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Imprimis, On Line
December, 1993
IMPRIMIS (im-pr¡-mis), taking its name from the Latin
term, "in the first place," is the publication of
Hillsdale College. Executive Editor, Ronald L.
Trowbridge; Managing Editor, Lissa Roche; Assistant,
Patricia A. DuBois. Illustrations by Tom Curtis. The
opinions expressed in IMPRIMIS may be, but are not
necessarily, the views of Hillsdale College and its
External Programs division. Copyright 1993. Permission
to reprint in whole or part is hereby granted, provided
a version of the following credit line is used:
"Reprinted by permission from IMPRIMIS, the monthly
journal of Hillsdale College." Subscription free upon
request. ISSN 0277-8432. Circulation 490,000 worldwide,
established 1972. IMPRIMIS trademark registered in U.S.
Patent and Trade Office #1563325.
---------------------------------------------
"The Star of Bethlehem"
by Craig Chester
President, Monterey Institute
for Research in Astronomy
---------------------------------------------
December 1993
Volume 22, No. 12
---------------------------------------------
Preview: For over 2,000 years, the Star of Bethlehem
has been a powerful symbol of the Christian faith.
This unique story, told here by astronomer Craig
Chester, was originally presented at Hillsdale
College's Center for Constructive Alternatives Seminar
"Man and Creation--Perspectives on Science and
Religion," in the fall of 1992.
---------------------------------------------
The Story of the Star in the East
Someone once observed, "The universe is composed of
stories, not atoms." The Star of Bethlehem is certainly
a story (as is most of the Bible, first and foremost).
It is a mystery and a puzzle, involving not only
theology and astronomy, but also history and even
astrology.[1] It is an attempt of men to understand not
the universe at large, but specific events, or "What I
Saw."
What do we know about the Star of Bethlehem? The
popular conception is summarized in the Christmas
carol:
We three kings of Orient are/Bearing gifts we
traverse afar, Field and fountain, moor and
mountain/Following yonder star.
O star of wonder, star of night/Star with royal
beauty bright, Westward leading, still
proceeding/Guide us to thy perfect light.
We all know those lines as the story of the Star,
which is fine--except for the fact that almost
everything in it is wrong. The actual New Testament
account of the Star of Bethlehem comes from the second
chapter of the Gospel of Matthew (told here in the
Revised English Bible translation):
Jesus was born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the
reign of Herod. After his birth astrologers [Magi]
from the east arrived in Jerusalem, asking, "Where
is the newborn king of the Jews? We observed the
rising of his star, and we have come to pay him
homage." King Herod was greatly perturbed when he
heard this, and so was the whole of Jerusalem. He
called together the chief priests and scribes of
the Jews and asked them where the Messiah was to
be born. "At Bethlehem in Judaea," they replied,
"for this is what the prophet wrote: 'Bethlehem in
the land of Judah, you are by no means least among
the rulers of Judah; for out of you shall come a
ruler to be the shepherd of my people Israel.' "
Then Herod summoned the astrologers to meet him
secretly, and ascertained from them the exact time
when the star had appeared. He sent them to
Bethlehem, and said, "Go and make a careful search
for the child, and when you have found him, bring
me word, so that I may go myself and pay him
homage."
After hearing what the king had to say they set
out; there before them was the star they had seen
rising, and it went ahead of them until it stopped
above the place where the child lay. They were
overjoyed at the sight of it and, entering the
house, they saw the child with Mary his mother and
bowed low in homage to him; they opened their
treasure chests and presented gifts to him: gold,
frankincense, and myrrh. Then they returned to
their own country by another route, for they had
been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod.
What is your initial reaction to this story? It
seems to me that it is not a fabulous tale. That is, it
does not conjure up fantastic details or images, and it
is told in a rather mundane fashion, not at all like a
fable. It is also the only account we have of it in our
Bible. Later, various non-canonical sources did
elaborate on it. Books like the Protevangelium of James
and an epistle of Ignatius say this star was the
brightest star in the sky, brighter than all other
stars combined, even in-cluding the sun and the moon,
which bowed down before it. But Matthew is very matter-
of-fact.[2]
The Historical Perspective
To understand this story, we must view it in the
context of its time. Who were these Magi? Where did
they come from? Magi is the plural of Magus, the root
of our word magic; "court astrologer" is probably the
best translation. "Wise men" is also a good term,
descriptive of the esteem in which they were widely
held. The group of Magi in question (it is the
Christmas carol, not Matthew, that refers to three of
them) came "from the east." They might have been
Zoroastrians, Medes, Persians, Arabs, or even Jews.
