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A.D. 1661
(Theanthropos) or God made man, a tract proving the nativity of our Saviour to be on the 25th of December
John Selden
"One of the most learned men of the seventeenth century" "A resolved and serious Christian"
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Editor's Note: Selden (A.D. 1584-1654) was one of the most illustrious individuals of his day. Many of his books are still in print after over 400 years. Among his many works is "THEATHROPOS", God Made Man, a tract proving the nativity of Christ to be on the 25th of December," published posthumously in 1661.
Selden’s basic argument is that birth of Christ is historically associated in the church with December 25th and the winter solstice. However, the received date of the solstice by the civil calendar did not coincide with the actual event, but anticipated the solstice by about two days, the people retaining their accustomed dates of celebration in preference to strict astronomical event. Moreover, the Julian calendar lost 11 minutes in a year, so that by the end of 131 years, the civil calendar was out of synch with the solar year by one full day, and by the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325, it was out of synch by four days. In order to establish the proper, uniform observance of Easter, the Council was thus compelled to correct the received date of the vernal equinox from March 25th to March 21st. This amendment necessarily entailed an alteration in the received date of the winter solstice from December 25th to December 21st or 22nd (for these always stand in fixed relation one to another). But as the celebration of Christ's birth has always stood at December 25th and was not changed by the Council despite its having changed the observance of Easter, the Feast of the Nativity necessarily hales from a time earlier than A.D. 325. For the church would not have instituted a new feast associated with the solstice based upon an old error it had just dispelled. By then showing that the church in ages preceding the Council of Nicaea knew that the received date of the vernal equinox was incorrect (and therefore also the date of the winter solstice), Selden is able to carry the association of the Nativity with the December 25th winter solstice back to apostolic times. If we can think of two lines converging at or near the point of Christ’s birth, the one entitled “December 25th” and the other “Winter Solstice”, but growing father apart like a beacon as they extend into the modern era, until A.D. 325 when there are four days between them, this would conceptualize the premise of Selden’s argument. For it is at the point where these three factors were deemed to coincide – Dec. 25th, the solstice, and Christ’s birth – that the association must begin, and not later when it was known that these events had moved progressively further apart. And if I may be so bold as to add, by consigning these three factors to a time in history, after which their convergence grew more and more remote, the error of the Julian calendar thus helps prove the Dec. 25th, 2 B.C., birth of Christ!
To read a copy of the original 1661 tract, click here.
To read a newly typeset facimile edition of the tract, click here (coming soon).
For an abridged version,. which appeared in the Orthodox Churchman, November 1802, pp. 354-360, click here
For a biography of Selden (pp. 317-332), General Biographical Dictionary, Vol. XXVII (1816) pp. 317-332, click here.
For a brief out line of Selden's life taken from the posthumus publication "Table Talk," click here.
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Adoration of the Shepherds
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