Production explores the origin, meaning of the star announcing Jesus’ birth

Those in Alabama who are curious about the Bethlehem night sky when Jesus was born need simply to look at the night sky outside their own home.
   
According to George Atchley, director of Samford University’s planetarium, there is only one-and-a-half degrees’ latitude difference between the sky above Bethlehem and the sky above Birmingham. So the two cities’ night skies are very similar.
   
Atchley added that in the 2,000 years since Jesus was born, little has changed in the night sky other than a slight outward expansion in the stars’ positions. And, of course, no star of Bethlehem will shine to announce Jesus’ birth.
   
For centuries the star of Bethlehem has captured people’s awe and imaginations. It has come to represent the characteristics of Christ that are emphasized at Christmastime — love, patience, compassion and peace.
   
Matthew records the story of wise men from the East who followed a star to the Christ child, bringing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Through the years, many theories have developed as to the star’s origin and even question whether it was a star. From the theological to the scientific, scholars have sought answers.
   
For those wishing to learn more about the theories surrounding the star, Samford offered “Star of Bethlehem,” an interactive presentation at its planetarium during the first three weeks of December.
   
Produced by the University of Louisville in Kentucky, the production explores the probable timing of Jesus’ birth. It then looks at astronomical phenomena documented to have occurred at that time to try to pinpoint a plausible reason for the star.
    
One of the problems in explaining the star is figuring when Jesus was born. Some say it was in the fall, because it was still warm enough for the shepherds to be out on the hills with their flocks.
   
Others believe Jesus lived exactly 33 years, with his life beginning at conception, rather than birth. Taking into account that He was crucified during Passover in March, He would have been conceived in the spring and born in December, which places His birth in the years of 1 or 2 B.C.
“Star of Bethlehem” takes this view when looking at the phenomena of the time.
   
A theological explanation is that the star was a miracle, an expression of God’s Shechinah glory at the birth of His Son. In this case, the star could well have acted as a guide. One weakness of this argument is that the Shechinah glory is traditionally an overwhelming, magnificent light. Most likely, it would have been seen by more than the three magi.
   
A literary explanation is that Matthew used a Hebrew literary device called midrash where he wrote about the star as symbolic of Jesus to emphasize that the prophecy in Numbers 24:17 had been fulfilled. However, many find this explanation unsatisfactory.
   
Scientific explanations suggest the star could have been a fireball, a meteorite, a comet, a sighting of an unknown planet or a nova — the explosion that occurs when a star dies. However, these phenomena would have been too fleeting to guide the magi on a trip from the East, probably Persia, to Israel. Scientists also argue that most heavenly bodies cannot voluntarily move to act as a guide to a certain spot.
   
One of the most plausible explanations the video offers, according to Atchley, is that of a conjunction. A conjunction occurs when planets pass close to each other or stars as the planets follow their orbits around the sun. Sometimes they may seem to touch.
   
The magi, who were schooled in the stars and scholars of the Hebrew prophecies, would be looking for some such event to cue them as to the birth of a great king of Israel, Atchley said. “The magi were more astrologers than astronomers,” Atchley said. “They looked to the stars to tell the future and to signal events.”
   
The conjunction that many think the wise men took as a sign of Jesus’ conception and birth was a triple conjunction between the planet Jupiter and the star Regulus during an eight-month period from Sept. 14, 3 B.C. to May 8, 2 B.C.
   
Regulus is the brightest star in the constellation of Leo, which the magi associated with royalty. So they would interpret a conjunction there as a sign of something happening with a royal family.
   
“Because of the way the planets move in relation to one another, it appeared that Jupiter passed Regulus three times in that period,” Atchley said. On June 17, 2 B.C., a month after Jupiter’s third pass, four of the five visible planets came into conjunction with Regulus. The wise men would have interpreted that as a sign of the birth of Israel’s king.
   
Atchley believes the star was a miracle, a manifestation of the Shechinah glory, that the magi did not see until they got to Jerusalem. “They just knew from astronomical events to go to Jerusalem,” Atchley said. “The Bible doesn’t say they followed the star [all the way to Jerusalem]. They went to Jerusalem then saw the star where Jesus was [living].”