They served as court advisors, making forecasts and
predictions for their royal patrons based on their
study of the stars, about which they were quite
knowledgeable. Magi often wandered from court to court,
and it was not unusual for them to cover great
distances in order to attend the birth or crowning of a
king, paying their respects and offering gifts. It is
not surprising, therefore, that Matthew would mention
them as validation of Jesus' kingship, or that Herod
would regard their arrival as a very serious matter.[3]
When might these Magi have appeared in Judaea?
Obviously, determining the story's date is important if
we are to look for astronomical connections. We might
assume that it was around 1 b.c. or 1 a.d., since that
is when, by conventional reckoning, Jesus was born. But
the calendar on which these dates are based was set by
the Roman monk Dionysius Exiguus in the year 525 a.d.,
long after the fact. Scholars writing in the first and
second centuries a.d. asserted that Jesus was born
between what we now call 4 b.c. and 1 b.c. They were
living much closer to the event and had access to
thousands of historical records in many excellent
libraries, and their opinions probably should be given
much more weight than has been common.
How about the time of the year? The best clue is a
passage in the Book of Luke:
And there were in the same country shepherds
abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their
flock by night.
If the reference to "fields" is accurate-- not
pastures or holding pens--we might guess at a date in
late summer or early fall, for it was customary for
farmers to allow sheep and cattle to graze the stubble
in the fields following the harvest. This clue is
suggestive, but hardly definitive.
One difficulty in seeking a precise date is the
fact that Matthew reports two separate sightings,
possibly separated by a substantial time. First, the
Magi saw the Star rising en anatole, best translated as
"rising in the east," the ancient technical term for an
acronical rising, when an object rises at sunset and is
visible all night. After they come to Jerusalem--we do
not know how long that took, and there is no indication
that the Star was in any way involved with the journey-
-they see the Star again as they travel the few miles
to Bethlehem:
There before them was the star they had seen
rising, and it went ahead of them until it stopped
above the place where the child lay.
There was no need for a bright or supernatural
guiding light to find Bethlehem from Jerusalem; it lies
just five miles south on the main road. There is a
reference not to the "house" of an infant (brephos in
the Greek) but of a paidion, or toddler, indicating
that some months may have elapsed since the birth
itself.
What are the astronomical possibilities? This
question has been asked many times since the Christian
apologist Origen first raised it around 250 a.d. It is
safe to say that every astronomical event known to have
occurred during, say, the decade of interest has at
some point been proposed as the Star of Bethlehem.
The key point to answering this question is to
note that it is not just any astronomical event that is
of interest. We can restrict our inquiry to those
appearances that would have had astrological
significance to the Magi, who declared:
"We observed the rising of his star, and we have
come to pay him homage."
An astronomical event may not have been very
obvious at all; certainly it was not obvious to Herod.
Had it been an incomparably bright object, as later
writers thought, there would be numerous written
records of it. It is much more plausible that the Star
of Bethlehem went unnoticed by all but a few experts
such as the Magi.
The Death of Herod
A major key to the chronology is the date of the death
of Herod, who figures prominently in our story. Herod
was alive when the Star of Bethlehem appeared and the
commonly quoted date for his death is 4 b.c.4 Thus
dates of 7 b.c. through 4 b.c. are often given for the
birth of Jesus. The political events of this period are
best known from the writings of Josephus Flavius, the
Jewish historian who lived from 37 a.d. to about 95
a.d. His testimony has always been considered vital in
determining these dates. But the accounts of Josephus
and the entire history of this period have been
reassessed recently, with important new results, by
Ernest Martin, whose book, The Star that Astonished the
World, has become the authoritative source on the
subject.[5]
According to Josephus, on the night of a lunar
eclipse Herod executed two rabbis. They were accused of
inciting some young men to climb up on the wall and
tear down the golden eagle that the king had ordered
placed on the gate to the Temple in Jerusalem. This
eagle was, of course, an abomination to the Jews
because it was a graven image. Soon Herod himself died
and was buried. One of his sons inherited his throne,
shortly after which Passover was celebrated. It was
long believed that the lunar eclipse in question
occurred on March 13 in 4 b.c. But this was only a
partial eclipse (40 percent total) and fairly hard to
detect. And it occurred only 29 days before Passover.
Here is what would have had to happen in those 29 days:
Herod was sick at the time of the execution of the
rabbis and his condition worsened almost immediately.
He was treated for a time by his physicians, to no
avail. Herod then decided to pack up the royal
household and move to Jericho to take the baths. He
tried the baths unsuccessfully for some days and then
returned to Jerusalem. Believing that he soon would
die, Herod came up with a diabolical plan to insure
that all of Israel would mourn his death, in spite of
his unpopularity. He commanded the leading men from
around the country to come to Jerusalem; there he
imprisoned them in the Hippodrome and ordered the army
to execute them as soon as he was dead. Israel would
indeed mourn. (Fortunately, the order was not carried
out.)
