The Star of Bethlehem

 Thinking  about the Jewish holy days I was reminded of Rick Larsen's study of the Star of Bethlehem in which he retty much proved that Jesus was conceived, not burn but conceived, on Rosh Hashana of two BC, no sorry, three  B C.  That means He was born in early June of two bc, and on that date it just happenes to turn out that there was a conjunction of Juperter with Venus that was so bright that even today it is regarded as the brightest start that ever occurred in the sky.  Not a star of course but it looks like a star and that's what cscripture calls the celestial object that heralded Jesus birth.

I love that study and have watched the video probably thirty times by now.  It took a while to digest the facts because he moves too fast through it all for me.  he gives background starting with Kepler who looked fo rthe star in his own time but didn't find it, and when Larson investigathates the sources Kepler was depending on he find out that Kepler was misled by a tupe on a historical document.  When Larson used the right date he found a lot more going on in the sky at the time of Christ's birth than Kepler was able to find.   Larson of course has astronly software, while Kepler just had his mathematical ability to depend on.  Just as reliable as the softewar e of course and in fact the software is based on itl.

I used to be able to watch the Star of Bethlehem on You Tube but can't find it any more.  Just as I can't find some politial videos I'd depended on to prove how wrong the libs are about Trump.  They aren't there aym more either.  Gosh I wonder why.  

Anyway Larson's astronomy program turned up a fascinating event in the sky in three BC in August of that year, the planet Jupiter making three passes close to a star called Regulus, the King Planet in three conjunctions with the King Star as he puts it.  this occurred in the constellation Leo which prepresents the tribe of Judah, which also has the emblem of the lion, so the most condegenial onterpretation of this even t is that it's a sort of announcementg of a coming king to be born in the tribe of judah.  The wise men of the east would have recognized the meaning of these things.   

Then right after the sun finishes its yearly pasage through Leo it moves into the constellation Virgo which is now rising on the horizon, and this is particularly pfascinating because as it rises the figure of the virgin is shown with a new moon at her feet and that immediately calls to mind the verses in Revelation Twelve about the wonder in heaven:  a woman clothed with the sun and the moobn at her feet who is about to give birth.  Clothed with the sun is immediately understood to reference the sun in Virgo as Larson has just found out with his astronomy program, and the moon at her feet is a sign of the shchild she is to give birth to.  It's a new moon, the very beginning of that life, and the deate is Rosh Hashanah or Jewish new Year of Three BC.  Pretty fascinating,m right?

So it's not the date of Jesus' birth but His conception, the time when Gabriel came to tell Mary that she would give birth to the Messiah.   His birth would have teen nine motnths later, in June of ttwo bC.  That could have been pentecost since it occurs about thta time of year but Larson doesn't mention that.  he does mention that the conjunction of Jupiter with Venius occurs then and it is so close it becomes the very brightest object ever seen in the sky ever.    

I couldn't help noting that June is the month of Gemini which is the Twins, and Jesus has two natures, both God and Man.  

But Larson doesn't hang out very long on thse facts because he's discovered other interesting things about jesus' life as reflected in the sky.  Some six months later for instance, as the wise men are traveling to give honor to the newborn King of the Jess, he discovers that the planet Jupieter which they have been folloiwing "stops" over the town of Bethlehem whicher they are living at that time.  after puzzling it out Larson realizes that the way the "star" could "stop" is by reaching the point in its movement where it turns retrograde and travels backward, so it had to have been at that point that the wise men saw it stop right over the place where Jesus was living.  AND, oddly enough this turned out to be the date December twenty fith two bdc.  A date which of course has nothing to do with scripture but there it is.  Kind of amazing.  The astronomy program turns ed it up, it's not something Larson came up with on his own.

He speculates that the wise men might have been Jews who were descendants of a group that had gathered around the prophet Daniel at the time of the Babylonian Captivity, during that time I swhould say, and became tie astrologers and wise men of the region.  This woulde make sense because even if other wise men might notice all that interesting celestial activity around a big even t in Judea surely it would only be the Jews wouwho would particularly care about it since they would know their scriptures and the prophecies of the coming Messiah and know that this is what it was all about. WA abig enough even to get them to travel a very long distance to pay respects to the new King.

Larson also went on to discover that at the time of Jesus' crucificxiaon there were also very interesting celestial events and he refers to this whole astronomigcal story as a celestial poem of great beauty.  

Even if the Star of Bethlehem isn't on You Tube any more there may be other places it can be found, maybe even AAmazon.  It think it's worth it for anybody who might even only be interested in the astronoomy study part of it.

Of course I think this is all great evidence for the truth of scripture and the gospels but I also know that a determined atheist can find all kinds of ways to discount such things.