[4] The Star of Bethlehem: when was it? Planets or star?

What was the Star of Bethlehem that led the Wise Men?

How could a star, or a conjunction of planets, lead the Magi for more than 700 hundred miles to a stable?

There is a lot of scientific star information available for around the time when Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
So what information can be discovered about the Star of Bethlehem?

1. The factors affecting when the Star of Bethlehem appeared.

Considering various facts, Jesus’ birth date could only be narrowed down to a possible seven-year period.
But it has been discovered that one of these facts on King Herod’s death, based upon Josephus’ ‘Antiquities’, has varied through manually copied editions.
The earliest edition gives Herod’s death two years later than the more recent editions that were copied.

In the Not Many Wise article, ‘When was Jesus born?‘ we look at the period from 6 B.C. to 1 A.D. and we discover that:

• The details in Luke 3 show that Jesus was born in 2 or 1 B.C.
• Jesus was born around the time of Tishri (mid to late September) or April.
• Counting back from the crucifixion gives between 4 and 1 B.C.
• Counting from Jesus’ baptism (if he was 30 years old) gives 1-2 B.C.
• Calculating the temple’s age (if he was 30 years old) gives 1-2 B.C.
• Looking at King Herod’s death Jesus’ birth could be 4 B.C. to 2 B.C. (The 2 B.C. date is based on the earliest, more reliable, editions of Josephus’ Antiquities).
• Calculating when the census happened makes Jesus’ birth be around 2 B.C.

So the year 2 B.C. comes out as a strong contender for the year of Jesus’ birth.

The Magi, the Wise Men, probably came from Babylon and were stargazers.
Here is the possible route they took shown on Google Maps:

The distance is approximately 715 miles from Babylon to Bethlehem and based on the real world a camel can walk about 20 miles a day through the harsh desert climate. ¹
Therefore the journey was nearly 40 days of travelling with rest days.

So what was happening in the night sky around that time?
There must have been the first ‘sign’ to announce the expected birth of a King in Israel and then secondly, the ‘star’ that led the Magi ultimately to the stable.

So our ‘window’ for the Magi is not easy to ascertain because they visited sometime after Jesus’ birth but no later than two years.

It would have been unlikely that the Magi arrived within the first month and a half because Jesus and Mary had to go to the temple twice [see the article ‘Jesus’ Childhood and Birth‘] and had to move from a stable to a house.

2. What couldn’t the Star of Bethlehem have been?

Eric Betz, part of the writing team at Astronomy.com states what the Star of Bethlehem could not have been.

• Not a meteor which is a chunk of space rock that burns up in the Earth’s atmosphere and disappears very quickly. The three wise men could not have tracked a meteor for weeks.
• It’s unlikely to be a supernova which is the explosive death of a star and then fades over days or months, because none have been recorded for that time. (One did happen in the year 185 A.D. and was recorded by Chinese astronomers.)
• It could have been a comet which is a lump of ice passing near the Earth and can last for months. (In the year 5 B.C. Chinese astronomers noted the appearance of a ‘Broom Star’ – a comet.)
  But the ancient world typically saw comets as symbols of pending doom so it’s hard to imagine three wise men would interpret it as a sign that their saviour had finally been born. ²

Space.com seems to rule out a comet being the Star of Bethlehem:

We know that Halley’s Comet was visible in the sky in 11 B.C.
However, as the Magi trekked toward Jerusalem and on to Bethlehem, it seems unlikely that they followed a comet because its position would have changed as the Earth rotated, so the comet would not have led them in a single direction.
What’s more, in the ancient world, comets were often regarded as bad omens.”

‘What was the Star of Bethlehem?’ By Jonathan O’Callaghan Space.com ³

3. Could the stars and planets inform the Wise Men of the birth of a King?

The following planetary movements probably would not mean much to a modern audience, but the ‘Wise Men’ were Magi as we can read in Matthew’s gospel:

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men** from the east came to Jerusalem, saying,
‘Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.’ ”

Matthew 2:1-2 ESV

The Greek word translated as ‘wise men**’ is ‘μάγος’ (magos), meaning ‘magi, sage, magician, astrologer’.
Wikipedia states this about the Magi:

The Greek ‘magos’ itself is derived from Old Persian ‘maguŝ’, which in turn originated from the Avestan ‘magâunô’, referring to the Iranian priestly caste of Zoroastrianism. ^{4 5 6 7}
Within this tradition, priests paid particular attention to the stars and gained an international reputation for astrology, ⁸ which was at that time highly regarded as a science. ⁹

‘Biblical Magi’ Wikipedia. ¹⁰

With the Magi’s interest in the stars, they easily recognised the ‘signs’ that started to appear in the night skies.

