Christmas Reflections

Whilst Christmas is considered a Christian festival, it is thought to have been a festival (Yule) to celebrate the winter solstice. But later this became ‘Christianised’.

Most of the readings at Christmas are from the ‘Old Testament’ - Torah and the Nebiim. Some passages that are not widely read interest me particularly.

The first is Genesis God putting Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden:

"And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil."

He forbade Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge. Genesis 2:

¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

¹⁷ But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

At the instigation of the Serpent, Adam ate from the Tree of Knowledge. God rebuked Adam. When rebuking the Serpent, He said:

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

It could be argued that the use of the phrase ‘her seed’ looks forward to Jesus who did not have an earthly father, so all the genetic information would have come from Mary. Hence her seed bruising the Serpents head.

One of Jesus’ Jewish companions, John writes: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

And in documenting the revelation he believes God gave him, John refers to Jesus as saying of Himself:  I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

Also, Revelation 3:11 - I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.