According to the Bible, there was a special star over the manger where Baby Jesus laid. (Matt. 2:2). Is there any evidence in the archives of history that this actually happened the way the Bible says?
Star of Bethlehem............?
The following is and article taken from a web site :
But perhaps no other planetary grouping can equal that of the two brightest planets Venus and Jupiter for the explanation that we seek. And if we take the only known account of the Star literally, as given in St. Matthew, then what we really need is the appearance of not just one, but two "stars." The first appearance would have been seen well in advance of the Magis arrival in Bethlehem, and the other at the end of their long journey.
Perhaps the signal for their star was to be a sign in the constellation of Leo, the Lion.
To the early Israelites, Leo was a constellation of great astrological significance and considered a sacred part of the sky. A very close conjunction of Venus and Jupiter would have been visible in the eastern dawn sky of the Middle East from about 3:45 to 5:20 a.m. on Aug. 12, 3 BC.
When they first emerged above the eastern horizon, the two planets were separated by only about two-fifths of the Moons apparent diameter or 12 minutes of arc. As a comparison, the separation of the stars Mizar and Alcor in the handle of the Big Dipper is also 12 minutes. Planets this close are very striking, if they don't differ too much in brightness.
Incidentally, St. Matthew wrote that the Magi stated in their meeting with King Herod: "We have seen his Star in the East and have come to worship him." It has never been clear if they saw the star in the eastern sky, or if they saw it from the East. The fact that the Aug. 12, 3 BC conjunction of Venus and Jupiter occurred in the eastern sky and may have also started the Magi on the journey (from the East) to Bethlehem means that both bases are covered with their statement -- reported by St. Matthew -- to King Herod.
Venus ultimately vanished into the glare of the Sun, but Jupiter and Leo remained in the night sky during the next ten months. During this time a number of additional planetary conjunctions took place, all of which would have been of great importance to the priest-astrologers of the time.
Encore
Then, during June of 2 BC, as Jupiter and the stars of Leo began to sink into the western evening twilight, Venus again returned to this same region of the sky for an even more spectacular encore.
The Magi certainly would have especially taken note that on the evening of June 17, when Jupiter and Venus appeared even closer together than they did in the dawn skies of the previous August. As the planets slowly descended toward the horizon they got closer and closer together.
Finally, at 8:30 p.m. local time they drew to within a mere 0.6 of an arc minute of each other while appearing to hover some 15 above the western horizon. To the Magi the two brightest planets must have appeared to coalesce into one and glowed before them like a dazzling beacon over Judea. Eyeglasses were many centuries in the future, so only people with perfect eyes would have seen the planets separated.
See for yourself
Astronomy can tell us that all these planetary conjunctions indeed occurred. In fact, users of the software package Starry Night Pro can go back in time and view all these planet configurations for themselves on their home computers and try to judge which of these might have appeared the most impressive to the Magi.
But whether anyone actually observed them, and if any of these sent the Magi on their historic journey, are all matters for conjecture.
And finally, was the Star of Bethlehem truly a miracle star? Indeed, a star of stars appearing just once in the history of man? Reaching a conclusion on this subject is not easy, for any natural theory for the Star of Bethlehem can only be at best, just an educated guess.
Perhaps this is a mystery that modern science can never truly unravel. Astronomy has taken us as far as it can go.
Reply:Hi
It was a UFO, Stars don't move, since the MAGI Were
following a " Star that Moved ". but of course who will believe
that, not me.
Reply:No; that's been a bit of a controversy for centuries. There's not even a good record of an unusual configuration or alignment of the stars (the mystics did pay attention to those things back then) in the vicinity of the time of Jesus' birth. Even with a computerized star chart that will allow you to go to any point in time, there's nothing special there, or within a decade either direction, and that's allowing for stars that couldn't even have been SEEN at that point in time. It's a nice story, but there's no evidence for it.
Reply:All spirits enter the physical world through the light. Jesus was sent by God, a star was born as a star is taken away for them who disobey God the Father.
Jesus said, "I am the light of the world" When Satan was sent he was the "morning star" but his crown (star) was taken from him.
And now he is in a place where there is no light, and darkness can not escape, a collasped star (black hole)
Reply:I've tried asking this question before, but have not had a lot of success with it.
The best I've heard is a comet that was observed around 3 CE by the Chinese.
Edit:
I would expect an event that attracted a number of wise men to travel for up to 2 years to have generated more evidence in the form of other cultures observing it.
Reply:I've never heard of a secular account that list this bright star. But there are historical writings that tell about Jesus. Even so, as Christians, we have faith based on what the Bible says, not what we can verify through secular history.
Reply:yes actually. I can not give you an link, but I know that several years ago, some astronomers were able to calculate back words the alignment of the planets in our system Just as they can calculate the advancements of these so that we can send rockets to them. they where able to find out that in about 4 or 3 or 5 BC I don't remember which, many of our major planets lined up in order and they stayed that way for about 4 months, From earth it would have appeared to have been a very bright star.
Reply:Others saw it if God let them.
Reply:yes there is. but i think they thought it was an unusually
bright, venus.
Reply:The star was not there for only one night.
The wise men followed it for many months to get to baby Jesus.
Jesus may have been one year old by the time they reached Him.
Do you really believe that we would be told of any evidence. Satan, the ruler of earth, would not let it be told.
Reply:there was supposed to be an alignment of planets at that time....that caused jupiter to shine especially bright....also the position of the planets created 2 trines which overlapped to form a star of david
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