by The Great Christ Comet- Revealing the True Star of Bethlehem (retail) (epub)
This version of the comet hypothesis is regrettably unsatisfying, therefore. If the Star of Bethlehem was indeed a comet, we must look elsewhere.
A Stronger Case for the Star of Bethlehem Being a Comet
In spite of the weaknesses of the Halley’s Comet and 5 BC Comet hypotheses, the evidence that the celestial phenomena that the Magi witnessed were caused by a comet is overwhelming. I shall now set out a new, stronger case for identifying the Star of Bethlehem as a great comet.
First, the simple fact that the Star was a bright light that suddenly appeared in the heavens can be explained only with reference to a meteor, nova, supernova, or comet.37 When we also consider that the Star was visible for at least 1–2 years, the possible identifications are narrowed down to two—a supernova or a large, productive, long-period comet like Hale-Bopp. Hale-Bopp became visible to the naked eye 10½ months before perihelion and maintained its naked-eye visibility for a total of 18 months. If the Star was a very large comet as great as or even greater than Hale-Bopp (fig. 6.4), it would not be surprising if it was initially spotted many months before perihelion and remained visible for longer than one year. The comet hypothesis does not need to introduce other astronomical phenomena into the picture to explain Herod’s decision to kill infants in their first and second years. It can simply accept Matthew’s claim that the upper age threshold was set according to the time of the Star’s first appearance that Herod had ascertained from the Magi (2:7, 16).
FIG. 6.4 Comet Hale-Bopp as seen from Tierra del Sol in San Diego County in April, 1997. Image credit: Michael K. Fairbanks, DPM La Mesa, CA. Image source: Wikimedia Commons.
Second, no celestial entity at or around the time of its heliacal rising was more capable of impressing and surprising an ancient astronomer than that of a great comet at perihelion.38 According to Matthew 2:2, the Magi asked the people of Jerusalem, “Where is he who has been born the king of the Jews? For we saw his star at its rising and have come to worship him.”
The heliacal risings of stars and planets were certainly not particularly visually impressive, nor were they in any way unexpected. By the first century BC, Babylonian astronomers were quite proficient in calculating in advance when most celestial phenomena would occur, including the heliacal risings of stars and planets. This kind of information was included in their almanacs. Moreover, the Magi knew from experience what the heliacal rising of the different planets and stars looked like—the entity faintly appeared over the horizon at dawn, immediately before its light was extinguished by the rising Sun’s light. Then, over the following days, it steadily appeared earlier and earlier and in a darker sky. It is very unlikely that the Magi would have been profoundly impacted by what they saw the Star do at the time of its heliacal rising if it was predictable or unexceptional.39
The Magi evidently observed the Star doing something extraordinary in connection with its heliacal rising many months after its first appearance. This makes excellent sense if the Star at its rising was a great comet that ventured very close to the Sun at perihelion. Such comets, depending on their orbit and the place of Earth on its orbit, may emerge from below the eastern (e.g., Halley’s Comet in AD 66, and the Great Comets of 1147 and 1689) or western (e.g., the Great Comets of 1680, 1843, 1882, and 2007) horizon as they separate from the Sun in the aftermath of perihelion. When a comet does this, it is a heliacal rising.40 Such risings may be very striking, because comets are at their most impressive around perihelion time—they are at their brightest, longest, largest, and fastest. Indeed no other entity’s heliacal rising can compare in majesty to that of a great comet speeding away from the Sun immediately after its closest encounter with it. In the case of the Star, its early first appearance reveals that it was large and intrinsically very bright and hence had the capacity to put on an extraordinary display at its heliacal rising.
Moreover, the heliacal rising of a great comet would have been an unpredictable and surprising astronomical event. Ancient astronomers could not have confidently predicted what a comet would do in the heavens. Even aside from comets’ maverick movements in the heavens, they were uniquely capable of springing surprises on human observers—for example, because of changes in the coma’s size, brightness, or form, changes in the tail’s length, shape, and orientation, and/or the sudden appearance of an antitail. No astronomical entity had a greater capacity to amaze ancient observers at its heliacal rising than a great comet. This renders a great comet by far the most natural celestial candidate for the role of the Star that rose in the east.
