THE JOURNEY TO BETHLEHEMS STAR

Journey with Adam Hamilton as he travels from Nazareth to Bethlehem in this fascinating look at the birth of Jesus Christ. As he did with out of 5 stars.
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For we have seen His star in the East [or at its rising [11] ] and have come to worship Him. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. Herod is "troubled", not because of the appearance of the star, but because the Magi have told him that a "king of the Jews" had been born, [13] which he understands to refer to the Messiah, a leader of the Jewish people whose coming was believed to be foretold in scripture.

So he asks his advisors where the Messiah would be born. Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also. When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was.

When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: Matthew's account suggests that the Magi knew from the star that the "king of the Jews" had been born even before they arrived in Jerusalem.

They present Jesus with gifts of gold , frankincense , and myrrh , and as verse 11 describes: The word "Nazareth" is related to the word "netzer" which means "sprout", [24] and which some Bible commentators [25] think refers to Isaiah Many scholars who see the gospel nativity stories as later apologetic accounts created to establish the Messianic status of Jesus regard the Star of Bethlehem as a pious fiction. Matthew is the only one of the four gospels which mentions either the Star of Bethlehem or the Magi.

Star of Bethlehem

Matthew's description of the miracles and portents attending the birth of Jesus can be compared to stories concerning the birth of Augustus 63 BC. This delegation was led by King Tiridates of Armenia , who came seeking confirmation of his title from Emperor Nero. Ancient historian Dio Cassius wrote that, "The King did not return by the route he had followed in coming," [34] a line similar to the text of Matthew's account, but written some time after the completion of Matthew's gospel. The ancients believed that astronomical phenomena were connected to terrestrial events.

Miracles were routinely associated with the birth of important people, including the Hebrew patriarchs , as well as Greek and Roman heroes. Although clearly intended to refer to a time that was long past, since the kingdom of Moab had long ceased to exist by the time the Gospels were being written, this passage had become widely seen as a reference to the coming of a Messiah. If, then, at the commencement of new dynasties, or on the occasion of other important events, there arises a comet so called, or any similar celestial body, why should it be matter of wonder that at the birth of Him who was to introduce a new doctrine to the human race, and to make known His teaching not only to Jews, but also to Greeks, and to many of the barbarous nations besides, a star should have arisen?

Now I would say, that with respect to comets there is no prophecy in circulation to the effect that such and such a comet was to arise in connection with a particular kingdom or a particular time; but with respect to the appearance of a star at the birth of Jesus there is a prophecy of Balaam recorded by Moses to this effect: There shall arise a star out of Jacob, and a man shall rise up out of Israel.

Origen suggested that the Magi may have decided to travel to Jerusalem when they "conjectured that the man whose appearance had been foretold along with that of the star, had actually come into the world". The Magi are sometimes called "kings" because of the belief that they fulfill prophecies in Isaiah and Psalms concerning a journey to Jerusalem by gentile kings. While Origen argued for a naturalistic explanation, John Chrysostom viewed the star as purely miraculous: And at this the evangelist was hinting when he said, "Lo, the star went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was.

In , German astronomer Johannes Kepler determined that a series of three conjunctions of the planets Jupiter and Saturn occurred in the year 7 BC. Karlis Kaufmanis , an astronomer, argued that this was an astronomical event where Jupiter and Saturn were in a triple conjunction in the constellation Pisces. In 3—2 BC, there was a series of seven conjunctions, including three between Jupiter and Regulus and a strikingly close conjunction between Jupiter and Venus near Regulus on June 17, 2 BC.

Since the conjunction would have been seen in the west at sunset it could not have led the magi south from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. Other writers suggest that the star was a comet. His theory involves a hypothetical comet which could have appeared in 6 BC.

Who were the Wise Men?

A recent hypothesis is that the star of Bethlehem was a supernova or hypernova occurring in the nearby Andromeda Galaxy. The Magi told Herod that they saw the star "in the East," [61] or according to some translations, "at its rising", [11] which may imply the routine appearance of a constellation, or an asterism. One theory interprets the phrase in Matthew 2: Two modern translators of ancient astrological texts insist that the text does not use the technical terms for either a heliacal or an acronycal rising of a star.

However, one concedes that Matthew may have used layman's terms for a rising. Molnar argues that the "star in the east" refers to an astronomical event with astrological significance in the context of ancient Greek astrology.

Star of Bethlehem - Wikipedia

The events were quite close to the sun and would not have been visible to the naked eye. Babylonian astronomers usually referred to the planet Jupiter as MUL.


