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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.
Matthew 2:9
The Question is "Did Jesus need a sign in the heavens to declare His birth?" The answer is simply, "No.”
He did not 'need' a sign.
Then why would God use a sign if He did not need one?
To answer that question. consider what David said in Psalm 19.
The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
Day unto day utters speech,
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech nor language
Where their voice is not heard.
Pslam 19:1-3
David introduces the concept of Creation speaking. But what does it speak about?
Creation testifies of iIts Creator. Signs are controlled by God and are the Universe speaking about the One Who made them.
This was Universe telling us that the Creator God was about to be "born" in human flesh.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,
and we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth.
John 1:14
The star that announced the birth of Christ was a heavenly sign. But there are other signs, too. There was also the heavenly sign of the angels.
And suddenly there was with the angel
a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
“Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
Luke 2:14
Jesus could have been born without the star, as some believers would rather have it, especially those operating in the Sadducee spirit who like to denied the spiritual sign of Christianity.
How many believers railed against the eclipse being a sign from God in the heavens?
It was shocking.
However, God still uses signs.
Quite simply, the Universe would not be quiet.
I tell you that if these should keep silent,
the stones would immediately cry out.”
Luke 19:40
The Star of Bethlehem exhibitied very specific characteristics. These are implied from the biblical account.
A sudden appearance
A sudden disappearance
Magi saw them and the star guided them
The start stood still after moving to the the place where Jesus was.
What astronomical object has these qualities? Is there a known object that could explain the Bethlehem Star?
Let's review the theories that have been offered.
Many have thought of the Star which announced the birth of Jesus in a manager. Ideas of what the Star could be have been mulled over for almost two thousand years. here are some of the views offered by those who have pondered the subject.
An article from EarthSky.org, entitled Was the Christmas Star Real? What Was It? summarized the main theories.
Some of these (ideas) include a planetary conjunction, a comet or a supernova.
It also has been suggested a the Star was a falling one, or a meteorite.
Attempts have been made to identify a "moving" star that could stand still. The concept that the star was there for an indefinite period was also considered as well as the fact that Magi (star watchers of their day) could interpret "His star in the East," and follow it. This may have indicated that it took a special understanding to recognize it and the average onlooker would not have understood it to be there.
With a Tail: The Comet Theory
This idea is based upon the movement foretold in scripture. Most "stars" do not move relative to the night sky to the observer, so this already an unusual quality.
The Star of Bethlehem was some kind of moving star.
In ancient days, shepherds and magi no doubt alike identified a phenomena called wandering stars. These wanderers were star like objects that appeared to move agains the backdrop of the starry heavens night after night. We know them today as planets. They are called the classic planets being the seven known ot mankind in the day:
Sun
Moon
Venus
Jupiter
Mars
Mercury
Saturn
Before we understood the structure of the solar system, these were the seven objects known to routinely "move" through the heavens.
This has lead many to the next "theory," concerning planetary conjunctions. however, planets were known and seen by all night after night, year after year. They were not, in and of themselves, unique to a special event.
However, there was another object that moved through the heavens which was not so common. Aristotle called it a "shooting star." but he was not thinking of our modern definition of a meteorite. This object became known as a comet.
Comets travel in an elongated orbit around the sun, and when the appear in the earth's sky, they are merely on a journey along that path. Nevertheless, they would be seen as "moving." Some comets have been so bright that they could be seen during daylight hours.
Since a comet meets the motion requirement, we must ask:
Was the Bethlehem Star a comet?
Here are some characteristics of comets: they move and they have a tail.
Most famously, we see the Star announcing Jesus's birth depicted in the Christmas carol, "Do You See What I See?"
Do you see what I see?
A star, a star, dancing in the night
With a tail as big as a kite
The implication is that the Star was a comet with a tail.
But there are a couple of problems with a comet being the Bethlehem Star. One of the first issues is that it though it moves, a comet never appears not to move.
Comets always move
but they never “stand” still.
these “dirty frozen ice balls” always progress on the their sunward trek through the heavens.
Another is that a tail is never mentioned in Scripture.
