Why does xmas stand

Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots. Mobile Newsletter chat avatar. Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe. Why is there a controversy surrounding the word 'Xmas'?

Is the word "Xmas" a result of the commercialization of Christmas? See more Christmas pictures. Conference Messages. Tabletalk Magazine. Gift Certificates. Ligonier Ministries. Supporting Ligonier. Renewing Your Mind. Ligonier Connect. Well, the word is very widely written. Other abbreviations for Christ include Xt and Xp , the P here representing the Greek letter rho , source of our letter R. In the same vein, the dignified terms Xpian and Xtian have been used in place of the word Christian.

The — mas in Xmas comes from the Old English word for mass , as in a church service, especially one in the Roman Catholic Church including a celebration of the Eucharist. As lovers of the alphabet, we are transfixed by the flexibility of X. The same letter can represent the sacred, the profane rated X , and the unknown x-ray.

If you'd like to know more about the history behind the dating of Christmas, then read this very good article on Bible History Daily goes to another site. There's a strong and practical reason why Jesus might not have been born in the winter, but in the spring or the autumn!

It can get very cold in the winter and it's unlikely that the shepherds would have been keeping sheep out on the hills as those hills can get quite a lot of snow sometimes! During the spring in March or April there's a Jewish festival called 'Passover'. This festival remembers when the Jews had escaped from slavery in Egypt about years before Jesus was born. Lots of lambs would have been needed during the Passover Festival, to be sacrificed in the Temple in Jerusalem.

Jews from all over the Roman Empire traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival, so it would have been a good time for the Romans to take a census. Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem for the census Bethlehem is about six miles from Jerusalem. It's the festival that's mentioned the most times in the Bible! It is when Jewish people remember that they depended on God for all they had after they had escaped from Egypt and spent 40 years in the desert.

It also celebrates the end of the harvest. During the festival, Jews live outside in temporary shelters the word 'tabernacle' come from a latin word meaning 'booth' or 'hut'. Many people who have studied the Bible, think that Sukkot would be a likely time for the birth of Jesus as it might fit with the description of there being 'no room in the inn'.

It wouldn't have been practical for Joseph and Mary to carry their own shelter as Mary was pregnant. The possibilities for the Star of Bethlehem seems to point either spring or autumn. The possible dating of Jesus birth can also be taken from when Zechariah who was married to Mary's cousin Elizabeth was on duty in the Jewish Temple as a Priest and had an amazing experience.

There is an excellent article on the dating of Christmas based on the dates of Zechariah's experience, on the blog of theologian, Ian Paul. With those dates, you get Jesus being born in September - which also fits with Sukkot! In the Bible, John says "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us So John seems to have clearly been drawing on this analogy saying that Jesus 'pitched his tent' as a human and also quite possibly he is making the link to the time of Jesus's birth.