to the present day, especially in the teachings of the Kabbalah. For more information on this topic, see footnote 22.)22
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