I recently read an article that pushed back at the idea that Jesus was not born on December 25th. The article claimed to “prove” that Jesus was in fact born of December 25th. Sadly, the article contained a lot of conjecture and little to no real evidence. The article cited several ancient quotations the author believed to prove a December 25 birthdate. One was a quote from early church father Titus Flavius Clemens, usually known as Clement of Alexandria. The quote, from Stromata, reads:
“From the birth of Christ, therefore, to the death of Commodus are, in all, a hundred and ninety-four years, one month, thirteen days. And there are those who have determined not only the year of our Lord’s birth, but also the day; and they say that it took place in the twenty-eighth year of Augustus, and in the twenty-fifth day of Pachon. And the followers of Basilides hold the day of his baptism as a festival, spending the night before in readings.”
Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, 21.
Problems with this conclusion however, include the fact that the 28th year of Augustus (presumably based on when he was declared “Augustus” by the Roman Senate, January 16, 27 BCE) puts his 28th year in 1 CE–several years later that the vast majority of popular theories; and, that Pachon, the ninth month of ancient Egyptian civil calendar compares roughly to the month of May.
Most articles I encounter attempting to defend a December 25 birthdate rely on “evidence” like this–shaky at best.