the real history of christmas
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Ever wonder where all the Christmas traditions come from? Wonder no more, we explain it all right here. Granted we've been known to be wrong but who's keeping score anyway?TRANSCRIPT
Mark Jefferson | www.SummerTreeDesigns.com | December 8, 2014
The Real History of Christmas YULE LOVE IT!
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Unravelling Christmas
It’s Christmas! Ahhhh, the smell of evergreen trees, apple cider and explosions of cinnamon up
your nostrils with every visit to an arts and crafts store. The time of year when we honor the
ancient tradition of burning our house down by attempting to deep fry a half frozen turkey we
bought at the 24 hour Wal‐Mart, and paying for the opportunity to force our children to sit on a fat
strangers lap, which I guess is better than the other way around. But speaking of traditions, did you
know that the quaint custom of Christmas caroling actually began with drunk and rowdy revelers
threatening people door to door looking for food and liquor? Did you know that some of the
earliest stories of our loving, warm and fuzzy Santa described him as a horrible devil name
Krampus who beat and kidnapped naughty children? I don’t know about you, but I know a few kids
who need a visit from Santa’s more sinister brother! So let’s take a look at the history of Christmas
and find out why we do what we do, you just might be surprised.
Most all of us know the Christian biblical account of Jesus and his virgin mother’s painful, pregnant
trip to Bethlehem on a donkey. Ouch. But what happened during the Christmas season before Jesus
came along?
Christmas Before Jesus
Centuries before Jesus, early Europeans were celebrating life and birth in the darkest days of winter.
In the Norse country, which I guess we can call Viking territory, this celebration was known as
Yule. Every December on the shortest day of the year when the northern hemisphere of earth is
tilted furthest from the sun, comes the winter solstice. It marks the darkest day of the year. Around
this time, ancient Norse fathers and sons would bundle up in their warmest North Face yak furs
and L.L.Bean horned duck hunting caps and drag home the biggest log they could find, bring it into
the main hall, and promptly set it on fire. Well, promptly is probably not the best word to use. I
mean can you imagine how much lighter fluid and newspaper they had to use to light a whole tree
size log? The yule log provided warmth, but it also represented the future. Each spark was said to
represent a pig or calf that would be born to their herds in the spring.
Also brought inside were holly and evergreen trees, (hmmm,
where have I heard that before?) this was the one plant that
could survive through a harsh Norse winter. So logically,
they cut it down and killed it. The evergreen provided them
with proof and hope that life persisted in this dark time.
Being impervious to the cold, frozen surroundings, unlike
humans who could starve and freeze, or run out of beer, the
evergreen trees brought into the Viking homes were a
symbol of life and a reminder not to lose heart because
spring is coming.
For as long as the yule log burned, about twelve days,
feasting and partying was the main attraction. In fact, this
was one of the few times that meat was abundant because
cattle had just been slaughtered for the long winter. There
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was a necessity to kill most of the livestock simply
because there would not be enough feed or grass to
keep them alive through the winter. They would keep
a few of them alive for breeding, but slaughtering
most of them not only kept everyone from starving
through the winter but this provided the opportunity
for a huge feast and party. Woohoo! Beef jerky for
everyone! The party would go on inside, non‐stop for
weeks, when sunlight was at its minimum, to defy the
harshness of winter.
There was also a spiritual component to the Norse
yuletide festivals. The believed they would be safe
inside by the fire, but outside were demons and spirits
to be feared. In the Germanic regions, this holiday
was named after the pagan god Oden and the people
were terrified of Oden because it was said that he flew
throughout the country at night and would decide
who would die and who would prosper the following
year.
A white guy with a long beard flying around at night
in December…. Sound familiar? In any event, everybody stayed indoors and made the best of it.
With an abundance of food and beer and things to set on fire, it actually sounds pretty good to me.
I mean aside from the whole hygiene and chamber pots, but that’s a bit T.M.I.
When In Rome
About a thousand miles away and several degrees warmer in Rome winter was less hazardous but
the festivities were no less elaborate or intoxicated. One week before the winter solstice, Romans
would begin celebrating Saturnalia which was a month long party of food and drinking. It was
named after the Roman god Saturn, a god of plenty, wealth, periodic renewal and liberation.
