THE STAR OF BETLEHEM
Summary of Gustav Teres S.J. (1931-2007), The Bible and Astronomy, The Magi and the Star in the Gospel. Springer Scientific Publisher Ltd., Budapest. 2000.
The principal facts concerning this matter can be summarized in the following points:
1. King
Herod the Great died in the Roman year 750 AUC (ab urbe [Romae] condita}
= 4 BC, that is, four years before the beginning of the Christian era.
According to Matthew, Jesus had been born during the reign of King Herod,
and after the visit of the Magi, Herod had all the male children in Bethlehem
killed who were two years old or under (Mt 2:16). Most researchers today
assume that Jesus was born in 7 BC. This is confirmed by the writing on
the Roman Monumentum Ancyranum \ of Caesar Augustus, which gives 746/47
AUC = 8/7 BC as the date for i the first census, which is mentioned in
Luke's Gospel at the time of the I birth of Jesus.
2. In 7 BC a very rare and significant astronomical phenomenon was visible:
during nine months the two giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn, moved together
within the constellation of Pisces, and their western standstill occurred
simultaneously near the northern apex of the zodiacal light cone, when
it was visible in the meridian of Jerusalem and Bethlehem. At the same
time the astronomical point of the vernal equinox moved over from the
constellation of Aries into that of Pisces, and, according to an ancient
tradition, this event denoted the beginning of a new era.
3. The Magi were astronomers and priests of the Babylonian Marduk temple.
In the years of the exile, 598-538 BC, the two great prophets, Ezekiel
and Daniel, were active in Babylon. Daniel was appointed as chief counselor
by the Chaldaean kings, and he was given the rank of supreme magus (Dn
4:6; 5:11). Early Christian works of art represent the Magi with these
two prophets; the Magi are depicted as coming away from them, that is
to say from the East towards Jerusalem. Thus they would have known the
prophecies about the long expected Messiah, especially the prophecy of
the Assyrian magus Balaam, "a star will rise from Jacob, a scepter
will come out of Israel" (Num 24:17).
4. Archaeologists
have found the archives of the Magi under the ruins of the Babylonian
temple. Among the cuneiform tablets are also the star almanacs which give
exact astronomical data for the year 305 of the Seleucid era, that is,
from 2nd April 7 BC to 18th April 6 BC. Several decades before the birth
of Christ the Chaldaean astronomers had precalculated the aspects of Jupiter
and Saturn also for the year 7 BC. Modern calculations verify their data.
With the aid of electronic computers and planetarium projectors we can
reconstruct the celestial phenomena which occurred 2000 years ago.
5. The expressions used by Matthew to describe the rising and the apparent
standstill of the star are to be found in ancient astronomical works,
both in Babylonian cuneiform writings and Old Greek text books (Aratos,
Geminos). These help us to understand better the sentences in Matthew's
original text which cannot be correctly translated without knowing the
language of ancient astronomy.
6. The particular language and matter of Matthew's 2nd chapter allow us
to conclude that his primary source could be an original account by the
Magi, which he tells in an abridged version but without changing the relevant
facts. He writes, namely, of things which could only be known to the Magi;
they alone could have used those terms which give adequate expression
for the evening rising and the apparent standstill of the star.
7. Today several exegetes agree with the opinion that Matthew relates
a natural phenomenon, that is, he is speaking of an actual star and not
only of a miraculous event. In the text of The New English Bible they
have translated the Greek word magoi into "astrologers" who
"observed the rising of his star" (Oxford University Press,
1970). Those Magi, however, were not ordinary astrologers, but in the
context of the Gospel they were learned priests or "wise men",
who were not there to cast a birth horoscope for the awaited king.
8. Modern astronomers agree that the Chaldaeans or Babylonian priests
were in possession of very advanced mathematical and astronomical knowledge,
and as described in the Gospel the Magi could have seen the conjunction
of Jupiter and Saturn while they traveled from Jerusalem to Bethlehem.
Nevertheless, the Star of Bethlehem in a wider sense was not only an astronomical
event, such as the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction. From a theological point
of view it may be considered the concurrence of all the historical, cultural,
psychological and astronomical factors of that epoch. It is in this concurrence
of all these factors with the birth of Christ that we can recognize, if
we wish, a divine intervention.
Gustav Teres at papal Audience on 28th of September 2007
Anders
Brogren
Dean h.c., Falkenberg, Sweden
Sankt
Lars Kyrkogata 4
S-311 31 Falkenberg
SWEDEN
Mail
to
anders [ at ] brogren.nu