This Christ or Messiah had been promised by the prophets for centuries. Now at last the Messiah had come. Long ago God had promised David that one of his descendants would sit on his throne and reign over God's people Acts 2: When we confess that Jesus is the Christ, we acknowledge that the child born in Bethlehem is King of kings and Lord of lords. He said, "The Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost" Luke The book of Hebrews has this important statement: And having been made perfect he became to all those who obey him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
Melchizedek was both king and priest in Salem Genesis Jesus could be both king and priest in heaven and earth, and the source of eternal salvation, because he came "to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself" Hebrews 9: It is this fact that makes the Bethlehem story so much more meaningful. When we confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, we acknowledge that the flesh and blood of that little baby was purposed to be sacrificed as our only means of salvation 1John 2: Luke's Christology centers on the dialectics of the dual natures of the earthly and heavenly manifestations of existence of the Christ, while Matthew's Christology focuses on the mission of Jesus and his role as the savior.
The belief in the divinity of Jesus leads to the question: Some of the debates involved the title Theotokos God bearer for the Virgin Mary and began to illustrate the impact of Mariology on Christology. Some of these viewpoints were eventually declared as heresies , others led to schisms and the formation of new branches of the Church. The salvific emphasis of Matthew 1: A number of ecumenical councils were convened in the 4th and 5th centuries to deal with these issues. The Council of Ephesus debated hypostasis co-existing natures versus Monophysitism only one nature versus Miaphysitism two natures united as one versus Nestorianism disunion of two natures.
In Chalcedon the hypostatic union was decreed, namely that Jesus is both fully divine and fully human, making this part of the creed of Orthodox Christianity. In the 5th century, leading Church Father Pope Leo I used the nativity as a key element of his theology.
Who Was Born in Bethlehem? The Son of God, Christ the Lord, Jesus the Saviour
Leo gave 10 sermons on the nativity and 7 have survived, the one on December 25, demonstrates his concern to increase the importance of the feast of nativity and along with it emphasize the two natures of Christ in defense of the Christological doctrine of hypostatic union. Thus Leo used the occasion of the Nativity feast to establish boundaries for what could be considered a heresy regarding the birth and nature of Christ. In the 13th century Saint Thomas Aquinas addressed the Christologocal attribution of the nativity: Should it be attributed to the person the Word or only to the assumed human nature of that person.
Aquinas treated nativity in 8 separate articles in Summa Theologica each posing a separate question, e. This approach also resolved the Mariological problem of Mary receiving the title of Theotokos for under this scenario she is the " Mother of God ". During the Reformation , John Calvin argued that Jesus was not sanctified to be "God manifested as Incarnate" Deus manifestatus in carne only due to his Virgin Birth, but through the action of the Holy Spirit at the instant of his birth. Thus Calvin argued that Jesus was exempt from original sin because he was sanctified at the moment of birth so that his generation was without blemish; as generation has been blemishless before the fall of Adam.
In the 1st and 2nd centuries, the Lord's Day Sunday was the earliest Christian celebration and included a number of theological themes. In the 2nd century, the Resurrection of Jesus became a separate feast as Easter and in the same century Epiphany began to be celebrated in the Churches of the East on January 6. The earliest source stating December 25 as the date of birth of Jesus was Hippolytus of Rome — , written very early in the 3rd century, based on the assumption that the conception of Jesus took place at the Spring equinox which he placed on March 25, and then added nine months.
The Chronography of illuminated manuscript compiled in Rome includes an early reference to the celebration of a Nativity feast.
In a sermon delivered in Antioch on December 25, c. In a sermon in , Gregory of Nyssa specifically related the feast of Nativity with that of the martyrdom of Saint Stephen , celebrated a day later. By the feast was also held in Iconium on that day. Pope Leo I established a feast of the "Mystery of Incarnation" in the 5th century, in effect as the first formal feast for the Nativity of Jesus.
In the 14th and 15th centuries, the theological importance of the Nativity of Jesus, was coupled with an emphasis on the loving nature of Child Jesus in sermons by figures such as Jean Gerson. In his sermons Gerson emphasized the loving nature of Jesus at his Nativity, as well as his cosmic plan for the salvation of mankind. By the early part of the 20th century, Christmas had become a "cultural signature" of Christianity and indeed of the Western culture even in countries such as the United States which are officially non-religious.
By the beginning of the 21st century these countries began to pay more attention to the sensitivities of non-Christians during the festivities at the end of the calendar year. Early Christians viewed Jesus as "the Lord" and the word Kyrios appears over times in the New Testament , referring to him. This image persisted among Christians as the predominant perception of Jesus for a number of centuries.
Jesus was their Lord and Master who was to be served with all their hearts and who would one day judge their actions throughout their lives. The lordship attributes associated with the Kyrios image of Jesus also implied his power over all creation. The 13th century witnessed a major turning point in the development of a new "tender image of Jesus" within Christianity, as the Franciscans began to emphasize the humility of Jesus both at his birth and his death.