Saturnalia was so crazy that it was not just a drunken feast during the month of the winter solstice,
it was also a time when the social order was voluntarily reversed. Masters acted as slaves, slaves as
masters, costumes and masks were worn to role play and change identity. Think of it like
Halloween and the party mentality of New Year’s Eve in Times Square all rolled into one that lasted
an entire month. I don’t think I could last more than a single night personally, I know my limits.
During Saturnalia they had dedicated feasts, one of which was Juvenilia, the feast to celebrate and
indulge children, much like we indulge children on Christmas. It celebrated not just children but
also fertility and birth. Children were spoiled and given gifts and told it was ok to play in traffic.
But the upper classes in Rome celebrated considerably more sober, and left the rabble rousing to
the less well‐to‐do, like you and me. The rich celebrated by worshiping Mithra, the god of the
unconquerable sun. To many of the people who worshiped this sun god on his birthday, this was
considered the holiest day of the year and they worshiped accordingly. Thus, December during the
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winter solstice, specifically December 25th, was the birthday of the god of the sun Mithra, but not
yet the birth of the son of God as we know it. Mithra was said to have been born out of a rock in a
pasture, and shepherds came to worship him as an infant god in that pasture when he was born.
Wait, this is starting to sound a little familiar, isn’t it? I mean how many people get shepherds to
show up on their first birthday? My grandma had a lot of cats but I think calling her a shepherd
would be a stretch.
The First Christian Christmas
So while Romans were still worshiping the sun
god, Christianity was beginning to spread
throughout the Roman Empire. But at first,
Christian’s really didn’t celebrate Jesus’s birth
at that time, His resurrection was the focus of
Christianity in those days. But by the fourth
century, it became clear that Christians
needed to address the questions concerning
His birth, because some were falling in to the
belief that Jesus was an entirely spiritual being.
While most still believed that Jesus was
actually born as a human in the flesh, the
church decided to make that point clear and
thus made the decision to celebrate his birth
as proof of his humanity.
So the fact of His birth was settled, however no
one really knew, or even knows today His
actual birthday. Although certain scriptures
point to a warm weather birth day, such as the
shepherds in the fields watching their flocks
by night. They probably wouldn’t be out there at night in the cold of late December. But the date
really was not of too much concern to the early church. Since Rome ruled the known world at the
time and since Pagan Romans were already celebrating the birth of Mithra on Dec 25th, it seemed
natural to honor the birth of the Christ child at the same time. By the end of the 4th century, the
church made it official, and they declared Dec 25th, the “Feast Day of The Nativity”. And so that’s
where we first started to diverge worship from the feast day of the SUN to the feast day of the risen
SON.
But even the early church knew there would be limits to what they could change about secular and
pagan celebrations, so instead of trying to outlaw them, they instead decided to adopt the customs.
The evergreen trees brought inside were soon decorated with bright red apples to symbolize the
Garden of Eden, and they of course eventually become Christmas tree ornaments. Holly was also
repurposed to represent Jesus’s crown of thorns. As these changes were brought about, aside from
Christians, the people who were already celebrating really didn’t care if it was in the name of
Mithra or Jesus, they were just happy to carry on their traditions they’ve been observing for
thousands of years. The church really had a “live and let live” mentality back then and as long as
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people gave lip service to God, they let them do whatever else they wished with the holiday, which
in my opinion was a very smart move by their marketing department. “Yeah, let them think its
normal, everything is different, but nothing changes”. BUT, don’t be fooled. This attitude would
come back to bite them in their holy buttocks.
Whip Me, Beat Me, After All Its Christmas
By the time the Middle Ages came around, Christianity and Christians were no longer the NKOTB,
(that’s for all you children of the 80’s.) Or for our younger readers that would be “New Kids On The
Block”. Christianity had mostly replaced the pagan religions of Europe and everyone was going to
church instead of dancing naked in front of statues of a pagan god. The great cathedrals like Notre
dame and Salisbury cathedral would hold a special mass on December 25th that would eventually be
called Christ Mass. If you don’t know
that largely catholic term, mass as
defined by the dictionary means “a
collection of incoherent particles”, and
while that may apply to most of us
Christians, the other more accurate
definition is “a celebration of the
Eucharist and the taking of
communion”.
But true to modern day form the
majority of the population, often
referred to as the lower classes, did not
celebrate in a church, quite the
opposite. The general population still
celebrated very much like the pagans of ancient Rome in a huge drunken party in every house, pub
and on every street and corner. Basically think of it as Marti Gras on crack. There were costumes,
lots of alcohol, lots of public “adult” behavior, and every year a beggar or student was ceremonially
put in charge of this celebration in every town and was crowned “The Lord of Mis‐Rule” or “The
Lord of Anarchy”.
