The Bible does not make explicit the month, day, nor hour of Christ's birth (although there are Scriptural and historical clues which support the theory of December 25th being Christ's literal birth date and the Church Fathers were pretty unanimous about the year -- 2 or 3 B.C. There wasn't a year 0). But the gospel of Luke does record the general time of day; the host of angels appear to the shepherds who keep watch "at night" in order to announce to these pastors that the Messiah has been born "today" (Luke 2:8-12). So it's no surprise why all of our representations of the Nativity in art, greeting cards, plays, and films show a late night / early morning birth of Christ under a peaceful, starry sky. However, there is a clue in the Old Testament, which some early Christians used to pinpoint the hour of Jesus' birth more specifically.
A Word to the Wise
In the deuterocanonical book the Wisdom of Solomon 18:14-15 (a book of the Old Testament omitted from modern Protestant Bible canons but included in some earlier translations such as the KJV), we get the following description of an event from the exodus of the Hebrews:
For when peaceful stillness encompassed everythingand the night in its swift course was half spent,Your all-powerful word from heaven’s royal throneleapt into the doomed land.
Literally, this passage describes the personification of God's "word", the destroying angel who came down at midnight to carry out the Lord's final judgement upon Egypt during the first Passover -- a time when the Lord vanquished the dominion of evil in the land and freed Israel from slavery to their corrupt masters. This liberation was accomplished specifically through the Hebrews' shared meal of the lamb, whose blood on wooden doorposts served as a sign of life -- a "no" to local idolatry and chattel servitude and yes to trust in God's promise of deliverance (Ex. 12:13-17). Afterwards, the Hebrews, strengthened by their ritual supper, were released by their captors to return back to freedom and life in the Promised Land.
The Definitive Deliverer
The typological connection to Christ is clear. Christ is the ultimate all-powerful Logos, the Word of the Father (Jn. 1:1), who leapt into our fallen world in order to destroy sin and deliver us from death through his own sacred Passover banquet, his sacrifice upon the wood of the Cross, and his resurrection from the tomb.
Remember the time of the angel's "leap"? It happened when "the night in its swift course was half-spent" (i.e. - midnight). This cross-references other Old Testament passages which affirm that God delivered the final blow to the Egyptians (fallen world) and brought salvation to Israel at midnight:
In fact, when Jews today re-experience the exodus at their Seder meal, midnight serves as the deadline for eating the matzah, bitter herbs, and meat of the Passover. One ancient hymn sung at the concluding rite of the Passover references midnight:Moses then said, “Thus says the LORD: About midnight I will go forth through Egypt. (Ex. 11:4; cf. Ex. 12:29).
“And so it was, at the half-point of the night; many miracles You wrought wondrously in the night, at the starts of the watches of this night.”Similarly for Catholics, the new Passover of the Christian Triduum begins Holy Thursday evening, continues Good Friday, and culminates at the Easter vigil liturgy at dusk on Holy Saturday, which reigns in Easter Sunday's approach at midnight.
What About Christmas?
Okay, so the connection of a midnight liberation at the first Passover connects with Christ's Paschal Mystery which saves everyone from sin and death, but that's the Triduum and Easter. What does this all have to do with Christmas?
Notice the wording of Wisdom 18:15, "Your all powerful word from heaven's royal throne leapt into the doomed land". Although Christ's death, resurrection, and ascension make up the culmination of God's redemptive work, God's inauguration of the plan of salvation kicked off with the incarnation of Christ -- when the second divine Person assumed human flesh and became fully man in the womb of the virgin Mary. This really happens shortly after the Annunciation (Gabriel's visit to Mary), which is celebrated March 25th. Since the Church has always taught that human life begins at conception, this would be the moment God became man: body, blood, soul, divinity. Count nine months forward, and you get Christ's birthday on December 25th, when the God-man finally greeted the world face-to-face. The Lord "descended" into our world becoming a mortal human child without compromising his divinity, so that we united to him, our Passover, may ascend back with him to our homeland with the Father (literally in Greek kenosis: Christ "emptied Himself" κενόω (kenóō) Phil. 2:7, submitting his created human will to the one eternal divine will - cf. CCC 475).
Wisdom then foreshadows Christ, the Word of God, making his appearance among men as Savior at the midnight hour -- a time thought to be the darkest of the night, the night watch. Theologically, this makes sense. Jesus, the Eternal Word, is the Light of World (Jn. 8:12) who shines and scatters the darkness (Jn. 1:5; Jn 3:19) and illuminates our path (Jn 1:9) to show us the way back to the Father:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and theWord was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (Jn. 1:1-5).
“I came into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in the darkness” (Jn. 12:46).
Even Christ's late December birthday after the Winter solstice suggests this, since the days begin to lengthen, and sunlight gradually increases in the natural world. The Church, united to Christ, becomes the light of the world, the city shining on a hill that cannot be hidden (Mt. 5:14), showing others the way to freedom in God's kingdom. As the lamb's blood marked the homes of the elect at Passover, Christmas lights in a delightful way represent the light of Christ shining forth from every home, a domestic church (assembly). Midnight also provided a convenient and symbolic axis for the B.C / A.D. distinction introduced into the calendar in the sixth century, which calls to mind the eternal difference Christ's birth made in history. All time hinges upon Him.
Midnight Traditions
The Lord's midnight entrance also served as an inspiration for Christmas carols such as "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear", which is about the angels' announcement of Christ's birth.
Another carol that takes its inspiration from Wisdom is "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming":
Lo, how a Rose e'er blooming from tender stem hath sprung!
Of Jesse's lineage coming, as men of old have sung.
It came, a floweret bright, amid the cold of winter,
When half spent was the night.
Isaiah 'twas foretold it, the Rose I have in mind;
Mary we behold it, the Virgin Mother kind.
To show God's love aright, she bore to us a Savior,
When half spent was the night.
The belief in a midnight birth also gave rise to the tradition of inaugurating December 25th with Midnight Mass, where Christians join voices with the choirs of angels in proclaiming the birth of the Savior (the word "Christmas" means "Mass of Christ", his passover celebration).
The first recorded instance of a midnight liturgy is found in the chronicles of Egeria, a woman who made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the late fourth century to document holy sites. While in Jerusalem, she celebrated with other Christians the Lord's birth and epiphany at midnight on January 6th. Pope Sixtus III is said to have established the custom on December 25th, 430 A.D., for the Roman rite Mass at the Basilica of St. Mary Major (although some sources attribute the start of the custom to the seventh Bishop of Rome, Pope St. Telesphorus, c. 125-136 A.D.). Later in history, the famous carol "Silent Night" was written by Father Joseph Mohr, specifically for its first performance at midnight Mass in 1818 at St Nicholas parish church in Oberndorf, Austria.
If you had been afraid of shadows, you would have been born at noon. But you preferred the night. Lord, you were born in the middle of the night because midnight is pregnant with the dawn." Dom Helmer Camara, "It's Midnight Lord".
Watch the 1.4 minute video for a summary.
© Joe Aboumoussa
This is awesome!
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