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The Christmas Star

Written by: Setterfield, Barry    Posted on: 06/12/2005

Category: Misc.

PART 1:  When was Jesus born?

The Christmas story, as told by Matthew and Luke, with the angels, shepherds, wise men and star has gripped the imagination of many over the last 20 centuries. What is interesting is that these biblical narratives provide the basic information needed to reconstruct both Mid-Eastern history and astronomical events of that time.  In doing so, we can discover exactly what occurred in the night sky on that first Christmas when the Messiah was born in Bethlehem.

As Luke records, it was the Emperor Augustus who, wanting to know the population and tax base of his kingdom, ordered a census taken.  Unlike today, where we can stay where we are and be counted, Augustus ordered that each family go back to the historical family home.  Little Bethlehem, being the "City of David" thus had to accommodate many times its normal population for the duration of the census in Judea.  Joseph and Mary had about 85 miles to travel to get to Bethlehem.  Joseph had to walk, and Mary traveled on the back of a donkey.  This would have been exhausting for a woman in her ninth month of pregnancy.  They got to Bethlehem just in time.  Bethlehem was jammed full, and we know there was "no room in the inn", despite the fact that Mary had started into labor.



As to the time of the year that Messiah was born, Luke gives us further details. He records that shepherds were watching over their flocks by night. There are only two specific times in a year when this was done -- when lambs were being born in the spring or autumn. At other times of the year they were kept safely in their sheep-folds at night to protect them from wild animals.  However, since lambs born in a crowded sheep fold can easily be trampled by the other sheep, it was necessary for the shepherds to take the flock out into the fields during the two lambing seasons.  Significantly, the flocks bred in the Bethlehem fields were used for the Temple sacrifices. It was there, to those shepherds, that the angels announced the birth of the Lamb of God who was to make the final sacrifice for the sin of the world. 

However, we can pinpoint the in the time of Messiah's birth more exactly.  Look at the strange reference to Messiah's birth in Revelation 12:1. It talks of a woman cloth with the sun and with the moon under her feet.  If we understand that the "woman" is the constellation Virgo, then this tells us that Jesus was born when the sun and moon were in Virgo. In other words, Jesus was born at the time of the September New Moon, or shortly thereafter. This fits the autumn lambing season. Furthermore, it coincides with the season of the three Jewish feasts, Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles. Interestingly, the apostle John records in John 1:14 that the "Word became flesh and tabernacled amongst us." As the New Moon was on the 10th and Tabernacles on the 25th September in 3 BC, the birth of Christ would be somewhere between those dates.






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Technical notes for part 1











E. Seleucid calendar used by Syrian Christians in Lebanon until mid-20th Century. This gives us an accurate cross-link to BC-AD system.


AUC System began on 21st April 753 BC.

Olympiad System began on 1st July 776 BC.

Seleucid Era began 3rd April 311 BC.



B. Only 4 eclipses of Moon near Herod's death.



III. Full eclipse 9th January I BC.

IV. Full eclipse 29 December 1 BC.


C. Elimination of contenders from the remaining 3 Eclipses.






















A. Consul in Rome with Messala in 12 BC.


C. Became Advisor to Gaius Caesar late in 1 BC.














E. Saturninus left when Census complete early in 2 BC.












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PART 2: Who were the "Wise Men" and what was the Star?

The evidence points to Messiah being born in September of 3 BC, and, contrary to popular notion, there are 4 reasons why this event is celebrated on December 25th. One of those reasons involved the Wise Men and the final appearance of the Christmas Star.  Matthew 2:1 says that they came from the East, meaning east of Judea. At that time,  Judea was a buffer state between the sprawling Roman Empire in the West, and the fabulous Persian Empire in the East controlled by the Parthian Dynasty.  In the frequent military clashes between the Romans and the Persians, the Persians had won every major battle but one. The Persians had crack cavalry units that could pin down the Roman legions indefinitely.

The Persian Empire controlled the Silk Route to India and China.  Consequently, the gifts the Wise Men brought to the Christ Child – the gold, the frankincense, and the myrrh -- were the very best that world trade could offer from this route.

In the typical Christmas scene, the Wise Men are usually pictured as three old men on camels.  Matthew tells us that all Jerusalem was "disturbed."  Three old men on camels would not disturb a city.

So who were the Wise Men?  The word that Matthew uses to describe them is Magoi. As we take this word over into a Persian setting, we find something very interesting. The Parthian Dynasty was ruled by something equivalent to our houses of Parliament, or the United States Congress, consisting of two houses. The entire legislative body was called  the Megistanes. The Lower House members were called the Sophoi or 'Wise Ones': the Upper House members were called the Magoi or 'Great Ones'. It was a number of these Magoi, the king makers of their empire – not astrologers -- that come to visit the newborn King.  Although we read of only three types of gifts given, there were more than three visitors who traveled to Jerusalem that winter.

This delegation of Rulers from Persia penetrated 750 km  (more than 500 miles) into Roman territory.  They did not travel alone, or unarmed.  Being in enemy territory, they would be escorted by their expert cavalry units – the same that had defeated the Romans continuously.  These Persians were the finest equestrians in the world. They always rode horses as their means of transport - camels were only used for baggage.  It was this political and military contingent that arrived at the gates of Jerusalem.  It was no wonder that Herod was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

All Herod had to defend Jerusalem was a small army of mercenaries.  The garrison that normally protected Jerusalem was away helping fight the Homonadensian War, leaving Jerusalem virtually undefended.  Upon their arrival, these politicians announced that they were not there to visit Herod, but they were proclaiming the birth of a contender for the throne!  Their army was there to back them up in their support for this Child-King.

