Dec. 14, 2015
Did planets guide the Three Wise Men to the barn near Bethlehem two millennia ago? Or a comet? Or is the famous star even literary fiction as in the Hellenistic and Roman world, depictions of kings and emperors were usually accompanied by a star?
Since generations, children as well as grown-ups are delighted by the story around the birth of Jesus, as recorded in the Gospel of St. Luke in the New Testament of the Bible. Barely any other text in the Christian-influenced world is known better and related stronger to Christmas than that narrative thousands of years old, about Mary and John, whose son Jesus had to be born in a barn near Bethlehem, since there was no vacancy available. That narrative about the neighboring shepherds, stunned by the heavenly light and the angels’ singing. In the collective memory of Christianity, this story is melted to narrative unity with its second biblical version, that of St. Matthew. From him we learn about the Three Wise Men from the Orient, who, guided by a distinct celestial phenomenon, had set off in order to attend upon the new-born. By the way: Only the extra-biblical tradition of following centuries has upgraded the Wise Men and made them “Kings”, as well as it has enriched the staff in the barn by “ox and ass”.
The issue of the exact date of Jesus’ birth shall not be focused on at this point. Given that the two stories of the divine birth report on a real incident, it can be stated that the recordings originate from about 80 to 100 years after the occurrence reported on. Only another 100 years later, some theological scholars in the early Christian church (e.g., Origenes, ca. 230) started searching for explanations which celestial phenomenon could have been described by St. Matthew in his gospel. Beginning in late Antiquity (5th century), theory spread that the Wise Men had seen a comet. This assumption survived over centuries. It possibly originated in the knowledge of Hellenistic philosophers and early Christian theologians about the ancient Babylonians. Their astronomer-astrologists had been able already centuries before Christ to compute the courses of stars and comets. Babylon – from the Jerusalem and Bethlehem point of view, this was the Orient!
Suspecting Halley’s Comet
During the late Middle Ages (13th/ 14th centuries) the comet theory could have been improved, since meanwhile Halley’s Comet had been (re-)discovered and observed. This was associated with several records from Antiquity and the Far East, and it was considered pretty sure that the Bethlehem Star was identical to Halley’s Comet, which indeed had been observable in the time Jesus’ birth. In those years the first paintings occurred (e.g., Giotto, 1302), depicting a star with a comet’s tail located above the barn in Bethlehem – iconography that has not lost its fascination until modern times and present. This fact is quite astonishing since nocturnal comet occurrences almost always and everywhere have been skeptically watched, considered as precursors of accidents and disasters. Hence, a comet as a signal of Christ’s birth and God’s incarnation does not seem to fit very well.
Perhaps with the purpose of dissolving that contradiction, after the Middle Ages scientists instead of theologians started seeking for alternative models for explaining the Bethlehem Star. Namely the German astronomer Johannes Kepler pushed the formulation of hypotheses for the following centuries, until present. Coming from his own observations in the sky, performed in the years 1604/05, he proposed a triple conjunction of the planets Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, followed by a supernova, which could have been visible in the Near and Middle East at the point of the birth of Jesus. In fact, in 1604 the supernova coincided with the triple conjunction. However, the assumed causal link was naturally false. Hence, the ancient triple conjunction remains undoubted until today, while no evidence for any supernova observable in the Eastern regions is given.
It has been discussed in recent times, that a conjunction of the planets Venus and Jupiter, computed for the years 3 and 2 BC, could have been the reality behind the Bethlehem star. An even simpler assertion has also been discussed: Venus, at her heliacal rising, could have been considered as a meaningful symbol by the Wise Men. Thus, the celestial phenomenon might be linked to the Biblical caption of the Messiah being the “Morning Star”. Furthermore, the supernova hypothesis has been taken on again recently from several Biblical scholars, although lacking any astronomical evidence of such an occurrence visible in the Orient around Christ’s birth.
Finally, none of the astronomy-based hypotheses is fully accepted by scholars, since they are too speculative, or uncertainties and objections against them are too heavy. Furthermore, the calculated dates of occurrences and observations seem to contradict each other far too strong, so that they cannot be associated to only a single celestial phenomenon, both observable in reality and reported in the Bible.
The star as an attribute of royal power
That evidence leads us towards a second complex of hypotheses and theories: the literate-exegetical. Since the early 20th century, theologians and biblical scholars consider the Gospel narratives not primarily as factual reports, but as a series of mythological and symbolical characters and lines of action. Thus, it would be vain and useless to seek for an astronomical correspondent to the Bethlehem Star, since it would be nothing real but theological or literary fiction. In fact, in the Ancient East the birth or arrival of kings has been associated or even equalised with bright celestial phenomena and the rising of certain stars or astral constellations. In Israel, in the times of the formation of the Hebrew Old Testament, the arrival of the eagerly awaited Messiah as “king of Heaven”, or the Messiah himself, was considered synonymous with a celestial occurrence or a star. Furthermore, we have Old Testament records of kings rendering homage to the expected Messiah at his arrival, and making him presents. Keeping this tradition or at least reflecting it, the New Testament reports on the birth of Christ, according to this hypothesis, had been written.
From the historical point of view it is noteworthy that, in the Hellenistic and Roman world, depictions of kings and emperors were usually accompanied by a star. Here, the star was considered as an attribute of royal and divinely authorised power. This is attested by dozens of iconic representations on coins from various origins. Hence, it is not unlikely that the Jewish author of the Biblical birth narrative has intended such association: the Star identifies Jesus being coequal to both the Roman emperor Augustus and the Judean king Herodes, or even more: makes him an “anti-king”.
Finally, all possibilities to explain the Bethlehem Star are plausible to a certain extent. However, a clear answer, whether the Star was reality or fiction, is still lacking. Primarily, the Biblical narratives about the birth of Jesus are literary texts. Hence the assumption, that those texts have been arranged rhetorically and poetically, according to the style of the time of their origin. Nowadays one simply cannot judge, to what extent the true core of the story, has been modified and complemented in this artificial process. There are certain celestial phenomena which can be reconsidered to be observable in the East around the time of Christ’s birth. However, the question whether and what specific occurrence has been put into literary pattern, remains unanswerable.
Image:
(Left) Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) photographed at ESO’s La Silla Observatory on 15 November 2013 with the TRAPPIST national telescope (TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope).
( Right) Adoration of the Magi by Giotto.