[Vision2020] The Christmas Story and Other Redeeming Myths

[Nick Gier]

Greetings Visionaries:

I'm sending a copy of this to Ed Iverson.  He and I were writing columns 
about the Christmas story independently and we have very different ideas 
about the historicity of the events recorded.  Before I sent this off to my 
column venues, I always like this list to be the first to read it, if its 
members are so inclined.

On another topic, I just want to say that I've sent a copy of the exchange 
on Einstein and Quantum Mechanics to the UI professor who teaches this 
stuff.  Now that I think of it, I will also send it to my ex brother-in-law 
in Denmark, a world class low temperature physicist, from whom I've learned 
a lot about contemporary physics.

For now let me just repeat my charge that Phil Nisbet is simply wrong to 
state that Einsteain developed Quatum Mechanics.  Contrary to what Phil 
claims, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is essential to quantum theory 
as it has been developed and has been verified time and time again.  To say 
that Einstein "developed" the theory by trying to include it in a unified 
theory that did not include uncertainty is really off the wall.

Happy Holidays to each and all,

Nick Gier
The Christmas Story and Other Redeeming Myths

By Nick Gier

A myth is a tale that tells truth--Anonymous

At the risk of being a Grinch who ruins Christmas, I would like to go 
behind the Christmas Story and relate what scholars know about the biblical 
texts involved. I hope that the result will be a more enlightened 
perspective on the role of such stories in the common life of humankind.

In the second chapter of Matthew we read the story of wise men who came 
from the East to worship the baby Jesus. These men are called magoi (Greek 
for magicians), and scholars have identified them, if they were there, as 
Zoroastrian priests from Babylon.

There are several problems with this story.  If they were following a star 
in the East, they would have traveled East, not West, to Palestine.  That 
means that they would have been heading in the direction of the birth of a 
Hindu savior, not a Jewish one.  But most likely, they would have been 
searching for their own savior, one named Saosyant.

The Jewish historian Josephus hated King Herod and chronicled his life in 
great detail, but it is very odd that he never mentions the slaughter of 
infants found in Matthew 2:16.  Could this be an element of what I call the 
"Savior Archetype," common patterns of events that are attributed to many 
of the world's saviors?  See www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/archetype.htm.

In the their various scriptures the saviors are said to have had royal 
genealogies and miraculous conceptions; they worked miracles and escaped 
the clutches of death.  Jesus, Krishna, and Zoroaster were also threatened 
in infancy by demon kings.

Returning now to the beginning of the story, there is no record of Caesar 
Augustus' decree that "all the world should be enrolled" (Luke 2:1).  The 
Romans kept extremely detailed records of such events.  Not only is Luke's 
census not in these records, it goes against all that we know of Roman 
economic history.

In Josephus' account of the Roman census in 6 C.E., he writes that those 
people taxed were assessed of their possessions, including lands and 
livestock.  But Luke has Joseph and Mary making a three-day journey, away 
from their home and possessions in Nazareth, to register in their alleged 
ancestral home in Bethlehem.

An Egyptian papyrus recording a census in 104 C.E. states that "since 
registration by household is imminent, it is necessary to notify all who 
for any reason are absent from their districts to return to their own homes 
that they may carry out the ordinary business of registration." For more on 
Luke's census see www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/census.htm.

Imagine a system of taxation based on people returning to their ancestral 
homes, going back a thousand years in the case of Joseph.  By this time the 
Jews were spread out all over the known world.  Can we seriously believe 
that the Romans would have required them to come back to Palestine, 
carrying everything they owned?

In The Rise of Christianity Bishop E. W. Barnes remarks:  "The Romans were 
a practical race, skilled in the art of government.  It is incredible that 
they should have taken a census according to such a fantastic system.  If 
any such census had been taken, the dislocation to which it would have led 
would have been world-wide."

We can now understand why Jesus never mentions his birth in Bethlehem; and 
that, except for the birth stories, Jesus is always connected with 
Nazareth.  The authors of the Gospel of John apparently do not know of 
Jesus' alleged birth in Bethlehem.  Nathanael does not know it (7:46), and 
no one answers the challenge of the crowd when they say: "Is the Christ to 
come from Galilee? Has not the scriptures said that the Christ...comes from 
Bethlehem?" (7:42).

At this point some readers may be saying: "Way to go, Gier, you've just 
spoiled Christmas more than any commercial enterprise could ever do."

Let me tell you about a wise woman in an African village whose job it was 
to instruct the children in the tribe's myths.  She began each session with 
the following disclaimer: "The stories that I will tell you are not true, 
but they are the most important stories that you will ever hear."

In India it is the grandmother's task to teach Hindu mythology to the 
children.  These are fantastic tales of great heroes and heroines, but also 
much violence, death, and sex.  Their graphic "in your face" style, not too 
different from Grimm's Fairy Tales or many Old Testament stories, has a 
very important socio-psychological purpose.

In Europe and America, where we pride ourselves (even very religious people 
do) by living without myth and legend, we still pay huge sums to 
psychotherapists to help us recover from unresolved experiences of 
violence, death, and sex.  I've always thought that Hindu mythology serves 
as a fairly effective substitute for a mental health program that the 
Indians cannot afford.

This Sunday I will enjoy, and be redeemed by, the performance of Handel's 
Messiah, and in the choir of my Unitarian church, where most members think 
they have left myths far behind, we will be singing hymns to a miraculous 
child, born in the darkest time of the year, who brings the light of hope 
to a broken world.

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