When was Jesus born?

For some years now various "experts" have been telling us that Jesus was, in all likelihood, not born on the twenty-fifth day of December. These experts tell us that the Church supplanted the pagan celebrations of the winter solstice with the celebrations of the birth of Christ.

I questioned these claims when first I heard them and wondered how the Church could simply declare the date of Christ's birth when surely there were those at the time who - if the date were false - would have known otherwise.

Fr. Longenecker directs us to an excellent article refuting such a claim. There is, however, one correction that must be made to the article. The author, Andrew McGowen, says: "The earliest mention of December 25 as Jesus’ birthday comes from a mid-fourth-century Roman almanac that lists the death dates of various Christian bishops and martyrs."

Just a few days ago, Pope Benedict XVI reminded us that, in actuality, the earliest mention of December 25 as the date of Jesus' birth (at least that has come down to us) is found in the writings of Hippolytus of Rome around the year A.D. 204.