{"id":39846,"date":"2022-12-15T11:01:07","date_gmt":"2022-12-15T11:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/?p=23523"},"modified":"2022-12-15T11:39:59","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T11:39:59","slug":"did-the-star-of-bethlehem-really-exist","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/did-the-star-of-bethlehem-really-exist\/","title":{"rendered":"Did the Star of Bethlehem really exist?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Nigel Henbest\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 15 December 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Around December, in the run-up to Christmas, talk turns once again to the story of the Christmas Star, or the Star of Bethlehem, that supposedly guided three wise men \u2013 the \u2018Magi\u2019 \u2013 to the birth of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

But who were the Magi and what was the Christmas star that persuaded them to travel across hundreds of miles of desert? Did the star of Bethlehem really exist?<\/p>\n

Is there any reference to the story in the history of astronomy<\/a>?<\/p>\n

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Did the Star of Bethlehem really exist? Credit: Bashar Shglila \/ Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

The Gospel according to Matthew contains one of the most famous passages in the Bible: \u201cWhere is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and we have come to worship him.\u201d<\/p>\n

If we\u2019re serious about considering the possibility of an actual star of Bethlehem having existed and incorporated into the story of the birth of the son of God, we can immediately rule out the blazing celestial orb that adorns our Christmas cards.<\/p>\n

But what was the Star of Bethlehem? Did it exist, and can astronomy find an explanation?<\/p>\n

Possible explanations for the Star of Bethlehem<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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A Hubble Space Telescope image of Comet ISON (C\/2012 S1) captured during 10 April 2013, when the comet was 386 million miles from the Sun. Credit: NASA, ESA, J.-Y. Li (Planetary Science Institute), and the Hubble Comet ISON Imaging Science Team<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Since 221BC, Chinese astronomers<\/a> had been recording everything that unexpectedly disturbed the tranquility of the night sky, including \u2018broom stars\u2019 (comets<\/a>) and \u2018guest stars\u2019 (novae and supernovae).<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s no mention of any such \u2018guest stars\u2019 around the time that Jesus was supposedly born.<\/p>\n

The Chinese did report a \u2018broom star\u2019 that swept across the sky in 12BC \u2013 none other than Halley\u2019s Comet.<\/p>\n

An unforgettable view of Halley\u2019s Comet in 1301 inspired Giotto di Bondone to paint one of the most famous depictions of the Star of Bethlehem, as a blazing comet hanging over the stable.\u00a0But 12BC was too early for Halley\u2019s Comet to have been the Star.<\/p>\n

Cambridge scientist Colin Humphreys believes Chinese astronomers spotted another comet in 5BC, but oriental records tell us it was a dim specimen, unlikely to coerce the wise men away from home.<\/p>\n

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Adoration of the Magi by Florentine painter Giotto di Bondone.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Who were the three wise men?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The very phrase \u2018wise men\u2019 gives us a clue to what might have triggered their great journey. This is a modern translation of the word Greek \u2018magi\u2019, which also gives us our words \u2018magic\u2019 and \u2018magician\u2019. The wise men were actually astrologers.<\/p>\n

They were not interested in exploding stars or comets, but looked instead at the motion of the planets. And in 7BC, the planets Jupiter and Saturn performed a very unusual tango, much like we saw in 2021 with the the Great Conjunction<\/a> of Jupiter and Saturn on 21 December.<\/p>\n

Three times that year \u2013 in May, September and December \u2013 they came close together, and then parted again.\u00a0This triple conjunction<\/a> would have intrigued the magi, but would have meant nothing to Herod\u2019s counsellors or to the Chinese skywatchers.<\/p>\n

It was the German astronomer Johannes Kepler who first mooted this idea.\u00a0He based it on a conjunction of Jupiter<\/a>, Saturn<\/a> and Mars<\/a> that he observed in 1604, when a brilliant star \u2013 a supernova<\/a> \u2013 suddenly appeared near them. More on this below.<\/p>\n

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The three wise men are a stalwart icon of Christmas depicted on festive cards around the world. Credit: Adyna \/ Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n
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Exploring the Star of Bethlehem mystery<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

