c. 2007 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) The origins of the first Christmas are complicated. Establishing their historical authenticity is probably impossible, but then, that’s not the real point of Christmas, according to the authors of three new books on the holiday.

In “The First Christmas,” leading scholars Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan explore how history influences our reading of the nativity narrative in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Borg and Crossan strive to help readers see the story in a new way, exploring its meaning in the context of both the first and the 21st centuries.

The book intentionally de-emphasized questions of the story’s factuality, Borg said; the team wanted to avoid being sidetracked by that debate. Instead, it presents the birth stories as parables, emphasizing their meaning as overtures to Jesus’ ministry, death and Resurrection,

The birth stories address “the human yearning for light in the darkness of winter and for a different kind of world,” Borg said. “They speak of the fulfillment of humankind’s deepest yearnings as well.

“Beyond that, I would argue that they have a particular relevance for our time and place, namely for American Christians. This is where their political edge comes in.”

Many scholars see the birth stories as later additions to early Christian traditions about Jesus. Considered in that context, the birth stories clearly were written to counter Roman imperial theology, Borg said. The Roman emperor was said to have divine lineage; titles for the emperor included “lord,” “savior of the world” and the “one who has brought peace on earth.”

Luke directly challenges that theology with his depiction of Jesus as the “Son of God,” “Lord” and “Savior.” So does Matthew, with his portrayal of Jesus as the new Moses, who descended from the royal line of King David.

“For American Christians, it raises the question: what does it mean to be Christian and a citizen of empire when the story of Jesus is an anti-imperial story?” Borg said.

Geza Vermes, an retired Oxford expert on first-century Judaism, emerges with a similar perspective after examining every aspect of the Christmas story in his book, “The Nativity, History & Legend.”

From the prophetic star to the arrival of the three Magi, he works to distinguish real history from what unfolds from humanity’s religious imagination. The two infancy stories in Matthew and Luke are parallel narratives, intended to recount the earliest part of Jesus’ life. They begin with his conception and end with his arrival in Nazareth in the company of Joseph and Mary, Vermes said.

“The two principal properties of the infancy narratives _ their anticipatory character in relation to the evolved message of Matthew and Luke, and the fact that their peculiar feats are totally absent from the main body of the story of Jesus _ demonstrate that they are later additions to the main Gospel account,” he says.

While “The First Christmas” and “The Nativity” focus on the birth narratives, religious studies scholar Bruce David Forbes takes on the entire holiday in his book, “Christmas: A Candid History.”

The entertaining book guides the reader through Christmas’ history, including its pre-Christian roots, Jesus’ birth, the holiday’s spread across Europe and to the Americas and its modern-day metamorphosis into a festival of consumerism.

Forbes also traces the roots of Santa, the reindeer, Christmas trees, giving gifts and other customs. He explores how and why the Puritans made Christmas illegal in England and the New England colonies during the 1600s. And he tracks disagreements among early American denominations over how much importance should be assigned to Christmas.

“It’s my favorite season of the year, but I also am frustrated about how hectic and commercialized it has become,” says Forbes, a religious studies professor at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa. “I ask myself, can I be intentional and make choices about how I celebrate the season, so that instead of draining me, Christmas could be a refreshing time of renewal?”

Each book urges readers to listen to the soul yearnings that helped bring Christmas into being. Simply reflecting on the birth stories ties today’s Christians to their spiritual forebears, said Crossan.

“Those first Christians wrote on humble papyrus an alternative `good news’ to celebrate Christ’s program of peace through justice,” he said. “This book might even help us hear again that ancient angelic chorus calling for peace on earth _ not by the violence of injustice but by the justice of nonviolence. It might even help us obey it.”

(Cecile S. Holmes, a longtime religion writer, is an associate professor of journalism at the University of South Carolina.)

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Photos of Crossan, Borg, Vermes, Forbes and their book covers are available via https://religionnews.com.

KRE/CM END HOLMES