Luke 2:8

Luke 2:8. Shepherds, i.e., some shepherds, probably chosen because they too like Simeon ‘were waiting for the consolation of Israel' (Luke 2:25). The Shepherd of Israel cares for His flock; while sending a Saviour to the whole world, He satisfied the secret yearnings of this humble company. His care is as minute as it is extensive.

Keeping watch over their flock by night. This might have been in December. The Jewish Rabbins indeed say that flocks were taken out in March and brought home in November, but this probably refers to far-off pastures. During the rainy season from November to March, according to the testimony of trustworthy observers, there generally occurs an interval of dry weather (between the middle of December and the middle of February), when of course the grass is green. The exact date cannot be fixed. The traditional date (December 25) is of late origin, and Christmas was not celebrated in the Church till after the middle of the fourth century, and seems to have been substituted for a series of heathen festivals (see Schaff: Church History, vol. ii., p. 395 ff.). The anniversary is of less antiquity, of less importance and accuracy, than Easter, which was observed from the earliest times. In the early Church there was no agreement as to the time of Christ's birth, and quite as little among modern chronologists. The Saviour was born in the fulness of time, just when He was most needed, and when the Jewish and Gentile world was fully prepared for this central fact and turning-point in history. The 25 th of December may have been selected for poetic and symbolical fitness. At that season the longest night gives way to the returning sun on his triumphant march, just as Christ appeared in the darkest night of sin and error as the true Light of the world.