Vito Abbruzzi
do not know why, but every year, with the approaching feast of Christmas, we Christians (especially Catholics) we are put in crisis who has no scruples to deride our good faith on the day of Christ's birth, celebrated always all over the world on December 25. According to some, in fact, this date "has no historical foundation" would be "choice to replace the pagan cult of Sol Invictus ", "to make the invention of a day the most persistent myth of our time." What worries and upsets (me especially) is that this "someone" is not just another Jehovah's Witness who goes around accusing us of being unknowingly pagans, but an archaeologist named Maurizio Zuccari, which the magazine's December 2009 Archeo (pp. 24-25) talks of "difficulties on the historicizing of Jesus' life." This is not without prejudices (what a serious archaeologist), since he says: "On December 25, branded with the birth of Christ in Bethlehem, the zero hour of our time, the roots of a culture of half the globe, which has imposed on the other half time and morals. "
no coincidence that I brought up "the usual Jehovah's Witness" and spoke of "prejudice." The archaeologist in question, in fact, similar to the Jehovah's Witness, argued the its "difficulties [...] on time, place and manner of Christ's birth," citing, among others, "the story of the shepherds," narrated in Luke 2, 8-20. This figure, he said, would "assume that [the most likely period of the birth of Jesus] was no spring or autumn, as in Bethlehem in the winter months when the temperature drops near zero, can not keep livestock outside." But in the Gospel of St. Luke not say at all that the cattle were outdoors; mention is made only to "some shepherds who kept watch at night keeping guard over their flock ( vigilantes et custodientes vigilias noctis super g and gem suum ) "(Lk 2, 8). And here another glaring error: the lack of knowledge of occupations, including that of pastor. This is a job the hardest man-made because it implies, as children, a great spirit of sacrifice and renunciation, and of enormous responsibility. It is only when the shepherds bring their flocks to pasture, but even when govern themselves within the fold (including the winter months) during the day and especially at night when the thief can easily steal the sheep . This explains why Jesus likes to call the "good shepherd" who "lays down his life for his sheep ( animam suam dat pro suis ovibus )" (Jn 10, 11), not allowing the wolf that the kidnap and scattering (cf. Jn 10, 12).
As for the feast of Sol Invictus , New Year of the ancient Romans, the archaeologist in question writes: "In the third century dies natalis Sol invicti became the official cult of this belief and Constantine works masterfully, combining in one day uniting the two faiths and those of the rising sun symbols Christianity fecendosene coryphaeus. [...] It is no coincidence that the date of Christmas is officially on the eve of the emperor's death (in 337), [...] to place the birth of a man called Jesus, the humble manger in a cave at the ruins of an empire collapse of which was collected in the inheritance universal. " This his opinion is shared by other historians of Christianity, but that of Sol Invictus - according to him "an astronomical myth common to many people, the culmination of the winter solstice [December 23] and the feast of Saturnalia , celebrating the renewal of nature "- it's just a happy coincidence with the birth of the Messiah as" a light for revelation to the Gentiles "(Lk 2, 32), foretold by the prophets (cf. Is 42, 6, 49, 6).
must, ultimately, be careful not to make a certainty of doubt: what ethically very wrong for a historical researcher! The risk we run is just what to think exactly the manner of the curious character of Luke Edwardian Christmas at Cupiello , who, reproaching his wife bought him a paddle wool held to be true, he sees around him "a whole mystification. " And for this I recommend reading the fine book by Nicola Bux, Jesus the Saviour. Times and places of his coming in history, Cantagalli, 2009.
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