Some of these details are innocent and rooted in tradition; others are significant aberrations to the Christmas story, making December 25 one of
the most syncretistic events on the Christian calendar.
What we have in Paul is a further, and very distinctive, development of the primitive Christology, partly on the basis of pre-Christian Jewish and even
syncretistic — that is, partly pagan — speculations (Paul's contact with the pagan world of his time is recognized in
most modern studies; indeed, it is sometimes exaggerated.