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Attorney Frederick Larson examined the biblical account in the Gospel of Matthew , chapter 2 [75] and found the following nine qualities of Bethlehem's Star: Using astronomy software , and an article [84] written by astronomer Craig Chester [85] based on the work of Ernest Martin, [86] [87] Larson thinks all nine characteristics of the Star of Bethlehem are found in events that took place in the skies of BC. By June of 2 BC, nine months later, the human conception period, [92] Jupiter had continued moving in its orbit around the sun and appeared in close conjunction with Venus [91] in June of 2 BC.

Jupiter next continued to move and then it stopped in its apparent retrograde motion on December 25 of 2 BC over the town of Bethlehem. Again it slows, stops, and resumes its eastward course," said Chester. If the story of the Star of Bethlehem described an actual event, it might identify the year Jesus was born.

The Gospel of Matthew describes the birth of Jesus as taking place when Herod was king. That the king is said to have ordered the execution of boys two years of age and younger implies that the Star of Bethlehem appeared within the preceding two years. However, there is some debate among Bible translators about the correct reading of Luke 2: Bruce , Ben Witherington and others have suggested may be the correct translation. In the Orthodox Church , the Star of Bethlehem is interpreted as a miraculous event of symbolic and pedagogical significance, regardless of whether it coincides with a natural phenomenon; a sign sent by God to lead the Magi to the Christ Child.

Your birth, O Christ our God, dawned the light of knowledge upon the earth. In general, comets were thought to be evil omens. More often they would signal the death of a king, not a birth. When a comet appeared in 79 A. Vespasion, alluding to the term "long-haired star" used for comets, joked that the comet must have been meant for the Parthian King, who wore his hair long, not for himself, Vespasian, who was bald. Despite his clever pun, Vespasian died within a year. Could the star have actually been a planet like Venus or Jupiter?

When did the event take place?

It seems extremely unlikely. The Magi, as professional astrologers, would have been very familiar with these heavenly bodies and not mistaken them for a "star. Conjunctions occur when planets, which travel in roughly along the same circle through the sky, pass each other. Conjunctions are rather common and would not seem to be a significant enough event to send the Magi on a five-hundred mile trip to Jerusalem.

More rare is a triple conjunction. This occurs when a planet appears to travel backward in the sky in a movement known as retrograde motion. This can cause two planet to pass each other, then one backs up and they pass each other again, and finally pass each other a third time as normal forward movement is resumed. A triple conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn occurred in 7 B. Even making the display more impressive was a massing a massing is when several planets move into close proximity in the sky of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn that immediately followed the conjunction.

The conjunctions and massing also occurred in the constellation of Pisces which was often identified with the Jews. Astronomer Mark Kidger, author of Star of Bethlehem: An Astronomer's View , argues that even a triple conjunction was too common to qualify, in itself, as the star. The interval between triple conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn can be as short as 40 years or as long as years with an average of around years. Kidger reasons that if the triple conjunction alone was the event for which the Magi were watching, a triple conjunction in B.

Michael Molnar, an astronomer at Rutgers University, has suggested that the star might have actually been an occultation of Jupiter by the moon. An occultation occurs when the moon passes in front of another body, making it disappear from the sky. Molnar, also an expert in ancient coins, came up with the theory after purchasing a coin minted in Antioch in 13 A. The Antioch coin shows a ram looking at a bright star close to a crescent Moon. Molnar, author of The Star of Bethlehem: The Legacy of the Magi , thinks that the coin shows that occultations were of great significance to these ancient peoples.

The Magi would have seen Jupiter, the royal planet, disappear and reappear, perhaps signalling to them the birth of a King. The constellation that these occurred in, Ares the Ram, was associated with the Palestine area. Does a coin from the ancient city of Antioch hold the key to the Christmas star? One of the problems with this theory is that these particular occultations would have been very difficult to see from Jerusalem and one of them impossible to observe from Babylon.

Molnar argues, however, that the Magi were skilled enough to know that the occultation had occurred without having seen it. One difficulty of both the conjunction and occultation explanations is that both involve multiple objects in the sky. The passage from Matthew uses the Greek term "aster" the singular, not "asteres" the plural.

It is likely that if the text referred to a group of objects in the sky the word "astron," which means constellation, would have been employed.. If the author knew that planets were involved he could have also used the word "planes aster" that specifically meant planet. Could the star be a meteor, sometimes referred to as a "shooting star? They seem to be too common, however, to be considered a candidate for the star.

