The silent night passed very silently — in October, on the anniversary of Yeshua’s birth

Christmas carols are well-loved, but have you ever noticed some of the contradictions in them?

We hear choirs singing the popular ‘Silent Night’, but in churches on Christmas Day they will be singing the refrain “born this happy morning”!

One other one has it pinned down to the very minute with the words “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear”. 

So why are there so many inconsistencies in songs about the Messiah’s birth?

And let’s not forget that unlike normal children the children’s carol states, “no crying He makes”.

Also we often see nativity scenes in public that show shepherds as well as Three Wise Men or ‘kings’ around the newborn Saviour, yet according to what the gospel actually says, the Wise Men were not present at His birth, but came some time after, some say up to two years later as the ‘baby’ is now called a ‘Child’, and it does not say there were three, although three gifts were presented.

According to when John the Baptist’s father served in the Temple in I Chronicles 24:10 it is possible to find John’s birth at Passover, then six months later at the Feast of Tabernacles in September/October Yeshua (Jesus) would have been born, rather than on 25th December.

So for another year, the ‘Silent Night’ has passed very silently indeed on 10th October and very few of His followers even knew it.

Colin Nevin, Bangor