Is therea ny historical evidence of Childermas?

[Oooska]

As the topic says. I've heard from a few sources that there's no mention of it other then in Mathew and no first hand accounts at all; is that true?

[Christian]

What is "Childermas"? I've never heard of it.

[Oooska]

I actually used some poor wording. Childermas is celebrated on December 28th to commemorate the death of the male children at the hands of King Herod in Bethlehem.

My question was whether or not there's any historical evidence that says for certain the event happened. The only place it's mentioned in the Bible is Mathew 2:16 that I'm aware of.

[Miscellaneous]

Not that I know of, unless you count the originating prophecy in Jeremiah 31:15. But then, we have little account of other ethnic atrocities committed by the Romans, either.

[Oooska]

The Romans were generally very open in regards to ethnicity. In fact, they were far more open then the U.S. was even a hundred and fifty years ago. I would expect some records of hundreds (according to the Church in the dark ages - 144,000) of young male children being murdered would be mentioned some place. It certainly wasn't a commonplace event I'm sure.

[Cicero17]

If you mean "historical evidence" as in sources other than the Bible, yes, I believe there are. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I remember hearing that in history last year.

[Oooska]

That's certainly helpful...

[summitgrad]

No, there is no other historical evidence. This is understandable, because there probably wouldn't have even been hundreds. More like around 20-30, if even that many. Bethlehem was a rather small town, to say the least. Easily overlooked by historians such as Josephus.

This wouldn't have been out of character for Herod. Just take a look this table.

Year	Event Roman Empire	Israel
20 B.C.		- Herod begins remodeling of the Temple
12 B.C.	- Beginning of war between the Pannonians and the Romans.
9 B.C.	- Pannonians are defeated.
7 B.C.	- Rome is divided into 14 regions. - Herod executes his son.
4 B.C.	- Herod dies.	- Herod burns alive 40 Jews who destroyed a golden eagle. - Possible date of the slaughter of the babies
3 B.C.		- Archelaus (Herod's son) kills 3000 Jews in the Temple
- 0 -	(Note that the chronology of Jesus' birth is probably 4 years too late. Therefore, Jesus was probably born around 4 B.C.)
1 A.D.	- War in Germany
2 A.D.	- Peace made with Persia
3 A.D.		- Roman decree permitting Jews to follow their religious customs
4 A.D.	- Herod dies - Tiberius subdues Germany
6 A.D.	- Pannonians revolt. - Herod Archelaus deposed by Augustus	- Judea is absorbed into the Roman Empire

For more information, go here.

[Oooska]

Estimations put the total town population of Bethlehem at around 1000; that's around 20-50 (a far cry from the Catholic church's 144,000 during the dark ages...) deaths. 20 to 50 innocent children being murdered isn't going to go unnoticed and unrecorded in a relatively civilized society.

[Miscellaneous]

Estimations put the total town population of Bethlehem at around 1000; that's around 20-50 (a far cry from the Catholic church's 144,000 during the dark ages...) deaths. 20 to 50 innocent children being murdered isn't going to go unnoticed and unrecorded in a relatively civilized society.

Herod didn't just kill children in Bethlehem, but rather Bethlehem and all its districts. Nonetheless, there's no Biblical basis for the Catholic Church's estimates except perhaps an odd reading of Revelation.

[Cicero17]

That's certainly helpful...

Technically, I answered the question.