The "Christmas Star" --Then & Now

     In December 2020, there has been much talk of a “Christmas Star.”  It is actually a close planetary conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn.  The closest pass happened last night, December 21st, the Winter Solstice.  I have added pictures below.

     In early evenings of June 2015, there was a fairly close conjunction of Venus and Jupiter (the second and third brightest objects in the night sky, after the moon.)  They didn’t get as close as this conjunction.
    What might that original “Christmas star” have been?  Paul Meier is a Christian pastor and former history professor at Western Michigan University.  [First, an “aside.”  For trivia buffs, Western Michigan is the school that the real Tim Allen and his fictional counterpart, Tim Taylor (on Home Improvement) attended.]  Meier's thoughts are the basis for a lot of what is contained here.  
     The idea of a star twinkles throughout Hebrew history.   Numbers 24:17, written by Moses, was a bit of Hebrew poetry, spoken by a false prophet who was trying to “profit” off of cursing Israel.  (His name was Balaam.)  Instead of a curse, part of what Balaam said was:
   I see Him, but not now:
   I look upon Him, but not near;
   A star shall come out of Jacob [the ancestor of Israel];
   A scepter shall rise out of Israel…”
     As Jews over the centuries hoped for their Messiah, their Anointed One [which is what “Christ” means], many expected a star to accompany Him.  The six-pointed Star of David [King David] has symbolized the People of Israel from Old Testament times to today’s Israeli flag. The five-pointed Star of Solomon, David’s son, and David’s six-pointed star, show up in stone at archaeology sites.
     Scientists and Bible scholars have offered explanations for the “Star of Bethlehem.” The “Star” could have been a miracle sign, a miracle star, a supernova, a comet, or a conjunction of planets.  If it was one or more observable astronomical events, ancient records can supply some insight.  Ancient Chinese astronomy records are the best. But the appearance of something miraculous cannot be tested—or discounted, for that matter.
     Magi was the technical term for the Wise Men, a term with shadings of “magicians.”  They probably came from Persia (modern-day Iran) to Bethlehem. Why would they do this? One possibility is God used the Magis’ fascination with astrology to draw them to Judea. In ancient astrology, the giant planet Jupiter was considered the “King’s Planet,” for it represented to the Romans the highest god and ruler of the universe: Marduk to the Babylonians and Zeus to the Greeks.  In Hebrew Jupiter is called "Sedeq", meaning "righteousness", a term also used for the Messiah. 
     The ringed planet Saturn was seen as the shield or defender of Palestine, while the constellation of Pisces, which was also associated with Syria and Palestine, represented major events and crises.  Jupiter encountering Saturn in the sign of the Fishes would have meant that a divine and cosmic ruler was to appear in Palestine at a major point of history.
     Jupiter and Saturn traveled very close to each other in the night sky, and in May, September, and December of 7 BC, they appeared almost joined.  Mars joined the configuration in February of 6 B.C.  In 6 BC, Jupiter was occasionally blocked out ("eclipsed") by the Moon in the constellation Aries. Jupiter’s status as a kingly star was amplified when Jupiter was in close conjunctions with the Moon. The second blocking out on April 17 coincided precisely when Jupiter was 'in the east.'  This situation could be the condition mentioned twice in the biblical account about the Star of Bethlehem.

     Jesus was born sometime between 6 and 4 B.C., with B.C. numbers running opposite our AD numbers. This confusion arose because the man who developed this timeline miscalculated on the date of the founding of Rome.  We know that Jesus had to have been born this early (i.e. before AD 1) because King Herod the Great died in March or April of 4 B.C.  Jesus could have been born as much as two years before, though, because rotten Herod, according to the Bible, ordered all the baby boys in Bethlehem under the age of two to be killed.  Herod had found out about the matter of another King being born from the Magi and wanted Him killed.
     In 1871, English astronomer John Williams [not to be confused with the modern music composer and conductor! 😉] published a list of comets taken from Chinese records.  Comet No. 52 on the Williams list appeared for some seventy days in March-April of 5 B.C. near the constellation Capricorn and would have been visible in both the Far and Near East. As each night wore on, the comet would seem to have moved westward across the southern sky.  [Did you track the movements of the comet from spring 2020?  Did any of you see the much brighter Hale-Bopp Comet in the late 1990s?]
     The time is also very appropriate. This could indeed have been the Magi's marker. Comet No. 53 on the Williams list was a "tailless comet", which could have been a nova, an exploding star. No. 53 appeared in March-April of 4 B.C. — a year after the comet with the tail.  It was visible all over the Far and Middle East.  
     Dr. Meier thinks it happened this way:  The conjunctions from 7-6 B.C. alerted the Wisemen to look for important developments in Palestine.  Maybe some Jews living near them alerted them to Old Testament interpretations.  [Not noted by Meier, but also possible: one or more studied the Old Testament, as well as other people's writings; or maybe one or more of the Magi was Jewish.]

  The comet of 5 B.C. reinforced this idea that an important new King was arriving in Palestine. This set them on their way.  The supernova of 4 BC appeared after they had stopped in Jerusalem and spoken to suspicious King Herod.  Dr. Meier believes that Jesus might have been born in the winter of 5-4 B.C.  He has been to the Holy Land many times and has asserted that shepherds do, indeed, stay out "watching their flocks by night", even in Judean winters.
     On the other hand, maybe the planetary conjunctions came closer to Jesus' actual birth in 6 B.C., and the Wise Men simply got there later.  The story in Matthew speaks of the Holy Family being in a house and refers to Jesus as a Child, not a Baby.  Maybe the family had planned to stay on in Bethlehem, to get away from Nazareth gossip about the couple getting married earlier than planned and Mary being pregnant before a full year of betrothal had passed.  In that culture, betrothal was to last a full year, and the couple was expected to defer sexual activity until after the wedding. 
     On December 21, 2020, Jupiter and Saturn appeared closer in Earth’s night sky than they have since 1226 A.D.  They were not fully joined, though.  Jupiter and Saturn sat just 0.1 degrees apart, or a mere one-fifth the width of the Moon, as the Moon appears to us.  They did look quite near, though, to the naked eye.
     December 21^st was also the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere.  This was the first day of winter and the longest night of the year.  The Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun at this time.  This has nothing to do with how close or far we are from the Sun.  In fact, we’re slightly closer to the Sun in January than at any other time of the year!  

Telescope image

Simple camera image