The Great Christ Comet
Page 22
At the same time, since Virgo is wearing a crown40 and is clothed with the radiance of the Sun, she is most naturally regarded as sitting on a throne. The fact that the Moon is stationed under her feet suggests that it was in subservience, paying homage to Virgo.41 Indeed the Moon seems to be forming a footstool for her feet. Virgo, it would appear, is being exalted in glorious splendor. That she is seated is consistent with the fact that relatively little room is available for her legs (above λ Virginis). Just as many in the ancient world envisioned Virgo as Queen Isis seated on her throne, so Revelation 12:1 pictures Virgo as “Queen Israel” on her throne. It presents her in terms that anticipate her exaltation and sovereignty over the nations in the new age.
Virgo was usually envisioned as having wings,42 as in Revelation 12:14. However, she was not always represented as having them, particularly when she was conceived of as Isis (as apparently, for example, on the Dendera Zodiac and at Esna), and indeed in Revelation 12 she lacks wings up until verse 14.
As for the precise location of Virgo’s body relative to the stars of the constellation, the fact that in verse 1 the Sun is clothing Virgo and the Moon is under her feet gives us a sense of the celestial position of Virgo’s throne in relation to the fixed stars and the ecliptic. Virgo rises with her crown up and her legs down, but she sets upside-down, with her crown (or, if she is envisioned as having wings, the tip of her left wing [the star Zavijava]) being the first part of her to disappear below the horizon. The Sun is perceived in this verse to be within Virgo, and hence her belly is envisioned as encompassing the ecliptic.
All in all, Revelation 12:1 gives us a rather clear idea how the constellation figure Virgo is being imagined with respect to the stars. John’s Virgo is similar to that of Hyginus and Pseudo-Eratosthenes, but the portrayal of her as sitting on a throne is more reminiscent of Teukros of Babylon, the Dendera Zodiac, and the Jewish Virgo from the sixth century AD that was discovered at the Beth Alpha synagogue (fig. 7.10).
FIG. 7.10 A Jewish version of Virgo (Bethulah)—seated on a throne—from a zodiac wheel in a synagogue at Beth Alpha (early 6th century AD). Image credit: Wikimedia Commons.
At the same time, it is important to appreciate that ancients seem to have had somewhat elastic conceptualizations of the constellation figures. For example, individual peoples were capable of imagining Virgo as both standing and sitting.43 As Ptolemy made clear and an analysis of constellation descriptions and drawings from the ancient world confirms, there was some fluidity in how given cultures could conceive of Virgo in relation to her stars.44 This is an important observation that may have a bearing on the interpretation of Revelation 12:1–5, where Virgo is envisioned as coming to life. While in verse 1 Virgo appears to be enthroned in majesty, in verse 2 she is portrayed as screaming in torment as she strives to deliver her child. It seems reasonable to allow that observers might have assigned her a slightly different posture for childbirth. Therefore we do well to imagine Virgo in Revelation 12:1–5 as alive and active within the general constraints of her constellation.
In fig. 7.11 we have sought to portray Virgo in a manner consistent with how the author of Revelation describes her.
FIG. 7.11 An artistic representation of Virgo as envisioned in Revelation 12. The dots are stars, their different sizes representing their brightness in magnitudes (the larger the dot, the brighter the star). Image credit: Sirscha Nicholl.
The Date of the Opening Scene of the Celestial Drama (Revelation 12:1)
Remarkable as it may seem, if we accept that Revelation 12:1–5 is describing the celestial nativity drama that marked the Messiah’s birth, the indication of the locations of the Sun and Moon with respect to Virgo in verse 1 enables us to pinpoint the year and, within it, the day when the opening scene took place.
In the scene, Virgo is “clothed with the Sun” (v. 1). This suggests that the Sun is located over her midriff,45 which covers a roughly 10- to 11-degree zone from Virgo’s chest (that is, just below the level of the stars δ–γ [Porrima]) to her groin (that is, the level on Virgo’s body where 80 Virginis is).
