The star of Bethlehem is a mysterious celestial phenomenon, which the Magi called the "star" according to the Gospel of Matthew.
Many people know the story of a sign that announced the beginning of a new era in the history of mankind. This happened at the end of the 1st century BC. e. in the skies over the Middle East … Palestine, which at that time, however, and now, was a boiling cauldron of passions, was under Roman rule, and the puppet ruler of Judea, an ambitious despot, King Herod the Great, could hardly keep the power in his hands. The Jews, outright refusing to accept the canons of Greco-Roman culture, implanted by the king, predicted the coming of the Messiah, who would free them, and impatiently awaited signs announcing his appearance.
Such was the situation in Judea, when, according to the Gospel, Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, and some mysterious wizards came to Jerusalem, American historians P. James and N. Thorp tell in the book "Ancient Mysteries". Herod was frightened by their prophecy about the birth of a man who would become a new king.
Gathering a council of high priests and scholars, he ordered them to determine the birthplace of the Messiah, or "King of the Jews." The Old Testament prophet Micah predicted that a new "Lord of Israel" would come from the small town of Bethlehem. Upon learning of this, Herod talked with wise pilgrims about the star and sent them to Bethlehem to find a “new king” under a hypocritical pretext, as if he himself wanted to honor him.
The Magi came to Bethlehem and again saw the star: "And the star that they saw in the east walked in front of them, and finally came and stopped over the place where the Child was." Having presented gifts to Jesus, the Magi received a revelation in a dream - although common sense alone would have been enough - “to go back to their country in another way,” without returning to Herod. When Herod realized that the Magi had tricked him, he was "very angry." Having missed his chance to find a new Messiah, he ordered the execution of every child under the age of 2 in Bethlehem and the surrounding area. Meanwhile, Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt with Jesus.
The story of the Magi and the Star of Bethlehem has become an integral part of Christmas folklore around the world. But is it true? This story can be found only in one of the 4 gospels, namely in the Gospel of Matthew. With only one source of information, historians tend to be very careful in their estimates. Aside from the broader debate over the authenticity of all the gospels, the Gospel of Matthew is one of the earliest accounts of Christ and is therefore more credible.
We have no reason to consider the wise men who followed the Star of Bethlehem as exclusively folkloric characters. Moreover, their behavior fits perfectly into the overall picture of religious beliefs and political intrigues of those times.
Ancient historians described the Magi (in the Greek and Latin texts Magi - magicians) as an aristocratic priestly caste in Ancient Persia, in many ways similar to the Brahmins in modern Indian society. The Magi were the heirs of the Chaldean sages from Ancient Babylon, whose deep knowledge of the firmament led to the creation of astronomical science surprisingly perfect for that era. The Magi, who were the court astrologers of the Persian kings (550–323 BC), were feared and respected as sages and miracle workers everywhere - from the Mediterranean to the Indus Valley.
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Judea, which was strategically located at the crossroads of trade routes between East and West, was of particular interest to both Parthia and Rome. In 39 BC. e. the victorious Parthian army sacked Jerusalem and expelled the ambitious young Herod from there. Re-enthroned three years later with the help of a large Roman army, Herod restored diplomatic ties with the Parthian Empire, which continued to jealously watch the gradual consolidation of Roman power in Syria and Palestine. An unstable balance was formed, at times interrupted by border skirmishes. Each superpower tried to instigate a revolt against the puppet rulers, put by their rival at the head of the border states.
In light of this situation, the story of the "three wise men" in Matthew's presentation becomes more convincing, although it is filled with a slightly different meaning. The Magi could have been spies, or, to put it more mildly, intelligence diplomats for the Parthian Empire. Zoroastrianism, the monotheistic religion of the Magi, enjoyed a certain respect among the Jews, because the Magi, unlike representatives of most other religions, could count on a rather warm welcome in Judea.