4. Would God give a message for astrologers to interpret?

Astrology as a form of divination is expressly forbidden in Scripture (Deuteronomy 18:10-14), but God created the stars and planets to be “for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” ¹¹

The stars and planets also:

show His power and majesty.
The heavens are God’s ‘handiwork’ (Psalm 8:3; 19:1).
He has all the stars numbered and named (Psalm 147:4).
The Bible also teaches that God arranged the stars into recognizable groups that we call constellations.
The Bible mentions three of these: Orion, the Bear (Ursa Major), and ‘the crooked serpent’ (most likely Draco) in Job 9:9; 26:13; 38:31-32; and Amos 5:8.
The same passages also reference the star group Pleiades (the Seven Stars).
God is the One Who ‘fastens the bands’ of these constellations; He is the One who brings them forth, ‘each in its season.’ ”

‘What does the Bible say about astrology and the zodiac?’ Got Questions Ministries. ¹²

So God is allowed to show us signs in the heavens and He promises to do more of that near the end of the world (for example Isaiah 13:9-10 and Matthew 24:29).

But we are not allowed to let the stars and planets rule over us and for them to become our fortune tellers.

So let’s see what the stars and planets were doing in 3 and 2 B.C.

5. Looking at the Star of Bethlehem in 3 to 2 B.C.

So if we look at the possibility that Jesus was born in 2 B.C. then:

• In 3 B.C. and into 2 B.C. we need a ‘sign’ to announce the birth of a King.
• From 2 B.C. to 1 A.D., we need a ‘guiding star’.

The Star of Bethlehem announces that a King is to be born.

— 3 B.C. —

3 B.C. August 12th: Jupiter and Venus came together just before sunrise, appearing as a very bright morning star.

3 B.C. Sept 14th: Jupiter came close to Regulus (meaning ‘king’) which is the chief star in Leo, the Royal Constellation.

3 B.C. December 1st: Jupiter stopped its motion through the fixed stars and began its annual retrograde motion.

— 2 B.C. —

2 B.C. February 17th: Jupiter continued its motion and was reunited with Regulus (king), and continued its retrograde motion another 40 days and then it reverted to its normal motion through the stars.

2 B.C. May 8th: Jupiter’s motion continued and remarkably placed itself into a third conjunction with Regulus. To observers, it appeared as though Jupiter (representing the highest God) was circling over and around Regulus, the King Star.

2 B.C. June 17th: Venus and Jupiter joined together again (in the constellation Leo) during the evening and would have appeared as one very bright star.

The Star of Bethlehem guides the Magi to Bethlehem.

2 B.C. August 27th: the conjunction of Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury in the constellation Leo, is another rare astronomical event. This was seen by astrologers as a ‘common agreement of purpose’. It probably also signalled to the Romans a new and powerful beginning for Rome. In 2 B.C. Rome also celebrated its 750th year since it was founded and its 25th jubilee year of the reign of Caesar Augustus as Emperor.

Jupiter continued its apparent motion westward each morning. If the Magi wanted to ‘follow’ this star, it would have had a westward motion which agrees with the Biblical account and moved in the direction of the constellation Virgo.

2 B.C. In late September Jupiter arrives in the constellation Virgo.

2 B.C. Late November to early February 1 B.C. Jupiter then, due to retrograde motion, appeared to ‘stop’ in the sky in the constellation Virgo as viewed from Jerusalem, directly to the south, over Bethlehem. Could the Magi at this point visit Jerusalem and then arrive in Bethlehem?

6. Do any others agree with the Star of Bethlehem being the movement of Jupiter?

Planetariums around the world have to be careful to show facts about stars and planets and not to promote religious beliefs.
But John Moseley, Program Supervisor of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, suggests in their Christmas season shows that Jupiter could have been the Star of Bethlehem:

In current planetarium shows at the Griffith Observatory we tentatively identify Matthew’s ‘star’ with the planet Jupiter, as Jupiter came into close conjunction with Venus twice and with Regulus three times in a 10 month period near the time of the nativity.”

‘Common Errors in “Star of Bethlehem” Planetarium Shows’ by John Mosley, Program Supervisor of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. International Planetarium Society. ¹⁴

Eric Betz from Astronomy.com has another observation about Jupiter:

On the morning of August 12 in 3 B.C., Jupiter and Venus would’ve sat just 1/10th a degree apart in the dawn sky.
That’s one-fifth the diameter of the Full Moon. (The December 2020 conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn had an identical separation, albeit in the evening sky.)
That wasn’t the end of the show, either.
Venus and Jupiter continued their dance over most of the next year before finally appearing to merge into a single star in June.”

‘The Star of Bethlehem: Can science explain what it really was?’ By Eric Betz. Astronomy. 24 December 2023.

The Royal Museum’s Greenwich website delves into what the Star of Bethlehem could be and one suggestion is the set of conjunctions of the planets Jupiter and Venus, and the bright star Regulus:

In this case, the mythologies associated with the objects become important.
Jupiter in Hebrew is known as ‘Sedeq’, which is often translated as meaning righteousness.
Jupiter is also often viewed as being the ‘king’ of the planets.
Regulus itself is Latin for ‘prince’ or ‘little king’,
and Venus is often viewed as a symbol of love, fertility and birth.
As such, the combination of these objects close in the sky could have led to the interpretation of the birth of the ‘King of Kings’.”

