Marilyn,
I read your astronomical reckoning regarding the birth of
Jesus. First of all, in the overall scheme of things it is really of no
consequence the exact date of Jesus birth as he was born, died and rose
again. He yet lives and is King of Kings. That having been said, the
subject is interesting. I’m not sure how much it edifies the body
to have a myriad of theories, counting generations, etc.
There are a few things that I would politely dispute
regarding your assertions:
First to be clear, Saturn is not and cannot be the ‘morning
star’ representation of Jesus as you assert. I’m not sure how
you base that Biblically and would be curious to hear.
In general, most all celestial objects can have a ‘morning’
or heliacal rising with the morning sun at some point during the year, but not
all. I believe that only Venus holds that distinction of not occurring
at least once during the year, first rising with the sun after 583.92
days on average. The definition of a ‘morning star’ is
an celestial object rising with the sun, a heliacal rising: being at the same
place along the ecliptic.
The rising with the sun can endure for a time, but the
slower outer planets fall out of sync with the sun’s rising more quickly,
enduring longer in each station of the Mazzaroth.
On the first date you proposed, 9/25/7 BC the sun was at
about 162 degrees (estimate just by looking) along the ecliptic and Saturn was
145 degrees or so behind it being at about 17 degrees along the
ecliptic in the constellation Aries. It takes Saturn 29.4571 years to
make one orbit of the sun, so consequently it moves relatively slow from
constellation to constellation taking a month of days (29.88 days) to move one
degree. So if each constellation is 30 degrees (360/12), it will take 30+
months of days just to move from one constellation to the next. During
the time frame in question, Saturn is in the constellation Aries and at
approximately 145 degrees away. For Saturn to be a ‘morning star’
rising with the Sun, on or around September 4, did not occur for almost 12 more
years.
If as you say, “on September 4, 5 BC, it (Saturn) was
at mid-sky at midnight, by daylight 6AM that morning, Saturn would have set in
the west.
While we may place certain importance on heavenly signs, it
may not have meant the same to the Magi. Determining what motivated them
to visit Judah in search of a newborn king, based on the prophecy in Micah is
the question. Some modern writers may equate Judah with Pisces, but there
is very little basis Biblically or historically for that assertion. Judah,
to the ancients, was represented by the constellation Aries the Pascal lamb.
They sacrificed the Passover lamb while in Egypt, to their consternation as the
Egyptians worshipped the ram. Spreading the blood of the Passover on the
lentil marked the beginning of their Exodus. The sun passing the Aries
spring equinox, marked the countdown to the full moon for Passover.
Prior to that, Abraham sacrificed the bullock (like Aries) instead
of his son. Prior to that, the first acceptable sacrifice to the Lord is
told in the story of Cain and Abel. The twelve tribes, represented in the
Mazzaroth are described in the book of Revelation: Judah is the first
mentioned. The first month is Nisan, even though the ‘head’
of the year is in the seventh. Nisan is under Aries. The
Tetrabiblos during that time also delineated Judah with the constellation
Aries. When the Romans conquered Judah, they printed coins celebrating
the victory over Judah with Aries depicted under a star. During the 2150
years that the Hebrew story developed, the spring equinox fell in Aries! Herod
took the Magi seriously when they told him of the portent in Aries, which he
knew was the sign of the land of Judah.
As for a sign in Capricorn, the one-horned goat as described
in Daniel 8 is the representation of Alexander the Great, coming ‘across
the whole earth’ (six months) from the west to defeat the two horns (Taurus)of
the Medes and the Persians, standing by the river. I doubt Jesus birth
was represented by a beast rising from the sea, Capricorn being half-fish,
half one-horned goat.
It seems unlikely that Jesus would be represented by a dying
star (nova) either as it would have no known meaning to the Magi.
At the time of Jesus birth, the birth of a king was believed
to be represented by the rising of Jupiter, the king planet, with the Sun,
which it did on 4/17/6 BC in the constellation of Aries along with the new moon.
Luke 2:13 describes the ‘heavenly host’ which refers to the other planets
all within 1 hour of right ascension, Venus being the first to rise. The
magi said they saw the star in the east. Aries is an eastern constellation
as well as the event occurred in the east, not the west as Saturn was on 9/4/5
BC.
In December of 6 BC, the Magi asked Herod where to find the new
born King. Bethlehem was the answer. The Magi, leaving the south
gate towards Bethlehem, would have looked up and seen the same sight at night,
as Jupiter and the moon both stood over head at the zenith in ARIES!!!
The sacrificial lamb was provided by God, for all.
At Jesus Crucifixion, 34 years later, the full Passover moon
was beneath Virgo. He shed the blood for our door posts! The
morning Jesus rose, on the third day, Venus rose with the sun a bright and
morning star!! The day star had arisen!!!! May he arise in the
hearts of the lost!!!
Mosel Tov, (meaning good constellations in Hebrew)
Kevin Heckle