4 Responses to “First Christmas Star: Guide of the Magi”

1. on 17 Dec 2008 at 7:10 pm1Michael A

   John,

   What’s your take on the timing of the thing? Given Herod’s choice of age, and Matthew 2:11 “And going into the house …”, do the Magi really belong in a Christmas account alongside shepherds and the herald angels?

   Thanks

2. on 18 Dec 2008 at 9:35 am2julie frye

   Michael A,
   Off the top of my head, I do think the Magi’s visit was (at least?) two years after the birth of Jesus. The popular Christmas culture compresses their visit to the manger. I don’t think so.

3. on 18 Dec 2008 at 9:37 am3John Frye

   Michael A,
   That was me above

4. on 20 Dec 2008 at 2:18 pm4Morton

   Here is an article that gives another explanation of the star.

   Biblical Star A Paper Event?
   By Jeff Nesmith
   COX NEWS SERVICE
   (The Roanoke Times, Sunday, December 19, 1999)

   WASHINGTON– A Rutgers University astronomer has combed through ancient documents to find a startling new explanation for the Biblical “star of Bethlehem.”

   Michael Molnar believes the “wise men from the East” who came to worship the newborn Jesus in the account of the Gospel writer, Matthew , were actually responding to a powerful astrological sign portending the birth of a very great, perhaps immortal, king of Judea.

   Rather than the bright celestial object depicted on zillions of Christmas cards, Molnar thinks such an astrological sign would have caused the “wise men” to go first to Jerusalem, then to Bethlehem, on the night of April 17 in the year 6 B.C.

   Molnar’s theory has excited astronomers, who have for many years speculated that the gilding star was a supernova or a triple conjunction of planets, or maybe even an appearance of Halley’s comet.

   “Molnar has found the star of Bethlehem I believe him and I’m embarrassed,” said Yale University astronomer Bradley Schaefer. “This material had been around for centuries, and no one looked at it until now.”

   The new explanation, Schafer says, accommodates ‘the entire spectrum” of belief. Those who would take the Biblical account almost literally can read validation of the story of the three wide men in Molnar’s theory. Skeptics might believe the Gospel of Matthew was rewritten a century or more after Jesus’ birth to include the story of the wise men on the basis of known astrological history.

   Molnar. Who has a doctorate in astronomy but currently works as a Rutgers computer programmer, presented his theory to the astronomy department of Harvard University on Thursday. He describes it in the new book “The Star of Bethlehem: the Legacy of the Magi.”

   Monar says he was led to his theory by an ancient coin.

   Biblical scholars are unsure about the historical date of Jesus’ birth, but it almost certainly was not on the night of Dec. 24-25, 1,999 years ago. Dec. 25 was originally a pagan holiday which early Christians co-opted. Comparisons of the Biblical account with Roman records suggests Jesus was born several years earlier.

   Jack Dean Kingsbury, professor of New Testament at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, VA., said many scholars think the true date was sometime in 5 or 6 B.C.

   Molnar, a coin collector who specializes in ancient coins with astronomy themes, said that several years ago he bought a bronze Roman coin, dated around 13 A.D., at a coin show. One side bore the image of Jupiter, the pre-eminent god of the Roman pantheon. The other side had an astrological sign, the ram of Aries, looking at a star.

   He paid $50.

   “Friends kidded me and said it was worth only $10,” he said. “It turned out to be worth a lot more than that, I believe.”

   Researching the history of his new coin, Molnar learned it was struck in the Roman city of Antioch, today a part of Turkey, to commemorate the Roman’s annexation of Judea. The sign of Aries represented Judea, Molnar said he learned.

   This was the first clue. Previously, historians have believed the zodiacal sign for Judea was Pisces. Molnar said he traced this belief back to the Renaissance, but ancient writings state specifically that the sign for Judea was Aries.

   Fascinated by this discovery, Molnar dug further into ancient astrology.

   “This was a highly respected subject by people in those days, the Romans, the Greeks and other,” he said. “Astrologers were the scientists of their day.”

   However, they may have seldom looked at the sky, Molnar believes. Instead, they studied their charts to follow the planets migrating through the heavens along paths plotted over the centuries.

   Those charts would have shown that in the spring of the year 6 B.C. the planet Jupiter was approaching the moon, in itself a momentous event in the eyes of the ancient astrologers. Jupiter was the regal star and its approach of the moon would have signaled a royal birth, Molnar says.

   Using his personal computer, he determined that at the time, both Jupiter and the moon where between the Earth and the constellation Aries, suggesting that the expected birth would be in Judea.

   But the signs were even stronger. Jupiter was actually eclipsed by the moon on two dates, March20 and April 17, in 6 B.C., he said. Adding to the power of the astrological event was the fact that the sun was also in the constellation Aries.

   Returning to the computer, he searched for a time when Jupiter was shining as a morning star– in the east.

   “ To you and me, that doesn’t mean much,” he said, “but 2,000 years ago, it meant it was the most powerful time for a star. In those days, it was big news.”

   Jupiter, he found, was in the east on April 17, the precise day it was eclipsed the second time by the moon. Moreover, Saturn was also in the constellation Aries on that date, and several other planets where clustered near the constellation.

   “ To these people , these were extremely powerful signs of a wondrous event, and they would have gone to search for the person who was being born on that date,” he said. “They would have gone first to Jerusalem, the capital f Judea.”

   He noted also that while the Romans, Greeks, Persians and other Gentiles of the day subscribed to the astrological theories developed around the planets and constellations, the monotheistic Hebrews did not. News from the eastern wise men would have bewildered King Herod “and all Jerusalem.”

   Molnar started writing his book several years ago, and had almost completed it when he discovered a book written in 337 A.D.

   That year, the Roman historian Firmicus Maternus, who had converted to Christianity, described the same astrological signs. Molnar’s theory had been spelled out more than 1,600 years ago.

   The astrological signs, Maternus wrote, suggested “the birth of a divine and immortal person.”

   “I think he was talking about Jesus,” Molnar said.

   Matthew’s account says the three wise men did not return to Herod to describe the infant king they found in Bethlehem, but, warned in a dream “departed to their own country by another way.”

   Herod continued to fret about the birth of a rival king, according to Matthew, and eventually had all male children under 2 years old in Bethlehem killed. Also warned in a dream, Joseph took his wife, Mary, and their son to Egypt, where they remained until Herod had died. They then returned to Nazareth in Judea, where Jesus grew to manhood.

   Historians say Herod died in 4 B.C., two years after the night Molnar believes the star of Bethlehem led to wide astrologers to Judea in search of a newborn king.

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