Following Yonder Star/Comet/Planetary Conjunction
On January 6, Christians World-wide celebrate the visit of the Magi, or wise men, to the family of a child named Jesus in Bethlehem. In St Matthew’s gospel we read of these travellers arriving in Jerusalem having seen a new king’s star rise in the east. Often, at this time of year we read how science might intervene to explain the origin of this peculiar star. So, I’m taking a brief break from my usual themes to reflect on some of the ideas this beautiful piece of imagery inspires. Caution: I am no theologian; my expertise is as a former teacher of physics rather than R.E. so these are just my thoughts and ideas, rather than an authoritative thesis!
As their journey from the east nears its end, the Magi enter Jerusalem and come to the attention of Herod the king, as they enquire “where is he who is born king of the Jews?” Herod is initially very unhelpful as he has no idea about the existence, let alone whereabouts of a new member of any royal family and is concerned that such a person would challenge his rule. Luckily his chief priests and scribes point to the old testament prophesy of a ruler coming from a nearby little town and the magi head off on the eight-kilometre-or-so journey to Bethlehem - being first instructed by Herod to let him know, on their return, where the babe is to be found (there is sculduggery afoot here). It’s at this point that the star they had observed in the east reappears and goes before them, until it rests over the place where the child was to be found. They are hence able to identify and call in to the house (no inn or stable gets a mention in St Matthew’s nativity), worship the child and offer their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
The lack of a stable, manger, shepherds and inn-keeper in Matthew’s account of the nativity is worthy of a little consideration. In the christian bible, there are four gospels (books) relating to the life and ministry of Jesus; only two of these (Matthew and Luke) reference the story of Jesus’ birth — the nativity. Luke introduces the shepherds as the unlikely first visitors to the new babe: directed by “the angel of the Lord” they leave their flocks by the hillside and head to Bethlehem, locating him laid in a manger, “there being no place for them in the inn”. Luke does not mention the wise men. Only the delightful imagination of many storytellers and playwrights have inserted a friendly innkeeper, ox and ass standing by, a stable with star above it and cherubim and seraphim (angels) poking out of every nook and cranny into nativity plays world-wide. Those same creative minds have combined the two nativity narratives to bring Matthew’s Magi into the stable, shortly after Luke’s shepherd’s have done their worshipping and gone off “glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen”.
As only Matthew’s account mentions the mysterious star we must ask why Luke leaves it out? Is this an inconsistency that might lead us to discount the star as a figment of Matthew’s imagination or a miraculously-spectacular embellishment? Well, the timeline (necessarily ignored by the earnest nativity players) provides a possible answer. According to one translation of Matthew, the Magi “saw his star at its rising”. Then they would have spent a lot of time preparing for their journey, travelling a considerable distance to Jerusalem, before consulting with Herod and eventually reaching Bethlehem. Assuming the rising of the star coincided with the birth of Jesus, it might well have been months after the birth that the magi finally reached Bethlehem. By this time it seems Mary, Joseph and Jesus — perhaps crawling or toddling around at this stage — have moved from their temporary lodging to a house. Indeed, judging by Matthew’s account of Herod’s decision to slaughter all “male children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under”, based on intel cleverly garnered from the wise men (a result of the above-mentioned sculduggery), it seems Jesus was very likely greater than one year old. So, Luke’s account of the nativity does not cover the time at which the star “came to rest over the place where the child was” so we can’t simply rule out its existence due to this omission.
So what are we to make of this star, whose rising in the east first alerts the Magi to the birth of a new king and, months later, suddenly reappears before them and guides them on the last leg of their considerable journey?
Firstly, we must recognise that the magi do not attempt to follow the star from their starting place in the east. The star’s appearance tells of the birth of a king of the Jews and so, very naturally, they head to Jerusalem — no need of a star to guide them there. Matthew, seemingly very deliberately, only has them following it in the final stage of the trip — just when they need the appearance of a celestial satnav for precise guidance. A quick geography lesson: the “wise men from the East” came to Jerusalem; to do this they must have travelled west; had they followed the star that they saw rise in the east, they would have gone the wrong way. Furthermore, had it been a new star they had seen, it would likely have behaved like almost any other star and travelled across from east to west via either the northern or southern side of sky each night. So, had they followed this star of wonder, they would have been led on quite a merry dance.
If scientists are to step in and explain the appearance of this new star, rising in the east, they might consider three possibilities.
- A nova: a ‘new’ star which is actually an old, fairly dead white-dwarf star which has used up all its fuel but, luckily, due to its strong gravitational field is able to attract and absorb more fuel from a nearby red-giant star and ‘reignite’
- A comet: an icy and/or rocky visitor from the outer reaches of the solar system whose orbit will periodically bring it closer to the Sun for a relatively short time and cause a huge increase in its brightness;
- A supernova: a massive star that, at the end of its life-cycle, collapses under its own gravitational field strength and then, in a split second, explodes outwards in an immense dissipation of energy, light included.
