The Christian religion in its early form is the work and expression
of the Christian church. But we cannot say that, speaking of Jesus as an
individual man, we know that he explicitly intended to found the
Christian church.” Now that we have looked at Christmas and the views of
some scholars concerning the status and historicity of Jesus, let us
harvest the main fruits of our discourse.
First of all, whatever the historical status of Jesus of Nazareth, it
is incontrovertible that Christmas, as it is being celebrated
worldwide, has no biblical warrant. It is the crystallisation of
superstitious ideas and practices drawn from ancient Rome and other
Mediterranean communities that constitute the substance of the Gospels.
The Bible does not contain a precise statement of the actual day and
month when Jesus was born.
It follows that Christmas celebration is not based on actual
historical event. We have noted already how Pope Julius 1 imposed that
date on Christendom, although the Jehovah’s Witnesses have consistently
refused to mark the birthday of Jesus on December 25, or on any other
day, because, according to the sect, he never commanded his followers to
celebrate it. A devout Christian is likely to consider it sacrilegious
if anyone expresses scepticism about whether Jesus of the Gospels
actually lived.
However, Christian dogmatism and sentiments apart, there is no solid
evidence to back the claim that he did, or that the narratives in
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are historical records of real events.
Indeed, there is abundant evidence indicating that Jesus is a composite
figure created from the synthesis of ancient Egyptian, Persian, Greek,
and Roman mythological traditions, blended with some strand of the
messianic tradition in Judaism. These facts, and more, are well known to
serious students of the New Testament.
Therefore, as believers celebrate Christmas, they should bear in mind
that the event is more of mythology and fantasy than reality. And no
matter how blasphemous it might appear to the faithful, they should know
that there are good reasons for thinking that Jesus Christ, as depicted
in the New Testament, is a myth as well. There might well have been a
bohemian Jewish rabbi born around 4 B.C., who taught a form of Judaism
different from the conventional version. But all the supernatural
attributes and occurrences attributed to Jesus in The Bible were derived
from, and are analogous to, superstitions and legends in ancient
Mediterranean and Oriental worlds.
Take the story of virgin birth, which is very popular in many
antiquated communities. In ancient Egyptian mythology, for instance, the
god, Toth, was said to announce the forthcoming birth of a son to the
virgin-queen Mautmes. In Persian mythology, Saoshyas, the future savior
of mankind and conqueror of death, was miraculously conceived by his
virgin-mother from the seed of Zarathustra, who himself was born of a
fifteen year old virgin, Dughdova, after the latter had been visited by a
shaft of light from the supernatural realm. Indian mythology proclaims
that Krishna was born from the rib of a virgin who belonged to the royal
line of Devaci. Even Buddha was said to have been born through divine
intervention, not through the natural process. It is clear, from the
foregoing, that the myth of virgin birth is not unique to Christianity.
We have examined the Christian celebration, Christmas, and concluded
that it is not biblical. We have thrown doubt on the historicity of the
character named Jesus, indicated that even if there was one, he probably
was not born in December 25, and drawn attention to the fact that the
miraculous stories in the gospels stories about Jesus also exist in
other world religions. The implication of all this is that the
historical basis of Christmas celebrations is extremely weak.
Evidently, belief in Jesus, his virgin birth and alleged mission on
earth are both mythological and eschatological at the same time. They
are mythological because the key events, such as his virgin birth and
purported resurrection, are ruled out by science. They are
eschatological given the fact that Jesus’ birth is ultimately meaningful
because it has a redemptive mission for believers in the so-called
judgment or last day when God would judge humankind. For Christians, the
significance of Jesus’ birth does not lie in its historicity or in its
agreement with the research findings of science. Rather, the “coming of
the son of man” is a momentous event in human history since it provides a
unique opportunity for humans, especially “the chosen ones,” to be
reconciled with God after the Original Sin.
Yet, for an unapologetic unbeliever like me, the Jesus narratives
instantiate the futile efforts of humanity to project its fears, hopes,
anxieties, dreams and aspirations to an imaginary divine realm where the
glaring evils and imperfections in the real world would be eliminated.
It is unfortunate that a religion, which ought to help humanity grow
spiritually, has become an instrument of deceit, glorification of
self-indulgent materialism, and plain fraud. Ordinarily, one would wish
that Christianity, and therewith, the Christmas celebrations associated
with it, would be consigned to the dustbin of history. Unfortunately,
that is not likely to happen any time soon, because religion is an
attempts to satisfy, in a grossly inadequate and mostly irrational
manner I must say, certain existential needs of humans. Moreover, as
long as human beings continue to waste scare resources of the earth in
planning to kill each other instead of deploying their incredible
cognitive and emotional intelligence to reduce drastically both manmade
and existential evils, religion will continue to play an important role
in the lives of billions of people globally.
With specific reference to the Nigerian situation, it is obvious that
for millions of people, this year’s celebrations would not be as
enjoyable as they expected at the beginning of the year. Things are
generally difficult, and the government of President Muhammadu Buhari is
grappling with the serious challenges of nation building in a
stochastic economic environment characterised by dwindling crude oil
prices and steady decline in the value of the naira in relation to other
currencies such as the dollar, pound sterling and euro.
Fortunately, Nigerians are very resilient people. Despite the
hardships, people would eat, drink and make merry during Christmas. In
my opinion, however, the best way to celebrate the occasion is for those
that have to share with those that do not have. It is silly for one to
have too much to drink, too much to eat and even throw away when there
are thousands of people who do not have enough to eat and enjoy the
festive season. At this time, and always, we should be our brothers’
keepers, in the knowledge that inspite of our differences, we are all
members of the same family who need one another to be fully human. Merry
Christmas in arrears to everyone. Concluded.
By Douglas Anele
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