The Lead

Which came first? The Annunciation or Christmas? Given a nine month gestation, was March 25th chosen first as the date of the Annunciation, or was December 25th chosen first as the date of Christ's birth?

Biblical Archaelogy:

Around 200 C.E. Tertullian of Carthage reported the calculation that the 14th of Nisan (the day of the crucifixion according to the Gospel of John) in the year Jesus diedc was equivalent to March 25 in the Roman (solar) calendar.9 March 25 is, of course, nine months before December 25; it was later recognized as the Feast of the Annunciation—the commemoration of Jesus’ conception.10 Thus, Jesus was believed to have been conceived and crucified on the same day of the year. Exactly nine months later, Jesus was born, on December 25.d

This idea appears in an anonymous Christian treatise titled On Solstices and Equinoxes, which appears to come from fourth-century North Africa. The treatise states: “Therefore our Lord was conceived on the eighth of the kalends of April in the month of March [March 25], which is the day of the passion of the Lord and of his conception. For on that day he was conceived on the same he suffered.”11 Based on this, the treatise dates Jesus’ birth to the winter solstice.

Augustine, too, was familiar with this association. In On the Trinity (c. 399–419) he writes: “For he [Jesus] is believed to have been conceived on the 25th of March, upon which day also he suffered; so the womb of the Virgin, in which he was conceived, where no one of mortals was begotten, corresponds to the new grave in which he was buried, wherein was never man laid, neither before him nor since. ...
...
Connecting Jesus’ conception and death in this way will certainly seem odd to modern readers, but it reflects ancient and medieval understandings of the whole of salvation being bound up together. One of the most poignant expressions of this belief is found in Christian art. ...

QUESTION: To this modern reader the connection does not seem odd. It feels right. Does it seem odd to you?

Comments (9)

It does seem right. Just as he was bound in swaddling clothes in the manger, so he was bound in a shroud in the tomb. The whole of salvation is bound: conception, birth, life, suffering, death, resurrection. And ours too.

Posted by Paul Fromberg | December 23, 2010 1:27 PM

Indeed, Paul. If one looks closely at Byzantine and medieval iconography of Christ Jesus' birth, one notices that, more often than not, the manger rather resembles a sarcophagus, and the swaddling clothes resemble a burial winding sheet: the Christ Child born in Bethlehem is the one who has come to die and rise again, and the myrrh the Magi offer among their gifts to him foretokens one who will be embalmed and laid in a tomb to break the grip of sin, death and the devil on the human race he has joined by virtue of his conception and birth from Mary the Virgin.

Posted by Gregory Orloff | December 23, 2010 1:56 PM

Or as Luther put it, the wood of the manger is the wood of the cross

Posted by Jonathan | December 23, 2010 2:14 PM

See also an article by a respected Anglican Scholar, Dr. Andrew McGowan at

http://www.bib-arch.org/e-features/christmas.asp

J. Michael Povey, Sarasota, FL

Posted by jmo | December 23, 2010 3:53 PM

This makes much more sense to me than the early Church copying and competing with a pagan festival. Since Tom Talley first made the argument in his book on the history of the Church Year, I have maintained the good sense of this proposal on symbolic grounds, at least. Ron Miller

Posted by Ron | December 23, 2010 4:00 PM

As was, I think, recently pointed out on The Lead, the stable was more like a cave.

After his cruxifixion Jesus' body was laid in a cave because there was no place to bury him during Passover.

Posted by John B. Chilton | December 23, 2010 4:02 PM

The lyrics of the carol "The Holly and the Ivy" also link Jesus' birth and death.

Posted by Eugene Pagano | December 23, 2010 4:33 PM

Well, it gets that part of the story coherent, but now what can we do to make sense of the date of the Crucifixion in the light of all that gets built up around it, tropewise? Having them both in August or September might work out better and May is not bad for a birth date.

Posted by F.Harry Stowe | December 23, 2010 10:06 PM

There is an orthodox hymn, "When Jesus Was a Little Child" that links both the Nativity and the Crucifixion. Not precisely the same, but still showing the close conception throughout Christianity of Jesus' life as having profoundest meaning in its totality.

Posted by MarkBrunson | December 23, 2010 11:50 PM

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