Star of Bethlehem

The Star of Bethlehem is one of those Christmas stories that has had people guessing on the nature of the star that was above Bethlehem around the time that Jesus was born.

Scientific American: What was the star of Bethlehem?

It’s a topic that will probably never be settled.

Still, how’s this for another idea: what if it could have been one of the stars of the Southern Cross?

The Southern Cross is no longer visible in the sky above Israel/Palestine but it was 2000 years ago. The constellation has slipped out of view since then due to axial precession.  A star of the Southern Cross, Acrux, might have provided a motive for the three Magi (astrologers/astronomers) to travel to the high ground of Jerusalem in order to catch a better glimpse of the disappearing star.

Bethlehem is about 10 kilometres south of Jerusalem and if the aim was to see these stars from Jerusalem then Bethlehem would certainly have been a landmark over which the Crux stars would have passed. The star would have risen in the early hours of the morning to the east of Bethlehem, as seen by looking south from Jerusalem, risen into view and moving west would possibly have been over Bethlehem around the time of dawn. That is, you could say that the star STOPPED being visible directly over Bethlehem and only just above the horizon as observed from Jerusalem. Bethlehem being only 10km from Jerusalem could have also been a destination for a touristy day trip. Perhaps they wanted to see if Bethlehem provided a better vantage spot to view the star from.

There would have been nothing much of note about the stars of the Southern Cross for people living in Jerusalem around this time as they would have been visible every year. Still the view from a higher altitude might have made the journey worthwhile for the Magi from the east. They possibly didn’t understand the meaning of Bethlehem (as the birthplace for a future Messiah) and stars (the star prophesy) to King Herod. As visiting tourists I imagine that they would have paid a tribute to the King ruling Jerusalem at that time – Herod – and as ‘wise men’ given some explanation of what they had seen in layman’s speak. As soon as they realised their rational account of a simple observation of a star was taken in a mythological way they took off quick smart.

In retelling the story 80 or so years later the details may have been mixed up and the story embellished to make the visit of the Magi look as if it was related to the birth of Jesus.

At least this theory would include a motive to travel to Jerusalem. A one-off astrological event such as a conjunction of planets could be seen anywhere and an unexpected astronomical event such as a comet or supernova could not have motivated a long, time consuming and possibly dangerous trip. If the aim was to get a better view of stars that were known to be precessing out of sight then it would make sense that a group of astrologers/astronomers would have planned to travel to higher ground to make an observation.

To say that a star rose and then stopped being visible once it was over Bethlehem due to the light of dawn, from the vantage point of somewhere obvious in Jerusalem, is a description of an observation in a way that can be communicated to other people who might wish to observe the star themselves. Apart from the pole star, every star will move through the sky at night. There has to be something else happening for someone to say that a star stopped over a certain landmark. Perhaps that event was the break of day when the star is no longer visible. The Magi would have known about and understood the wandering stars, the planets, and other phenomena such as eclipses.

At least this theory posits a real star as being the unidentified Bethlehem Star and gives an account of the language used to describe its observation until sunrise, it posits a motive for the traveling Magi to plan a visit to Jerusalem and it may also explain some of the cultural misunderstandings, between scientific observation and religious interpretations as it so happens.

You could also say this interpretation of the Bethlehem Star as a star from the Southern Cross has meaning to us now, if indeed it can be shown to fit the criteria for the Bethlehem Star in the Gospels. That the Bethlehem Star marking the birth of Jesus is from the Crux constellation before that constellation was known by that name is striking. Even if the visit by the Magi and the birth of Jesus were historically unrelated and a coincidence of timing, the Gospels have linked these two events symbolically and the visit of the Magi to Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and the star they were seeking to see are all NOW symbolically related to the birth of Jesus.The historical person who was Jesus and the archetypal/mythological Jesus Christ are related but not quite the same, to my way of thinking.