Third, the fact that the Star moved rapidly within the framework of the fixed stars and constellations is explicable only if it was a comet. Aside from meteors and the Moon, no celestial entity other than a comet in the inner solar system is capable of covering the celestial territory that the Star did over such a short time frame.41
The Magi saw the Star do something special in connection with its heliacal rising in the eastern sky. Some 30–40 days after this sign in the east was completed, they saw the Star appear in the southern sky, going before them in the direction of Bethlehem from Jerusalem. Comets, particularly those with a small perihelion distance, that are making their final approach to the Sun or receding from it may progress quickly through a significant portion of the sky. A comet with orbital elements within certain ranges could have heliacally risen in the eastern sky and, shortly thereafter, shifted to the western evening sky, and then migrated to the southern evening sky on schedule to usher the Magi to Bethlehem and point out the location of the house where baby Jesus was.
Prograde and retrograde comets with relatively narrow inclinations and with small perihelion distances may, around perihelion time, shift over a fairly short period of time from the western evening sky to the eastern morning sky and/or from the eastern morning sky to the western evening sky.
If the comet’s perihelion is the other side of the Sun from Earth’s perspective, a prograde comet with fairly low inclination would be on the east side of Earth (and hence in the eastern sky) shortly before perihelion and on the west side of Earth (and hence in the western sky) after perihelion. If, however, that comet on its approach to the Sun passes through the Earth-Sun line, it would be on the west side of Earth before that point, then the east side, and finally, after perihelion, the west side again. If the comet cuts through the Earth-Sun line around perihelion time, the pattern would be west-east, and, if it does so after perihelion, then the pattern would be east-west-east.
On the other hand, if a retrograde comet narrowly inclined to the ecliptic passes perihelion on the other side of the Sun from Earth’s perspective, it would appear in the west before perihelion and in the east after it. If such a retrograde comet cuts through the Earth-Sun line before perihelion, the pattern would be east-west-east. If it does so after perihelion, the pattern would be west-east-west.
The Star of Bethlehem’s dramatic rapid movement within the framework of the fixed stars therefore strongly favors its identification as a comet.
Fourth, the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) associated the Messiah’s birth with a comet, most notably, as we have seen, in Numbers 24:17–19, where the seer Balaam prophetically declared, “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter [shbt] shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth. Edom shall be dispossessed; Seir also, his enemies, shall be dispossessed. Israel will do42 valiantly. And one from Jacob shall exercise dominion and destroy the survivors of cities!” In light of the parallelism of “star” and “scepter,” the identification of the astronomical entity heralding the birth of the Messiah as a comet is most natural. The Babylonian Talmud tractate Berakhot 58b strengthens this interpretation, for in it Rabbi Samuel refers to a comet (in Aramaic) as “a scepter [shbyt] star.”43 Origen correctly concluded that Balaam’s oracle about the star in Numbers 24:17 was prophesying that a cometary apparition would mark the birth of the Messiah. That Balaam was speaking
of a long-tailed comet scepter is accepted by a good number of modern scholars44 and is represented in the New English Bible and the Revised English Bible (“a comet [will] arise from Israel” [NEB, REB]). Significantly, it is now widely accepted that when the Magi in Matthew 2:2 speak of having seen “his star at its rising,” they are alluding to this ancient oracle of the Mesopotamian seer, implicitly claiming that what Balaam prophesied about the scepter-star has recently come to fulfillment.
Another important oracle that prophesied that the Messiah’s nativity would be attended by a comet was Isaiah 9:2: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.” That the Messiah’s birth is in view is clear from verses 6–7. As we saw in the last chapter, the only plausible identification of the great celestial light that would shine in the deep darkness is that it is a great comet.
Fifth, if the star were a comet, this would shed light on the peculiar behavior of the Star at the climax of its apparition, coinciding with the final phase of the Magi’s journey.