Rarely a large meteor enters the atmosphere and does not burn up until it approaches the ground. Such a phenomenon is referred to as a "fireball" and may last 5 or 10 seconds, leaving a trail of glowing smoke behind it. On extremely infrequent occasions, fireballs can be seen for several minutes. Certainly an object observed in the sky like this would have created much interest among the Magi, especially if it appeared in the east and crossed to the west toward Jerusalem.

For this theory to match the Matthew account, two fireballs would be required, one to start the Magi on their journey and another appearing as they approached Bethlehem. Statistically this is unlikely, though it cannot be completely discounted. Occasionally a white dwarf star, which is part of a binary system, can blow off its upper layers in a violent explosion that will increase its brightness.

The Wise Men and the Star

This is referred to as a nova and can be as much as 50, times as bright as our sun. In Daniel 2, the wise men were unable to tell King Nebuchadnezzar his dream, before attempting to interpret it. The king therefore threatened to have them all put to death Daniel 2: Indeed, it would appear that the order to kill the wise men had already begun Daniel 2: Daniel and his companions were already counted among the wise men, because they had been trained as such and interviewed for inclusion in the ranks of the wise men Daniel 1: When Daniel told the king his dream and its interpretation, he made clear that he was not able to do this because of his own wisdom, and that the wise men had been correct in stating that no man could do what the king had asked.

Instead, Daniel gave glory to God, stating that he could only do this amazing thing, because God had revealed the dream and interpretation to him. At the end of Daniel 2, we read that Daniel was to be chief administrator over the wise men, who, presumably, were to be spared. If we are right about the identity of the wise men, this gives us a clue as to why they would know about the star.

The star is mentioned in Numbers 24, and is prophesied by an unusual character, called Balaam. He was based at Pethor, which is not only near the River Euphrates Numbers Balaam was contracted by Balak to curse the Israelites. Balak was the king of Moab at that time, and the Israelites were moving through Moabite territory as part of their long sojourn to the Promised Land. The Israelites were not going to settle in Moab, so the Moabites had the opportunity, as had the Edomites and Amorites before them, to show hospitality to the Israelites and enable them to go on their way Numbers Like the Edomites and Amorites, the Moabites were to disobey God, but they were to do so by contracting this magician named Balaam.

A Journey to Bethlehem

The account of what happened to Balaam — how he was commissioned, how he was warned about his behavior by God, how God rebuked him by making his donkey talk and how his every attempt to curse the Israelites simply led to them being blessed — can be found in Numbers 22 through The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes; And to Him shall be the obedience of the people. This passage from Genesis refers to the coming Messiah, to be descended from Judah so, by inference, we can suggest that Numbers It would also make sense that Daniel could have spoken to them about this, especially as Daniel himself prophesied much about the Messiah Daniel 9: If they had known about Micah, they would never have traveled to Jerusalem, proceeding instead directly to Bethlehem.

After all, if they understood the significance of Numbers 24 and possibly Genesis 49, they would certainly have known what Micah was talking about.


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    • But instead they had to be told about this by the chief priests and scribes in Jerusalem, especially as these chief priests coupled Micah 5: One final piece of evidence for this Babylonian wise men connection is the implication that the wise men were looking for the star. Or had they been looking for such a star for centuries? The latter idea seems unlikely. Herod clearly considered himself to be the King of the Jews. Indeed, not only the king was troubled, but Jerusalem as a whole, as well. Herod was Jewish by choice only. He was not Jewish by descent; he was Edomite.

    This ties in neatly with prophecy, because we have already seen that in Numbers that the Edomites were rejected by God because of their inhospitable attitude to the Israelites. However, Herod had chosen to be Jewish by practice, as had most other Edomites of the time. This was convenient for him. It is no wonder that he was troubled when he heard about the birth of the real King of the Jews, accompanied by this miraculous star. He knew that the King of the Jews was someone who he ought to worship, which is why he pretended that he wished to do so in Matthew 2: The wise men also knew that this person was the One to be worshiped Matthew 2: In his questioning of the chief priests and scribes, Herod shows that he knew that the real King of the Jews was to be the Messiah Matthew 2: As a Jew by adoption, why did he not actually want to worship the Messiah?

    Why did he want to destroy Him instead? It is likely that this is because he knew that his own title was blasphemous. He was not really interested in worshiping as a Jew. He was interested in power, and his assumption of kingship with a Messianic title, as well as his work on the Temple, was part of this pursuit of power.

    Therefore, he would resort to any length to keep his blasphemous title and position.