Jeremiah 10:1-10 . . . anti-Christmas?

Have you ever read Jeremiah 10:1-10? Do you think the verses condemns Christmas celebrations?

</font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>
10:1 Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O house of Israel;

10:2 thus saith the Lord: Learn not the way of the nations, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the nations are dismayed at them.

10:3 For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for it is but a tree which one cutteth out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the axe.

10:4 They deck it with silver and with gold, they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.

10:5 They are like a pillar in a garden of cucumbers, and speak not; they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good.

10:6 There is none like unto Thee, O the Lord; Thou art great, and Thy name is great in might.

10:7 Who would not fear Thee, O king of the nations? For it befitteth Thee; forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their royalty, there is none like unto Thee.

10:8 But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the vanities by which they are instructed are but a stock;

10:9 Silver beaten into plates which is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the goldsmith; blue and purple is their clothing; they are all the work of skilful men.

10:10 But the Lord God is the true God, He is the living God, and the everlasting King; at His wrath the earth trembleth, and the nations are not able to abide His indignation.

source: JPS

</div></font></blockquote><font class="post">

It's talking about craftsmen and how "clever" they are and how you shouldn't mistake their beautiful products for "God" and something from Heaven. I don't think it has anything to do with gifts to one another and to honor the Christ child.

The "tree" is about lumber and building a State building or piece of beautiful woodwork, not a Christmas tree. But the message is similar, don't mistake the Christmas tree (which is pagan, was the way the early German tribes celebrated the winter solstice) for "Christmas" itself; don't mistake the human-created object for the Creator and his Work. But celebration itself is never condemned by God, I don't think, but "what" you're celebrating might be. Dancing around a golden calf is definately not the thing to do; that will get you 40 years in the wilderness :-)

Perna, I'm going to add a little something to what you said to make it perfectly clear. Hope you don't mind.

Dancing around in worship of a golden calf is definately not the thing to do; that will get you 40 years in the wilderness :-)

Kind David celebrated, danced and played the lute in worship of God.

Jesus told his desciples when they Celebrated the Passover with the Last Supper, "Do this in rememberence of me."

That is controversial.

Some people (or some groups of people) interpret the Bible in such a way that that passage is indeed condemning christmas celebrations. Such people typically note that origins of christmas are to do with the solstice and so i guess they figure it is bad as halloween or whatever that has a similarly pagan (or non christian) heritige.

Other people (or other groups of people) clearly like christmas and thus they interpret the Bible in such a way that that passage is not condemning christmas celebrations but it is condemning crafting the tree into an idol. So basically... Though shalt not set your tree up as a false god and thou shalt not covert your neighbours tree and on with the celebrations ho!

And like most things...

It shows that the way people interpret most often depends on their pre-conceptions already and appealling to the Bible doesn't really help when the million dollar question is 'and how should we interpret it' aka 'why interpret it that way'?

What do you think?

Jenny, if that is the way that passage in the Old Testament speaks to you, then by all means, go with it. But it is by no means a condemnation of celebrating Jesus' birth!

One would think from reading this that the Christian Bible dictates behavior for everyone.

I always dance around my Christmas Tree and I've never gotten 40 years in the wilderness.

thanks EVERYONE for your responses.

i guess that we could never know what those verses mean since none of us were around when the writer wrote it. we can only imagine what was taking place during that time by the very cryptic language.

alexandra_k . . . i think you are right about preconceptions. i enjoy reading your input. thanks!

(((((everyone))))

I will come back to this (remind me if I don't) The word tree in verse 32 doesn't exist in the Hebrew that I can find. I need more time and less stress to study this, OK? I am interested in rediscovering what this text really is from the original language. THANKS!