WAS THIS THE REAL CHRISTMAS STAR?

The question is more telling than the answer

In the waning weeks of 2020, as the world grew darker, we were treated to a rare astral event as Jupiter and Saturn moved closer and closer in each successive evening sky. The slow-mo spectacle provided a pleasant diversion from the grim situation on Earth.  On December 21, the winter solstice, the two planets appeared in their closest conjunction in 800 years, nearly merging into a single brilliant star. Just before Christmas. Could this be a repeat of the planetary alignment that created the Christmas “star” more than two thousand years ago? The astrological sign that led the Magi to Jesus?

The motions of the planets are well documented, and their orbits can be rewound to precisely determine the dates of prior conjunctions. But pinpointing the time when Jesus is more difficult.

When was Jesus born?

The date is hazy. The Gospels of Luke and Matthew state that Jesus was born during the reign of Herod the great. The historian Josephus said that Herod’s death occurred after a lunar eclipse and before Passover. Therefore, most scholars believe he died in 4BC, when there was a lunar eclipse 29 days before Passover. But the 4BC lunar eclipse that was used to peg Herod’s date would not have been so visible in Judea. There were other lunar eclipses during that era, the most spectacular of which was a total eclipse in January of 1 AD.  This would push the potential date of Jesus’s birth as late as that year (Anno Domini, the year of Our Lord), but probably a few years earlier, perhaps as early as 6 BC.

Another time point to consider is the première event of Jesus’s ministry, his baptism by John the Baptist. Luke’s Gospel says Jesus was “around” 30 years old when he began his ministry and that John preached during the 15^th year of the reign of Tiberius. Counting backward from that year, which is recorded in history, would backward would arrive at a birth year of 1 or 2 BC for Jesus, depending on his exact age. “Around” 30 could be 28 or 32.

What Did the Magi see?

The Christmas star and the quest of the Magi appear very briefly in the Bible, and only in the Gospel of Matthew. Wise men came to Jerusalem from “the East,” asking, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” King Herod was disturbed to hear news and consulted his advisors, who informed him that according to scripture, the Messiah would be born prophesied in Bethlehem. Herod summoned the Magi to his court to learn the exact date that the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and instructed them to return to him when they found the child. When they set out on the 6-mile trip south from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, they were overjoyed to see that same star rise before them and stop over the place where the child lay.

What Astral Events are Candidates for the Christmas Star?

In the 17^th century, astronomer Johannes Keppler suggested that a convergence of Jupiter and Saturn could have been the bright star guiding the Magi. There were three conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn in 5 BC, but none close enough to result in a star. Nevertheless, the unusual stellar event could have had astrological significance for the Magi, who were familiar with Jewish scripture. Another candidate would be a conjunction between Jupiter and Venus. In 2 BC, those planets came close enough together to form a single star. Venus is much brighter than either Saturn or Jupiter (The picture at the head of this article is a photo I recently took at the dawn of Christmas Eve), so that convergence would have been much brighter than the one we just witnessed. But planetary convergences are fleeting and would not have remained in the sky during the two months required for the Magi to travel from Persia to Jerusalem.

It is much more likely that the Christmas Star was a comet. The records of Chinese astronomers document a “broom star” (tailed comet) that appeared in the sky for 70 days in 5 BC. The Magi could have first seen that comet in the eastern sky just before dawn. Comets typically move across the sky at one or two degrees per day, so in two months’ time, it could easily have appeared in the south in the morning sky. Thus, as the Magi set out in the early morning to travel south, the comet would have been before them, its tail vertically above, so that its head pointed toward Bethlehem.

What does our curiosity about the Christmas Star say about us?

The possibility that we could be witnessing a re-creation of the Christmas star resonated with a hope that that it could be a sign of better times. It had a nostalgic appeal to believers and non-believers alike. There is a difference between knowing and believing. A tragedy may be impossible to believe, despite incontrovertible facts. We may fear something like a bogeyman under the bed, even when we can see that it is not there. Sometimes we believe some wonderful thing will happen, even though it clearly seems impossible. When there is no way of knowing for certain, we seek confirmatory evidence, sometimes as small as finding cookie crumbs on an otherwise empty plate on Christmas morning next to the stockings we had hung the night before.

What is the answer to the question?

A conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn is very unlikely to be the event that led wise men to seek Jesus. But the planetary convergence at the end of 2020 led me to study scripture and astronomy. I did not gain significant new knowledge about the Christmas Story. But I was awed by the regularity of planets that have followed the same orbits for millions of years. I recalled a line from one of my father’s favorite poems, Desiderata. “The universe is unfolding as it should.” I am watching the planets move further apart each evening, knowing that long after I have departed this world, they will appear together again. Observing the rhythm of the solar system heightens my awareness of my pitiful insignificance, yet paradoxically leaves me empowered and soothed by that comprehension.

So, for me, the answer to the question is yes. This was my Christmas Star.