Sheffield astronomer David Hughes championed a version of this theory in his 1979 book The Star Of Bethlehem Mystery<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Dismissing the idea of the supernatural star, he proposed that the magi were inspired by the triple conjunction of Jupiter (the King of the Planets) and Saturn (Planet of Justice) in Pisces: the zodiacal sign of the Jewish nation.<\/p>\n

The magi didn\u2019t even need to see the conjunction, though, as they could have calculated what the planets were up to.<\/p>\n

This prompted American historian Michael Molnar to calculate all the planetary conjunctions at that time.\u00a0The result? An even more remarkable event invisible to the naked eye.<\/p>\n

On 17 April 6BC, Jupiter was rising just before the Sun (an important time known as heliacal rising), when it was occulted by the Moon.<\/p>\n

It was a rare and astrologically important event, supposedly foretelling a royal birth.\u00a0However, none of the explanations is particularly convincing.<\/p>\n

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Jupiter meets Saturn every 20 years. Conjunctions of the two are around two-thirds of the way along their orbits from the previous events. Credit: Pete Lawrence<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

The planetary conjunction doesn\u2019t match Matthew\u2019s description of a single star, nor the fact that the star \u201cwent on before them until it came and stood over the place where the child was\u201d.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another problem too, as Matthew\u2019s gospel repeats almost exactly an ancient Jewish account of the birth of Abraham:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the astrologers of Nimrod left the house, they lifted up their eyes towards Heaven to look at the stars, and one great star came from the east and ran athwart the Heavens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthew was writing soon after a genuine expedition of Eastern magi, led by the Armenian king Tiridates, had arrived in Rome.<\/p>\n

\"""\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
An image of Halley\u2019s Comet captured by the European spacecraft Giotto<\/a> in 1986. Did the famous comet prompt the story of the star of Bethlehem? Credit: Halley Multicolor Camera Team, Giotto Project, ESA<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

They had fallen at Nero\u2019s feet, exclaiming: \u201cI have come to you, my god, to worship you\u201d \u2013 just as the wise men, according to Matthew, \u201csaw the Child with Mary, and fell to the ground and worshipped him\u201d.<\/p>\n

This was in AD66, when Halley\u2019s Comet was blazing in the sky. So perhaps, ironically, Halley\u2019s Comet did have a role in the Nativity story, in inspiring Matthew.<\/p>\n

It prompted him to furnish his account with a special star that matched Abraham\u2019s prenatal spectacle and upstaged Tiridates\u2019s adoration of the pagan Nero.<\/p>\n

As a devoted biographer, Matthew was compelled to write a brilliant Star of Bethlehem into his script. Ultimately, however, it\u2019s unlikely we\u2019ll ever know the true mystery of the star of Bethlehem for sure.<\/p>\n

\"""\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Illustration showing Johannes Kepler with King Rudolf II. Was Kepler right? Could the story of the Star of Bethlehem be explained as a conjunction? Credit: Grafissimo \/ Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Was the Star of Bethlehem a great conjunction?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This was the cause put forward in 1603 by the great German astronomer and mathematician, Johannes Kepler, after he had observed a Great Conjunction himself.<\/p>\n

Today, we know of Kepler because of his groundbreaking work on the orbits of the planets and his three laws of planetary motion published in 1609 and 1619, but he was also an accomplished astrologer.<\/p>\n

It was this, coupled with his own Christian beliefs that led to his fascination with the true identity of the Star of Bethlehem.<\/span><\/p>\n

He began to wonder if the \u2018star\u2019 the Magi followed in the story of the nativity was actually a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, and soon began work tracking the planets\u2019 motions backwards through space and time to see if a plausible event could be found.<\/span><\/p>\n

He came to the conclusion that the giant planets were indeed in conjunction in the year 7 BC, in the constellation of Pisces, with a separation of a degree at best.<\/p>\n

And this happened not just once but three times, on 27 May, 6 October and 1 December. The genius of Kepler may hold the answer to one of Christianity\u2019s biggest mysteries.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in the December 2010 and December 2020 issues of <\/strong><\/em>BBC Sky at Night Magazine<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n

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