Star of Bethlehem

The Star of Bethlehem (also: Epiphany Star, Christmas Star or Star of the Wise Men) is the name given to a narrative motif that led magi to the birthplace of Jesus in Matthew's Gospel 2:1, 9 LUT:

Christians celebrate this episode at Epiphany or Epiphany.

Since late antiquity, astronomical and astrological theories have attempted to relate the "Star of Bethlehem" to various celestial phenomena visible before the turn of time in order to date Jesus' birth more accurately:

• Halley's comet (12-11 BC),
• a great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation of Pisces (7 BC),
• a complex constellation of Sun, Jupiter, Venus and Moon in the constellation Aries (6 BC),
• an unknown other comet or a nova (5 or 4 BC) or
• two different conjunctions of Venus and Jupiter (3-2 BC).

Due to specific objections in each case, none of these explanations is scientifically accepted.

Antique background

In many advanced civilizations of antiquity, special celestial phenomena were related to important historical events. In the great empires of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia and Media, "stargazing" had a central, state-preserving tradition and function. No distinction was made between the interpretation of stars (astrology) and the observation of stars (astronomy). In Greek philosophy, too, the observation of the night sky was essential for the metaphysical explanation of the world (cosmology).

Judaism separated itself from ancient astronomy and forbade the worship of celestial bodies as deities (e.g. Dt 4:19 EU). Nevertheless, authors of the Bible also understood celestial phenomena as indications of special historical events. In biblical prophecy, however, they were usually signs of coming calamity. For example, in the context of the announced final judgment, stars were to "fall from heaven" (Mk 13:25 EU) or "darken" (Joel 4:15 EU).

Giotto di Bondone: Adoration of the Magi, 1302. At the upper edge of the picture the Star of Bethlehem can be seen with a clearly visible comet tail.

Conjunction Theories

Johannes Kepler (from 1604)

Since the Sassanid Empire in the 3rd century, astrologers saw in a great conjunction (meeting) of the planets Jupiter and Saturn omens of important historical events, such as a new age, a new dynasty, the birth of a prophet or a righteous king. Jewish scholars such as Māshā'allāh ibn Atharī, Abraham ibn Ezra, and Levi ben Gershon followed this basic assumption. Some of their predictions were related to the birth of the Messiah in Jewish messianism.

The astronomer Johannes Kepler knew such calculations. He observed a conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn in the morning sky in the constellation of the Serpent Bearer in December 1603. In the autumn of 1604, the planet Mars joined the two planets in the evening sky. From October 9, 1604, at a distance of more than 9 degrees from it in the same constellation, Supernova 1604 shone. Kepler observed it from October 17, 1604 in the "fiery triangle" of the zodiacal signs Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius, when it reached an apparent magnitude of -2.^{5m, making it} the brightest point of light in the evening sky. He could not explain the phenomenon with the knowledge of the 17th century and therefore assumed that the preceding triple conjunction had caused a "new star". From this he concluded that a then already known conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn and Mars in 7/6 BC had also been followed by such a new star. In order to equate this with the star of Bethlehem in Matthew 2 and to bring it closer to Jesus' birth, he dated the triple conjunction wrongly to the year 5 BC; Jesus' birth he dated to 4 BC.

No known chronicle records a celestial phenomenon that can be interpreted as a supernova shortly after that conjunction. Moreover, we know today that planetary conjunctions and supernovae are not causally connected. In this respect Kepler's theory was a mistake. Kepler himself rejected the view that the Star of Bethlehem was a comet or a new star. On the other hand, he argued that this narrative was not a natural celestial phenomenon, but one of the miracle stories of the Gospel.

Konradin Ferrari d'Occhieppo (from 1964)

The astronomer and historian of astronomy Konradin Ferrari d'Occhieppo pointed out in several publications since 1964 the very rare triple Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in the sign of Pisces, which had already been noticed by Kepler. This seemed to fit well into the approximate period of Jesus' birth. According to d'Occhieppo, a Babylonian astronomer had to understand such a conjunction as indicating an event in Israel (Judea), because Jupiter had been the star of the Babylonian god Marduk, while Saturn had been considered the planet of the Jewish people. The western part of the sign of Pisces had stood for Palestine, among other things. From this Babylonian astronomers would have concluded: King Star (Jupiter) + Israel Protector (Saturn) = "In the west (constellation of Pisces) a mighty king has been born."

