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The Adoration of the Magi is one of the most beautiful Christmas stories, a wonderful biblical story that left us a legacy of all these stars with which we decorate the Christmas.
And the star of the tree itself, of course, which traditionally sits on top of the fir.
Although the Star of Bethlehem is mentioned only by the evangelist Mateo, it has managed to become one of the most timeless symbols of Christmas.
Its impact far surpassed the Christian world, being a story that everyone has known for centuries.
And yet, for astronomers, it remains an unsolved mystery, a mystery that has been debated for 2000 years.
What was it that inspired Mateo to tell us about it? star Who showed the way to the three magicians?
What was the star of Bethlehem according to the Scriptures?
According to Mateo, whose gospel is the only one of the four From the Canon that mentions the Magi, the enlightened and eminent personalities that he calls “magi” came from the depths of the East to worship the King of the Jews.
Γράφει ο ευαγγελιστής (2: 1-2): “Τοῦ δὲ Ἰησοῦ γεννηθέντος ἐν Βηθλεὲμ τῆς Ἰουδαίας ἐν ἡμέραις Ἡρῴδου τοῦ βασιλέως, ἰδοὺ μάγοι ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν παρεγένοντο εἰς⁇ εροσόλυμα λέγοντες · εἴδομεν γὰρ αὐτοῦ τὸν ἀστέρα ἐν τῇ ἀνατολῇ καὶ ἤλθομεν προσκυνῆσαι αὐτῷ.”
Melchior, Gaspar and Belshazzar followed the Star of Bethlehem to reach the Jerusalem. There they consulted the inhabitants and after his encounter with Herod, Matthew affirms (2: 9) that “οἱ δὲ ἀκούσαντες τοῦ βασιλέως ἐπορεύθησαν · καὶ ἰδοὺ ὁ ἀσοτὴρ ὃν εἶδον ὁ τνντε τοῦ βασιλέως ἐπορεύθησαν · καὶ ἰδοὺ ὁ ἀσοτὴρ ὃν εἶδον ὁ τὴνανδ τὴνενδ.
The star reappeared to take them directly to Bethlehem. And the magicians “ἰδόντες δὲ τὸν ἀστέρα ἐχάρησαν χαρὰν μεγάλην σφόδρα” (2:10), since the star was not wrong.
These few things Matthew tells us about the bright star that the three wise men had on their long journey. And the truth is that the fact disturbed the Christian church from the first moment.
The great hierarch and theologian John ChrysostomSeemingly realizing the Star of Bethlehem problem, he attributed it to a miracle. Theologically speaking, he tells us, it was a divine omen to announce the incarnation of the Son of God.
Saint Chrysostom thinks that it was not a natural star, as one might think, but an invisible, miraculous logical force (“I transformed the invisible into this Ipsin”).
Origen, an important ecclesiastical figure in the early Christian years, gave the same metaphysical interpretation. The Star of Bethlehem in his own reasoning was nothing more than the fulfillment of a prophecy mentioned in the Old Testament (“Numbers”) and associated with the coming of the Messiah.
What astronomers assume
If we assume that the Star of Bethlehem was not a fictional story but a real celestial object, as part of the world of astronomy has speculated, then we have to make some preliminary assumptions.
As astronomer Larry Sessions tells us, it is clear to modern astronomy that the Star of Bethlehem behaved very strangely, “if it really existed,” he notes. It is even more problematic to assume that such a phenomenon took place in the winter sky of December.
Historians also consider his birth more likely. Jesus sometime in the spring instead of in the winter. It was Constantine the Great who established December 25 as the birthday of Jesus, a ritual ratified by Pope Julius I in AD 354. The Scriptures do not give us a date of birth.
For Art Maurer, director of the Herbert Trackman Planetarium, even the magicians’ claim that “we see the star in the east” seems wrong. “The magi came from Persia, which means they traveled 900 miles west.” So they didn’t see a star in the East. “
Not that this has put off astronomers, who have assumed pretty much everything from a bright meteor or comet to supernova (supernova star). However, all proposals have their problems.
Meteorites initially appear bright in the sky, but burn over time like lightning bolts in the Earth’s atmosphere. It could not be a meteorite that brought the wise men to Jesus during their long and difficult journey.
The comet has always been a good astronomical case. We know that Halley’s Comet was visible in 11 BC. C., a few years before the birth of Christ.
The bad thing about comets is that the ancients considered them bad omens, so that possibility was never seriously explored in those years.
However, there is a record by Chinese astronomers (astrologers in those years) of a “bright star” in the sky in 5 BC, something like a comet, which may explain the star of Bethlehem.
As for the supernova case, it would certainly be an attention-grabbing celestial sight, but we have no historical evidence that anything like this happened at the time.
We were left with only one theory: it was a planet. He by They have been pointed out by many astronomers over the centuries, that in this historical phase it was in a reversible orbit, which means that at night the earth’s sky would appear to travel eastward.
Jupiter has always been one of the best astronomical bets on the Star of Bethlehem. But alone is not enough …
What happened on December 21, 2020
Very recently, on December 21, an astronomical phenomenon made many remember the star of Bethlehem again. Some even mentioned it explicitly.
