Was it Really a Star?

In all probability, one of the most spectacular celestial events that ever occurred was the Star of Bethlehem! Every year at the Christmas season there is much speculation and discussion at to just what the Star might have been.

Scholars have offered at least three possibilities:
First, it has been attributed to myth. It is said by those who take this view that the star is merely a literary device used to show the importance of some great historical event.
The second possibility is that it was an astronomical occurrence or a natural event.
And, finally it has been viewed as a miraculous event in the heavens – a star created for a specific occasion. The first of these theories we reject because it is an attack upon the inspiration and veracity of Scripture.

The Astronomical Theories of the Star:
The astronomical view is reasonable in that those who it first attracted were astronomers. They were those who were interested in the heavens, those who charted the heavens, observed the movements of planets, and who would have noticed any such phenomenon as the Star of Bethlehem.
It was natural that this sign in the heavens would attract astronomers from the East. Remember these astronomers were from Persia, a priestly caste who were learned in all of the wisdom of the ancient world. From ancient mosaics and frescos in the catacombs, we see them dressed in Persian dress. These Persian astronomers were the Magi of the Christmas story. They were evidently highly influenced by the Jews taken captive to Assyria and Babylon some 700 years before Christ, people like Daniel, Mordecai, and Esther.
Daniel became a president of the Magi in Babylon, part of the Persian Empire of our Lord’s day (Dan. 6:1 – 3, 28). It was, no doubt, through his influence that the Magi began to look for the Star of the Jewish Messiah. They evidently began to study the prophets of the Old Testament and were looking for Him when He came.

Comets
Some would say the Star was a comet. Comets are spectacular. They had great significance to the ancients. When one was observed in the heavens, some definite meaning was attached to it.
When Julius Caesar was assassinated, it was said that a blood red comet was visible in the skies for seven nights. When Augustus died, a comet was observed also. So in 1910 when Halley’s Comet came around again, it was held by some to be a reappearance of the Star of Bethlehem because it was so dramatic.
It is said to have appeared twice, seen in the East and then in the West, thus corresponding to the Biblical narrative. (The Wise Men saw the Star while they were in the East, and then again after leaving Jerusalem.)
Proponents of this view say that the long tail of the comet might have pointed to where Christ was found by the Magi. Halley’s Comet comes every 75 years, right on schedule in our ordered universe, and is a possible candidate for the Star.
In 1985, when the Comet made another pass by earth, numerous articles appeared in the newspapers across the country proclaiming the return of the Star of Bethlehem. However, when one investigates Halley’s Comet, he finds that it appeared too early – in 12 B. C., some eight years before the birth of Christ.

Novas and Supernovas
A second astronomical candidate for the Star is the nova and supernova. Origin was one of the first writers to speculate on the possibility that the Star was a real physical phenomenon. He described it as a “new star” or “nova.” A nova is not really a new star but the sudden flare-up in brightness of the star to 10,000 or 100,000 times its original brightness. The supernova, or “dying star,” is a star that suddenly explodes in great brilliance. This once occurred in the constellation Coma, the Mother and Son constellation. It is possible that a supernova occurred in one of the constellations – perhaps Virgo, the Virgin, a significant constellation sign of the Jewish Messiah’s birth.

Johannes Kepler and Planetary Conjunctions
A third, and most probable candidate for the Star, if indeed it was an astronomical event, is the theory of a planetary conjunction. This theory says that a number of planets came together, specifically, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars, or possibly only Jupiter and Saturn.
Jupiter and Saturn did come together in conjunction several times corresponding remarkably to the Star of Bethlehem. Their coming together would appear as one brilliant star in the heavens. This intriguing theory was first put forth by a man named Johannes Kepler, a great astronomer from Prague – a Christian.
In December he noticed the coming together of the planets Saturn and Jupiter in the constellation Pisces. This was very significant to him. It stirred his memory of some ancient rabbinical writings. According to a rabbi named Abarbanel, the Jews believed that Messiah would come at a time when there was a conjunction of these planets in Pisces.
All of this was based on the popular notion that Jupiter was the planetary sign of royalty. Saturn was the “protecting power of Israel,” and Pisces was the constellation for Palestine. The Caldeans themselves had said that Pisces was a sign for Palestine.
Then he began to think about what the astronomers in the East might have seen and how they might have been taught by Daniel to look for this particular sign. So Kepler did some mathematical computations to see if this conjunction of planets could have occurred at the approximate time of the Birth of Christ.
When he found that it had occurred in 7 B.C., he concluded that it could not have been the Star of Bethlehem because it was seven years off. So Kepler’s Theory was largely forgotten until it was discovered that our modern calendar was inaccurate by exactly seven years!
A sixth-century Scythian monk by the name of Dionysius Exigusius had made the error. Another reason Kepler’s Theory was not given more consideration was that no one knew whether his mathematical projections as to where the stars would have been in the heavens at a time so long past could be trusted.
But in 1925, Schnabel, a German scientist, deciphered some Neo-Babylonian tablets found in the Royal School of Astronomy in ancient Sippar, Babylon.
One of these clay tablets stated that there had been a rendevous of these planets. Saturn and Jupiter in the very year which Kepler had predicted! Certainly all of this seems to fit the statements of Scripture concerning the Star, but if we take the Bible literally, the theories of the astronomers are still difficult to harmonize with it.