Further, in ancient times, comets were identified as bad omens, never as signs of good things, like the birth of a Savior.
Comets often generated world wide fear.
From the Norman Invasion of England in 1066 AD, to the one in 684 AD, published in the Nuremberg Chronicle, comets have pushed the boundaries of fear throughout history over a global audience.
How many of the conditions of the biblical records of the Star of Bethlehem would a planetary conjunctions resolve?
It would be a sudden brightness and then a disappearance of sorts. It would solve the moving aspect, and maybe if we stretch credulity a bit, we can think of the conjunction as a "stopping" point.
According to astronomical software, we can trace back the following:
In the year 7 B.C., Jupiter and Saturn had three conjunctions in the same constellation, Pisces. Because the planets move in their orbits at different speeds, and are located at different distances, sometimes they appear to pass one another in the night sky.sudden brightness and disappearance.
According to the documentary "The Star of Bethlehem," Jupiter, the King planet, has a conjunction with the King star, Regulus on December 25th 2 BC.
However, this seems a bit too obvious.
Why would not even Herod have seen it?
Herod would then have no reason to ask the Wise Men to "report back" unless he could not discern the star himself.
Maybe or maybe not, but the planetary conjunction seems like a long shot to be the Star of Bethlehem.
That the wisemen saw a nova or a super nova is what Johannes Kepler hinted at in the 17th century.
But there are no records to confirm this idea except for one.
Chinese records only have one possible mention of a nova or supernova over the potential time for Jesus's birth. (1).
However, a nova would explain the sudden brightness, and its subsequence disappearance satisfactorily but it fails to satisfy the requirement leading westward and then stopping.
Recent nova in Southern Hemisphere
There is another explanation for when a star seems to move and then stand still. It is called "direct motion," or retrograde.
Sometimes the orbits of two planetary bodies around the sun can interact in a such a way that one can appear to stand still in the sky of the other.
It is even known that it can 'back up' in their path.
This occurs in the orbit of Mars as seen from earth. We also call it retrograde:
The planet Mars, as well as the other outer planets to lesser degrees, appears at times to move towards the east in the sky among the constellations (called direct motion) then briefly stop its eastward motion
From the article on Mars In Retrograde
When Scripture speaks of the Star of Bethlehem "moving," here is what is recorded:
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.
Matthew 2:9
This could be explained by a retrograde motion, or a direct motion.
There is another idea, and is of one defining the category of what the Star of Bethlehem was.
Was it an event using a natural object like a comet, planet, or star? Then this would make it a natural event.
Or was it something science cannot measure, making a supernatural event? This would make it akin to am spiriting with no physicality to what was observed.
Finally, was the Star a special supernaturally generated object placed in official physical space? Was the Bethlehem Star a one time created object that God made for the birth of the begotten of the Father, then vanished forever from any trace in Creation?
In other eyes, was it a supernatural natural event?
It seems that Science cannot explain it as any known physical object.
If this verse is literally true, then the Star of Bethlehem could not have been any known natural phenomenon, simply because none would move that way.
Consider:
A natural object
A supernatural object
A supernatural natural object
There are some specific mentions of the Star of Bethlehem in fictional books though it is much more an object of art than literature.
One infamous short story, called The Star, was penned by the science fiction author, Arthur C. Clarke, who initially wrote a 2001: A Space Odyssey.
In Clarke's tale, a Jesuit priest is forced to confront his faith as he is on a mission to investigate a destroyed people of an alien planet. Its star gone nova long ago, took with it the race of a worthy and beautiful civilization. The punch line of the story is that this was the star that they identified as the Star of Bethlehem.
The priest laments over this revelation.
The last line reads:
"Yet, oh God, there were so many stars you could have used. What was the need to give these people to the fire, that the symbol of their passing might shine above Bethlehem?
This is obvious an unbeliever's point of view, written by a man who uses his pend to undermine Christianity at every turn.
Yet, there was a Star over Bethlehem at the birth of Jesus.
Next Post: Where Did the Star of Bethlehem Go?
Other Posts In This Series:
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Series: Signs In the Heavens
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