At the same time, the Moon is under Virgo’s feet. What is most remarkable about this is that it occurs when the Sun is clothing her. Because of how close the Moon is envisioned as being, we know that it is a waxing Moon and indeed a very young lunar crescent. To grasp what this means, it is important to pause and reflect briefly on the lunar cycle.
From the occurrence of a full Moon in the middle of a lunar month, the Moon enters a waning (shrinking in apparent size) phase. Eventually the Moon disappears from the sky for a few days at the end of the lunar month. Then it reemerges as a very thin crescent, barely visible over the western horizon in the aftermath of sunset. The Babylonians and Hebrews would therefore, during a short, 1–2 hour window of time between sunset and moonset, scan the western sky for the new crescent Moon descending in the Sun’s wake.46 At this time the Moon is moving away from the Sun, falling on average a further 12 degrees behind it every day. As it does so, it waxes (grows in apparent size) until, on the fifteenth day of its cycle, it again becomes a full Moon.
What is described in Revelation 12:1 is not an annual occurrence. When we review the years 7 BC to 4 BC, the time period during which Jesus was born, we see that the Moon was under Virgo’s feet47 at the point when the Sun was clothing her only in 6 BC—on September 15,48 to be precise (see fig. 7.12 on why the Sun appeared to be clothing Virgo).49 The Moon was technically under Virgo’s feet (corresponding to λ Virginis) for that whole day, from the moment it rose in the east (when it was 24 degrees from the Sun) until Virgo set in the west (when it was 28–29 degrees from the Sun). Subject to favorable weather, the young crescent Moon would normally have become clearly visible to the naked eye shortly after the Sun set that evening.50
FIG. 7.12 The astronomy of the zodiacal constellations. The plane on which Earth orbits the Sun is called the ecliptic, and it is along this that the zodiacal constellations lie. In this image Earth (in grey and blue) is depicted revolving around the Sun. From the perspective of Earth on September 15, 6 BC, the Sun looks like it is located in Virgo’s midriff. Image credit: Sirscha Nicholl.
Does Revelation 12:1 indicate that the crescent Moon was actually observed on September 15, 6 BC? On the one hand, since some astronomers at the time of Jesus’s birth calculated the locations of the Sun, Moon, and stars in advance and knew where they were even when they could not see them, it cannot be assumed that the Moon was actually observed on the evening of September 15. On the other hand, since the astronomical focus of a scene such as is described in Revelation 12:1 would usually be the Moon, and since the sight is part of a great “sign,” it seems most natural to conclude that it was observed. If observers did see the lunar crescent, they most likely did so between sunset and moonset.51
We conclude that Virgo, with her 12-star crown, clothed with the Sun, and with the Moon under her feet describes an astronomical phenomenon that can be dated to September 15, 6 BC.
The Cometary Drama of Revelation 12:1–2
The Actors
In Revelation 12:1–2, the heavenly entities are acting out key roles in the grand drama.
In the chapter as a whole, the woman symbolizes Israel—it alone can be reckoned to have given birth to the Messiah (v. 5) and to have fathered Christianity, the religious movement consisting of “those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus” (v. 17).52 She consists of the twelve tribes represented by Virgo’s twelve-starred crown. In the opening verses, however, Virgo represents Israel as embodied in the mother of Jesus, that is, so to speak, Israel with the face of Mary. The constellation figure is playing the part of Israel/Mary pregnant, in labor, and delivering her son, the Messiah. John may be deliberately recalling the portrayal of Israel as the Messiah’s mother in Micah 5:2–3, the text to which the Jewish scholars turned in order to identify the location of the Messiah’s birth for Herod the Great (Matt. 2:5–6).53
The role of the messia
nic baby that appeared in the virgin’s womb could only have been played by a bright new celestial object. The fact that, according to Revelation 12:2–5, the pregnancy progressed, climaxing with an agonizing delivery, strongly suggests that this celestial entity grew in the manner of a human baby in its mother’s womb and eventually descended down and out of her belly. Virgo’s baby was unquestionably, therefore, a comet, more particularly a cometary coma. Only a comet can grow large and move relative to the fixed stars. Moreover, a cometary coma that is essentially oval (elliptical) in shape could readily pass for a baby when located in an area of sky regarded as a womb.54 It is very normal for a large, long-period comet with a close perihelion distance to have this type of coma. Naturally enough, viewers would assume that a baby in its mother’s womb was head-down. This assumption might have been reinforced if the coma had an area of condensed brightness around the nucleus on the sunward side of the coma—this might have looked like the shining face of the baby.
