The star of Bethlehem

Only Matthew tells of the star. Magi from the east came to Jerusalem asking for the newborn King of the Jews: “We saw His star in the east” (Matthew 2:2) — words that may also mean “at its rising”. Herod learned “the exact time the star had appeared” (Matthew 2:7), and on the way to Bethlehem “the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stood over the place where the Child was” (Matthew 2:9). The Greek historian Herodotus describes magi as a priestly class of Media and Persia, consulted on dreams and the stars.

Herod died about 4 BC, by Josephus’ account, so astronomers look a few years earlier. In the 1600s Johannes Kepler pointed to a meeting of Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation Pisces in 7 BC, three times that year. Others suggest a comet or a nova: Chinese records tell of a “broom star” seen for some seventy days in 5 BC. Halley’s comet, seen in 12 BC, seems too early. By one view the star was a natural event that the magi read as a sign; by another it was a wonder that astronomy cannot explain.