But unlike the Romans where masters and servants voluntarily exchanged roles for this celebration,
the peasants of Europe would simply go to the doors of the richest houses they could reach and
bang on it until they were let in. Kind of like Halloween trick‐or‐treaters from hell. And when they
were eventually let in, they would basically take over and act as the lord of the house and would
require all of the finest food and drink they had to offer. The owner was obligated to give it to
them, or there were consequences.
This was a once a year chance to grab power from the rich, and they took full advantage of it. But if
the lord or home owner didn’t comply, the peasants would either threaten or actually perform a
“trick” just like in trick or treat. This could include things like beating up the butler and breaking
things they could get their hands on or something similar. And they would deliver this message of
“trick or treat” in the form of a song, the first Christmas carols. Traveling door to door singing
beautiful songs warning of drunken violence, ahhhhhh I love the holidays.
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Party Poopers!
And then just to make things even more tense, after a couple of hundred years of this a religious
group, the Puritans, over threw the king and outlawed everything about Christmas except the going
to church part in 1645. PARTY POOPERS! There’s one in every hovel! So the party was forced to go
underground because the laws went over about as good a prohibition. Let’s face it, people have a
basic human need for celebration at least once a year, and that sometimes includes getting drunk at
the office Christmas
party and making copies
of your butt, so we have
no room to talk.
But that didn’t last for
long. By 1660 the people
had enough and took it
upon themselves to
restore the monarchy
and Christmas along
with it. They could live
without a king, but not
without their yearly dose
of Christmas traditions
of debauchery and
carousing.
But believe it or not there was another group of Puritans even more uptight, oh sorry, I mean more
pious about things such as the evils of the Christmas celebration, and in 1620 they landed in
Plymouth Massachusetts to make a fresh start. In 1659 Christians in Boston followed the Puritans
example and outlawed Christmas. Anyone who was caught exhibiting the “Christmas spirit” was
fined a whopping five shillings. I don’t know what shillings are but it doesn’t sound like something
I want to catch. “Stay away from Mark, he’s got shillings.” Regardless of shillings though, Christmas
could not be contained. People still used it as an excuse to get drunk and party, breaking the law
and have fun. There was also a huge spike in babies being conceived every year at Christmas time,
so you can’t tell me there was no way to prove celebrating was going on.
But not every colony started off that way. Captain John Smith reported that the first Christmas in
Jamestown was kept to a low roar with plenty of oysters, wild fowl, and good bread. Jamestown was
also the first to create eggnog as a holiday drink, and made it the right way, with rum.
Christmas, To be or not to be. That is how you reinvent it!
After America became independent though, many British customs, including Christmas were
intentionally not observed, and as a matter of fact the new American congress remained in session
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on Christmas day for the next 67 years. But the American people began to get restless and wanted
some holidays of their own. So in the early 1800’s Christmas became one of the common
celebrations once again, only this time it was much much different. America reinvented the holiday
so that it really didn’t not resemble the old traditional chaotic celebration at all and New York City
played a big role. By 1820 the city had become so populated due to its commerce and the
beginnings of the industrial revolution that there was an ever increasing amount of fresh
immigrants who still knew Christmas by the old English traditions and celebrated as such.
Unfortunately the class separation of the rich and working class fueled an increasing amount of
unrest and violence, and gang riots were common every Christmas season. By 1828 New York
instituted a special police force because the Christmas riots the prior year were so savage.
God Bless Us, Everyone, Especially Charles Dickens
The upper class was getting worried and set
out to pacify the problem. Some of the most
famous writers of the time wrote stories that
encompassed the Christmas spirit as we know
it today. Included was Charles Dickens, A
Christmas Carol, became so popular that it
was a best seller in London and America.
Americans and British both took these stories
and the lessons they represented to heart and
so began the seeds of a charity and family
centric holiday of the Christmas we know
today. The conversion of Scrooge struck a
particular cord in Victorian English culture, as
did the family man’s example Bob Cratchit
within the working classes. On both
continents, this allowed for and fueled the
fires of change within the family unit. Up until
the 1830’s families existed as what we might
think of as an engine of discipline and raised
children to train them to be productive and
obedient. That quickly began to change during this time and the Christmas holiday had a big part
in it. People could now enjoy their children and tend to their emotional upbringing without being
seen as spoiling them.
