What was the Christmas star of Bethlehem?

In Matthew's Gospel, the Bible describes a mysterious star that appears on the place where Jesus Christ came to Earth on Bethlehem on the first Christmas and caused the wise men (known as the Magi) to find Jesus in order to visit him. People have been discussing what the Star of Bethlehem really was over the many years since the Bible's report was written. Some say it was a fairy tale; others say it was a miracle. Still others confuse it with the polar star. Here is the story of what the Bible says and what many astronomers now believe in this famous celestial event:

The Bible report
The Bible records history in Matthew 2: 1-11. Verses 1 and 2 say: “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, at the time of King Herod, the Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked: 'Where is he who was born king of the Jews? We saw its star when it arose and I came to worship it. '

The story continues by describing how King Herod "summoned all the chief priests and teachers of the law of the people" and "asked them where the Messiah was to be born" (verse 4). They said, "In Bethlehem in Judea" (verse 5) and quote a prophecy about where the Messiah (the savior of the world) will be born. Many scholars who knew the ancient prophecies well expected the Messiah to be born in Bethlehem.

Verses 7 and 8 say: “Then Herod secretly called the Magi and discovered from them the exact moment when the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, 'Go look carefully for the boy. As soon as you find it, tell me so that I too can go and love it. "" Herod was lying to the Magi about his intentions; in fact, Herod wanted to confirm Jesus' position so that he could order soldiers to kill Jesus, because Herod saw Jesus as a threat to his power.

The story continues in verses 9 and 10: “After listening to the king, they went their own way and the star they had seen when he got up preceded them until he stopped where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. "

Then the Bible describes the Magi who arrive at Jesus' house, visiting him with his mother Mary, adoring him and presenting him their famous gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Finally, verse 12 says of the Magi: "... having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they returned to their country by another road."

A fairy tale
Over the years, as people debated whether or not a real star appeared on the house of Jesus and led the Magi there, some people said that the star was nothing more than a literary device - a symbol for the apostle Matthew to use. in his story to convey the light of hope that those who expected the Messiah's arrival felt when Jesus was born.

An angel
During the many centuries of debates on the star of Bethlehem, some people speculated that the "star" was actually a bright angel in the sky.

Because? Angels are messengers of God and the star was communicating an important message, and angels guide people and the star guided the Magi to Jesus. Furthermore, Bible scholars believe that the Bible refers to angels as "stars" in many other places, such as Job 38: 7 ("while the morning stars sang together and all the angels cried for joy") and Psalm 147: 4 ("Determine the number of stars and call them each by name")

However, Bible scholars do not believe that the passage of the Star of Bethlehem in the Bible refers to an angel.

A miracle
Some say that the Star of Bethlehem is a miracle - either a light that God commanded to appear supernaturally, or a natural astronomical phenomenon that God miraculously caused to happen at that moment in history. Many Bible scholars believe that the Star of Bethlehem was a miracle in the sense that God organized parts of his natural creation into space to make an unusual phenomenon happen on the first Christmas. The purpose of God to do it, they believe, was to create an omen - an omen, or sign, that would direct people's attention to something.

In his book The Star of Bethlehem: The Legacy of the Magi, Michael R. Molnar writes that “During the reign of Herod there was indeed a great heavenly omen, an omen that meant the birth of a great king of Judea and is in perfect accord with the biblical story “.

The unusual appearance and behavior of the star inspired people to call it miraculous, but if it's a miracle, it's a miracle that can be explained in a natural way, some believe. Molnar later writes: “If the theory that the Star of Bethlehem is an inexplicable miracle is put aside, there are several intriguing theories that relate the star to a specific celestial event. And often these theories are highly inclined to support astronomical phenomena; that is, visible movement or positioning of celestial bodies, as omens ".

In The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Geoffrey W. Bromiley writes of the Star of Bethlehem event: “The God of the Bible is the creator of all celestial objects and witnesses to them. It can certainly intervene and change their natural course ".

Since Psalm 19: 1 of the Bible says that "the heavens continually declare the glory of God," God may have chosen them to witness his incarnation on Earth in a special way through the star.

Astronomical possibilities
Astronomers have argued over the years whether the Star of Bethlehem was actually a star, or whether it was a comet, a planet or several planets coming together to create a particularly bright light.

Now that technology has progressed to the point where astronomers can scientifically analyze past events in space, many astronomers believe they have identified what happened in the period when historians place the birth of Jesus: during the spring of 5 BC

A new star
The answer, they say, is that the Star of Bethlehem was indeed a star - extraordinarily bright, called a nova.

In his book The Star of Bethlehem: An Astronomer's View, Mark R. Kidger writes that the Star of Bethlehem was "almost certainly a nova" which appeared in the middle of March 5 BC "halfway between the modern constellations of Capricorn and Aquila" .

"The Bethlehem star is a star," writes Frank J. Tipler in his book The Physics of Christianity. “It is not a planet, or a comet, or a conjunction between two or more planets, or an occultation of Jupiter on the moon. ... If this account in Matthew's Gospel is taken literally, then the Star of Bethlehem must have been a type 1a supernova or a type 1c hypernova, located in the Andromeda galaxy or, if type 1a, in a globular cluster of this galaxy. "

Tipler adds that Matthew's relationship with the star remained for some time when Jesus intended to say that the star "crossed the zenith of Bethlehem" at a latitude of 31 by 43 degrees north.

It is important to keep in mind that this was a special astronomical event for that specific period in history and in the place in the world. So the Bethlehem star was not the polar star, which is a bright star commonly seen during the Christmas season. The polar star, called Polaris, shines on the North Pole and is not related to the star that shone on Bethlehem on the first Christmas.

The light of the world
Why would God send a star to lead people to Jesus on the first Christmas? It could have been because the bright light of the star symbolized what the Bible later records Jesus saying of his mission on Earth: “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life ”. (John 8:12).

In the end, Bromiley writes in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, the question that matters most is not what the Star of Bethlehem was, but to whom it led people. “You have to realize that the narrative doesn't provide a detailed description because the star itself wasn't important. It was mentioned only because it was a guide for the Christ child and a sign of his birth. "