
   Perhaps  the most asked question concerning the birth of Christ 
is an astrological event described in the New Testament. The Star  
of  Bethlehem has  been questioned  and  researched  by many 
science and astrological groups with widely differing opinions. We
might even say we may never know.

   Here is an opinion held by many as  the to explanation  for the
Star of Bethlehem. Though what is contained herein does not in any
way mean it's the  actual truth,  it is  what scientist  have that
fits the facts.

                        --------------------

   During the reign of the Romans, a calendar was used  based upon
the founding of the city of Rome.  The Romans defined this year as
year 1 A.U.C, or "ab urbe condita" which means  "from the founding
of the city".  The Romans did not have the concept of zeros at the
time Rome was founded. (It was to be thought  of by the Arabs much
later).

   The calendar was changed more than 500  years after  Christ had
been  killed, and  the  new  calendar was  based  upon  his birth. 
Dionysius Exiguus changed the calendar in the year 533 A.D. He had
researched his records to determine the year of Christ's birth and
had found a  statement made  by Clement  of Alexandria  which said
that Christ was born during the 28'th year of the rein of Augustus
Caesar. Augustus was proclaimed Emperor in  the year of 726 A.U.C.
so he added 28 years to it giving the year 754 A.U.C. as the birth
year of Christ. This year he called 1 A.D.

   Dionysius was unaware that Augustus had ruled under the name of
Octavian for four years before the title of  Augustus was given to
him  by  the  Roman  Senate. For  this  reason,  we would  need to
subtract four years from  his calendar to  find the  correct birth
year. This would turn out to be 4 B.C., or the year 750 A.U.C.

   This is fine if you want  to rely on  historical records (which
even at that time were hundreds of years old) to be free of error.
These records were rewritten by hand as they aged and decomposed.

   The New Testament in Matthew says that Christ  was born  in the
days of Herod.  Josephus who lived in the first  century said that
Herod died a  few days  after an  eclipse of  the moon  visible in
Jerico a few days before the Passover. This date can be calculated
with a  good deal  of accuracy  to an  eclipse on March 13, 4 B.C.
Passover was  on April 12th. Herod,  then, died  somewhere around
the first of April, 4 B.C. 

   Remember that Christ's parents were required to pay their taxes
in the  city of Bethlehem.  There are three  major tax collections
recorded on the walls  of temples in Ankara, Turkey. They  were 28
B.C., which is too early for our tax collection  year, 8 B.C., and
14 A.D, which  is too  late.  This  leaves us  with the  major tax
collection year of 8 B.C. This lands  us close to the  4 B.C. that
agrees with our other information.

   The month and  day can not be inferred from any  information we
can  piece  together at  the  moment,  yet we  do know  that early 
Christians  celebrated  the  birth  of  Christ  on  December  25th 
because that day was a holiday for the Romans who used to feed the
Early Christians to lions, (December 25th  was the Winter Solstice
during that time, when the daylight hours start to grow longer. It
was considered to be the "birthday of the new year").

   If you would like to narrow the month down  a little, you might
look again at the  Bible at Luke  which states that  the shepherds
were  guarding their flocks  by night.  It was the practice of the 
time to  guard flocks during the time of year  that the lambs were 
giving birth.

   So there we have it. We might be looking at the spring of 6 A.D
or 7 A.D., (A year or two before the taxes were due). We must then
discover an astrological event that  occured sometime around these
years.  Fireballs, comets, and eclipes were all known  to the
peoples of Earth, in the East and in the West. For this reason, we
can exclude these type of  astrological events.  There would  have
been wise men wandering everywhere if,  each time a comet was seen 
in the skies,  it signified a  momentous  birth.  However,  we can 
assume  that the "Three  Wise  Men"  were  astrologers.  Who  else  
would be able to detect an event in the heavens that described the 
location of the King of the Jews?

