The Church of the First Three Centuries, Or, Notices of the Lives and Opinions of the Early Fathers, with Special Reference to the Doctrine of the ... Its Late Origin and Gradual Formation - Softcover

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1880. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER II. Christmas: First Celebrated On The Fifth Of January.--UncerTainty About The Time Of Christ's Birth.--Testimony Of ClemEnt Of Alexandria.--Chrysostom's Testimony To The Late Origin Of The Festival In The East.--Dr. Milman's Statement.--OrDer Of The Christian Festivals.--Late Origin Of Christmas Explained.--No Trinitarianism In Either Of The Old Festivals. With Epiphany celebrated on the 6th of January, as obeerved at the conclusion of the last chapter, was united the festival of the birth of Christ (Christmas), at the time we first hear of it; that is, in Egypt. The first traces of it are obscure in the extreme. Clement of Alexandria, a learned Father of the Church, whom nothing seemingly escaped, and who flourished at the beginning of the third century, does not expressly mention it. His testimony, however, is important, as showing the ignorance of Christians of that period, even the best informed of them, of the time of Christ's birth. Both the day and the year were involved in uncertainty; and Clement seems to speak with no little contempt of those who undertook to fix the former. "There are those," he says, " who, with an over-busy curiosity, attempt to fix, not only the year, but the day, of our Saviour's birth; who, they say, was born in the twenty-eighth year of Augustus, on the twenty-fifth of the month Pachon"; that is, the twentieth of May. He adds soon after, "Some say that he was born on the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth of the month Pharmuthi"; that is, the nineteenth or twentieth day of April; both parties selecting the spring as the season of the nativity. And here Clement leaves the matter. The inference is plain. The day of the nativity was unknown. Whatever notice was taken of the event, was taken at the festival of the Bapti...