Before the 16th century, Christians generally assumed that the Star of Bethlehem must have been some kind of astrological miracle. For instance, the Church Father St John Chrysostom believed that the Star of Bethlehem literally came down from heaven and stood over the manger where Jesus lay. However, the great astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) challenged this assumption.
Kepler’s interest in the Star of Bethlehem was first prompted by his fascination with the rare conjunctions of Saturn and Jupiter. Every20 years for a duration of 200 years there is a series of conjunctions of Saturn and Jupiter under fiery zodiac signs, followed by a series of conjunctions under the earthy zodiac signs, then 200 more years of conjunctions under the airy zodiac signs, and finally 200 years of conjunctions under the watery zodiac signs, thus making up an 800-year cycle of conjunctions.
In 1603, during Kepler’s lifetime, the first fiery conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in the 800-year cycle occurred, thus marking the beginning of a new astrological era. A few months later, on October 11, 1604, around the time that Mars was in conjunction with Jupiter, a new star appeared alongside Mars and Jupiter which is now understood to have been a supernova, that is, an exploding star. This coincidence inspired Kepler to think abou twhen one of the fiery zodiac eras of Saturn-Jupiter conjunctions began some 1600 years earlier.
Perhaps a similar coincidence around this time was the astrological event that prompted the Magi to go in search of a new king. Kepler used his new heliocentric theory to perform the necessary calculations, and he discovered that the Saturn and Jupiter conjunction that occurred closest to Jesus’s birth was in the year 7 BC. However, this conjunction was under the last of the watery zodiac signs rather than under the first of the fiery zodiac signs. It is likely that Kepler would have been disappointed that this conjunction wasn’t under a fiery zodiac sign, for he thought that in the minds of ancient astrologers only a fiery conjunction would befit the birth of anew king.
Nevertheless, Kepler was able to calculate that there was a Mars-Jupiter conjunction only a few months later, on March 5, 6 BC, and that this conjunction would have occurred under a fiery zodiac sign, that of Aries. Kepler thus convinced himself that because of this fiery conjunction of Mars and Jupiter, ancient astrologers would have seen this conjunction together with the Saturn-Jupiter con-junction preceding it as signifying a time of great importance and renewal of the entire world, and a new star appearing alongside Jupiter and Mars like the one witnessed in 1604 would have been sufficient to set the Magi on their famous journey.
But since Kepler proposed his theory, many more theories about the Star of Bethlehem have been suggested. One theory that has gained some popularity in recent years is by the astronomer Michael Molnar. Molnar’s interest in the Star of Bethlehem began with his ancient coin collecting hobby. Some of Molnar coins depict the ram, Aries, together with the conjunction of the moon and Jupiter, the star-crescent symbol, and this depiction of the moon and Jupiter indicated that there would have been a royal birth.
Molnar therefore concludes that there must have been a moon-Jupiter conjunction in the Aries constellation a few years before the coins were produced. Moreover, there is some historical evidence suggesting that ancient astrologers associated Aries with Judea. Thus, Molnar thinks this explains why the Magi first turned up at Herod’s palace looking for a new-born king.
As for the date of Jesus’s birth, computer simulations show that on April 17, 6 BC, Jupiter’s annual heliacal rising would have coincided with its conjunction with the moon. On this day, there was also a prominent cluster of the other planets around Aries, which astrologers believed to signify spear-bearers guarding the all-important Sun in its procession along the zodiac. Accordingly, Molnar thinks this would have been a sufficiently auspicious astrological event to mark the birth of a new king.
Nevertheless, as Christians we should be somewhat wary of embracing such astrological theories. The Church has always opposed the fatalistic picture of reality held by astrologers. As the Catechism puts it: “consulting horoscopes and astrology […] conceals a desire for power over time, history and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honour, respect and loving fear that we owe to God alone.” Perhaps God accommodated Himself to the astrological rules of the Magi for a time, but for them to have had an epiphany, some event must have radically challenged their astrological world view.
Whatever the Magi witnessed, when they found the child Jesus, they would have realised His life wasn’t governed by the stars, but rather that the stars were governed by Him.
This article appears in the January edition of the Catholic Herald.
Photo: “The Adoration of the Magi” by Hugo van der Goes (1440-1482). MICHAEL GOTTSCHALK/DDP/AFP via Getty Images)
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