In the meantime, word arrived from Rome that Herod
had the Emperor's permission to execute his rebellious
son Antipater, and he promptly complied. Five days
later he died, but not before decreeing that his was to
be the largest funeral ever held in the history of the
world. His body was embalmed. The army was assembled to
carry his body in the funeral procession to a burial
site some 25 miles away. The soldiers walked in bare
feet, as was required when in mourning, traveling one
mile a day. A legate from Rome, where word of Herod's
death had been received, arrived to protect the royal
treasury. Finally, Herod's son Archelaus was crowned
king and had time to issue a few decrees prior to the
celebration of Passover.
The 29 days between the eclipse of 4 b.c. and the
following Passover simply do not allow enough time for
all of this to have happened. A minimum of ten weeks
would have been required. But on January 10, 1 b.c.,
there was a total lunar eclipse visible in Palestine,
and it occurred twelve and a half weeks before
Passover. As Martin points out, there are other
compelling reasons to regard 1 b.c. as the true date of
Herod's death. For example, the War of Varus, known to
have followed Herod's death, can be redated to 1 b.c.,
where it fits the other known facts perfectly.
If we conclude that Herod did die in the spring of
1 b.c., we are free to add the years 3 b.c. and 2 b.c.
to our search for the Star of Bethlehem. What was
happening then? The year 2 b.c. marked the 25th
anniversary of Caesar Augustus's rule and the 750th
anniversary of the founding of Rome. Huge celebrations
were planned. The whole empire was at peace. The doors
of the temple of Janus were closed for only the third
time in Roman history. To honor their emperor, the
people were to rise as one and name Augustus pater
patriae, or "Father of the Country." Now, getting the
people of an empire to do something "spontaneously"
requires a great deal of organization. And so an
enrollment, or census, was ordered:
In those days, a decree went out from Caesar
Augustus that all the world should be enrolled.
And all went to be enrolled, each to his own city.
This enrollment, described in the Gospel of Luke,
which brought Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, always has
been a mystery since no regular taxation census
occurred at this time. But the pater patriae enrollment
fits perfectly.
The Astronomical Perspective
What astronomical events, possibly in the years 3 or 2
b.c., might have been related to the Star of Bethlehem?
Novae have been suggested, the unexpected, sudden
brightening of a star from invisibility into a bright
object for a period of days or weeks. There is no
historical record of such a nova, nor is it clear what
a nova's astrological significance would be. Comets are
candidates, for they appear sporadically, move, and
even seem to point down to the earth. (This was
Origen's choice.) But the recorded comets around this
time, even Halley's Comet in 12 b.c., were not very
impressive; astrologically, they were considered
ominous. Meteors and fireballs are even less likely
candidates.
Conjunctions of planets have long been considered
good possibilities. A conjunction is a close apparent
approach between two celestial objects. Technically
speaking, a conjunction occurs at the moment when both
objects have the same celestial longitude; one is due
north of the other. The closer the objects, the more
visually impressive is the event and the more
significant astrologically. In 3 b.c. and 2 b.c., there
was a series of close conjunctions involving Jupiter,
the planet that represented kingship, coronations, and
the birth of kings. In Hebrew, Jupiter was known as
Sedeq or "Righteousness," a term also used for the
Messiah.
In September of 3 b.c., Jupiter came into
conjunction with Regulus, the star of kingship, the
brightest star in the constellation of Leo. Leo was the
constellation of kings, and it was associated with the
Lion of Judah. The royal planet approached the royal
star in the royal constellation representing Israel.
Just a month earlier, Jupiter and Venus, the Mother
planet, had almost seemed to touch each other in
another close conjunction, also in Leo. Then the
conjunction between Jupiter and Regulus was repeated,
not once but twice, in February and May of 2 b.c.
Finally, in June of 2 b.c., Jupiter and Venus, the two
brightest objects in the sky save the sun and the moon,
experienced an even closer encounter when their disks
appeared to touch; to the naked eye they became a
single object above the setting sun. This exceptionally
rare spectacle could not have been missed by the Magi.
In fact, we have seen here only the highlights of
an impressive series of planetary motions and
conjunctions fraught with a variety of astrological
meanings, involving all the other known planets of the
period, Mercury, Mars, and Saturn. The astrological
significance of these impressive events must surely
have been seen by the Magi as the announcement of the
impending birth of a great king of Israel.
September 11, 3 b.c., is perhaps the most
interesting date of all. Not only was Jupiter very
close to Regulus in the first of their conjunctions,
but the sun was in the constellation of Virgo (of
obvious symbolism), together with the new moon, in a
configuration that fits a plausible interpretation of a
passage in the Book of Revelation describing the birth
of a male child who is to be the ruler of the universe.
Significantly, September 11, 3 b.c., also marked the
beginning of the Jewish New Year, traditionally
regarded as the anniversary of Noah's landing after the
Great Flood.
