Smoodock's Blog

It has been long disputed that the Magi could have followed “the star” (a) from the east to anywhere in the west, and (b) see it stop over a particular house. Any child would discover very early that the moon directly over his head in his own backyard, would also be directly over his head, if he walked several miles away. So, how could anyone find Jesus by thinking a star stopped directly over a particular house in Bethlehem? Moreover, equally impossible is that the Magi “followed” the star from the East to Jerusalem, nor could they “follow” the star from Jerusalem to Bethlehem in the south, because the heavenly bodies travel from west to east from the perspective of the earth. I met with this objection years ago, when I perused the debate boards on the internet. The problem, however, is easily solved, if one is careful how he reads the text.

For example, scripture does not say the Magi followed the star from the East to Jerusalem. What the text actually says is the Magi came from the east to Jerusalem, because they saw “his star in the east” (Matthew 2:1-2). In other words, while in the East, they made a discovery, while they studied the starry sky. They interpreted what they saw to refer to a King who was born to rule the Jews. They didn’t need to ‘follow’ anything to get to Jerusalem, where they probably assumed the king was born. There, they inquired about the king’s whereabouts (Matthew 2:2).

Okay, but what about the star going before them to Bethlehem, which is south of Jerusalem? Well, once again, the text doesn’t say that. What it does say is, Herod sent them to Bethlehem (Matthew 2:8), but, when they looked at the starry sky in the morning, as they were about to leave Herod’s palace in western Jerusalem, they beheld “the star” which they studied in the East, and it was at that time standing over the House (Matthew 2:9) from the perspective of where they stood in Herod’s palace. That is, it stood east of them over the Temple, the House of God.[1]

Suddenly, things began to make sense to the Magi. The star they saw, while in the East, told them the Messiah was born to the Jews, but it didn’t tell them where in Judea they would find him. Naturally, they assumed he would be in Jerusalem, the capital city of the Jews, but no one knew where he was, or even that he had been born, not even the authorities in the palace. Nevertheless, “the star over the Temple” was an important symbol or sign to the Jews. It appeared on the Jewish coins[2] minted in the 2^nd century AD during the Bar Kochba rebellion (132 AD to136 AD), when he made himself king of the Jews,[3] but was quickly put down and executed by the Romans. It was also mentioned by Josephus:

Thus, it was that the wretched people were deluded at that time by charlatans and pretended messengers of the deity; while they neither heeded nor believed in the manifest portents that foretold the coming desolation, but, as if thunderstruck and bereft of eyes and mind, disregarded the plain warnings of God. So, it was when a star, resembling a sword, stood over the city, and a comet which continued for a year.[4]

So, the star, seems to have a special significance to the Jewish people in terms of an expected Messianic figure (cp. Numbers 24:15-17).

After seeing the “star” they rejoiced over what they were able to understand from the sight and quickly entered “the House” (or Temple; Matthew 2:9-11) and found Mary with Jesus (cp. Luke 2:25-34). It seems that Mary was there to be purified according to the Law (Luke 2:22-24), which occurred about 40 days after Jesus’ birth (Leviticus 12:2-4). No mention of Joseph is made in Matthew’s account of the Magi with Jesus (Matthew 2:11), but he is with Mary and Jesus in Luke’s account (Luke 2:33), so they were all together, when the Magi came and worshiped.

The text says that the Magi were warned in a dream not to mention the child’s whereabouts to Herod (Matthew 2:12). So, the dream they had must have occurred in the previous evening after Herod told them to go to Bethlehem (Matthew 2:8) but before they awoke in the morning to see the star over the House or Temple (Matthew 2:9-10).

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[1] As this pertains to the Magi “following the star” this was the first time that they were in position to actually do so. They were in western Jerusalem and the star appeared over the Temple and Mount Olivet in the eastern sky.

[2] For an image of a coin for my blog study see “star over Temple coin”

[3] Remember some Jewish scholars considered Bar Kokhba to be the promised Messiah.

[4] JOSEPHUS: Wars 6.5.4 (288-289).