Talk:Pope Julius I

Rewriting the Christmas Section
I am planning on rewriting the Christmas section as in its current state it implies that the pope at this time mainly made the decision to officially set Christmas day to the 25th of December due to its relation to Sol Invicta and Saturnalia. This is a common and widespread theory but not backed up by much factual evidence. This source (https://web.archive.org/web/20121224142733/http://www.chronicon.net/chroniconfiles/Hippolytus%20and%20December%2025th.pdf) discusses how Hippolytus of Rome in his Commentary on Daniel (who was writing in the early 200’s AD, ~70 years before Aurelian) believed that Jesus was born on the 25th of December 5500 years after Adam. Hippolytus also believed Jesus was conceived on March 25th, the Spring Equinox and a Passover. Therefore, born exactly nine months later on what the Romans believed was the winter solstice (page 14). The source ‘The Book of Christmas By Jane Struthers’ mentions this in part in the Making a date section.

There is also an argument from early biblical sources citing the Gospel of Luke. At the start of the gospel Zacharias a priest of the house Abijah preys to the lord in the temple and conceives a child with his elderly wife, the child is John the Baptist and is six months older than Jesus. Priests of the course of Abijah served on the 8th and 32nd weeks. The Protoevangelium of James (http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/infancyjames-roberts.html section 8) records that this was around the day of atonement. So, it must have been on the 32nd week at the end of September. Making John born in June and Jesus born in December (full explanation https://taylormarshall.com/2012/12/yes-christ-was-really-born-on-december.html).

There is also evidence of correspondence between a patriarch in the east asking the pope to clarify when the ancient records stored in Rome indicate that Jesus’ birthday was (https://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2018/12/21/dubious-claims-pope-julius-i-decided-that-jesus-was-born-on-25-december/). Billgates2 (talk) 18:58, 1 January 2020 (UTC)