So Christmas was really the first time that families could openly take joy in being with each other
and making children happy.
Oh German Tree, Oh German Tree
Remember that evergreen thing from the Vikings and Germanic cultures? Well Prince Albert of
Germany, the cousin of Queen Victoria, married her. Yeah you read that right, he married his
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cousin, and brought the evergreen Christmas tree and other traditions to Windsor Palace with him.
The people of England quickly adopted the tradition, go figure, and two years later an American
magazine printed a picture of the king and queen with children standing around the Christmas
tree. And believe it or not they, for lack of a better term, ‘photoshopped’ it to look more American,
and we fell for it, hook, line, and ornament. We took ancient traditions and made them new, and
the fact that it was old, made us feel better about doing it as opposed to just coming up with
something unheard of like Festivus. It’s been a standard throughout western civilization ever since.
Twas The Night Santa Was Described
Another piece of literature that had a huge impact on our modern day Christmas was “A visit from
Saint Nick” better known as “Twas the night before Christmas” by Clement Clarke Moore, a scholar
and pastor living in New York City. The fact that his poem for the first time described Santa in a
family friendly way was a huge boost to Christmas, and that’s where we first envisioned Santa’s
reindeer and his sleigh and all that good stuff. Prior to this publication, the typical European story
of Santa Clause was a bit more, shall we say harsh. Saint Nicholas would give toys to good children
while bad children got nothing, and he made no bones about it. “Better luck next year kid.”
However the Dutch version was much more child friendly and is what inspired Clement to write his
poem in 1822.
So Santa as we know him today is completely
an American invention, as is Christmas itself.
He almost didn’t claim the poem as his own
because the fact that he was a minister and
professor of divinity and his poem contain
nothing religious what so ever and the church
still did NOT celebrate Christmas at this
point. It made him think twice about how it
would reflect on him and his church, until it
became wildly popular and famous. Now
THAT’S the American way! So thank you
Clement for telling us what Santa looks like
how he gets around!
Then in 1863, Thomas Nast, a cartoonist solidified the
final version of Santa, red fur coat, very round, stout
and resembled very much the typical depiction of a
robber baron (business men that made great profits
usually from very questionable means) that were
common to the mid 1800’s with their beards, well fed
bellies and suits. Although Santa was the
representation of a robber baron in reverse. This new
Santa Clause figure also provided a way for parents to
openly show their adoration towards their children in
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the form of gifts, and a way for retail merchants to pretend that Christmas gifts were about caring,
and loving families. By the mid to late 1800’s business owners figured out that if an advertisement
with images of Santa would sell more merchandise, then a real live in‐person dressed as Santa in
their stores would sell even more. And they were right! Thus completes the American Christmas
experience that continues to grow out of control today. But what about Christ you ask? Well
truthfully, Christians in America really didn’t incorporate it in to their worship and only gradually
started adopting it in the mid 1800’s. In 1885 Christmas was formally declared a United States
Federal Holiday, only 100 years after declaring independence from England.
While Santa’s reindeer were already a
Christmas standard, in 1939 Robert May
created a promotional children’s story for
Montgomery Ward department store called
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer in which a
young reindeer with a sort of handicap turns
out to save Christmas and help Santa. This
story sparked children’s imagination all over
America and gave them someone they could
relate to even more than the parental figure of
Santa. So it was 1939 and the years that
followed that the story of Rudolph
unknowingly (or maybe not) encouraged
children and they really took ownership of Christmas and embraced it as being all about them.
Most churches by now were celebrating
Christmas for the observance of the birth of
Christ once again, and critics began
complaining about the commercialism of
Christmas obscuring the “true” meaning and
reason for Christmas. It didn’t take them
long at all. By the 1940’s the sour puss’s of
the Christian community were loud and
clear about the lost message of Christ. That’s
when Santa and Jesus got together and held
press conference in which moderator
Rodney King spoke his famous words, “Can’t
we all just get along and have some egg nog
together?” Personally I don’t see the conflict,
I mean didn’t God give us a gift on
Christmas? We’re just carrying on His
tradition right? So what if his was from
heaven and ours is from Wal‐Mart. And I bet His wasn’t on sale.