Any of those suggestions provides a good start as, if such a notably bright new body appeared and rose in the east as any other star in its position would, then renowned astronomers, astrologers or wise men would have looked for the portents in such a rare and spectacular event. By including the account of the magi and their star, Matthew is able to present us with a plausible astronomical fanfare for the birth of his new king.
If only it was so easy to suggest how, as the magi journey from Jerusalem towards Bethlehem, “the star which they had seen in the east went before them”. If we are to attempt explain this through a basic understanding of astronomy, the usual suspects come to mind: a meteor; a shooting star; a comet; a planet and, failing that, a conjunction (alignment)of planets; failing any of those, perhaps it was a celestial object, especially created by God — and therefore in no need of explanation by the laws of physics — for the auspicious occasion of the birth of His Son.
Unfortunately, all of these can be swiftly discounted:
- a meteor is a rocky object, falling to Earth from space, transferring some of its kinetic energy as light as it scrapes through the air in our atmosphere but lasting no more than a few seconds before, hopefully, it burns out, maybe casting only small fragments (meteorites) to the Earth’s surface. No meteor would last long enough to guide anyone on a journey that would have taken at least a couple of hours;
- a shooting star is not a star at all but is, in fact, a … meteor (see above!);
- the movement of planets led to them to be known by ancient Greeks as astere planetai — wandering stars — and would have been a phenomenon that was well known to the magi. Anyone who wants to observe this motion simply needs to identify a planet in the night sky and follow its progress from night to night; they will see the planet changing position against the background of stars. Venus and Mercury are nearer to the Sun than planet Earth and therefore tend to be visible in the east, just before sunrise or in the west a little after sunset. Venus in particular is a very bright looking object but it’s appearance would not have caused any half-competent astronomer to up sticks and head off to another country. Due to its orbit around the Sun being outside the Earth’s orbit, the movement of Mars as viewed from Earth tends to go back on itself — this ‘retrograde’ path would not be helpful as a guiding light to anywhere;
- comets are well known in legend as foretellers of great and/or terrible events. They can provide a bright and significant spectacle — especially if their alignment allows the comet tail to be viewed from Earth. Sadly a comet’s position in the sky will not change appreciably in the time the magi had to travel from Jerusalem to Bethlehem;
- a planetary conjunction involves the positions of perhaps Jupiter and Saturn looking very close together when viewed from Earth. While this would provide an unusually large and bright light for a few days, again the position of the conjunction will not change significantly in that time so wouldn’t be seen to “go before them” as stated in the gospel;
- all of the above have one other big problem — they simply could not indicate in which individual house the child might be found. Try it yourself — pick any star and walk towards it, and try to decide which house is directly beneath it. As you walk you will notice that the star doesn’t get any closer or change position in the sky so any number of houses can be adjudged to be beneath it. This applies to any object — planet, comet etc — except perhaps a helicopter which we can , for other reasons, eliminate from our enquiries;
- as for a bespoke God-made star well… we could argue that ‘with God everything is possible’ but is it probable? If so what evidence do we have of God creating other celestial objects for other notable biblical events? What’s more, if we start believing God creates special stars that aren’t actually stars but more like helicopters, we open the door to all sorts of questionable theories having similar credence — like astrology for instance.
Another possibility is that the star cannot be explained because its existence is not an actual historical event but a beautiful piece of symbolism used by the gospel writer to illustrate the importance of the birth of Jesus to humankind. What if the rising of the star in the east is an allusion of a new dawn for all on Earth? What if the Magi represent the learned members of the gentiles (non-Jews) being both attracted to and worshipful of the new baby? The Magi are perhaps philosophers and astronomers, seeking truth and Matthew has them finding it in the young Messiah — powerful imagery for the faithful and those seeking faith to reflect on. Furthermore, Matthew might be referring knowledgeable readers of the time back to a Messianic prophesy in the old testament book of Numbers: “A star shall advance from Jacob and a staff shall rise from Israel…” (Nm 24:17).
A Catholic priest friend of mine, once suggested in a sermon that if we were able to tell the writers of some books in the Bible that people in the future would accept their work as historical fact, they would be astonished. He suggested some aspects were never intended to be a historical account or to be taken literally and should be subject to interpretation by the Church. Perhaps this would be the case with the nativity as expressed in the gospel according to Matthew. This approach can bring feelings of anxiety to those who gain a sense of certainty in their faith by believing every word they read in the Bible; to some it will invite curiosity to study the texts, to seek interpretation and instil a sense of liberation and wonder. Another priest friend of mine has a question for us all to ponder: if you could go back in time and see the holy family in Bethlehem maybe being visited by wise men but maybe not, with no star above the house to guide you there, would that impact on your faith — the implication being that it probably shouldn’t?
I leave you with two questions I always included in end of term quizzes for the students in my physics classes.
- According to the Bible, what led the shepherds to Bethlehem? (They all answer ‘a star’ when in fact an angel tells them to go to Bethlehem and they seem to know their own way!)
- According to the Bible, how many wise men visited Jesus? (They all say three — in fact, in Matthew, their number is described as ‘some’ but traditionally we imagine there being three, with each one presenting one of the three gifts to the baby Jesus!)
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