The two largest planets in our solar system, Jupiter and Saturn, were very close to a celestial phenomenon called a synod. Their distance was so close that they looked like a great star.
Was this star of bethlehem Who led the wise men to the newborn Jesus? So did the three sages see something similar 2000 years ago? Some astronomers answered affirmatively.
The Summit takes place every 20 years. We know that his strange dance in the sky occurred in 7 BC. Some ancient astronomers even called the synod phenomenon the “Christmas Star”, as convinced as they were that this was what the three magicians had seen.
Jupiter and Saturn appear one-tenth of a degree apart in this image taken near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, during an astronomical event known as the “Great Conjunction.” See more images from tonight and previous nights #TheGreatConjuction ➡️ https://t.co/hBTFS69AUy pic.twitter.com/Z52IjG9LSt
– PHOTO FROM NASA HQ (@nasahqphoto) December 22, 2020
The “Journal of Astronomy” even tells us that in the year 7 a. C. the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn was special. The orbits of the two planets were aligned in such a way that from Earth it seemed as if they were approaching the constellation Pisces three times.
This rare phenomenon was even proposed by Kepler himself, the catalyst for the scientific revolution, as an explanation for the Star of Bethlehem. Most historians today place the birth of Jesus somewhere between 6-2 BC. C., making it a good candidate.
However, if the Star of Bethlehem was a planetary gathering, this fact, then the Jupiter-Saturn coupling is not the only candidate. In August 3 BC, Jupiter and Venus were so close (to Earth observation, always) that the phenomenon was very similar to the recent Jupiter-Saturn Synod.
Especially since Venus is usually brighter than Zeus and Saturn. Something similar happened on June 2 a. C., with the sources speaking of “coupling to a single star”.
What else is science investigating?
The riddle of the Star of Bethlehem remains one of the great mysteries, both theologically and scientifically. But only modern astronomy can shed light, since now our knowledge is such that it can explain the mysterious Matthew reference.
Scientists are, after all, scientists. “If everything is written in New Testament it is a historical testimony, so this historical testimony requires an explanation ”, observes the professor of physics and astronomy David Weintraub,“ as an astronomer, you want an astronomical interpretation ”.
Explain that theories about comets must be rejected once and for all. Haley passed through our neighborhood in 11 BC. C., but as the Earth rotates, no comet can take it to a fixed point.
Theoretical astrophysics professor Grant Mathews also tells us that we should permanently exclude newcomers (nova) and supernovae (supernova).
Although such an event could have observable consequences for Earthlings, astronomical research has found nothing to justify such a hypothesis.
But even if it was a nova or a supernova, wizards couldn’t have followed it. And this is because they would just circle. “You cannot follow a star from Baghdad to Jerusalem and then to Bethlehem,” Weintraub observes. “The stars don’t do that. They rise and set, they don’t sit in the sky.”
However, a 2005 study pointed to such a supernova in Andromeda to the Star of Bethlehem. But the astronomical community has also rejected this theory. It would take a telescope to see it.
And so we come to two possibilities. The first tells us that the magicians had made an astrological interpretation of the sky. They did not use the stars as orbiters to reach Judea, but they read the important event on the astrological chart.
Astrology had its place in those years and the Babylonians made important contributions to the study of the heavens.
One explanation that has been proposed tells us that Jupiter always played an important role in ancient times. astrology, he associated with kings and rulers.
The fact that the Moon passed in front of him on April 17, 6 BC, perhaps this marked a great astrological event that convinced some that an important man was coming to the world.
Weintraub makes it clear: “Modern astronomers have no confidence in astrology, but ‘modern’ is important in this context. What matters is what people believed 2000 years ago.” Astrology was a great job in those years “.
When all else fails, astronomers turn to the planet’s case. When a session occurs and two celestial bodies approach (or rather, appear from land meet in the night sky), this is a phenomenon that can continue every night for days or even weeks.
If the three magicians were actually following a planetary session, then they could have been brought to a specific point.
This is what astronomer Michael Molnar firmly believes, and this is what he tells us in his 1999 book The Star of Bethlehem. Saturn, the Moon and the Sun in the constellation Aries.
This particular session took place in the wee hours of the morning, which fits Mateo’s descriptions of the rising star and then disappearing from the eyes of the magicians, before reappearing.
The reciprocal movement of Jupiter, in which it appears to change direction in the night sky, can explain the adventures of the magicians with the visibility of the Star of Bethlehem.
The other two links also look promising. The triple conjunction of Jupiter, Aphrodite and the star Regulus (Basil) in the constellation of Leo on June 17, 2 BC. C. Without telescope, the conjunction would look like a single star and would actually be much brighter than Zeus and Aphrodite.
The second phenomenon is a triple session that took place on another date from 6 a. C. (Jupiter, Saturn and Mars). Most, however, believe that the April 6 a. C. (Jupiter, Saturn, Moon and Sun) seems to better explain the strange behavior of the Star of Bethlehem.
“We may never know if the Star of Bethlehem was a synagogue, an astrological event, or a myth to promote Christianity,” Mathews observes.
Maybe it was just a miracle …
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