As regards the Sun in verse 1, it functions as the royal robe of Virgo as she is enthroned in splendor and is highly exalted. At the same time, the fact that in verses 2–5 Virgo is portrayed as heliacally rising with a cometary baby in her womb may inject the earlier scene on September 15, 6 BC, with additional significance. In and of itself, verse 1 does not explain why Virgo is portrayed in such exalted terms. However, verses 2–5 do explain why55—she becomes pregnant (literally, “having in her womb”) and gives birth to a special baby representing the Messiah. The Messiah will conquer the forces of Chaos and establish his kingdom of justice and righteousness in the world, exercising dominion on behalf of Israel over all nations. In light of this, it is natural to interpret the opening scene in the celestial nativity play as a conception scene, with the Sun playing the part of God, the father of Virgo’s baby. This is, of course, reminiscent of what Luke reports concerning Jesus’s conception: Gabriel announced to Mary that “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (Luke 1:35).
The Moon in Revelation 12:1 seems to function as a footstool under Virgo’s feet, emphasizing her great glory at or near the start of the new lunar month.56 At the same time, the Moon was closely associated with menstruation and conception in the ancient world. In the ancient Greco-Roman world the close association of the Moon with conception was made explicit by a number of Greco-Roman medical writers and various natural philosophers.57 Indeed, Aristotle and some Hippocratic authors claimed that conception was largely controlled by the Moon.58 As for the Babylonian astrologers, we have evidence that they believed that omens relating to the Moon could speak of conception or childbirth. For example, they believed that if the Moon was surrounded by a halo within which was Scorpius, then high priestesses would conceive.59 Consequently, in light of the fact that verses 2–5 portray Virgo as having become pregnant, there is good reason to wonder if the Moon’s presence in the celestial scene on September 15, 6 BC, detailed in verse 1, would have been interpreted as suggesting that Virgo had at that auspicious moment conceived her special child.
Having introduced the main actors in verses 1–2, we must now consider the narrative that unfolds in these verses.
The Course of the Celestial Drama in Revelation 12:1–2
The wonder of Revelation 12:1–2 has three essential elements: (1) The crowned Virgo is clothed with the Sun and has the Moon under her feet. (2) Virgo is pregnant. (3) Virgo is crying out because she is in labor and in torment due to giving birth (or in order to give birth). This last element may be divided into two distinct components: dilation and fetal expulsion.
Technically, these three or four elements constitute three or four different chronological moments,60 but in verses 1–2 they are brought together to form a single wonder distinct from, though closely related to, verses 3–5.
By its very nature the celestial scene described in verse 1 can occur only around the start of a new lunar month, the beginning of either the first or the second (evening-to-evening) day, and in the western evening sky. The location of the Sun with respect to Virgo in verse 1 makes it clear that the area of sky associated with Virgo’s womb was not visible at the time, because it was hosting the Sun and hence its stars were bleached out by intense sunlight. Obviously, therefore, the sighting of Virgo’s baby did not occur then. It could only have occurred a few weeks later in the month inaugurated by the scene in verse 1, when, as Virgo heliacally rose over the eastern horizon, observers would have been able to catch a glimpse of the contents of her womb for the first time since September 15. Consequently, the pregnancy and labor mentioned in verse 2 follow the scene in verse 1, just as they are themselves followed by the successful delivery of the child in verse 5.
One implication of this is that the celestial activity in verse 2 is based on comet sightings in the eastern sky in the period leading up to dawn from a number of different observing sessions. In effect, then, in verse 2 we have a series of film frames that, when viewed as a moving picture, tell a grand narrative of a celestial pregnancy.
