Christmas is approaching and so is a rare planet conjunction, this time Jupiter and Saturn. This has caused a number of media outlets to proclaim that a similar conjunction was the origin to the story of the Star of Bethlehem, that you can read about in the gospel of Matthew.
There exists a number of explanations to this myth, a supernova, a comet or a conjunction. We can exclude a supernova as none was recorded by that time by Chinese astronomers. A comet was an ill omen and can thus be excluded. Conjunctions are plausible but have some disadvantages.
It should be noted that it is only Matthew that mentions the star and considering that it was written after70 BC it is quite possible that the story is distorted from what actually happened and written more in a then present-day context. That is, to give legitimacy to the claim, fulfilling prophecy.
But the story of the star is interesting in it self. with some interesting features of the star:
- It signified a birth
- It signified kingship
- It was related to the Jewish nation
- It rose «in the East»
- King Herod had not been aware of it
- It appeared at an exact time
- It endured over time
First of all, the wise men or Magi, travelled from Mesopotamia thus they must have either seen it or expecting it to happen. The travel would have taken some time, so it might still be a conjunction. But rising in the east does not mean that that it could be related to the Jewish nation. Thus we need more information.
The solution of the problem can come from social influence in the Roman empire. The society was superstitious and Rome was more or less based on it. That means the the story in Matthew could be aim at that. That is, using a argument based in astrology to convince people.
In order to examine this further we can look at the features. Since Astrology is forbidden in mosaic religion, Herod, despite his roman education, should not have had any knowledge of the inner workings of astrology.
Astrology at that time opens up for a birth of a king, and different signs in the zodiac can be attributed to different nations. In the case of the Jewish nation this would be Aries. The Birth of a King could be that Jupiter and Saturn rises before the sun and that the moon does the same and this when the sun is in Aries. If both Mars and Mercury rises after the sun even better. An occultation of Jupiter by the moon would be a bonus. But this actually happened in the possible time period 6 BC in april on the 17th.
The royal planet Jupiter also performs a retrograde motion in Aries that year also something that seems to be according to the gospel.
Considering this I am more convinced that the Star of Bethlehem had an astrological explanation rather that a planet conjunction in 7 BC involving Jupiter and Saturn. But I guess we will never know the answer.