I was reading an interesting item re the reason Christmas was held at, er Christmas. This was written by the excellent Psephizo, or Ian Paul if you prefer. This was a page discussing the date of Christmas as found by researching a variety of records, mostly Jewish, and attempting to discover if December is the real date or ought it to be another. This is well worth a read.
Some claim that the date was chosen to cover over the debauchery of the annual sol invictus however, Andrew McGowan, of Yale, has proved this was an anti-Christmas forgery.
Psephizo discusses the various claims, and works through the ideas that indicate the actual time Jesus came to earth. This of course could be wrong! We have no actual date, it was not the done thing in those days, and we have to make educated guesses. Here we have some good guesses. Well worth a read.
Psephizo also has his own ideas about whether Jesus was actually born in a stable. This is another good read, again we cannot be sure as we must guess all too often, however, this is worth a read.
The unfortunate western image of a brown hut does not fit in with near eastern practice, so must be rejected. We tend to see things from our own perspective, but must remember Jesus was born in Judea.
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