The Birth of Jesus

We neither know the hour, nor day, nor month, nor year of Jesus's birth; do divines generally agree that he was not born on Christmas Day, and yet on that day the anniversary of his birth is observed. In the third century, efforts were made to find out the date of the Nativity, but only in the year 336 was the date of the December 25 festival set in commemoration of Jesus' birth. Pope Julius formally selected December 25 as the day of Christmas in 349 A.D. The Oxford Chronology places the matter in no clearer light, and more than thirty learned authorities give a period of over seven years' difference in their reckoning. The place of his birth is also uncertain.

Mary/Mariamne was the wife of Joseph and the mother of Jesus Christ, who was conceived within her by the Holy Spirit when she was a virgin. She is often called the "Virgin Mary," though never in Scripture are those two words put together as a proper name. Jesus was the son of David, the son of Abraham, from whom his descent is traced through Isaac and ultimately through Joseph, who was not only not his father, but is not shown to have had any kind of relationship to him, and through whom therefore the genealogy should not be traced.