this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2023
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Oh yes, because xmas trees, Santa and reindeer are heavy themes in the Bible....
Santa died for our sins
You didn't hear it from me, but word on the street is Jesus faked his death and has been living under the false identity of Santa.
Dang, no wonder he can do it all in one night. It finally makes sense!
So that whole bit of dead for three days was basically just really good dope.
The Bible was written by dyslexics. It’s actually about dogs and Santa.
I want that on a t-shirt.
Okay but Santa is just a prophet. We should put him upside down.
Santa/Sinterklaas is based on a Christian bishop and patron Saint who is attributed with giving gifts in secret.
To me Xmas is not a religious event. The midnight mass is religious. But the whole bit with Santa, the tree, and the presents. No.
Also Jesus was born during tax season, not the winter solstice.
Born or re-born or re-erected or whatever?
He was always erected
But like, their local tax season, right? From what I remember they had travelled to pay taxes, but the Romans didn't wait until April like America does.
Actually, did some quick searching and it looks like the Romans were forcing (I think Jewish people, but it may also have been regional? Sources are giving me different things and I can't be bothered to log into my account that gives me access to scholarly articles) people to register for a new tax. Since the Romans at the time would usually tax in cycles of like, 5-15 years, if they followed a structured system at all (It also seems like there wasn't income tax or taxes in individual assets, but they would tax transactions and import/exports mostly). But If I was going to set something like that up, I'd do the registration due near the end of the year. I think they were using the Julian Calendar whish largely lines up with the current day calendar, at least in the year end/beginning. Best guess from what I've seen is they likely were there during the Jewish holidays right after the fall harvest.
So it seems like they waited until after the harvest was done, then had to travel to get registered by end of year and got there and popped out baby jesus around Sept/Oct (ish).
Of course that's assuming any of those stories have any validity. Historical consensus is coming around to admitting how little evidence for a biblical Jesus there actually is. Since there are no contemporary writings and all of them were telling this story decades, if not centuries later, it's super easy to just line up your stories with the way things happened in the past.
The shepherds were out with their flocks according to the New Testament. That doesn't happen in winter, it happens in spring.
I saw that argument and they actually said they put them out after Passover (in spring) then bring them back in when it gets cold. That's months, right? And they're not exactly in frigid climes- definitely closer to temperate, so that easily extends well into the late fall.
Again though, that was written later (A lot later) by someone (who wasn't there) specifically to try and give a time frame. There's no way it was an actual description of what happened, but them setting a scene ... that has trouble standing up to historical critique.
If I recall correctly, the whole tax thing didn’t actually happen at that time as far as we know because there aren’t any contemporary records of it happening at that time.
I did think that, but wasn't sure if the tree was something about birth or the presents were a 3 wise men thing. 90% sure the tree is a pagan thing and every hardcore Christian should abolish it from their home.
Seriously. Christmas has become ~85% secularized in the US.
Of course it is - its a commercial holiday and they wanna sell to everyone
I mean technically Santa was a notable party to a major doctrinal synod on the theological nature of the Trinity, not exactly biblical in a literal sense but going down in history for cold clocking an archbishop for arguing that the father is the son's greater since he begat the son IMO qualifies you to be considered a prominent part of the theology of your religion.