Day 3 Luke 3

Do sheep prove that Jesus wasn’t born on December 25th?

I really didn’t want any of you to miss this point. It is a bit lengthy but I feel it is necessary for clarity and the given conjecture from the secular world verbal kickback. Luke records that when Jesus was born an angel of the Lord directed a group of shepherds to go find him. Luke introduces this group of shepherds by saying: And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. Luke 2:8

This has led to a common argument that Jesus couldn’t have been born on December 25th. (It is the date that was assigned by the church fathers to counter the pagan festivals at the time. We don’t know the exact calendar date of the birth of Christ.)

Why? Because it was supposedly too cold for the shepherds to pasture their flocks at night in late December. Is this true? Not on your life. Sheep definitely were pastured in the vicinity of Bethlehem. There are two sites today that claim to be the sheep pastures mentioned in Luke. One is Catholic and the other Greek orthodox neither of which can be substantiated. And of course there are shrines on both sites. I’ve got to believe that God is laughing at this.

Now about the argument that it was too cold to be grazing sheep on December 25th. . . You know those fashionable fleece jackets that are really popular that people wear to keep from being too cold? The ones that return between five and six million hits on Google? You know where the stuff those fleece jackets are made of comes from? That’s right! Sheep! (And/or goats.) It turns out that God decided to have sheep grow this amazing stuff called wool. This wool stuff not only makes sheep soft and fun for children to touch at petting zoos, it also keeps them warm—just like it keeps us warm once we shear it off them. In fact, wool is one of the main reasons that we keep sheep in the first place.

Anybody want to say it was too cold for that sheep to withstand the rigors of a December night in the vicinity of Jerusalem, where the average nightly low for such nights (today) is 50 degrees Fahrenheitt? So maybe we want to be a little careful about declaring it “too cold” to keep sheep outdoors in the Jerusalem-Bethlehem area without, y’know, actually checking the facts.

Speaking of which . . . 

Let’s Check the Facts!

Whether or not Jesus was born on December 25th, the claim that sheep were not being grazed at this time of year is false. In fact, sheep are still grazed there at this time of year. In biblical circles, there is a famous letter written in 1967 in which a visiting scholar noted that sheep were, in fact, being pastured in Shepherds’ Field on Christmas Eve itself.

So the idea that Jesus couldn’t have been born on December 25th because of Luke’s reference to the pasturing of sheep on this night is false.

 What about the shepherds?

Of course, Luke also says the shepherds were out in the fields. Would it have been too cold for them? After all, shepherds are not naturally covered in wool. (Well, not most of them.) But they do tend to have access to wool clothing and wool blankets, and they can lie down together to keep warm. (Eccle 4:9-12) And they could build fires. John 18:18

And, y’know, 50 degrees. So yeah. Not too cold for them, either.