The three conjunctions occurred months apart, so that there had been enough time for a journey from Babylon to Judea. The expression "We have seen his star rise" was related by d'Occhieppo to the observation of the pair of planets close to each other in the darkening evening sky around September 15, 7 BC. At that time, he said, the astrologers left for Jerusalem. On November 12, 7 B.C., shortly after sunset, they would have had the planets Jupiter and Saturn directly in front of them in the evening twilight, as they rode south from Jerusalem towards Bethlehem, which was only about ten kilometers away. Mt 2,10 refers to this specific point in time: "When they saw the star, they were greatly rejoiced." Jupiter was 15 times brighter than Saturn at the time of the rising of the sun and was held in special esteem by astrologers as the King's Star. It is the star mentioned here.

After the onset of astronomical twilight on this 12th of November, the astrologers would have seen the pair of planets standing at the tip of the zodiacal light cone. It looked as if the light emanated from this pair of planets. During the following hours, the axis of the cone of light constantly pointed to Bethlehem in front of them, whose houses stood out against the zodiacal light like a silhouette. This would have given them the impression that the planets - in spite of the continuing rotation of the starry sky - remained above the place where the child was. Accordingly, it can be assumed that they found Jesus' place of birth on this date. It was not so much the three conjunctions of the two planets that were important, but the fact that they stood still very close together in the constellation of Pisces for the first time in 854 years and thus pointed to an unusual event.

D'Occhieppo considers Mt 2,1-12 as a written eyewitness report of the wise men or one of their companions because of the details of the content. It had been presented to Matthew, who had copied it. Accordingly, he translates the text quoted above as follows:

This conjunction theory is supported by other astronomers, such as Theodor Schmidt-Kaler, who made a word-statistical study of the Magian pericope. Its popularity is shown by the fact that it is part of the standard program of planetariums every year at Christmas time.

The objections cited are:

• A threefold meeting of Jupiter and Saturn rarely occurs and never leads to a fusion of both points of light, so that it cannot necessarily be referred to the one star mentioned in Mt.
• Matthew uses the Greek word for "star" and not for "planet" or "planetary constellation". At that time it was very well possible to distinguish between fixed stars and planets. This objection presupposes that the author of the gospels knew this distinction.
• It is doubtful whether Saturn was the cosmic representative of the people of Israel for Babylonian astronomers. According to Babylonian interpretation Saturn (Akkadian kewan) was connected with the land of Syria, according to Greek interpretation with the god Kronos, who was equated with the Jewish god JHWH in some ancient magic books - possibly because of the Jewish Sabbath, which coincided with the "dies Saturni" (Saturn's day, English Saturday). A seven-day week with planet names as day names was common among the Babylonians. Nevertheless, the transfer of the planet Saturn to Judaism seems doubtful, since its worship appears in the Tanakh as a sign of apostasy from Judaism (Am 5:26). Acts 7,43 also reminds us of this.
• Today at least four cuneiform tablets are known on which the Babylonians predicted the ephemerides (orbits) of planets such as Saturn and Jupiter in 7 BC. There, their great conjunction played no role at all. Whether the Babylonians attached any importance to it at all is therefore also doubtful.

Other

Because of the objections to d'Occhieppo's theory, some astronomers researched other conjunctions around the turn of the century and found other very close conjunctions or occultations, this time of Jupiter and Venus.

On August 12, 3 BC, Venus passed Jupiter in the constellation ofLeo at a distance of 0°4'. At this conjunction the planets seemed almost to merge with each other when seen with the naked eye. Thus they were visible as a common morning star in the twilight. After this meeting with Venus, the "royal" planet Jupiter performed its opposition loop directly above the king star Regulus, coming into close conjunction with the main star of Leo three times.

On June 17, 2 BC, Venus again passed the planet Jupiter, at a minimal distance of only 26". This conjunction was also visible throughout the Near and Middle East, this time in the western sky at dusk while the full moon was over the opposite eastern horizon. At the time of closest approach, the two planets appeared merged into one point to the naked eye. The approach had previously been traceable for several weeks in the nocturnal western sky and was therefore well suited as a signpost from Babylon or Persia.

The symbolic interpretation of these astronomical events is especially justified with Gen 49,9-10 EU:

This theory, however, requires that the year of Herod's death be moved to a later date than is usually assumed.

The southern starry sky on 12 November 7 B.C. over Jerusalem