One question about the Star of Bethlehem is why the Magi were able to see the star but no one else did. This is really one of the main points about the story and the reason why the star of Bethlehem is so mysterious.
The story of the three Magi and the Star of Bethlehem as it is described in the Bible can be explained as being the result of a miscommunication:
1. We can assume that the three Magi did see a star when they were in Jerusalem.
2. We know that the Court of Herod was interested to find out what the Magi were looking for.
3. The Magi tried to give an explanation of the particular star they were observing.
4. However, this explanation by the Magi was misunderstood by the people in Herod’s court and they did not identify the star that the Magi were talking about. The star that the Magi were trying to point out was an ordinary star for the people in Jerusalem. so they overlooked it trying to see something extra-ordinary.
5. From the story we can gather that having failed to convey the identity of the star (Alpha Crucis) the Magi tried to point out the star’s identity in many different ways:
i. Empirically by stating that the star rose in the east and moved west till it was no longer visible,
ii. In relation to a landmark (just above Bethlehem looking south from Jerusalem),
iii. By the constellation near the star (the legs of the Centaur or horse in Centaurus)
iv. And perhaps by the shape of the neighbouring stars within Crux. The Southern Cross is a small but distinctive constellation. (This is conjecture, but the main stars of the Southern Cross could be imagined as a baby lying on its back).
v. The Magi and the people in Herod’s court would have had little culturally in common to communicate through. They would have had different names for the stars and constellations, different languages, different cosmologies, a different understanding of stars and the sky, etc.
6. The people in Herod’s Court were uneasy after not correctly identifying the star that the Magi were trying to point out, and they continued to try to think and discuss the meaning of the star that they failed to recognise by the descriptions that the Magi had provided.
7. The various descriptions by the Magi of the star was put together into a narrative story meaningful to the Court. They imagined a star above Bethlehem, near where there was a baby lying on its back, next to the legs of a horse (Centaurus), and all of this in the one location – like in a stable.
8. The star played on the mind of Herod and he associated the unidentified star with the birth of the Messiah, leading to the murder of the innocents.
9. A few generations later when the Gospels were being written, the story of the Star of Bethlehem had taken on mythical elements and was included into the story of the birth of Jesus. (For a description of this mythologising process see Mircea Eliade, The sacred and the Profane: The nature of Religion, Harcourt, New York, 1959).
One other thing to remember is that according to the Hebrew worldview in the Old Testament, the sky was a solid dome – much like in the movie The Truman Story. The thought that angels could winch a star down from heaven deux ex machina so that the star dangled above a particular shed in a small village would have been considered rational and reasonable to the people who initially wrote and read the Gospels.
All up, the story of the Star of Bethlehem can be interpreted as the result of a cultural misunderstanding. Yet, it can still be said that the story persisted for over 2000 years by the will of God. Even with this interpretation of the star, the story of the Bethlehem Star still has power and meaning. It is still a mystery.
The people in Herod’s could have seen the star that the Magi were describing; they failed, however, to recognise the star that the Magi were trying to point out to them. The cultural story of the Bethlehem star can be understood from this context.
For more on the Star of Bethlehem as Alpha Crucis of the Southern Cross please see:
http://becrux.net/starofbethlehem/
http://becrux.net/category/bethlehemstar/