‘What was the Christmas Star?’ Royal Museum’s Greenwich ¹⁵

So the actions of the planet Jupiter, the planet Venus and the star Regulus have a strong chance of being the ‘Star of Bethlehem’ as seen by the Magi.

7. What other possibilities are there for the Star of Bethlehem?

Eric Betz from Astronomy.com also suggests this for the Star of Bethlehem:

A triple conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn occurred in 7 B.C.
At first glance, these illustrations look the same, but compare the positions of the planets with the background stars.
On May 29, Jupiter passed Saturn (both moving right to left) for the first time.
Jupiter passed Saturn again September 30 with both moving to the right (west).
Finally, the planets resumed eastward motion, and Jupiter passed Saturn for the third time December 5.”

‘The Star of Bethlehem: Can science explain what it really was?’ By Eric Betz. Astronomy.

Jonathan O’Callaghan of Space.com does come up with three possibilities one being our Jupiter event of around 2 B.C. and the other two were these:

There was an alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, the moon and the sun in the constellation of Aries on April 17, 6 B.C…
Another conjunction occurred in 6 B.C., between Jupiter, Saturn and Mars in the constellation of Pisces.”

‘What was the Star of Bethlehem?’ By Jonathan O’Callaghan Space.com

In February of 6 B.C., the coming together of Jupiter, Mars and Saturn in Pisces happened approximately every 800 years.
‘The Real Man’ series 1, episode 1 of the BBC’s ‘Son of God’ programme with presenter Jeremy Bowen, which first aired on 1st April 2001 stated that the Star of Bethlehem:

…would have been an ‘astrological’ rather than ‘astronomical’ phenomenon. ¹⁶
According to astronomer Michael Molner, astrologers from around the time of Herod the Great would have believed that the constellation Aries symbolised his kingdom and the lands that he controlled – during 6 BC, the year that some scholars theorise that Jesus was born, a rare planetary alignment meant that Jupiter, Saturn, the Sun and the Moon would have all appeared in this constellation.”

Jeremy Bowen on BBC’s ‘Son Of God’ programme. ‘Son of God (TV series)’ Wikipedia. ¹⁷

But these suggestions do not fit our time frame of around 2 B.C.

So was the ‘Star of Bethlehem’ the planet Jupiter forming a close conjunction with the planet Venus twice and with the star Regulus three times that caught the Magi’s attention and led them to Jerusalem and Bethlehem?

See what we know of Jesus as a baby and his childhood.
Here’s a timeline covering 600 years through King Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, various prophets, Alexander the Great, Spartacus, etc to Jesus’ birth.
See the non-Christian evidence for the historical Jesus.

How about:
Judaism’s perspective of Jesus, see Jews and Jesus.
The Turin Shroud and Sudarium of Oviedo

References and credits – open in new tabs:

1. ‘Camel Fact Sheet’ by PBS Nature ↩

2. ‘The Star of Bethlehem: Can science explain what it really was?’ By Eric Betz. Astronomy. 24 December 2023. ↩

3. ‘What was the Star of Bethlehem?’ By Jonathan O’Callaghan Space.com last updated 23 December 2022 ↩

4. Mary Boyce, ‘A History of Zoroastrianism: The Early Period‘ (Brill, 1989, 2nd ed.), vol. 1, pp. 10–11  ↩

5. Mary Boyce, ‘Zoroastrians: their religious beliefs and practices‘ (Routledge, 2001, 2nd ed.), p. 48 online;  ↩

6. Linda Murray, ‘The Oxford Companion to Christian Art and Architecture‘ (Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 293;  ↩

7. Stephen Mitchell, ‘A History of the Later Roman Empire, AD 284–641: The Transformation of the Ancient World‘ (Wiley–Blackwell, 2007), p. 387 online. ↩

8. ‘Who were the three kings in the Christmas story?‘. Culture. 2018-12-24. Retrieved 2024-01-07. ↩

9. ‘Here’s What History Can Tell Us About the Magi‘. TIME. 2020-12-29. Retrieved 2024-01-07. ↩

10. ‘Biblical Magi’ Wikipedia last edited on 11 January 2024. ↩

11. Genesis 1:14-15 ESV ↩

12. ‘What does the Bible say about astrology and the zodiac?’ Got Questions Ministries. ↩

13. Star images created in the Sky Tonight App Vito Technology. ↩

14. ‘Common Errors in “Star of Bethlehem” Planetarium Shows’ by John Mosley, Program Supervisor of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. International Planetarium Society. ↩

15. ‘What was the Christmas Star?’ Royal Museum’s Greenwich ↩

16. On Discovery: “Jesus: The Complete Story”. The Post-Standard. Syracuse, New York: Advance. 21 December 2001. Archived from the original on 25 January 2013. ↩

17. Jeremy Bowen on BBC’s ‘Son Of God’ programme. ‘Son of God (TV series)’ Wikipedia last edited on 5 September 2023. ↩