It has been fifteen years since my Jeremiah 10 and Christmas Trees? post. Fifteen years since we dove into the context and exposed the blatant manipulation and abysmal eisegesis going on, the ignoring of context, the misleading commentary, the absolute disregard for history, the cherry-picking, the constantly shifting standards, the utter refusal to consider contradictory information, and the claiming, “I’m just reading God’s word straight from the Bible,” when that is the exact opposite of what's going on.
It takes an Olympic effort to wrestle Christmas trees into Jeremiah 10, but it only takes reading past verse 5 to get them out again.
The good news is that post has been popular, having been viewed 30k times, and it has helped a decent number of people to put away their worries, throw off the weight of false teaching, and move on with their lives, refreshed and renewed in the freedom we have in our Lord and Savior.
The bad news is, I am still seeing that old canard out there in the wild. People are still falling for the nonsense. Strangely, I see it less and less from Armstrongist resources but more and more from fringe Evangelical ones. I shudder for the sad state of Biblical literacy in some areas of Christendom presently.
Some commenter popped in and responded about how angry God is with Christmas trees, and posted Jeremiah 10: 1-5, of course. They said, "I stopped putting a tree in my house because I want to hear what God says makes Him angry and try not to do it! It's what I do."
Where in the Bible does God say He is angry at Christmas trees? Nowhere. In Isaiah 60: 13 - the verse CS posted at the outset - it clearly states that God wants trees in His house; some translations say pine trees specifically. This is a prophecy, by the way! This is what God wants in His church and in His Kingdom. He wants them. And why? To beautify! So, God is not against evergreen trees or decorating with evergreen trees.
If we cannot claim God is angry at evergreen trees in general, then we are obligated to give solid evidence of Christmas trees in specific. So, we see the accusation is really a truth claim. The claim says there genuinely was a tree tradition in history in Jeremiah's day. But as a truth claim, there must be evidence to support the accusation or the accusation is empty and void and false. If Jeremiah was speaking against these Jeremiah Trees, then we will find records of those in history. Let's look for that record, then.
HISTORY
The first records we have of Christmas trees come from Germany in the early 1500s. (Some dispute the exact date and location, but let’s not fret over those specifics right now.) There is nothing earlier. Not a single record, artifact, folk tale, stray mention, or other speck of evidence suggests a tradition in the Middle East in the 600s BC that resembled a Christmas tree.
Likewise, there is no evidence trail connecting Germany in the 1500s AD backwards in time to a non-existent Jeremiah Tree. This accusation is a bust. This story has no beginning and no middle.
Let's just go out on a limb here and speculate for the sake of argument that Jeremiah was speaking out against a tree tradition (I do not believe he was, but this is just for sake of argument). We still have to tie whatever Jeremiah was talking about to Christmas trees. There must be a trail of evidence connecting the two, or else all we have is a vague similarity. But as we all know, "commonality is not causality". Jeremiah could be talking about a long-dead tree tradition with no relation to Christmas trees whatsoever. There needs to be evidence connecting the two. But there is no such trail of evidence. Nothing ties Christmas trees to Europe in the 1300s AD, let alone to the Middle East in the 600s BC. And that is because there was no such tradition to begin with.
If we cannot find a tree tradition in Jeremiah’s place and time, and we cannot tie that to our modern traditions, then we have no case, no substance, nothing to stand on. The claim about Jeremiah 10 and Christmas trees is baseless. Jeremiah was railing against something non-existent? Rather unfair to accuse people of something that hadn't been invented yet. I highly doubt he did that.
(If you want to explore the real history of Christmas, we have several articles on that.)
So, God is not against decorating with trees, in general nor was Jeremiah railing against a tree decoration in specific. It's almost as if Jeremiah was talking about something else entirely.
And he was! An idol statue.
IDOLATRY
The object in Jeremiah 10 was not a mere tree, but a wooden idol god, carved to look like a human, with feet and a mouth, and overlaid with precious metals. That is the context of Jeremiah 10. There is a parallel in Isaiah chapters 40-44 that says the same thing as Jeremiah 10, but more clearly. No one says, "Isaiah talks about Christmas trees". Yet, they both talk about the same thing. The only things these idols have in common with a Christmas Tree are shallow, surface similarities like they are both made of wood. (Plastic and metal ones excepted.)
I’ve seen it claimed in some Armstrongist websites that the Hebrew word behind “wooden idol” in Jeremiah 10:8 (ʿēṣ, Strong’s H6086) could be translated “tree.” That is technically true. But Hebrew is a highly contextual language, and the deciding factor is always the immediate context. I've shown in the past how some people misuse Strong's concordance, treating it like a list of options, but that is not how Hebrew or Strong's works. We must let the context decide for us, or else we could just as easily translate the word as "gallows". Yes, the same Hebrew word is used for the 75-foot wooden gallows Haman built in Esther 7:9-10. Context matters!