But if the planet Jupiter was the Star of
Bethlehem, or was a component of the events that
triggered the visit by the Magi, how do we view the
final appearance of the Star on their journey to
Bethlehem? It would have been in the southern sky,
though fairly high above the horizon. Could it have
stopped over Bethlehem?
The answer is yes. The word "stop" was used for
what we now call a planet's "stationary point." A
planet normally moves eastward through the stars from
night to night and month to month, but regularly
exhibits a "retrograde loop." As it approaches the
opposite point in the sky from the sun, it appears to
slow, come to a full stop, and move backward (westward)
through the sky for some weeks. Again it slows, stops,
and resumes its eastward course. It seems plausible
that the Magi were "overjoyed" at again seeing before
them, as they traveled southward, His star, Jupiter,
which at its stationary point was standing still over
Bethlehem. We do know for certain that Jupiter
performed a retrograde loop in 2 b.c. and that it was
stationary on December 25, interestingly enough, during
Hanukkah, the season for giving presents.
What Room for God?
Where has this search for the Star of Bethlehem taken
us? There has been much discussion in recent years
about the "God of the gaps"--finding God in the gaps
between the portions of some subject that we feel we
understand scientifically. It seems to me that this is
a dangerous position, for science by definition cannot
admit to such gaps and must search continually to fill
them with its understanding, and it often will succeed
in so doing. Here the situation is different. The
question is: What meaning, what room for God, do we
find in the events that we know to have occurred?
If we have correctly identified the Star of
Bethlehem, the science is clear and simple. Keplerian
orbits of planets[6] are predictable, so that we can
deduce quite accurately what the sky looked like two
thousand years ago. Even the ancient Magi understood
apparent planetary motions quite well. Predictions of
the conjunctions of 3 and 2 b.c. were made 400 years
prior to the birth of Christ, and they were in error by
only a few days. There is no need to invoke God or
divine miracles to explain what happened in the heavens
above Judaea. Natural laws are sufficient.
But is this kind of sufficiency really enough for
us? The significant question raised here is not what
happened, but why it happened. What does it mean? Was
Matthew right in seeing this event as divine
confirmation of a central moment in God's plan for
mankind? What room is left for God, not as an agent
filling in the gaps between what we can understand as
physical causes, but as the creator of purpose? And was
God's purpose fulfilled by the great celestial dance
that we call the Star of Bethlehem?
These questions are examples of the kind of
decisions we are faced with daily. No theologian can
say, in a way convincing to a scientist, that some
event required an act of God outside natural law.
Similarly, no scientist can say that some event was
merely (a dangerous word) an act of natural law working
itself out with no other meaning. That is, no one is
forced to believe that what happened in the heavens two
thousand years ago was a simple, natural event devoid
of meaning. The Star of Bethlehem is an excellent
example of an event that occurs right at the
intersection of Christianity and science, in a world
created by a God who chose to institute natural laws
but who nevertheless continues to carry out His own
purposes.
---------------------------------------------
Craig Chester is the president and co-founder of the
Monterey (California) Institute for Research in
Astronomy (MIRA). Founded 22 years ago, MIRA is the
only American professional observatory established in
this century which is independent of universities and
of the federal government; its observatory (at one of
the best sites in the U.S.), its educational programs,
and its state-of-the-art research are funded almost
entirely by private donors who wish to support basic
science at a unique institution. As a software
consultant, Dr. Chester has worked on a variety of U.S.
Navy and U.S. Air Force projects, developing ground
equipment and software tools for satellite
communications. He holds a Ph.D. in astronomy from Case
Western Reserve University.
---------------------------------------------
Footnotes:
1 My background is astronomy. I also took some
fascinating courses in Biblical studies at Harvard
Divinity School, but I do not pretend to be an expert
of any sort. It also should be noted that I am not
presenting any original research in this essay. Many
scholars, including scientists, theologians,
andhistorians, have studied the Star of Bethlehem.
2 It has been suggested that this is a commentary by
Matthew, always fond of referring to Old Testament
prophecies, on Balaam's oracle in the Book of Numbers
that "a star shall come forth out of Jacob and a
scepter shall rise out of Israel." It would be
uncharacteristic of Matthew to refrain from pointing
out this prophecy explicitly, had he had it in mind.
3 The Hebrew prophet Daniel, himself a member of the
Magi, foretold that a king of kings would come forth
from Israel. On the strength of this prophecy, the
Roman emperor Nero was even advised to move his capital
to Jerusalem.
4 The reference is to Herod the Great. It was his son
Herod Antipas who executed John the Baptist and who
ruled at the time of the Crucifixion.
5 Ernest Martin, The Star that Astonished the World
(ASK Publications, 1991). See also, John Mosley, The
Christmas Star (Griffith Observatory), 1987).
6 Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) was the German
astronomer who discovered the physical laws describing
planetary orbits.
###
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