The Star of Bethlehem

by Mark Kidger

Overview

Two thousand years ago, according to the Bible, a star rose low in the east and stopped high above Bethlehem. Was it a miracle, a sign from God to herald the birth of Christ? Was there a star at all, or was it simply added to the Bible to fulfill the Old Testament prophecy concerning the birth of the Messiah? Or was the Star of Bethlehem an actual astronomical event? For hundreds of years, astronomers as prominent as Johannes Kepler have sought an answer to this last baffling question. In The Star of Bethlehem, Mark Kidger brings all the tools of modern science, years of historical research, and an infectious spirit of inquiry to bear on the mystery. He sifts through an astonishing variety of ideas, evidence, and information—including Babylonian sky charts, medieval paintings, data from space probes, and even calculations about the speed of a camel—to present a graceful, original, and scientifically compelling account of what it may have been that illuminated the night skies two millennia ago. Kidger begins with the stories of early Christians, comparing Matthew's tale of the Star and the three Magi who followed it to Bethlehem with lesser-known accounts excluded from the Bible. Crucially, Kidger follows the latest biblical scholarship in placing Christ's birth between 7 and 5 B.C., which leads him to reject various phenomena that other scientists have proposed as the Star. In clear, colorful prose, he then leads us through the arguments for and against the remaining astronomical candidates. Could the Star have been Venus? What about a meteor or a rare type of meteor shower? Could it have been Halley's Comet, as featured in Giotto's famous painting of the Nativity? Or, as Kidger suspects, was the Star a combination of events—a nova recorded in ancient Chinese and Korean manuscripts preceded by a series of other events, including an unusual triple conjunction of planets?

Originally published in 1999.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691654225
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	03/21/2017
Series:	Princeton Legacy Library , #5148
Pages:	318
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.80(d)

Table of Contents

PREFACE vii

Chapter 1. Matthew's Star 3

Chapter 2. A Star over Bethlehem? 20

Chapter 3. The First Christmas 39

Chapter 4. Halley's Comet and Other Red Herrings 73

Chapter 5. Shooting Stars and Fiery Rains 110

Chapter 6. Supernova Bethlehem? 136

Chapter 7. We Three Kings 166

Chapter 8. Triple Conjunctions: A Key to Unlocking the Mystery? 198

Chapter 9. Is the Answer Written in Chinese? 219

Chapter 10. What Was the Star of Bethlehem? 247

Epilogue. Which Star Is the Star? 267

Appendix. The Heavens above Bethlehem 277

NOTES 289

BIBLIOGRAPHY 295

INDEX 301

What People are Saying About This

David Hughes

So what was this celestial body ? Unusual astronomical events between about 8 BC, the year of the census described in "Luke", and early 4 BC, the probable date of Herod's death, are fair game. One contender is the triple coming together of Jupiter and Saturn in Pisces, calculated to have happened in 7 BC. And Chinese diaries record a comet or nova appearing in the constellation of Capricorn in the March of 5 BC, and a nova or tail-less comet in Aquila in April, 4 BC. In his highly readable The Star of Bethlehem: An Astronomer's View, Mark Kidger puts his money on the conjunction plus the nearby bright object of mid-March 5 BC.

Patrick Moore

There are innumerable theories about what the Star of Bethlehem may have been--if anything! Kidger's study is particularly exhaustive....It is well organised and well written, and it is unquestionably thought-provoking.

From the Publisher

There are innumerable theories about what the Star of Bethlehem may have been—if anything! Kidger's study is particularly exhaustive.... It is well organised and well written, and it is unquestionably thought-provoking."—Patrick Moore, astronomer who has specialized in studies of the Moon, host of BBC Television's "The Sky at Night," Past President of the British Astronomical Association

"Star of Bethlehem deals with a subject of perennial fascination. Kidger explains matters clearly.... The book should prove of interest to general readers."—Laurence Marschall, Gettysburg College, author of The Supernova Story

Editorial Reviews

The Magi were the top astronomer/astrologers of their time, keen watchers of the sky with a particular interest in the motions of the planets among the constellations. Today we know the planets move because they are in orbit about the sun. But two millennia ago they were regarded as magic stars. Nobody had any idea why five stars wandered about while the rest of them stayed put. It was an easy leap of logic to think that the planets were trying to tell us something. The Magi were considered experts in such interpretation. This is where Kidger's new theory comes in. He argues that, in the minds of the Magi, sequences of heavenly signs were much more important than a single big one, such as an eclipse or a spectacular conjunction. "A combination of events would have been of great significance to the Magi, but not necessarily to anyone else."
— Toronto Star