It was a very tense time for Herod; he had to play his options skillfully. 

Why did the Persian Magoi make such a perilous trip at all, and how did they know about this King? There were 3 reasons.

First, the Hebrew prophet Daniel had been held in high regard in the Persian court when the Jewish nation was in captivity there.  He been in charge of the astronomer-astrologers, the wise men (in the original language, the "sophoi") and the "magicians" (in the original language, the "magoi") in the Persian court under three kings, and as such, his material would have been written down in the official records.  In Daniel 9, which would have been part of their records, we read the prophecy of Messiah's sacrifice as a man cut off at age 35 (in the midst of his years). The Persians who studied these things knew that this event would occur 483 Babylonian years of 360 days after a specific decree. Backtracking 35 years gave a birth date for Messiah of 448 Babylonian years or 442 actual years after the decree. As It turned out, that decree was issued by the Persian king Artaxerxes in his 20th year which was 445/444 BC. The Magoi consequently figured the time of Messiah's birth would be around 3/2 BC on our Calendar.

The second reason was that there had been a Mesopotamian prophet called Balaam who had foretold the coming of the Star that would herald Messiah for all the tribes of Israel (see Numbers 24).  Then, the third reason was that  Zoroaster, a pupil of Daniel, had incorporated these prophecies in his bible, called the Zend Avesta.  Zoroastrianism was the State Religion of Persia at the time of Christ's birth. It prophesied that there would be born unto the Jews a King Messiah, and that His coming would be heralded by a sign in the heavens in the constellation Virgo  (lest the referral here of the constellations cause concern, it must be noted that astronomy and astrology were essentially the same science at this time).

This leads us to this "sign in the heavens."  What was it that appeared in the skies of 3 and 2 BC? As we begin this search, we note that the word "star" had a variety of meanings  then. It could mean anything that blazed, shone or moved across the sky. It could mean an aurora, the sun, moon, or a star. It may mean any strange light in the sky - a bolt of lightning, an oddly illuminated cloud, a planet, or grouping of several planets.



This leaves the option of planets. When we examine the night sky with planets in mind, a series of amazing celestial events occurred during this time. On the 1st August 3 BC the drama began to unfold with Jupiter rising in the first rays of dawn. On the 13 August Venus and Jupiter stood very close together in the sunrise. On the 18th, Mercury came out of the solar glare, and on September 1st, Mercury and Venus stood 1/3rd degree apart in the constellation of Leo.



Mythology to us, perhaps, but signs in the heavens to them, and God speaks to people in the language they understand.


This dramatic sequence of events ending in Virgo qualified for the Star spoken of by the Zend Avesta. But then Jupiter left the other planets in the dawn, and started to move to the West. This was the sign the Magoi were waiting for.  Jupiter the key player in the Christmas star sequence was leading them towards Judea. And so they set out. From that moment in Mid-November, Jupiter the King planet actually went before them in the sky towards Judea. Six weeks later, as the Magoi checked the pre-dawn sky, Jupiter was on the Meridian due south of Jerusalem. It would appear directly over Bethlehem 65 degrees above the southern horizon.

And just at that time, the final event occurred. Jupiter had reached its furthest point westward, and no longer moved against the background store. It actually 'stood over' where the young Child was.  Incredibly, on that same day, the Sun was at its furthest point south for the year, and "stood still" in the heavens (for that is what the word 'solstice' means).  Jupiter was again in the constellation Virgo,as the Zend Avesta predicted, when this occurred on 25th December in 2 BC. It was a unique sequence of events that had landed the Magoi at Bethlehem.



For the Magoi, this oddly Illuminated cloud would also have qualified for the word 'star'. It would have been seen and described by Balaam as he looked down on the hosts of Israel. The Wise Men also had the record of Daniel 7 where the Shekinah is linked with Messiah and described as the 'Cloud of Heaven'. This same Glory of the Lord shone around the shepherds just before the angels announced Messiah's birth to them. Similarly, when the Persian Magoi arrived near Bethlehem in the early dawn, the Shekinah would be seen standing above and marking the very house where Messiah was. The Magoi would immediately recognize this as a sign of Messiah's presence. They had seen the blazing planetary orb in the sky. Then the key planet, Jupiter had led them to Judea and was now poised above Bethlehem. Finally, with the sign of the Shekinah Glory Cloud standing over the house, the Magoi from Persia would know their quest had ended. They had found the One of whom the Star of David speaks - the Messiah of the Tribes of Israel, who was the Savior of the world.

Has your quest to find Messiah ended? Remember, with child-like faith in the prophecies of Daniel and Balaam contained in the Scriptures, the Wise Men set out. In the depths of winter, they undertook a long and difficult journey deep into enemy territory to come and worship Christ. Today Messiah awaits your response.  You may have found yourself on a difficult journey in your life, and felt you were deep in enemy territory.  But Messiah is here.  Will you bow down to him as King and Lord of your life?  This is what Christmas is all about.  He has come.  He comes to save us from sin, and from ourselves.  He has come to give new life to those who are sick of the way they are now.  Messiah has come to rule as King -- first in our lives individually, then, when He returns as He said He would, from the throne of David, internationally.

What will you do with Jesus?  Turn away in an effort to run your own life or offer your life back to your Creator and Lord, Jesus of Nazareth?  Will you be a Herod, trying to get rid of everything and everyone who seems to threaten your control over your own life, or will you be a Wise Man, giving all you have on your knees before your King?  The choice is yours, and the consequences are eternal.

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technical notes and summary for Part 2



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