So there you have it… the next time you hear carolers coming down your street, just hope that they
don’t break in and drink all your beer and boxed wine you were saving for Grandma. The next time
you’re hanging ornaments on the tree, replace one with an apple to remind you that Eve caused the
downfall of all human kind. When you build a yule log fire in your fireplace, don’t forget to party
like a Viking for weeks while it burns, or minutes if your log is small in stature… don’t be ashamed
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or your small log. But going back to the first celebration of Christ as the winter solstice party
crasher that it was, if you’re a Christian, it really doesn’t matter when Jesus was born. You can
celebrate His coming any day of the year and every day of the year, and there’s no reason why the
reason for the season can’t be just because you love your fellow man, as He commanded us.
That being said, I think Jesus would have LOVED Christmas time, regardless of the dollars we
spend, regardless of the flat screens and bling we have on our lists. He would have loved how much
we love to love each other and the fact that we take the time at least to show it in this season.
Because believe it or not, its quite possible that this is exactly what He wanted us to be doing at
Christmas. He was nothing if not covertly punctual. What do I mean by that? Well I’m glad you
asked… read on.
The Miracle of Timing
Nobody knows exactly when Jesus was really born, as I said up yonder earlier in this document, it
probably was NOT Christmas unless it was a very warm December in Israel due to global warming
from camel emissions. However the birth of Jesus was right on time. And I simply cannot
emphasize that fact enough. I mean God Himself could not have planned it to work out better
timing. Wait, scratch that. God Himself DID plan it, and it worked out incredibly well, as we can all
see. What do I mean about timing you ask? Well Jesus didn’t just show up at some random time in
history. He showed up at the perfect opportune, well‐chosen, particularly favorable and
appropriate moment in cultural, political and spiritual history. Galatians 4:4 “But when the set
time had fully come, God sent his Son…” Translation, Jesus wasn’t born too early, too late, too slow
or too fast. For thousands of years, the Jews were waiting for a Messiah, for thousands of years they
waited for a savior. But the timing of the birth of Jesus was absolutely perfect. Here, let me explain.
Jesus’ timing was CULTURALLY perfect
Jesus was born in to the time of the Roman Empire, who built their empire on the shoulders of the
Greek Empire who gave rise to Alexander the Great, the greatest military leader who ever lived.
Alexander the Great set out to conquer the ENTIRE known world, and indeed did complete that
task in record time. You’re probably thinking, “Yeah, but how big was the known world back then,
wasn’t it like the size of Disney Land or something?” No I tell you, I’m not talking about a few
blocks, or even a few countries. He conquered all of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and in
to Asia. Why is that important you ask? Because that means that the entire known world now
spoke ONE language, Greek. You could go anywhere in the entire known world and there were no
language barriers. I mean can you imagine pulling up to the drive through speaker in China and…
wait, that’s a bad example. I can’t even understand the lady at the drive through window here much
less one in Asia.
So this being the case, the ancient scriptures were translated in to Greek, this collection of books
was called the Septuagint. This would be the bible that Jesus and his disciples would teach from.
Then later Mathew, Mark, Luke and John would later write their gospels in the same common
Greek. When Paul went on his missions to foreign lands, one thing he never needed was a….. wait
for it…. Yes a translator! Anywhere he or any other follower of Christ went, in all four directions, in
any country on any continent, they always spoke the same language and everyone could always
understand without any language barriers.
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So not only not only was the arrival of Jesus timed perfectly with a united world government but
also timed perfectly with the saturation of the Greek language throughout that empire which
encompassed the world as well as the translation of God’s word in to Greek. Timing is everything.
Jesus’ timing was POLITICALLY perfect
Normally when one country or empire conquers another, and then another, and then another….
The more they conquer, the harder it is to maintain stability and control. It’s kind of like being a
kindergarten teacher. You can handle 1, 2, 3, up to 8 maybe. But once you get more and more rug
rats in there it can quickly become unmanageable and you need break out the Barney videos, or
these days, pass out shock proofed i‐Pads and cell phones.
Empires, by in large, fall from within, because of failure to self‐govern effectively. Like a teacher
having a meltdown, most empires just collapse due to their inability to cope. The reason the Roman
Empire became so strong for so long is because they were able to accomplish something that no
one else, including the Greek empire, was able to do. They were able to foster a political and
economic stability that was unprecedented. From about 27 BC, that’s before Jesus was born, to
about 180 AD, that’s almost 150 years after His death, there was the “Pax romana”. What’s that you
ask? I have no idea but it makes me sound like my Mama did me some good learnin’, don’t it? It
means literally Roman Peace. For about 200 years was for the first time there was peace throughout
the known world, the whole of the Roman Empire. As proof of this, the Romans used to worship a
god named Janus, a god of war. Whenever the doors to the temple of Janus were open, it meant
that there was a war going on somewhere in the empire or that Rome was at war somewhere in the
world and soldiers were in battle. When the temple doors were closed, it meant there was total
peace.
