Dieter
Koch
The Star of
ISBN: 978-3-931806-09-5, 273 pages
©
2009 by Dieter Koch
ABSTRACT
A new theory on
the Christmes star. On careful and unprejudiced reading, the legend of the Star
of Bethlehem (Matthew 2) suggests a rather unspectacular heliacal rising of
Venus to have been the star. This suggestion is supported by Revelation 22:16,
where Jesus is called “the shining morning star”. John’s vision of the
apocalyptic woman in Revelation 12 indicates that the rising of the morning
star took place during the time of Virgo (the virgin), close to a new moon,
and, if possible, on the day of the Jewish New Year. It is intriguing that around
2 BCE there really was a date that fulfilled all these conditions. The author
studies the symbolism of this celestial configuration, and he discovers that it
accords with the birth of the Messiah. It is to be debated whether this date
for his birth is realistic, or whether early Christian writers chose it because
of its symbolism.
The account of the Christmas Star
The
legend of the Christmas Star is found in the second chapter of the Gospel of
Matthew.
Up
to now, attempts to explain the star astronomically have not been conclusive.
Practically, anything seems possible: conjunctions of planets, occultations by
the moon, comets, variable stars, novae and other phenomena. As I intend to
show, the problem is not a lack of clarity, or ambiguity in the text, but
rather the prevailing rigid ideas that immediately tend to exclude the most
natural explanation. As a result, due attention is not paid to the evidence
within the text, and this lack of attention then becomes the source of all
kinds of assumptions.
One
of the rigid ideas is that the star must have been a totally extraordinary phenomenon in order to prompt the Magi to
embark on the long journey from Mesopotamia to
1.
Herod asks the Magi about the “time of the star”. The phenomenon was apparently
neither noticeable nor visible to everyone.
2.
In astrological practice then (as now) an extraordinary horoscope is generally
not marked by extraordinary phenomena but rather by an unusual configuration of
the planets. At most, a certain planet may be prominent.
3.
If one studies the approach of the Magi, one has to recognize that they do not
merely rely on observing the heavens but also consult dreams and the holy
scriptures. The star itself is not necessarily enough to prophecy a Messiah.
For instance, the Magi could have been following a prophecy or vision such
as: “Birth of a royal child in the
country of
I
intend to show that under these circumstances a completely new interpretation
of the star of
“Magi came from the east”:
The
word “magi” (Gr. magoi) derives from the old Persian and refers to the
priests of Zoroastrianism. As they come from the east and concern themselves
with stars, they could well have traveled from
“in the days of Herod”: Jesus would have been born before Herod died. According to the
current school of thought Herod died in 4 BCE, although some authors think that
it was rather in 1 BCE. Unfortunately, the biblical statements in connection
with the birth of Jesus are controversial. In any case, our calendar, which
pretends to have started with the birth of Jesus Christ, is certainly not
correct. Jesus was neither born at the beginning of year 1 CE nor was he born
on the 25th December. This
date for Christmas was only introduced by the church during the 4th
century with the intention of replacing heathen solstice celebrations.
“his star was seen in the east (lit. in the rising)“: Against popular belief, this does not
necessarily mean that the Magi saw a star in their eastern homeland. Is the
following interpretation not rather implied: that they saw the star “at its
rising in the east”. The text states literally: en tê anatolê, i.e. “in
rising, in the east”. Therefore, one cannot assume that the Magi were in their
homeland when they saw the star. They
could very well have seen it rising in
the east from somewhere in
Interpreting
it in this way, it makes more sense astrologically, too. In
“asked the precise time”: Herod asks about the time when the star appeared.
Apparently he asked about this because he wanted to know the age of the child
he wanted to kill. Further on, Matthew recounts that Herod had all the
children, who lived in
Because
of the statement above, it has been assumed that two years must have elapsed
between the appearance of the star and the arrival of the Magi. However, astrology
usually proceeds from the assumption of simultaneousness
of heavenly and earthly happenings. Matthew states in the beginning that the
Magi arrived in
From
all the above information it becomes clear that the Magi must have reached
Jerusalem more or less simultaneously with the star’s appearance – quite the
opposite of the current prejudice
that the Magi had discovered the star in their homeland (“in the orient”) and
for this reason had started on their journey to Palestine. Instead, one can
rather assume that the Magi anticipated the appearance of the star and that
they planned their journey so that they would arrive in
Herod’s
question clearly shows that the star was not a remarkable celestial phenomenon.
This mistaken idea can be traced back to the Gospel of James, where it reads:
“We saw a very large star shining among other stars and it caused their light
to pale”. However, would Herod have needed an explanation if this had been the
case? Would the star not have been the talk of the day? Still, James’
description may contain a grain of truth. Amongst the ordinary celestial
phenomena there are very bright and beautiful stars, for instance Venus or
Jupiter.