It is known that Herod and the Magi are real historical characters. And the Star of Bethlehem? What luminary could lead the Magi from the east (Parthia), and then reappear over Bethlehem, pointing to the place of Jesus' birth? Assumptions cover a wide range of celestial phenomena - from fireballs (meteors and meteorites), comets, novae and supernovae, to astronomical planetary conjunctions and even ball lightning and UFOs.
Is it possible to answer this question, relying only on the meager information from the Gospel of Matthew? Dr. David Hughes of the University of Sheffield in the UK has outlined a number of criteria for determining the nature of a star, including:
• First. The star seems to appear twice - first as a sign for the Magi in their own country, and then as a guiding sign over Bethlehem at the last stage of their journey.
• Second. The star was supposed to have a specific astrological meaning for the Magi.
• Third. At first, the star was seen "in the east." The Greek phrase ex en anatole used by St. Matthew is considered by some scholars to be a technical term for "acronic ascent" - that is, the rising of a planet or a star in the east when the sun sets in the west.
• Fourth. The star could "stop" over Bethlehem in such a way that it indicated the location of Jesus.
We will add a fifth, equally important factor to Hughes' analysis.
• Fifth. The star was moving - it was "walking in front of them." Only a comet can meet all these conditions. Comets often appear twice: first, before approaching the Sun, and then after passing the perihelion (the closest point of the orbit of a celestial body in relation to the Sun).
Comets can appear in different places of the sky, including the east direction, and move across the sky at a speed of 10 angular degrees per day, moving from one constellation to the next every 3-4 days. They can also "stop" over specific locations indicated by the comet's tail.
The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus writes that a comet with a sword-like tail (must have been Halley's comet) "stood" over Jerusalem in 66 AD. e. as a sign of doom. In fact, Josephus and St. Matthew uses the same Greek verb to describe the unusual behavior of the Bethlehem star and comet over Jerusalem.
In the Greco-Roman world, it was believed that comets predict important events in the fate of states, usually of a catastrophic nature - for example, the death of a ruler. Their appearance often caused panic.
But if comets had a bad reputation and were considered messengers of fate, then why was an exception made for one of them and it became a miraculous sign of the birth of a new Messiah? This is the argument against the "comet theory" advanced by David Hughes. But the Romans could interpret such omens differently: a comet that appeared in the sky after the death of Julius Caesar in 44 AD. e., was considered the soul of a great man, ascending to heaven to take its place next to the gods.
But what kind of comet "stood" over Bethlehem at the time of Jesus' birth? Here we are faced with an almost insurmountable problem - the exact date of Jesus' birth.
According to the generally accepted opinion, the date of Christ's birth does not correspond to December 25, 1 AD. e. Most Bible students agree that Jesus was born no later than 4 BC. e., for the simple reason that the death of King Herod, in whose reign He was born, dates from this very year according to a number of reliable sources.
According to the Gospel of Luke, Jesus' parents traveled to their hometown of Bethlehem to take part in the Roman census to streamline tax collection in Judea. It is believed that this census was taken in 8 BC. e. Thus, Christmas is traditionally dated from 7 to 4 AD. BC e. Chinese chronicles mention two insignificant comets observed in the sky over the years, and Greek, Roman and Babylonian sources are silent about this - at least there is not even a hint of such a heavenly phenomenon described by St. Matthew.
There are other versions of the astronomical explanation of the Bethlehem star. Meteors ("balls of fire"). Fiery streaks formed by the burning of meteors in the upper atmosphere is a very beautiful phenomenon, but its duration is only a few seconds at best; the wise men would not even have time to pack their things for the journey, not to mention the long journey.
The appearance of a new star is a very rare occurrence, occurring approximately once every several centuries. There is one bright new star in the time frame for the birth of Christ, which is mentioned in Chinese astronomical records, but it has not attracted attention in the Greco-Roman world. And although the outbreak of a new star can be observed for several weeks, it lacks the qualities that are necessary for complex astrological calculations and predictions: it simply appears and then disappears. In addition, a new star cannot move across the sky, much less "point" to a certain place.