For only the second time in history, when Jesus was born, those temple doors were closed and there
was perfect peace throughout the Roman Empire. So for almost 180 years after Jesus was born,
anyone, Christians included, could go ANYWHERE in the known world and preach and teach the
good news of Jesus Christ and His resurrection and not have to worry about crossing battle torn
areas, or traveling through unstable territories, and not even have to worry about being killed or
robbed or beaten because they were at perfect peace.
Now because Rome was at peace, they could redirect their resources and manpower to things other
than the great expenses of war, so they began building infrastructure. They built roads, highways
and cities. High quality, well patrolled, well‐traveled roads now crisscrossed the entire known
world from Europe, Africa, to Asia, so much so that this is where we get the saying “All roads lead
to Rome”. Because back then, they did! The roads were patrolled by soldiers, so your safety was
insured. Rome had a well‐organized postal system believe it or not, that also traveled these roads.
So the world’s best postal system, one the USPS could learn from, could deliver letters to anyone in
the world traveling on those roads that were safe and secure, in a language that everyone could
understand. That is extremely significant, especially considering how many letters actually made it
in to the Bible we know today. Isn’t that another awesome example of His great timing?
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Jesus’ timing was SPIRITUALLY perfect
If the timing was culturally and politically perfect, but the people were not spiritually ready, then
those things would not matter one little bit and I guarantee we would not be talking about Jesus at
all today. But it was indeed spiritually perfect timing. The Jewish nation that Jesus was born in to
was an apple that had fallen far from the tree of the Jewish nation of the Old Testament. After the
greatest king in history, King David, died he passed everything to King Solomon. Then when
Solomon died, the nation broke out in civil war and was divided in to two separate nations, the
north and south, Israel and Judah. They both began to disobey God and they began to rebel against
God’s word and God’s law and even began to get in to paganism. By around 722 BC, Israel was taken
in to captivity and around 586 BC Judah was also taken. The Jewish nation was dispersed
throughout the entire Roman Empire, they were no longer one cohesive force, politically,
culturally, or spiritually. That is what is known as the diaspora, literally translating to “scattering
seed away”, is the dispersion of the Jewish people.
So God allowed the spirit and the hearts of the Jewish people to be broken by being scattered by
foreign forces, and they have never been the same since. But in a good way. Because after the
diaspora, and after they were allowed to repopulate Israel, they never again fell in to paganism, they
never again entertained the ideas of multiple gods, they went back to devout worship of God and
back to teaching and preaching the Old testament throughout the entire nation of Israel. But
unfortunately because Rome ruled them, they were no longer allowed to build temples except for
the one that Herod built that we know of. So instead of building temples for worship, they built
synagogues, which began as spontaneous gathering places of Jews for Sabbaths and festivals, for
communal worship and for mutual support, but not explicitly for God worship.
So what, get to the point you say? Well keep your yamaka on. This is important because where did
the disciples go when they traveled to foreign lands to spread the gospel? Synagogues were the
logical place, and that is where they would teach from the old testament of how Jesus fulfilled all of
the prophecies set forth thousands of years earlier. Synagogues are where they began to teach that
Jesus was the messiah they’ve been waiting for all these generations. So if these synagogues where
not in place, a place where Jews went to unofficially worship, learn and seek answers, there would
not have been a place to share the gospel of Jesus in every corner of the known world. That could
not have happened any earlier, or much later because there simply would not have been the
infrastructure.
It was a time when there was one world language, with one book of scriptures everyone could
understand, it was a time when there was one world government, it was a time when there was no
war and peace reigned, it was a time when infrastructure for travel and communication was at its
greatest in history, it was a time when the Jewish people were ready to receive their God, it was a
time when the place to hear the message about the messiah was in place in every city and town
from Europe to Asia. So like I said, timing is everything. Can I get a “tru‐dat”?
The End
Well that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Wishing everyone has a Merry RamaHanaKwanzaMas
and a very Happy New Year from all of us here at Summer Tree Designs.com. Peace.