5
What precludes the acceptance of this date?
Luke: At the time of his birth “there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night” (ii, 8).
Shepherds did not abide in the field with their flocks at night in mid-winter. The Rev. Cunningham Geikie, D. D., a leading English orthodox authority on Christ, says:
“One knows how wretched even Rome is in winter and Palestine is much worse during hard weather. Nor is it likely that shepherds would lie out through the night, except during unseasonably fine weather” (Christmas at Bethlehem, in Deems’ Holydays and Holidays, p. 405).
“The nativity of Jesus in December should be given up.”—Dr. Adam Clarke.
In regard to the date of Christ’s birth Dr. Farrar says: “It must be admitted that we cannot demonstrate the exact year of the nativity.... As to the day and month of the nativity it is certain that they can never be recovered; they were absolutely unknown to the early fathers, and there is scarcely one month of the year which has not been fixed upon as probable by modern critics.”
The inability of Christians to determine the date of Christ’s birth is one of the strongest proofs of his non-existence as a historical character. Were the story of his miraculous birth and marvelous life true the date of his birth would have been preserved and would be today, the best authenticated fact in history.