Another point worth making is that the Crux constellation is used to mark out the southern pole in the night sky of the Southern hemisphere. It points to the stationary place in the southern sky around which the other stars appear to rotate. Identifying the Bethlehem Star as being one of the stars of the Southern Cross symbolically would mark a shift in emphasis from the Northern hemisphere to the Southern. It works symbolically in a way that was not evident when these events occurred and were first recorded, and it still provides meaning.

The Southern Cross in the southern sky from Jerusalem around 7AM in early December, 6BC

Click on image for a full screen view

Image from Skychart
Cartes du Ciel Version 3 Beta 0.1.4
Latitude 31 deg 45 min North, Longitude 35 deg 00 min East
Altitude 760 meters
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To give you an idea of what is meant by precession and how constellations move over time, the following images show the stars from the same location and time of day over a sequence separated by 500 years:

1000BCE – 500BCE – 1BCE – 500CE – 1000CE – 1500CE – 2000CE

The following images show the position of Southern Cross during the early hours in early December in 1BCE:

3AM – 4AM – 5AM – 6AM – 7AM – 8AM

Skychart Animation of the Southern sky from Jerusalem between 3AM to 7.30AM on 1 Dec, 6BC

Click on image for a full screen view

See also Star of Bethlehem at Wikipedia

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Using the Stellarium software set in December 1BCE you can see that the Crux stars, particularly Acrux, would be directly over the place on the horizon where Bethlehem would have been during sunrise. Time zones may be different, and time systems as well, but on the software sunrise during December was around 6am. The position of the Southern Cross at day break varies depending on the time of year but it would be close to Bethlehem if seen from Jerusalem.

Well, its an idea that could be sustained with the evidence. I presume that it was Acrux, at the base of the Southern Cross, that was the star that the Magi wanted to have a better view of and that hung just above Bethlehem while it was last visible before dawn, when looking south from Jerusalem.

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23 Dec 2008

If the Bethlehem Star was Acrux – and it is a topic that will possibly never be settled one way or the other – it does have some telling symbolism that could be seen to be appropriate. A star, and the constellation over the last 2000 years, precessing out of view seems appropriate for a religious system that gives the Crucifixion and death of Jesus a central place, as well as his Resurrection. The star and constellation has disappeared below the horizon in the North but is now prominent in the South. A ‘dying’ star that is rediscovered and so Resurrected symbolically with new meanings fits with the Christian story. The story of the Magi could be likened to the story of the shepherd who searches everywhere for a single lost sheep and is joyous when that lost sheep is found again. It also resonates with the story of the brief encounter of the apostles with Jesus after his Crucifixion and perhaps the need to flee persecution.

The nature of the Bethlehem Star will change with the meanings of Christianity, and in the last few years there does seem to be a drive to affirm some prominent astronomical event – that could have been seen everywhere in the the night sky not just in the locality of Bethlehem – with the story. It wouldn’t seem as exciting, I suppose, if the Bethlehem Star was one that was always there and silently pointing in a new direction, much as you would expect Wisdom to do. After all, if the Bethlehem Star was Acrux, the Crux constellation was actually pointing towards Bethlehem at sunrise as reported in the Gospels, just as it is still pointing to the south in the Southern hemisphere. The constellation to which the Bethlehem Star belongs would become symbolically more important than the star itself, if this alternative gains in credence.

Bethlehem is about 30 meters higher than Jerusalem, so it should have provided a better vantage point than Jerusalem. I don’t have the knowledge or software to test the idea thoroughly.

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14 Jan 2009

The brightest stars of the Southern Cross are easy to imagine as a cross. With many other constellations the pattern of stars can suggest everyday objects, people and animals that are projected onto the sky. Being slightly cheeky, you could also perhaps say that there is some truth to the story that the Magi mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew traveled all that way to see a heavenly Child if it was all of the stars of the Southern Cross they were seeking to see. The four brightest stars of the constellation could be imagined as the hands (Beta and Gamma) and feet (Alpha and Delta) of a baby lying on its back. And Crux is, after all, the smallest of the constellations – the baby of the night sky in terms of size.