The construction of the Nativity scene by Saint Francis of Assisi was instrumental in portraying a softer image of Jesus that contrasted with the powerful and radiant image at the Transfiguration , and emphasized how God had taken a humble path to his own birth. One element of the Franciscan approach was the emphasis on the humility of Jesus and the poverty of his birth: Thus by the 13th century the tender joys of the Nativity of Jesus were added to the agony of his Crucifixion and a whole new range of approved religious emotions were ushered in, with wide-ranging cultural impacts for centuries thereafter.
On one hand the introduction of the Nativity scene encouraged the tender image of Jesus, while on the other hand Francis of Assisi himself had a deep attachment to the sufferings of Jesus on the Cross and was said to have received the Stigmata as an expression of that love. The dual nature of Franciscan piety based both on joy of Nativity and the sacrifice at Calvary had a deep appeal among city dwellers and as the Franciscan Friars travelled, these emotions spread across the world, transforming the Kyrios image of Jesus to a more tender, loving, and compassionate image.
According to Archbishop Rowan Williams this transformation, accompanied by the proliferation of the tender image of Jesus in Madonna and Child paintings made an important impact within the Christian Ministry by allowing Christians to feel the living presence of Jesus as a loving figure "who is always there to harbor and nurture those who turn to him for help.
Luke's Nativity text has given rise to four well known canticles: The Magnificat, in Luke 1: The three canticles Benedictus, Nuc Dimittis and the Magnificat, if not originating with Luke himself, may have their roots in the earliest Christian liturgical services in Jerusalem, but their exact origins remain unknown.
The earliest artistic depictions of Nativity of Jesus were in the catacombs and on sarcophagi in Rome. As Gentile visitors, the Magi were popular in these scenes, representing the significance of the arrival of the Messiah to all peoples. The ox and ass were also taken to symbolize the Jews and the Gentiles, and have remained a constant since the earliest depictions.
Mary was soon seated on a throne as the Magi visited. Depictions of the Nativity soon became a normal component of cycles in art illustrating both the Life of Christ and the Life of the Virgin. Nativity images also carry the message of redemption: God's unification with matter forms the mystery of the Incarnation, a turning point in the Christian perspective on Salvation.
In the Eastern Church icons of Nativity often correspond to specific hymns to Mary , e. First the event portrays the mystery of incarnation as a foundation for the Christian faith, and the combined nature of Christ as Divine and human. Secondly, it relates the event to the natural life of the world, and its consequences for humanity. Like 1st century Jews, early Christians rejected the use of musical instruments in religious ceremonies and instead relied on chants and plainsong leading to the use of the term a cappella in the chapel for these chants.
One of the earliest Nativity hymns was Veni redemptor gentium composed by Saint Ambrose in Milan in the 4th century. By the beginning of the 5th century, the Spanish poet Prudentius had written "From the Heart of the Father" where the ninth stanza focused on the Nativity and portrayed Jesus as the creator of the universe. In the 5th century the Gallic poet Sedulius composed "From the lands that see the Sun arise" in which the humility of the birth of Jesus was portrayed. Saint Romanus the Melodist had a dream of the Virgin Mary the night before the feast of the Nativity, and when he woke up the next morning, composed his first hymn "On the Nativity" and continued composing hymns perhaps several hundred to the end of his life.
Sophronius in the 7th century. The largest body of musical works about Christ in which he does not speak are about the Nativity. A large body of liturgical music , as well as a great deal of para-liturgical texts, Carols and folk music exist about the Nativity of Jesus. The Christmas Carols have come to be viewed as a cultural-signature of the Nativity of Jesus. Most musical Nativity narrations are not biblical and did not come about until church music assimilated opera in the 17th century.
But thereafter there was a torrent of new music, e. And Lisz's Christus , etc. Many historical scholars maintain the traditional view that the two accounts are historically accurate and do not contradict each other, pointing to the similarities between the two accounts, [] such as the birthplace of Bethlehem and the virgin birth. George Kilpatrick and, separately, Michael Patella state that a comparison of the nativity accounts of Luke and Matthew show common elements in terms of the virgin birth, the birth at Bethlehem, and the upbringing at Nazareth, and that although there are differences in the accounts of the nativity in Luke and Matthew, a general narrative may be constructed by combining the two.
Neither Luke nor Matthew claims their birth narratives are based on direct testimony. Harrington expresses the view that due to the scarcity of ancient records, a number of issues regarding the historicity of some nativity episodes can never be fully determined, and that the more important task is deciding what the nativity narratives meant to the early Christian communities.