Meanwhile, one of the celestial phenomena that have always been of interest to astrologers is the astronomical conjunction of the planets. This happens when two or more planets from the point of view of the terrestrial observer converge quite close to each other, sometimes even merging into one whole and creating the impression of a bright "star". Could the Star of Bethlehem emerge from an astronomical conjunction?
The possibility of such a connection was first suggested by Johannes Kepler (1571–1630), the great mathematician and mystic, one of the founders of modern astronomy. On the night of December 17, 1603, Kepler observed through a telescope the motions of Jupiter and Saturn, approaching the point of astronomical conjunction (soon after that Mars joined them). And two years later, Kepler observed a supernova that exploded in the constellation Ophiuchus.
Keeping in mind the old rabbinic commentary on the book of Daniel, which says that the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation of Pisces is of particular importance for the people of Israel, Kepler suggested that the Magi could have witnessed such an event.
Kepler's calculations showed that such a connection should have occurred in 7 BC. e. He concluded that this was the date of the Immaculate Conception, and Christmas took place in 6 BC. e.
It took nearly 60 years to dispel the myth of Kepler's theory of the planetary origin of the Christmas star. The detective work carried out by Dr. Christopher Walker of the British Museum in collaboration with Professor Abraham Sachs, an American scientist and translator of Babylonian astronomical texts, led to a completely different discovery. The Babylonian texts were predictions rather than observations. In any case, Babylonian astrologers of that era could predict the astronomical conjunction of the planets several years before this event. But, as Walker and Sachs have shown, although the texts predict the motions of Jupiter and Saturn in great detail, there is no mention of an astronomical conjunction.
1980 - Dr. Nikos Kokkinos proposed a completely different chronology of the life of Jesus. A detailed study of Roman sources and the New Testament shows that Christ was crucified in A. D. 36. (and not in the 33rd, as is commonly believed).
It was necessary to find out how old Christ was in the year when He was crucified on the cross. It is believed that Jesus Christ was a fairly young man, between the ages of 30 and 40. According to Kokkinos, this sounds unlikely. For a person to be considered a rabbi (religious teacher) in Hebrew society, he had to be at least 50 years of age. Many other pieces of evidence lead us to the same conclusion.
For example, Bishop Irenaeus in the 2nd century AD. e. claimed that Jesus was about 50 years old when He began to teach people. (Irenaeus was a disciple of Polycarp, who knew people who said that they had seen Jesus Christ with their own eyes.) But the most unequivocal indication is contained in the Gospel of John (8:57), where it says that Christ is "not yet 50 years old." In another passage from St. John, Jesus compares his body - and in fact his life - with the Jerusalem temple, which was built for "46 years."
But none of the three successive Jerusalem temples were built for so long. According to Kokkinos, Christ said that they were of the same age with the temple - that is, both were 46 years old. The construction of the temple, which stood in Jerusalem during the life of Christ, was completed under King Herod in 12 BC. Adding 46 years, we get A. D. 34. - the first year of Christ's preaching, according to Kokkinos. Hence it follows that Christ was crucified in A. D. 36. at the age of 48!
According to this theory, Jesus Christ was born in 12 BC. If Kokkinos is right, then we can with a light heart abandon all theories of astronomical conjunction of stars or planets to explain the Bethlehem star. Only after he substantiated the dating of 12 BC, Kokkinos noticed the coincidence of this date with the appearance in the sky of Halley's comet in 12-11 BC. BC!
According to the new dating, Halley's comet is an ideal candidate for the role of the Star of Bethlehem. It was a clear sign that appeared twice and moved across the firmament, guiding the Magi. The comet's tail may well have pointed to Bethlehem, just as it did in A. D. 66. (during the next visit of Halley's comet), when they saw in it a "giant sword" in the sky, looming menacingly over Jerusalem.
Detailed computer study of the movements of the comet, which was seen in Rome, Parthia and Jerusalem in 12-11 years. BC, could eventually confirm this idea. Now, 7 centuries later, we will finally find out whether the great Giotto was right when, in a fit of inspiration, he depicted Halley's comet on his canvas over a manger in Bethlehem.
N. Nepomniachtchi