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25 April 2009

One of the interesting things if you watch the animation above is that the common orientation of the Southern Cross in Australia and elsewhere is as it would be seen from the Northern Hemisphere.

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23 May 2009

All stars apart from the pole star move during the night. If the three Magi were following the star over some time, like at least a few weeks, then that star would have risen every night to the east and it would have moved west in the night sky every night until it was no longer visible. The place in the sky where the star was last visible could be said to be the place where the star appeared to ‘stop’. A star could disappear from sight during the course of a night for a couple of reasons. It could move to a location below the horizon, or it could be visible in the night sky until dawn when it is no longer visible due to the sunlight. The latter option is the proposed scenario for the account of the Bethlehem Star.

Even a planetary conjunction or a retrograde planet would appear to rise in the east and move west in the night sky on any particular night. Over a number of nights a planet might appear to be stationary if it is changing from direct to retrograde motion or visa versa, but that stationary position is relative to the fixed stars – the stationary planet and the stars still continue to move in the night sky relative to the ground.

The story of the Bethlehem star is about a star ‘stopping’ with regard to a geographical position on the ground (assuming a given vantage point in Jerusalem). The Bethlehem Star could not have been a special conjunction of planets or any other unusual heavenly phenomena like a supernova – their motion would not have ‘stopped’ relative to the ground during the night/dawn/day. Something like a meteor would not have lasted for a long enough time for the Magi to make the journey. The only thing that could make a star seem to ‘stop’ relative to the ground is, as mentioned above, a star setting below the horizon or the sun rising so that the star was no longer visible. The story notes that the Bethlehem star rose in the east. The story does not mention that the star set. It says the star ‘stopped’ above Bethlehem (from an assumed given vantage point). The star Acrux would have been last visible during sunrise just above Bethlehem, while looking south from Jerusalem.

As mentioned before, spotting the well known star Acrux may have also been the motive for the Magi to travel to the hills of Jerusalem and Bethlehem because that star was gradually disappearing below the horizon due to axial precession of the earth. Perhaps in their home town the Magi could no longer spot the star Acrux in the night sky at all, even though they knew it was there just below the horizon from where they lived. The wish to see the star would have been a suitable motive to travel.

With the Hebrew cosmology of the time, the idea that a star could descend and dangle from the firmament above a particular town would have seemed credible. They would have also thought the visiting Magi were as involved in their local politics and beliefs as they were. It is hardly surprising that the Magi took off in a hurry once they realised their visit had been misinterpreted.

The story still has meaning – about perspective and culture, et cetera. This new perspective adds layers and depth to the meanings, and it marks an intersection between science and religion. It also adds another perspective to the birth and life of Jesus and another way the stories of the Gospels could be understood for the interfaces between differing cultures these stories represent. This could be likened to the germination of a long dormant seed.

Over time the Bethlehem star has descended below the horizon from the vantage point of Jerusalem, metaphorically like a seed being planted in the soil. Even two thousand years ago, the daily disappearing of Acrux and the apparent ‘stopping’ of its motion from the east to west corresponded with the rising of the sun at dawn. And what would it mean if the Bethlehem star is identified as being Acrux for a modern Christianity? That might take centuries yet to work through.

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2 Sept 2009
Unfortunately this interpretation would only be valid for a very small window of a few weeks during the year. Going off the Stellarium software, only around the end of November and the beginning of December would Acrux stop being visible directly over Bethlehem just before sunrise by looking south from a lookout near Jerusalem. A possible lookout near the Old City of Jerusalem for the Magi would have been the Mount of Olives. From the Bible story we can gather that the Magi were outside city walls and where shepherds tend their sheep when they were observing the star. From the Mount of Olives, Bethlehem is slightly west of the southerly cardinal direction.

At other times of the year there may be other stars visible over the southern horizon. Given the scant amount of information to the story of the Bethlehem Star you couldn’t definitely say it was one thing or another. But if it was indeed a ‘star’, then Acrux would be one of the contenders.