A number of biblical scholars, have attempted to show how the text from both narratives can be interwoven as a gospel harmony to create one account that begins with a trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem, where Jesus is born, followed by the flight to Egypt, and ending with a return to Nazareth. Many modern scholars consider the birth narratives unhistorical because they are laced with theology and present two different accounts.
Annunciation to Mary in Nazareth 2. Census of Quirinius 6—7 CE 3. Joseph and Mary travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem 4. Birth of Jesus in Bethlehem 5. Annunciation to the shepherds in the fields 6. Adoration of the shepherds in Bethlehem 7. Presentation of Jesus at the Temple in Jerusalem — — — — 8. Joseph, Mary and Jesus return home to Nazareth. Annunciation to Joseph — — 2.
Birth of Jesus in Bethlehem 3. Magi visit Herod in Jerusalem 4. Adoration of the Magi in Bethlehem — 5. Joseph, Mary and Jesus' Flight into Egypt 6. Massacre of the Innocents in Bethlehem 7. Death of Herod 4 BCE 8. Joseph, Mary and Jesus return to Israel 9. Joseph, Mary and Jesus relocate to Nazareth. Most modern scholars accept the Marcan priority hypothesis, that the Luke and Matthew accounts are based on the Gospel of Mark , but that the birth narratives come from the evangelists' independent sources, known as M source for Matthew and L source for Luke, which were added later.
Scholars consider the accounts in Luke and Matthew as explaining the birth in Bethlehem in different ways, giving separate genealogies of Jesus and probably not historical.
Christ Is Born In Bethlehem Lyrics
Sanders dismiss the accounts as pious fiction , Raymond E. Brown sees them as having been constructed from historical traditions which predate the Gospels. Tarrech states that Chilton's hypothesis has no support in either the Jewish or Christian sources, although Chilton seems to take seriously the statement in Luke 2: Sanders considers Luke's census, for which everyone returned to their ancestral home, not historically credible, as this was contrary to Roman practice; they would not have uprooted everyone from their homes and farms in the Empire by forcing them to return to their ancestral cities.
Moreover, people were not able to trace their own lineages back 42 generations. Many scholars do not see the Luke and Matthew nativity stories as historically factual. For instance, Matthew pays far more attention to the name of the child and its theological implications than the actual birth event itself. Jesus being born near the end of Herod's reign and his father being named Joseph are considered historically plausible. According to Paul L Maier , most modern biographies of Herod do not believe the massacre took place.
Sanders characterizes Josephus' writing as dwelling on Herod's cruelty, thus suggesting that Josephus would probably have included the event if it had occurred. There are writers who defend the historicity of the massacre. France states that the massacre was a low magnitude event of a nature that would not have demanded the attention of Josephus but was in line with Herod's character.
Maier argues that Bethlehem was small, and the massacre would have been too small for Josephus to have heard of it given that it allegedly took place over 40 years before his own birth. Blomberg also state that Bethlehem was a very small village with few inhabitants, and the massacre would have involved too few children to have been recorded by historians in general. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other uses, see Nativity of Jesus disambiguation. Life in art Depiction Jesuism. Nazarene title and Nazarene sect. Nativity of Jesus in art.
Christmas music and Nativity play.
Nativity of Jesus
Massacre of the Innocents. Niswonger IBN pp. The Birth of Jesus According to the Gospels. The Birth of the Messiah: This teaching by Rabbi Mike L Short. Christians and the Holy Places: The Myth of Jewish-Christian Origins. Origen, Contra Celsum 1. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. Mary in the New Testament: The New American Commentary: Campbell pp. Eerdmans, , XIV, pp. David Willis Published by E. McKnight; Roger Aubrey Bullard Mercer Dictionary of the Bible. Retrieved July 10, Biblical And Historical by Mini S. Journal of Roman Studies. Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies.
Roberts Can We Trust the Gospels?: Volume 3 Abingdon Press, Westminster John Knox Press.
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The acts of Jesus: The historical figure of Jesus. Sanders discusses both birth narratives in detail, contrasts them, and judges them not historical on pp.
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- Six Songs, op. 20, no. 5: Tis This That Gives the Silvry Shade (Das macht das dunkelgrüne Laub).
The Historical Figure of Jesus. Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity. Archaeological Institute of America. Retrieved 24 November Eerdmans Publishing Company , pp. Two Visions Harper One, page Contemporary Perspectives by Brennan R. Oxford University Press US, Habermas 1 July An Introduction and Survey by Craig L. In Petersen, David L. The Gospel of Matthew in current study.
The New Testament in its literary environment. In Dunn, James D. Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible. An Introduction to the New Testament: The Character and Purpose of Luke's Christology. An introduction to the New Testament and the origins of Christianity. The Gospel of Matthew and Its Readers. Collins, Adela Yarbro Cosmology and Eschatology in Jewish and Christian Apocalypticism. In Aune, David E. The Blackwell Companion to the New Testament. Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium.
The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth.