The Clue
Associated with “West Before” and “Stood Over”
Matthew 2:9 provides a real
astronomical stumbling block. In this verse, we read that “there ahead of them,
went the star that they had seen at its resting, until it stopped over the
place where the child was.” Stars are not usually referred to as being “ahead.”
The huge distance between them and the Earth makes this unlikely. Some
researchers take “ahead” to mean “in the direction of Bethlehem, on the
horizon” (i.e., south (as seen from Jerusalem). Here, at the specific time of
day when the magi left Herod and Jerusalem, the Star of Bethlehem was in the
low southern sky, indicating where Bethlehem was. However, any star moves
speedily across the sky due to the diurnal spin of the Earth. In fact, these
stars in the southern sky are moving east to west, not in the required
direction, which, for that specific journey, is north to south. Also, this
stellar direction-pointer was completely unnecessary. The magi had been told
that Jesus was in Bethlehem, ten kilometres south of Jerusalem. The prediction
in Micah 5:2 (“But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little
clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel
whose origin is from of old, from ancient days”) had been pointed out to the
magi. (Notice that in the King James Version of the Bible, the terms “go
before” and “stood over” replace the terms “ahead” and “stopped over,” and are
equally as problematic from an astronomical standpoint.)
The literal interpretation of the
phrase “stopped over” indicates a star that essentially points to the
stable/house/cave in Bethlehem where Jesus and his parents were at the time of
the magi’s visit, just like a modern satellite navigation system. This
precision is surely unnecessary. 2000 years ago, in the small town of Bethlehem,
there would have been about ten boy children born per year. If we then factor
in the number of boys who had been visited by a cacophony of shepherds at their
nativity and had a mother who was a virgin (and who, in the eyes of many of the
Jewish folk living in the town, had had a child out of wedlock—think of the
gossip!), finding the holy family would have been a piece of cake. Indicating a
specific dwelling would remove the start from the celestial realm to a hovering
distance a few tens of meters above the ground. If this was the case, when
Herod’s soldiers turned up to slaughter the innocents a few days later, why was
the specific house not pointed out by parents who were hoping to save their own
children?
Some interpreters take the phrase
“stopped over” to mean “in the zenith”—directly overhead. Astronomically this
introduces a distinct restriction. Stars that pass through the zenith have the
same celestial declination as the geographical latitude of the location. Bethlehem
is 32.7365o N. Other researchers take Matt 2:9 as absolute truth.
Here the star has to physically be ahead (or ‘go before’) and stand over. It
has to lead the way. This interpretation moves us from the realm of scientific
astronomy into the realm of miracles. The Star of Bethlehem then enters walking
on water, feeding the five thousand, infecting swine, and turning water into
wine territory.
Let us be critical. If “his star”
was a miraculous ball-lightening-like apparition, leading the magi by the hand
from their hometown, why did they have to divert to Jerusalem and see Herod?
Any miraculous star could have easily taken the magi straight to Bethlehem.
There was a good road bypassing Jerusalem. In fact, it is exactly the road the
magi allegedly used to go home after they had visited the holy family. The
“ahead,” “went before,” and “stood over” clues are uncomfortable. Anyone
putting forward an astronomical explanation has to seriously downgrade them to
second class. On the other hand, Sten Odenwald suggests that the phrase “went
before” refers to the retrograde motion of the planet’s observed path across
the sky near opposition, whereas the phrase “stopped over,” “stood over” refers
to the last of the two stationary points in the planet’s path. (David W. Hughes,
“Astronomical Thoughts on the Star of Bethlehem,” in The Star of Bethlehem
and the Magi: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from Experts on the Ancient Near
East, the Greco-Roman World, and Modern Astronomy, ed. Peter Barthel and
George van Kooten [Leiden: Brill, 2015], 114-16)
