Publisher's Synopsis
For many centuries the western world has celebrated Christmas on December 25th. Some have wondered how this date was determined; it has been suggested that the early Church adopted the timing of pagan festivals associated with winter solstice, supplanting them with the celebration of the birth of the Light of the World, and that it is therefore unlikely that the date we have come to associate with the birth of Christ has any basis in historical reality. The author explores and correlates several lines of evidence from both scriptural and secular sources (as ancient as the writings of Josephus and as modern as NASA's lunar eclipse charts) to examine the accuracy of the date we have traditionally celebrated as Christmas. The author also discusses the challenges in understanding and aligning ancient and modern calendars and the 'missing' year from the first decade BC in order to arrive at a conclusion as to the year of the birth of our Lord.
