It is now December and the end of the year is nigh. Last month, I wrote of the endings of things such as the year and stars. I included a photo of a star that had gently sloughed off its outer shell of gas and was in the throes of its death as a star. I had hoped this month to have an image of a supernova remnant, marking the death of a much bigger star. The weather would not cooperate. I won't give up trying...
I volunteer in the literacy program of an out-of-state library. I have also presented programs on astronomy there. As I was standing in line to check out a book, a nice woman approached me and asked what I thought the Christmas Star might be. I could only give a brief answer to her then, but here are some longer thoughts I have contemplated for some years.
I have a Master's degree in Theological Studies from Fuller Theological Seminary. Getting this degree required that I become familiar with Greek texts from the New Testament period. I perused the account of Matthew where he tells of the birth of Jesus. I use the NIV, but the story is the same in any translation. I have also used a very good, modern Greek text used by most Biblical scholars in my research. What could this 'star' or 'stella' in the Greek, be?
Opinions have been very wide over the centuries. Some have said that the star never existed, some have said it was a 'miracle,' and some modern authorities have thought it might have been a comet, a conjunction or a supernova.
Some modern astronomers have thought that the Star of Bethlehem was a supernova. Some other modern astronomers have suggested that this star was a conjunction of two or more planets grouped close to one another in the night sky at that time.
In Matthew's account, he uses the Greek word 'stella' to denote the Christmas Star. This word means 'star' in Greek, but it is only one meaning among others and, by itself, it is generic to many possible things in the sky that could be seen with the naked eye during those times. I think we can presume that Matthew had little formal training in the astronomy of his time and so he chose a generic term for a curious and bright apparition of something in the night sky heralding the birth of Jesus. Matthew could have used the word 'planetos' if he wished to tell of a planet, but he used 'stella', suggesting that he did not want to tell us of a bright planet such as Jupiter or Venus.
Matthew says that there were wise men, coming from the east, and traveling from where they were to where Jesus was born and that they followed the star. This implies that whatever was seen moved across the sky over some days or longer. A bright thing that moves across the sky and comes to rest over a particular position, as seen from Earth, sounds like a comet to me.
Comets can come to apparent rest in the night sky in any of several positions. When they move, how they line up in their movement around the Sun, and how they can appear not to move, has been observed with many comets that astronomers have seen in the modern era. Depending on the line-up with the orbit of the comet and the Earth's orbit, it can appear that the comet has come to rest over a place on the Earth. And...there are possible positions of a comet where one is looking at the head of the comet and the comet's tail streams directly away from the observer. The tail streams 'in back of' the comet, leaving only the head visible. So...for some days, a comet in its journey around the Sun could appear to come to rest as seen from Earth and be point-like in appearance. It could also be quite bright.
The whole problem of the nature of the Christmas Star is confounded by not knowing the exact date of Jesus' birth. The best we can do is locate about a four-to-five-year period when it happened. This is because there have been calendar changes since then and because our knowledge of the period of Quirinius' reign can, in the minds of many authorities, only be bracketed as about 6-9 A.D. We cannot pin down the exact time in Q's reign when Jesus was born. This prevents us from using modern computer programs to calculate, for example, the positions of Jupiter or Venus at that time because we don't know the exact year when whatever it was appeared.
There you have it. My theory, and it is only guess-work, is that the Christmas Star was a comet. My view does not rule out that the whole appearance of the Star of Bethlehem was a miracle. The view of Christian believers is that God might well have used a natural phenomenon to accomplish the sign of Jesus' birth -- an example is the work God did at the Red Sea to accomplish His will for the Israelites.
Comets can return to be seen again. Halley's comet is a good example. However, comets can just be one-time appearances. Then they move away from Earth, never to be seen again. What is your theory of the Christmas Star?
Have a very merry Christmas and celebrate the coming of a new year. This new year will be full of wonders to be seen in the night sky.
-- Dr. David Cater is a former faculty member of JBU. Email him at [email protected]. The opinions expressed are those of the author.
General News on 12/04/2019