<P> The Calculation hypothesis is considered academically to be "a thoroughly viable hypothesis", though not certain . It was a traditional Jewish belief that great men lived a whole number of years, without fractions, so that Jesus was considered to have been conceived on March 25, as he died on March 25, which was calculated to have coincided with 14 Nisan . A passage in Commentary on the Prophet Daniel (204) by Hippolytus of Rome identifies December 25 as the date of the nativity . This passage is generally considered a late interpellation . But the manuscript includes another passage, one that is more likely to be authentic, that gives the passion as March 25 . </P> <P> In 221, Sextus Julius Africanus (c. 160--c. 240) gave March 25 as the day of creation and of the conception of Jesus in his universal history . This conclusion was based on solar symbolism, with March 25 the date of the equinox . As this implies a birth in December, it is sometimes claimed to be the earliest identification of December 25 as the nativity . However, Africanus was not such an influential writer that it is likely he determined the date of Christmas . </P> <P> The tractate De solstitia et aequinoctia conceptionis et nativitatis Domini nostri Iesu Christi et Iohannis Baptistae, falsely attributed to John Chrysostom, also argued that Jesus was conceived and crucified on the same day of the year and calculated this as March 25 . This anonymous tract also states: "But Our Lord, too, is born in the month of December...the eight before the calends of January (25 December)..., But they call it the' Birthday of the Unconquered' . Who indeed is so unconquered as Our Lord ...? Or, if they say that it is the birthday of the Sun, He is the Sun of Justice ." </P> <P> The rival "History of Religions" hypothesis suggests that the Church selected December 25 date to appropriate festivities held by the Romans in honor of the Sun god Sol Invictus . This feast was established by Aurelian in 274 . An explicit expression of this theory appears in an annotation of uncertain date added to a manuscript of a work by 12th - century Syrian bishop Jacob Bar - Salibi . The scribe who added it wrote: </P>

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