Notably, according to Matthew 2:9, the Star seemed to go ahead of the Magi, first to Bethlehem. Thereafter the Star went through a phase of “coming” (recall our discussion in chapter 3). Then, presumably within a half-dozen hours or so of their arrival in Bethlehem, the Star was stationed over one particular house, standing over it and thereby pinpointing it as the place where the messianic child and his mother were located. The Star’s going on ahead of the Magi to Bethlehem, in the south, when it was at its culmination (highest point), would have made it seem that it was moving on a basically horizontal plane. The “coming” seems to indicate that the Star’s movement thereafter was a downward one. The Star’s standing over a particular house strongly implies that it was setting essentially upright behind the structure, from the Magi’s perspective, looking like it was about to enter it.
A bright-tailed comet that appears at sunset reasonably high in the sky and far from the western horizon is better qualified to serve as the Magi’s celestial guide from Jerusalem to the Messiah’s house than any other astronomical entity. Some comets are so close to Earth that they can move at considerable speed through the sky over a matter of hours. But a comet does not need to be moving noticeably against the backdrop of the fixed stars and constellations to function as a guide. A comet’s brightness and size make it stand out in the sky and draw attention to its movement through the dome of the sky as it follows its normal daily course through the heavens. A tailed comet moving toward the south or south-southwest, the same direction as the Magi were heading as they went from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, might readily have been perceived by them to be traveling in front of them. No star or planet moving in the same direction as a traveler can match the impression made by a bright long-tailed comet at a reasonable altitude.
Likewise, a long-tailed comet’s descent as it moves from the meridian in the south to the western horizon is much more dramatic than that of any other celestial entity, because to observers the whole orientation of the comet is radically transformed as it descends.
Further, the setting of a tailed comet on the western horizon is uniquely qualified to be perceived to “stand over” a particular house.45 For examples of comets “standing” over places, we need only turn to Roman historians Josephus and Cassius Dio. Using the same verb as Matthew for “stand,” Josephus referred to “a star, resembling a sword, which stood over the city [of Jerusalem].”46 In a similar vein, Cassius Dio wrote of a “comet” hanging (or raised up) over (aiōrētheis huper) the city of Rome for several days in 12 BC, which would seem to be essentially the same kind of phenomenon that Josephus was describing.47
As astronomer Chandra Wickramasinghe points out, only a tailed comet can appear to “stand over” a place, its long upward-streaking tail seeming to point downwards to one particular location on the earth below48 (see figs. 6.5–7).
FIG. 6.5 The Great Comet of 1881 (C/1881 K1 [Tebbutt]) as observed over the northern horizon on June 25/26, 1881: a chromolithograph in The Trouvelot Astronomical Drawings by Étienne Léopold Trouvelot, 1881. Image credit: University of Michigan Library/MLibrary Digital Collections. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.
FIG. 6.6 The Great Comet of 1843, with its stunning tail, as it set over the western horizon. An observational drawing by William Clerihew, who viewed the comet from the southern waters of the Bay of Bengal. Image credit: Royal Astronomical Society Library, London (Ms. Add. 183/3, 186 x 135 mm).
FIG. 6.7 A watercolor of the Great Comet of 1680 over Beverwijk on December 22, 1680, by Atlas van Stolk (Rotterdam). The tail is sticking upwards because the comet is immediately “above” the Sun, which has just disappeared below the horizon (the Sun is less than 10 degrees from the comet). Image credit: Atlas Van Stolk Collection, Rotterdam, www.collectie.atlasvanstolk.nl (inventory no. 11283).
Similarly, New Testament scholar Craig Keener writes, “Without a tail extending as suggested in some modern artistic portrayals of the event, a celestial light could have pointed them only in the most general way or by symbolic means.”49
For a comet to develop a long tail in the run-up to perihelion and particularly in the period after it,50 due to the increase of degassing, is, of course, normal.
