We Three Kings of Orient Are
Dec. 7th, 2004 10:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sophiaserpentiaBeliefnet has an article on the debate brewing over the "real" star of Bethlehem. With the presumption that this was a reference to an astrological event, astronomers and astrologers have searched the records and astrophysical models for it.
Michael Molnar says the event in question was an occultation of the planet Jupiter by the moon in 6 BC.
Mark Kidger, though, believes it was a supernova visible for 70 days, recorded by the Chinese in 5 BC.
However, I think they're both wrong. At first I was inclined to think that the event refered to an astrological configuration ("we saw his star" could be taken that way), but the gospel account describes a hovering star that literally leads the magi, like a floating lantern, to the house where Jesus had been born:
[Matthew 2:1] After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem
[2] and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."
[3] When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.
...
[9] After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.
[10] When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.
[11] On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.
[12] And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
EDIT: The obvious interpretation of all this occurs to me now after pondering this for a few hours. It seems likely to me that this account is a redaction designed specifically to discount the idea that Jesus' birth was preceeded by astrological portent.
Michael Molnar says the event in question was an occultation of the planet Jupiter by the moon in 6 BC.
"It was something very subtle, only something an astrologer would have seen as important," he said.
The occultation happened in Aries, which ancient astrologers thought ruled the fate of several Near East kingdoms--including Judea, which was struggling under the yoke of Roman rule. Hence, Molnar concludes, the wise men would have read the birth of a new Jewish ruler, perhaps even the long-prophesied Messiah, in this configuration of heavenly bodies.
Mark Kidger, though, believes it was a supernova visible for 70 days, recorded by the Chinese in 5 BC.
As sign followed sign, culminating in the appearance of a "new star," they struck out for Jerusalem, site of Herod's court.
According to Chinese records, the 5 B.C. nova appeared low in the eastern sky in the constellation Aquila and lasted 70 days. If the Magi arrived in Jerusalem two months after they set out, Kidger said, the new position of the Earth would have made the nova appear to hover in the south over Bethlehem--where Herod directed them.
However, I think they're both wrong. At first I was inclined to think that the event refered to an astrological configuration ("we saw his star" could be taken that way), but the gospel account describes a hovering star that literally leads the magi, like a floating lantern, to the house where Jesus had been born:
[Matthew 2:1] After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem
[2] and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."
[3] When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.
...
[9] After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.
[10] When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.
[11] On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.
[12] And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
EDIT: The obvious interpretation of all this occurs to me now after pondering this for a few hours. It seems likely to me that this account is a redaction designed specifically to discount the idea that Jesus' birth was preceeded by astrological portent.
