Bright stars adorn the tops of Christmas trees around the world. Almost everyone knows about the star that led the Magi to the manger in the small town of Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. The star of Bethlehem is described in the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. Is this star a biblical fiction or did it really exist? Let's take a look at this from the perspective of astronomers.
Astronomical question
To understand the Star of Bethlehem, we need to think as the three wise men thought. Guided by this "star in the east", they first arrived in Jerusalem and informed King Herod about the prophecy: a new ruler of the Israelites was born. We also need to think like King Herod, who asked the Three Wise Men when the star appeared, because he himself and his court, apparently, did not see this star in the sky.
These events give us the first astronomical riddle of the first Christmas: how could the court sages of King Herod not know about the appearance of such a bright star and how it brought the Magi to Jerusalem?
Then, in order to reach Bethlehem, the wise men had to go directly south from Jerusalem; The "star in the east" "moved in front of them until it stopped over the place where the baby was." And here we have the second astronomical riddle of the first Christmas: how could the star "in the east" lead the Magi to the south? The North Star led the lost wanderers north, so why didn't the star in the east lead the Magi east?
There is also a third part of the riddle of the first Christmas: how did the star described by Matthew move “in front of them,” and then stop and hang over the manger in Bethlehem, in which the baby Jesus supposedly lay?
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What could be the "star in the east"?
Any astronomer knows that no star is capable of this. No comet, no Jupiter, no supernova, no parade of planets, no matter what else can behave like this in the night sky. One might assume that Matthew's words describe a miracle beyond the laws of physics. But Matthew chose his words carefully and wrote “the star in the east” twice, suggesting that these words had special meaning for the readers of his gospel.
Can we find another explanation that matches Matthew's words and does not require breaking the laws of physics? Which will fit into the modern way of astronomy? Oddly enough, the answer is yes.
Astronomer Michael Molnar points out that "in the east" is a literal translation of the Greek phrase en te anatole, which was a technical term used in Greek mathematical astrology 2,000 years ago. He describes, and very specifically, a planet that rises above the eastern horizon shortly before sunrise. A few moments after the planet appears, it disappears into the bright light of the Sun in the morning sky. It turns out that no one sees this "star in the east" unless they look at it at a certain moment.
Now let's bring in some astronomy. In the course of human life, almost all stars remain in their places. The stars turn on and off every night, but do not move relative to each other. The stars of the Big Dipper appear from year to year in the same place. But the planets, the sun and the moon are different from the fixed stars; in fact, the word "planet" comes from the Greek name for "wandering star."
Although the planets, the Sun and the Moon move approximately the same path against the background of the stars, they move at different speeds, so sometimes they close each other. When the Sun covers the planet, we cannot see it, but when the Sun overtakes the planet, it reappears.
Now let's turn to astrology again. When a planet reappears in the morning sky shortly before sunrise, for the first time in many months during which it hid in the radiance of a star, this moment is known to astrologers as the heliacal sunrise. The heliacal sunrise is the special first appearance of the planet, and is what the Greek astrologers called en te anatole. In particular, the heliacal rise of Jupiter was considered by Greek astrologers to be an important event for all who were born on this day.
Thus, the "star in the east" refers to an astronomical event that was astrologically significant in the context of ancient Greek astrology.
What about the unexpected stopover of a star over the same manger? The biblical analogue of the "hanging star" comes from the Greek word epano, which was also important to ancient astrologers. It means a certain moment when the planet stops its movement and begins to move not in the west, but in the east direction. This happens when the Earth, which orbits the Sun faster than Mars, Jupiter or Saturn, catches up with another planet.
Thus, a rare combination of astrological events (the desired planet appeared in front of the Sun; the Sun was in the correct zodiacal constellation; a number of positions of the planets important for astrologers) allowed the ancient Greek astrologers to assume that the king of kings was truly born on that very day.
Magi looking to the sky
Molnar believes that those same wise men, in fact, were very wise and mathematically savvy astrologers. They also knew about the Old Testament prophecy that a new king would be born into the family of David. Most likely, they have been watching the heavens for years, waiting for the alignment of objects, which will herald the birth of a new king. When a powerful set of astrological omens was assembled, the Magi decided it was time to find the baby.
If the Magi of Matthew actually took the journey to find the newborn king, the bright star could not guide them; she only told them when to hit the road. And they couldn't find the baby in the manger. After all, the baby was already 8 months old by the time they unraveled the astrological message that they believed foreshadowed the birth of the future king.
The sign appeared on April 17, 6 BC. e. (from the heliacal rise of Jupiter that morning, after which he was covered by the Moon in the constellation Aries by lunchtime) and lasted until December 19, 6 BC. e. (when Jupiter stopped moving west, froze for a moment and began to move east relative to the stars frozen against the background). In the shortest time it took the Magi to reach Bethlehem, the baby Jesus was already a little older.