In addition, it is common for comets to set coma-down and tail-up, because their tail always points away from the Sun. Depending on the location of the comet with respect to the Sun and Earth and on the season, it is perfectly possible for a comet’s tail to stand up vertically or near-vertically.
A long-tailed comet might well appear to be pinpointing one particular structure, if that structure is located on the visible horizon and the observer is located on the directly opposite side of the structure to the comet (figs. 6.8–10).
FIG. 6.8 A wood engraving of the Great Southern Comet of 1880 “standing up” over the horizon, as viewed from Melbourne Observatory on February 16, 1880. From The Illustrated Australian News. The comet grew a tail as long as 75 degrees, although it was only about third magnitude at the time. Image credit: State Library of Victoria (accession no.: IAN16/02/80/17).
FIG. 6.9 A wood engraving by Martin Ebsworth of Comet Wells of 1882 (C/1882 F1 [Wells]), viewed from Australia on June 15, 1882. This image gives us a good idea how a setting comet can seem to highlight a specific point along the horizon. Image credit: State Library of Victoria, Australia, http://www.slv.vic.gov.au.
FIG. 6.10 A lithograph by Charles Piazzi Smyth:* “The Great Comet of 1843 as seen at the Cape of Good Hope on March 4th in the evening (34 S Lat.).” Image credit: © The Royal Society (image number: RS.10050).
NOTE: *On Charles Piazzi Smyth’s fascinating career, see Brian Warner, Charles Piazzi Smyth, Astronomer-Artist: His Cape Years, 1835–1845 (Cape Town: A. A. Balkema, 1983); and Roberta J. M. Olson and Jay M. Pasachoff, Fire in the Sky: Comets and Meteors, the Decisive Centuries, in British Art and Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 201–209.
In light of the Magi’s prior history with the Star and the fact that it had seemed to have ushered them to Bethlehem, one can well understand why they would have interpreted the “standing” of this comet while they were in Bethlehem as revealing the precise location of the messianic baby.
Ironically, Boa claims that “A comet must be ruled out because it could not move on before the magi until it came and stood over where the Child was (Matt. 2:9).”51 In fact, he could not be further from the truth, for the only celestial entity that could do this is a comet!
Sixth, comets by their movements within and among constellations are exceptionally well placed to convey significant and even complex messages to those equipped with the knowledge and paradigms to understand them. Simply put, these eccentric astronomical entities are capable of turning the fixed stars and constellations into a giant noticeboard. It is evident that what the Magi observed in the eastern sky back in their homeland was extraordinarily powerful and full of meaning. So hard-hitting was it that they
embarked on a long journey, indeed a pilgrimage, to Judea. From the heavenly scene they witnessed, the Magi perceived an incredible amount of information: that someone had been born, that this person was a king, and that he was divine. Among astronomical phenomena, a cometary apparition is uniquely able to communicate such a complex set of ideas.
Seventh, the Star was clearly unique. The Magi evidently developed an extraordinary emotional bond with the Star, convinced that it was communicating especially to them, personally charging them to go to Judea and worship the newborn Messiah, and even guiding them there. They had obviously not seen the Star before, nor observed a celestial performance quite like it. The sheer uniqueness of the Star of Bethlehem’s apparition is most naturally explained if it was a comet. Because comets are so diverse in size, intrinsic brightness, shape, color, chemical makeup, and behavior, and because they orbit the Sun at different speeds, angles, and distances from the solar disk and make their passes by the Sun at different times of the year, no two comets ever put on the same celestial show. Even individual periodic comets do not repeat the same display, since they are subject to gravitational and nongravitational forces that alter their orbit, and since their returns do not occur at the same precise time of the year as their previous visit. Therefore the unique nature of a cometary apparition fits well with the unique nature of the Star of Bethlehem.
Eighth, the fact that comets in the ancient world were often interpreted to augur regime change and regarded as threatening to the ruling establishment may help elucidate the negative responses of Herod the Great and the people of Jerusalem to the report of the Magi regarding the Star (Matt. 2:3).
