That Christ was born of a virgin in a stable, the Son of God, was visited by wise men and is divine, and the concept of the Holy Trinity are tenants central to modern-day Christianity. But this hasn't always been the case. We owe today's version of the faith to two main characters: Paul, with his heavily Romanised version of the beliefs of a Jewish splinter group, and the Emperor Constantine, who battled hard to maintain a decaying Roman Empire.

It is widely acknowledged that there are no surviving contemporary accounts of Christ's life: the earliest Gospel is accepted as having been written thirty-forty years after his death. Only Matthew and Luke mention a virgin birth: this seems to be an addition to appeal to a Greco-Romano audience. Scholars have named the oldest scroll relating to Jesus as 'Q'. It is nothing more than a list of quotations, many of which are repeated in the Canonical Gospels.

It is when Saul received his revelation on the road to Damascus (and changed his name to Paul) that Christianity was born. His version is very different from the Jewish reformation, which Jesus' original followers continued to propagate after his death. One only needs to read Paul's Letters in the New Testament to understand that there was a schism between Paul and those who knew Jesus. Jesus, it seems, tried to unite Jews and gentiles against the common enemy: Rome. On the other hand, Paul - who never met Jesus - created a cult.

Christ's divinity was not generally accepted until the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431 AD. There, a majority vote, at the behest of Bishop Nestorius, won the day and Christ was declared, officially, devine. Approximately one century earlier, Emperor Constantine was facing a crisis: how was to unite a divided empire that had once ruled the known world?

Constantine was a follower of Sol Invictus - sun worship. Central to this cult was the figure of Mithras, a later adaptation of Ra. About a quarter of the empire had gone to the ways of Paul's version of Christianity, and the Emperor was losing his grip. His solution was to amalgamate the two faiths.

Mithras worship predates Jesus worship by hundreds of years: that he was born of a virgin in a stable, the Son of God, was visited by wise men and is divine, and the concept of the Holy Trinity are tenants all central to the worship of Mithras. The birth of Mithras was celebrated on 25 December - the eve of the Winter Solstice. Scholars now accept that Jesus was probably born on around 7 March, 7 BC. Constantine amalgamated the celebrations, and aligned the Sabbaths (both would be celebrated on a SUNday). Christmas was born.

So remember: on 25 December this year, wish everyone a very merry Mithrasmas.