Miraculous Theories of the Star of Bethlehem:

The Shekinah Glory
A theory gaining prominence in our day holds that the Star was nothing less than the Shekinah Glory or Pillar of Fire which God used to guide his people through the wilderness. This alone, they claim, will satisfy all of the Biblical information about the Star (See Duane Spencer and John MacArthur), but there are also a number of problems with the Shekinah Theory.
First, what possible significance could the Shekinah have had to these Persian astronomers? Why would God go 1,000 miles to the east with the Shekinah glory which was known and recognized only by Israelites? It never appeared to any Gentile nations – it was uniquely God’s revelation to the Jews!
Second, if the Shekinah was the Star, why did the Magi call it a “star” (Gk. aster), rather than “cloud” (nephela), which is the word used in I Corinthians 10:1 for Shekinah?
A third objection to the Shekinah Theory is that such a dramatic and noticeable phenomenon would surely have excited much more notoriety than is mentioned in the New Testament which implies that only the Wise Men saw it.
Fourthly, what is there about the Shekinah that would tell the Magi that a Jewish King had been born? If an astronomer sees something happen in the heavens – a star or planet, this tells them that something of significance has occurred. But what of the Shekinah? How would this special sign of God’s presence to Israel be significant to Gentiles?
Fifthly, why wouldn’t the Shekinah have led the Wise Men to Bethlehem instead of Jerusalem where they must then ask where the Messiah was? Why was the star lost from sight on the way to Jerusalem? Finally, “star” (aster) is used in two ways in Scripture: symbolically, as in Job where we are told that the “stars of heaven shall sing,” and, as in Numbers 24:7, where we are told “a star (king) shall arise out of Jessie” (David’s family). Secondly, the word “star” is used of heavenly bodies. The word “star” is never used for the Shekinah Glory in the New Testament.

A Special Creation by God
We believe that the best answer for the Star of Bethlehem is that it was a star especially created and controlled by God in such a way as to make it visible to the Magi. That is, it could guide them specifically, and it was low enough to be seen stopping over one tiny house. No celestial phenomenon meets these criteria.
Richard Niessen, in the December, 1978, Moody Monthly magazine, pointed out several interesting arguments for the specially created star theory.
The most important points he makes are as follows: (1) The Star reappeared suddenly, as indicated by the use of the Greek word idou, translated “lo” or “behold” (2:9). (2) The Star changed directions when it reappeared. Previously it had led the Magi west to Jerusalem. Now, on the second leg of the journey, it moved south to Bethlehem. (3) The Star was a moving object which preceded the Magi. It was not a light some indefinite distance in the sky, but close enough to the Magi to guide them precisely (2:9). The word used here in the original is proago, a word used elsewhere by Matthew to portray one person or group of people preceding another in a procession….The word definitely implies motion on the part of the Star relative to the Magi who followed it as a means of their direction. (4) The Star preceded the Magi until it stood over the house (2:9). “Until” is an adverb of time, indicating a change of activity relative to some fixed point in time. The Star had been moving slowly preceding the Magi. And then it stopped. The Greek word for “stood” expresses the suddenness of the action. (5) The Star was under control of an outside agent. The language used in Matthew 2:9, literally translated, means “was caused to stand.” (6) In Judea, as before, the Star apparently was seen only by the Magi. Had Herod been able to see it, he would not have needed directions from the Magi to locate Jesus; He would merely have told his soldiers to watch the Star. Nor would he have had to slaughter every infant within a twenty – mile radius of Bethlehem to make sure he had murdered the One he was really after (2:16, 17).

Conclusion
So, we conclude that the Star of Bethlehem was not a natural celestial object, but rather a specially created star, prepared by God to guide the Wise Men to the Jewish Messiah in order that they might worship Him. There are those who believe that the gospel was, at one time, written in the stars of Heaven. In any case, we might say that if the stars do not lead us to Him, that we are using them for the wrong purpose (Psalm 19). When Christ was born, the Bible says that Gentiles worshipped Him because the Star led them to Him.
“He came unto his own (Israel) and his own received him not, but to as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” (John 1:12).
The most important question for us to answer at this season of the year, or any season, is, “What will we do with Jesus?” To believe in Him is life eternal; to reject Him is to come under eternal condemnation.
“And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life: and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” (I John 5:11, 12).

See also The Shepherds and The Wise Men in this series.
By Tom Jenkins
Sources: Duane Edward Spencer, Word Keys that Unlock Scripture, Grace Bible Press, San Antonio, Texas, 1972; Richard Niessen, Moody Monthly, December 1978; John MacArthur, God With Us, Zondervan Books, 1989; David Hughes, The Star of Bethlehem, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1979; Paul L. Maier, First Christmas, Harper & Row, New York, 1971; Boa and Proctor, The Return of the Star of Bethlehem, Doubleday, Garden City, New York, 1980.