In this case, every major English translation and every reputable commentary concludes that the finished object is not merely a tree. It starts as wood taken from a tree, but the end product is an idol statue of some kind. That’s why no standard Bible version or genuinely scholarly work treats Jeremiah 10 as a warning against trees (including the King James Version for all you KJV purists out there). Please, once again, refer back to Isaiah 60: 13.
A Christmas Tree can't walk or talk. It is not carried around. It is not shaped with a chisel nor an axe, and doesn't have any beaten plates of gold and silver covering it. People expect neither harm nor good from it. In fact, I've never heard of a Christmas Tree that even remotely fits that description.
So, it has been talking about an idol statue all along. It was never about trees. Then, what’s really going on here with these accusations about trees?
ANXIETY
I am convinced what's really going on here is scrupulosity (irrational guilt and anxiety over moral or religious issues). Look back at the commenter's words, "I want to hear what God says..." But is he hearing God? No. He isn't hearing God, he's telling God what makes Him angry. There's a difference. He is going above and beyond.
People are taking something familiar to them, doing a shallow reading of Jeremiah 10:1–4, and then projecting the Christmas tree back into the time and text where it doesn’t belong. It’s an anachronism dressed up as exegesis. It didn't come from scripture. It didn't come from history. It's simply an opinion, and a poorly formed one at that.
To guard against this weakness, the conclusion is made untouchable - to disagree is to oppose God Himself. But as we've seen, it isn't God who is opposed, but the person's opinion which they have assigned to God. They tell the Bible what to say, history what to record, and God what to think, then tell you that to oppose their claim is to oppose God. That's not how it works. That isn’t a rational process; it’s an emotional one. The hope is to get you afraid enough to switch off your rational brain and not question it further.
We say question it further! It's necessary.
And the anxieties just keep coming.
"Pagans decorated with trees!" So did God.
"Pagans liked greenery!" So did God.
"God said 'learn not the way of the Gentile." You are a Gentile - in the New Covenant!
"God said not to worship in groves." A tree is not a grove, and we worship at all times.
"God is against new traditions." Have you read Esther??
"Christmas trees are idols." Not according to the dictionary.
Most of the traditions associated with modern Christmas have parallels in the Bible. In addition to novel holidays (EST. 9: 20-28; JON. 10: 22-23), and gift-giving (EST. 9: 22), God also lists the use of statues in His worship (EXO. 25: 17-19), garland, bells and fruit (EXO. 28: 33-34; 39: 25-26; II CHR. 3: 16), lights, flowers and ornamentation (EXO. 25: 31-37), greenery (LEV. 23: 40; NEH. 8: 13-15), and other things I could list but won't.
When I have discussions or witness discussions with the ones convinced of mythical Jeremiah trees, they usually resort to one of three responses: 1) they ignore the evidence and continue on (willful ignorance), 2) they attack the messenger rather than refute the evidence (logical fallacy of ad hominem), or 3) they cite good ol' Alexander Hislop (fake history).
We have multiple articles on Alexander Hislop. If you stumble upon claims about Nimrod and Semiramis, just walk away. Relying on Hislop is not the defense some people think it is. I've spent not a few words on Hislop in the past few months alone, anticipating a post just like this one. I suggest you read through everything I've written since "Some Background On Hislop". His work is not to be trusted. He was sincere, but sincerely wrong.
Alas! When we first encounter these protests they seem like legitimate concerns, but upon closer inspection we see these protests are red herrings. Every objection has what I genuinely feel is a legitimate response. Some people just needed to hear a good response and have never gotten one. Hopefully we have helped with that!
However, for the truly determined, it doesn't matter. Sadly, it seems all some people want is to maintain the narrative of condemnation. Ulterior motives are at work here. There are larger conflicts going on - for most, the real war is law vs grace. Christmas is just a misunderstood weapon to fight that war with.
CONCLUSION
Fifteen years on, the Jeremiah 10 and Christmas Trees claim is getting weaker but it limps along. It is a claim made in a bygone era when good information was in short supply, now promoted on the Internet by partisans who feed on people's fears. But God in His limitless mercy has seen fit to provide on this same Internet a means to escape those false claims.
I can't say it surprises me that people fall for it. I did! People fall for scams all the time. But it saddens me. I am glad As Bereans Did and many other places have resources to shine light on it, though.
Dillon, my good friend and guest writer here, wrote an article called "Dialogue On Jeremiah 10". It's insightful. I highly recommend giving it a read!
Fifteen years later, the myth endures - but so does the truth!
************
It is important that you understand; Everything on this blog is based on the current understanding of each author. Never take anyone's word for it, always prove it for yourself, it is your responsibility. You cannot ride someone else's coattail into the Kingdom. ; )
Acts 17:11
************
MJ, I know I told you my next article would have something cool. Even though I think this article does have something cool, it's not the one I was referring to. It's gonna be the next one. Sorry about that!
ReplyDelete