Each predawn observing session would have revealed more and more of Virgo as she heliacally rose over the eastern horizon before the stars were bleached from the sky by the rising Sun. As Virgo reemerged from her annual encounter with the Sun, steadily rising up over the eastern horizon in the last part of the night, she was seen to be with child—“she had [a baby] in her womb.”61 In other words, a bright comet had made its way into her womb to play the part of her baby in the celestial nativity play.
We may presume that the baby was relatively small when it first appeared. However, it grew in size over the following days even as it remained within the womb of Virgo.
As she begins labor, Virgo, playing the part of Israel/Mary, is described in the following terms: “[she] was screaming because of labor pain”62 (v. 2b). That Virgo was screaming due to her pain suggests that the cometary baby has descended within Virgo to the point that it appeared to be weighing down on her pelvic floor muscles. The pelvic floor muscles would most naturally be regarded as corresponding approximately to the level of the star 80 Virginis (see fig. 7.11).63 Evidently the cometary coma had dropped down so that the baby’s head seemed to be where it is when labor begins.
Verse 2 states that Virgo was crying out in pain not only because of the labor but also because of the torment she was experiencing in connection with the delivery of the baby. Unfortunately, the Greek text is unclear regarding whether Virgo’s suffering here is essentially the same as her labor pain (“in torment to be delivered”)64 or is due to the actual delivery of the baby (“in torment associated with giving birth”).65 In the former case, John is simply underscoring dramatically the extraordinary suffering experienced by Virgo in connection with her labor. In the latter case (which is arguably more compelling66), he is portraying Virgo as suffering not just in the first stage of labor—active labor (dilation)—but also in the second stage—expulsion of the fetus. Virgo in dilation would have consisted of the cometary coma baby resting head-down on a point along Virgo roughly at the level of 80 Virginis. Virgo in the expulsion phase would have consisted of the baby passing out of the area associated with the womb. Of course, the birth would occur only when the area of sky corresponding to the level of Virgo’s vaginal opening (80 Virginis) rose above the eastern horizon in advance of any part of the coma-baby, so that no part of the baby remained within her womb.
When ancient observers of the sky saw Virgo’s baby located relative to Virgo where a fetus is relative to its mother at the point of dilation and during the stage of fetal expulsion, it was natural for them to attribute labor pain to the constellation figure. Of course, any growth in the baby’s size as it descended within Virgo would have caused them to assign more distress to her, as would a long delivery.67
We conclude, then, that Revelation 12:2 essentially consists of a series of predawn comet observations in the eastern sky as Virgo was heliacally rising. When observers got their first glimpse into the womb of Virgo since September 1
5, 6 BC, they saw inside it a new occupant—a bright cometary coma that, as it heliacally rose over the eastern horizon, looked like a baby in Virgo’s womb.68 Over the following days, Virgo’s special baby grew and grew. Eventually, the baby dropped down to the level on Virgo where 80 Virginis is, making it seem to observers that Virgo had begun labor. Then over the following observing sessions the coma-baby seemed to emerge from Virgo’s womb, moving into the region of her legs.
We now briefly turn our focus to a discussion of the conflict theme of Revelation 12.
The Combat Myth in the Greco-Roman and Egyptian World and Revelation 12
In Revelation 12:3 and following it becomes clear that what is in view in chapters 12–14 is a great cosmic war between Virgo’s son, the Messiah, and the great serpentine dragon Hydra. The Messiah is destined to conquer the dragon at the end of the age, but not before the dragon has persecuted the woman (Israel) and the woman’s other offspring (the church). The climax of the dragon’s reign comes at the end of the age, when he invests his royal authority in one man, the first beast, a megalomaniac who mounts an unprecedented offensive against the church (13:1–10). However, the Messiah will return and overthrow the dragon and the beast, establishing the kingdom of God on the earth (14:6–20).
A number of scholars, including Adela Yarbro Collins, have drawn attention to the employment of the Combat Myth in Revelation 12. This myth, which was widespread in the ancient world, took a variety of forms, most notably Greco-Roman and Egyptian.