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The Star of Bethlehem was a star or star-like object that, in the account of Jesus ' birth given in the Greek '' Gospel Of Matthew '', heralded his arrival and guided the Magi (better known in Christian Mythology as the Three Wise Men ) to the house where Jesus and his mother were. NARRATIVE IN ''MATTHEW'' The Star of Bethlehem is described in the second chapter of the Gospel Of Matthew in the New Testament of the Bible. After briefly recording The Birth And Naming Of Jesus , Matthew's account continues by stating: :... 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 "in the east" and have come to worship him." These Magi were eventually directed to search in Bethlehem , based on a prophesy in the Jewish Scriptures concerning the place of birth of the promised king. "After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was." Contrary to some popularizations, Matthew's account indicates that the Magi knew from the star that the new king had already been born even before they first arrived in Jerusalem. While the nativity account in the Gospel Of Luke recorded the actual birth of the infant in a stable (i.e. the event heralded by the star), Matthew records that by the time the Magi arrived, they found Jesus with his mother in a house and he was by then a small child. Matthew's account goes on to report that King Herod , who had learned the time of the star's appearing from the Magi, attempted to end the child's life by killing male children in Bethlehem of age two years and under. This suggests that the time of the star's appearing in the east was some time less than two years earlier. THE "STAR PROPHECY" Main article: Star Prophecy The narratives of ''Matthew'' are so constructed as to form a chain of fulfillments of in AD 70. The use of the Star Prophecy has been instanced to date the materials from which ''Matthew'' is constructed before AD 70. The Messianic "Star Prophecy" that this star appeared to fulfill was of importance to all the contemporary Jewish resistance groups of the period, including those who produced the documents at Qumran (the " Dead Sea Scrolls ") and the Zealot s who triggered the war against Rome, not to mention the early Christians. (Eisenman 1997 p 23 etc) The "Star prophecy" was also applied by the Romanized former revolutionary Josephus to Vespasian , as the one whom Jewish Scripture foretold, who would come out of Palestine and rule the world. The commander in Palestine was soon Emperor, and Josephus' application of the prophecy, like so many others, was likely to have been made after the fact. PROPOSED EXPLANATIONS FOR THE STAR Some have suggested that the star was entirely mythological. Legend had it that the births of Mithradates and Alexander Severus were both associated with the appearance of special stars. Others have proposed that the star was, in whole or in part, a special miraculous light rather than a normal astronomical event. Among these is John Chrysostom , who observed that a normal star could not have shown exactly where in Bethlehem Jesus was to be found, as Matthew says this star did. Various Astronomical explanations have been advanced for the Star of Bethlehem, with a number of events known to have happened around the time of Jesus' birth (which has itself not been pinpointed). Suggested candidates have included:
A common objection to many suggested candidates (including comets, falling stars, novae, supernovae, etc.) is that they retroactively superimpose modern expectations on ancient stargazers. Although such candidates might seem unusual and interesting to modern eyes, they would not have carried the meaning to the Magi that a king of the Jews had been born. Comets, for example, were viewed as omens of misfortune. On the other hand, planets were viewed as "wandering stars" and their movements, although mundane to modern eyes, were considered highly significant to stargazers of the time. Among these, the planet Jupiter was considered to have special royal significance. Consequently, the leading astronomical interpretations for the star of Bethlehem have converged on consideration of the royal wandering star of Jupiter, with the different proposals turning largely on the answers to two questions.
Because Herod the Great was alive at the time that Jesus was born, only events prior to his death are of interest as candidates. On independent grounds, it has been argued by some that Herod died as late as 1 BC. If true, this would open up consideration of the years immediately prior.
However, if Herod died in 4 BC as others maintain, then this would exclude candidates from the years 2 or 3 BC, and would confine attention to events in or before 4 BC.
A spring date for the birth also corresponds with Luke's account of the birth in which shepherds were watching their flocks by night. In the spring, shepherds would be watching their flocks at night in order to be ready to aid in the birth of new lambs. However, some see the reference to sheperds as metaphorical, and therefore not indicative of a spring birth. Regarding Matthew's statements that the star "went before" and "stood over", Molnar and others have maintained that the Greek words used there refer to Jupiter's Retrogradation (i.e. apparent but not actual Retrograde Motion ) and stationing, respectively, as the movement of Jupiter against the background of the stars appears to reverse course for a time and then stops before resuming the normal progression. Stargazers attached significance to these movements of the wandering stars (i.e. the planets). A modern Astrological interpretation of Matthew's account of the star, based on the Magi role as Astrologers , claims to "decode" the Star of Bethlehem as a star configuration that was visible only to astrologers because the "star" was revealed in an astrological chart {Link without Title} . PARTIAL SOURCE MATERIALS
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