English 
Chinese 
Dutch 
Arabic 
Spanish 
Portuguese 
Russian 
French 
Italian 
German 
Japanese 
Continue reading with a subscription
Get unlimited access to all our premium content and exclusive features.
Enjoy unlimited access, cancel anytime.
Summary
- The Christmas tree is not in the Bible: Christians in German-speaking towns began to write about trees at Christmas in the 1500s, more than a thousand years after the New Testament was finished.
- Jeremiah 10:1–5 describes a tree a craftsman turns into an idol, plated with silver and gold and nailed so it will not fall, a god that has to be carried because “they cannot go.”
- Every verse quoted against decorated trees, from Isaiah 44 to Deuteronomy 16:21, is about wood made into something to worship, and none of them forbids decorating a tree.
- Scripture honours living trees instead, from the tree of life in Genesis 2:9 and Revelation 22:2 to Hosea 14:8, where in the usual reading the Lord says, “I am like a green fir tree.”
- Having a Christmas tree is not a sin, because what God forbids is bowing down to what our hands have made, and nobody bows to a Christmas tree.
- The idol has to be carried, and the Lord carries his people: “I have made, and I will bear” (Isaiah 46:4).
Bibliography (Click to show)
- The Bible, King James Version (public domain), via BibleGateway: Jeremiah 1:1–3 and 10:1–16; Isaiah 41:7, 44:13–20, 46:1–4 and 60:13; Deuteronomy 12:2–3 and 16:21–22; Genesis 2:9; Psalm 1:1–3 and 96:11–13; Hosea 14:8; Revelation 22:1–2; Romans 14:5–6; Luke 2:25–32. https://www.biblegateway.com/versions/King-James-Version-KJV-Bible/
- The Bible, English Standard Version (Crossway, 2001), Jeremiah 10:5, for the modern rendering “like scarecrows in a cucumber field”. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+10%3A5&version=ESV
- Morris Jastrow, Jr., and George A. Barton, “Asherah”, The Jewish Encyclopedia (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1901–1906). https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1942-asherah
- Clement A. Miles, Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1912), chapter XI, for the first written records of decorated trees. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19098
- Sélestat Haut-Koenigsbourg tourist office, “1521, the Christmas tree tradition”, on the town’s account book of 1521. https://www.selestat-haut-koenigsbourg.com/en/lei/detail/113/222004799/1883/1521-aux-origines-du-sapin-de-noel-selestat.htm
Leave a Reply