The midrashic legends of the birth of R. Yehoshua bar Yosef the Galilean of course do not hold up ‘historically’ when closely examined or compared with each other - and the date of 25 December chosen was linked to solar monotheism (the date at which the shadows on the Solstice Sun begin to lengthen, announcing, like the cults of Sol Invictvs & Mithras that ‘the god hath been reborn, therefore let us rejoice !’) and has nothing to do with an historical date of his birth (which was not a goal of the canonical Greek gospel writers anyway in general) It was necessary to drag in Malachi chapter 4 to link the Messiah with the sun : ‘In that day shall the Sun of Righteousness rise in the heavens, with healing in his wings’ &c. Interestingly perhaps the 3rd canonical Greek gospel ‘according to Luke’ [whoever he was…] relates an hagaddic midrashic legend of ‘John the Baptist’ (= R. Yohanon bar Zechariah haCohen) being conceived in his mother’s womb exactly SIX MONTHS before ‘Jesus’ & the 4th canonical Greek gospel (‘according to John the Elder’, whoever he was…) has ‘John’ saying in Greek in 3:30 : ‘He must increase (25 December, Christ’s Mass) but I must decrease’ (25 June, John’s Mass) so the two opposing & complimentary solstices were very much in the minds of the Catholic Church by the 3rd & 4th centuries CE when they decided to put the feast days of these two individuals on opposite sides of the Winter & Summer solstices … The fact that our ‘pagan-pre-Christian’ ancestors worshipp’d the sun and carefully noted the solstices by marking them off in their sacred temple building designs (e.g. Stonehenge from c. 3,600 BCE) should inform us about the importance of this time of year when life in the northern hemisphere begins its cyclical birth-process and in the Southern Hemisphere begins its death-process - in perfect equilibrium …