   Astronomers  have determined the planetary  positions  for the
suspect years and the results are quite interesting.  Calculations 
show  that on  May 27th, 7 B.C.,  Jupiter passed within one degree 
North of Saturn, falling into the same celestial longitude, and was  
therefore in conjunction.  This  happens  once in about 20 years.

   Yet this particular conjunction occured in the constellation of
Pisces. In those days, Pisces was thought of as the "Hebrew Sign".
Saturn was also thought of as the "Hebrew Wanderer". This made the
conjunction very important for the Jewish people.  The Magi  might  
have  read this  conjunction as  a sign  that a  great man  was to 
be  born  to  the  Jews.  

    Stellar  events  were not over with yet, though, more important 
movements in the skies further enforced this belief. After passing  
Saturn, Jupiter began to  slow down, and  on the 15th of July,  it 
stopped.  Then it began to  back up  and passed Saturn for a third 
time!  (Backwards  motion as seen  from  the  Earth  is  known  as 
Retrograde  Motion).  The  second  passing  had taken place on the 
5th of October.

   Twice! This was indeed a great man being born.

   Retrograde mostion ended and Jupiter  began to  process forward
again  on  November 10th.  Once again  Jupiter  passed  Saturn on
December 1st. Three passes of Saturn in one year, and all in Pisces! 

   Further, in Febuary of 6 B.C.,  Mars came into  the picture  and 
joined the conjunction of  Jupiter and  Saturn. Three  planets in  
Pisces the Hebrew sign, and three passes of Jupiter, (are these 
three planets and three passes the reason for describing three wise 
men?), all within the same year! Let's go find this great Jew!

   The first conjunction of 27th of  May, 7 B.C., would have been
visible from the East in the morning. The second conjunction of 
October 5th  would have been visible in the South at midnight.
The third conjunction of December 1st,  6 B.C. would have been
visible in the West before sunset. It is said that the Star  of 
Bethlehem moved to stand over the spot where the King of the Jews 
was  to be  born. Taking into account the previous three  items 
of additional information, we might say that the "Star" moved 
from the East to the West.

   For clarification,  the word "Star" may mean  any astronomical
object,  being one  item  or many.  This  is  much the  same as 
describing fish. You may say,  "See the fish?"  and mean one or
several. "Star" can also be  used to describe  a conjunction of
stars or an Occultation of astronomical objects.

   You can ignore all of these facts as conjecture and guess work,
because that's what  they really are.  We do  know that  the three
conjunctions did take place, and in Pisces. Whether this is enough
to cause astrologers to look for Jesus is unknown. In the end, it
is you, reader, who has  to weigh the  facts and believe  what you
will believe.

                        --------------------

        Written by Fredric L. Rice. Released August 1985.
            ed. by D. Forcier, Dec 85.

Original reference material may be  found at Griffith Observatory,
located at 2800 East Observatory  Road, Los  Angeles, California.
90027. Request back  issue of   Griffith Observer,  December 1890,
page  9, for  Ronald A.  Oriti, "The  Star  of  Bethlehem". Direct
requests  to   Dr.  Edwin C.  Krupp   and  staff. You  may  aquire
subscriptions to the Griffith Observer through  the same  address.
It  provides a great  quantity of  understandable information
concerning astronomy, (And is well worth the price!)

                        --------------------
Additional Reading:

1) If interested, read the Bible.  Matthew and Luke offer the best
   information  available to the common questioner  of the Star of
   Bethlehem.  Additional  interesting  information  can  be found
   by looking up the fall of the city of Jerico.

                        --------------------

Additional information:

There are computer programs  being marketed that  will describe
the attributes of planetary objects  for the astrologer. Though
I must admit, I wouldn't spend a cent  on an astrology package,
these  would  offer accurate  positionings. There  are  Public
domain software packages that do the  same thing, yet at a less
than highly accurate result.

If you would  like  to  write  your  own programs  for figuring
planetary  positions, the library will  contain books with the
required formula  and tables. There  are also  several books in
print that offer the astronomer and  astrologer BASIC programs,
though again I wouldn't spend a cent on them!