Terence Dickinson

Plenty of new and old data about the night sky and more than a little ancient history inform Kidger's clear account of his own and others' theories about the portent that led the Magi to Judea. A researcher at Spain's Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, and a columnist for the Astronomer, Kidger steers meticulously to his own, admittedly speculative, answer, devoting several chapters to popular and once-popular accounts of the Star, discussing, among other theories, Halley's Comet (impossible), unusual meteors (nope), and supernovas (none took place in the right decade). Kidger regards Michael Molnar's version (explicated at length in Molnar's own book, reviewed below) as "one of the most credible" explanations, though he points out that Molnar's thesis doesn't translate into much for the Magi, or anyone else, to have seen. Kidger outlines ideas about the professions and origins of the Three Wise Men themselves, who (assuming they existed) may have been Zoroastrians from Persia or Babylonian Jews in exile. Drawing on Chinese astronomical records, Kidger concludes that the Magi set out for Judea when a 5 B.C. nova followed a special conjunction of planets in Pisces. An appendix describes the rest of the night sky as it probably looked from Bethlehem. 23 b&w illus. (Nov.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Was the Star of Bethlehem a real astronomical phenomenon, a miracle that cannot be explained scientifically, or a myth? Kidger, a researcher at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias in Tenerife, Spain, argues in favor of the first of these possibilities. He proposes that the "Star" was actually a series of noteworthy astronomical events occurring over a period of three to four years. Kidger takes care to examine (and reject) numerous other possible explanations as he lays out his chain of reasoning, and he does a good job of discussing various astronomical phenomena in the process. But he fails to provide adequate evidence in support of some assumptions crucial to his own theory. An optional purchase, especially if David Hughes's The Star of Bethlehem: An Astronomer's Confirmation (LJ 2/1/80) is already in the collection. Librarians seeking new titles on this topic might also want to consider Michael Molnar's The Star of Bethlehem: The Legacy of the Magi (Rutgers Univ., 1999). (Index not seen.)--Nancy Curtis, Fogler Lib., Univ. of Maine, Orono Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

So what was this heavenly apparition, a comet, a meteor, the planet Venus or a miracle? Mark Kidger presents a review of the problem, which has fascinated star-gazers over the centuries. The heart of the problem is that the story has but a single source - St Matthew's gospel. More than 80 years after the event, Matthew (or perhaps several contributors) wrote that Magi from the East asked "Where is the child? For we have seen his star at its rising". Why is this the only gospel to mention the star? From this starting point, Mark Kidger conducts an astronomical post-mortem on the nature of the phenomenon. The various plausible historical explanations are investigated. For instance, the great Florentine painter Giotto depicted it as Halley's Comet in his beautiful 1302 fresco of the Adoration of the Magi. So, along the way we gently learn a great deal about astronomy.
—(Douglas Palmer,The Herald (Glasgow)

Douglas Palmer

He identifies a series of astronomical events that he says were "so unique that they can happen together only once in several thousand years." First, there was a triple conjunction in Pisces, with Jupiter and Saturn passing by each other three times between May and December in 7 BC. Three times in six months these important planets met and parted in the constellation associated with the Jews. In the following year, Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn massed together in Pisces. In February 5 BC, the crescent moon passed close to Jupiter while Mars and Saturn paired up nearby. Then the nova burst forth. Kidger speculates that the Magi took the preceding events as warnings that something important would happen in Judea - perhaps the long- anticipated birth of the Jewish messiah. The nova signaled that the birth had occurred.
—The Christian Science Monitor

Robert C. Cowen

Mark Kidger, a British astrophysicist, argues in his new book, that the Bethlehem star was indeed a real star that can still be seen by telescope today: a now rather dim star known as DO Aquilae. Back then, Kidger says, it was a bright nova and probably the phenomenon described by ancient Chinese astronomers as an unusually bright star that appeared in the eastern sky for 70 days in 5 B.C., the year many scholars believe Jesus was born. Kidger argues that ancient astrologers would have found the nova significant because of where and when it appeared: during a triple conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation of Pisces. The conjunctions, Kidger says, would have told the Magi "to await news from Judea and, possibly, to expect the imminent birth of the Messiah." The appearance of the nova, he says, "told them that the royal birth had finally happened.
—U.S. News & World Report

Jeffery L. Sheler

One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2000

From the Publisher

"An easily accessible style permits readers with minimal scientific training to share in the excitement of Kidger's rare feat of scholarly sleuthing. . . . Kidger will not only convince all doubters, but his book will reset the terms for future attempts to put the scriptural Star in scientific context."

Booklist

"An easily accessible style permits readers with minimal scientific training to share in the excitement of Kidger's rare feat of scholarly sleuthing. . . . Kidger will not only convince all doubters, but his book will reset the terms for future attempts to put the scriptural Star in scientific context."

Booklist