With regard to the traveling Magi, if they planned to view that particular star they would have known that they have only a small window of time and they might have been passing through Jerusalem in late November/early December (by our calendar projected back 200 years) and heading south to a better vantage point.

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The Mount of Olives is about a kilometre to the east of the old city of Jerusalem and is about 80 meters higher than the Temple Mount. It is the location for a Jewish cemetery that has been in use from biblical times to today. It would be a natural location to do some star gazing near Jerusalem about 2000 years ago.

The Christian story in the first chapter of Acts has it that Jesus was taken up to heaven from the Mount of Olives and that he will come back the same way. It sounds cryptic to me.

Acts 1.11 …and said, “Galileans, why are you looking at the sky? This Jesus, who was taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you saw him go into heaven.”

There is a strange symbolic syzygy that might be evident around some of these things. It is the location of a cemetery, yet it might have also been the vantage point for observing the Bethlehem Star and the birth it symbolises. There is the thing about the resurrection of the dead at the end of time (which is by definition NOT the end of time because there is some kind of a resurrection, after which you would expect time to roll along as usual). Then there is the symbolism of death and rebirth that permeates the Christian story.

The story of the Bethlehem Star being about an observation of a star from the Mount of Olives, that star possibly being Acrux but there could be other appropriate stars as well, is consistent with the physical reality of the location of a star at that time and it fits with the Christian (and perhaps Jewish) symbolism as well. Identifying the Bethlehem Star as a ‘star’ could impact on the meaning of rebirth for Christianity and it could also serve as a bridge between science and religion, as well as the ancient world and the modern. In a nutshell then, Christianity itself could be ‘born again’ to use its own terms and the reappearance of the ‘Bethlehem Star’ – as a real star – could be the turning point. The pieces fit together. But it works symbolically, not literally, and the difference is in the interpretations of the same person and stories of Jesus from around two thousand years ago.

The tribalism of the old world tends towards authoritarianism in modern states. The modern world without values is scary and cruel. Worst still are artificially manufactured cultures built around a cult of personality.

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The term ‘born again’ has been re-translated as ‘born from above’:

Origin

According to John 3:5, Jesus originated the term “born again” (alternately translated “born from above”) while teaching Nicodemus, a rabbi of the Jewish sect known as the Pharisees…

Born from above

Jesus used the “birth” analogy in tracing spiritual newness of life to a divine beginning. Contemporary Christian theologians have provided explanations for “born from above” being a more accurate translation of the original Greek word transliterated an?then. Theologian Frank Stagg cites two reasons why the newer translation is significant:

1. The emphasis “from above” (implying “from Heaven“) calls attention to the source of the “newness of life.” Stagg writes that the word “again” does not include the source of the new kind of beginning
2. More than personal improvement is needed. “…a new destiny requires a new origin, and the new origin must be from God…”

via Born again (Christianity) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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4 Sept 09

I know it may sound sort of primitive and mythological, but the Bethlehem Star may have some significance symbolically with the inclusion of Jesus Christ in the Holy Trinity. It is as if after the star stopped over Bethlehem, that heavenly presence symbolised as the star temporarily descended down to earth as the person of Jesus. After Jesus’ death he was resurrected, as the story goes, and part of that resurrection had to do with ascending back into the heavens. Identifying the Bethlehem Star as a fixed star, and as one of the brightest in the night sky, completes that symbolic cycle, so to speak. If the Bethlehem Star was not actually a star but a temporary conjunction of planets instead or a one-off astronomical event such as a comet or super-nova (there is no other supporting evidence from those times that it might have been) then the Bethlehem Star becomes yet another relative and recurring event. It looses its symbolic power. There has been a concerted drive to explain and identify the Bethlehem Star over the last few centuries and in some ways this can diminish the myth, unless you can tie it into the Christian story in such a way that it resonates with that story. I think the Bethlehem Star as Alpha Crucis of the Crux constellation does that on so many levels. The Crux constellation points to the Southern pole in the night sky so that even while it rises and sets and may not always be visible, it always points to one of the fixed hubs of the heavens in the night sky of earth. I think it works poetically.