“the star they had seen in the east went ahead
of them”: Being led by the star cannot, of course, be
taken literally. An astronomical phenomenon does not make random movements, but
appears in the same position to all inhabitants of a certain region. Some
authors have understood this phrase to mean that the Magi saw the star directly
in front of them while they journeyed from
The
Greek word proágein that has
been translated as “went ahead of” could have been an astronomical term.
For the retrograde motion of planets, Ptolemy
and his contemporaries used the word prohegeísthai which is synonymous with the New Testament proágein.
Moreover, the term derives from Mesopotamian astrology, and it is explained by
the fact that planets in retrograde motion are faster in their daily motion
than fixed stars and planets in their phase of direct motion. Therefore, the
statement that the star “went ahead” of the Magi would mean that the star was
in a phase of retrograde motion. It was visible only in the morning, in the
east. The Magi left early in the morning and while they journeyed south, the
planet in its retrograde phase was on their left. The journey from
“came to stand still”: In the case of an
astronomical phenomenon, the “standing still” of the star cannot be taken
literally either. All heavenly bodies move continuously from east to west in
the course of a day. However, the
stations of the planets, that is their standing still in relation to the
zodiac or the fixed stars, are significant in astronomy. The Magi would then
have found the child on the day the planet ended its retrograde motion, became stationary, and reversed the direction
of its sidereal movement.
“above (the place) where the child was”: Here, too, it has to be noted that no
star can ever stand above a specific
house or a specific person. If it is
at its zenith, then it is standing equally above all the houses in an area. For the same reason that it could not have
been in the south, it could also not have been at its zenith. A few days after
its heliacal rising, it could only have been seen before sunrise. It is likely
that Matthew meant that the star stopped when
the Magi arrived at the place where the child was.
“great joy”: This
joy seems to indicate that the star was very beautiful and bright. We read in
the Gospel of James that the star was so bright, that it outshone all others.
In fact, Venus is the brightest of all the stars. When the moon is not shining and
no other lights interfere, it even casts a shadow. Looking at it, who has not
been filled with joy?
All
the above-mentioned phenomena were taken into account in Babylonian birth
horoscopes. Apart from the planet’s positions in the zodiac, it also recorded
their particular heliacal risings, their retrograde motions and the stations
that occurred close to the time of the birth.
Venus
The
planet is easily identified by all the facts mentioned. It only could have been
Venus because – apart from Mercury which is difficult to observe – only Venus
is in retrograde motion when it has its first heliacal rising above the eastern
horizon, and it becomes stationary soon afterwards. Jesus is born in a
temporary shelter while the star is first seen in the east. The Magi arrive
soon after that. The difference between the first heliacal rising and the
station is about two weeks for Venus and about four months for Jupiter.
Therefore, Venus fits the picture, but Jupiter does not.
However,
there are even clearer pointers in the Bible. According to theologians, the
Messiah is announced in the Old Testament in the following words: “a star
emerges from Jacob” (Numbers 24:17). The legend of the Christmas Star (“we saw his star in the rising”) evidently
refers to this. The name of this, “his” star, is specifically mentioned at the
end of the Revelation of John: “I, Jesus … am the root and the offspring of
David, the bright Morning Star…” (Revelation 22:16). A further verse
that associates Jesus with the Morning Star is found in 2nd Peter 1:19: “And so we possess the prophetic word more firmly, to which you will
do well to attend, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until day breaks and
the morning star (phôsphoros, lucifer
in the Latin Bible!) rises in your
hearts”. The Greek word phôsphoros and Latin Lucifer actually mean “bringer of light”. The use of this name for the
devil arose at the time of the church fathers and does injustice to its
original meaning. In reality, it signifies Venus as the proclaimer of the
coming day. This becomes even more
evident in the other name for Venus, eôsphoros, “bringer of dawn”. In antiquity, this function of the
planet had a far greater significance than today, especially in southern
regions where dawn is very brief.
Incidentally,
the verse in Peter is strongly reminiscent of John 1:9: “The true light that
gives light to every man was coming into the world”. Here, too, the Messiah is probably compared
to the morning star. This is a very apt comparison, for Jesus also symbolizes a
“coming day” of light, and of knowledge of the
After
Venus has set as the evening star in the west, the region of death, its
spectacular reappearance as the morning star is also a symbol of the great theme of Christianity and of
other ancient mystery religions: for resurrection.
The west, the direction of the disappearance of stars was associated with
death; as against that, the east, the direction of their rising, was linked to
the idea of birth or re-birth. The Mesopotamian as well as the Egyptian sun god
descended to the underworld in the west in the evening and was reborn in the
east. And a famous Mesopotamian myth recounts how Ishtar, the goddess of Venus,
descended to the underworld, died, was resurrected and ascended to heaven.
There
is further symbolism in connection with Venus: It is not by chance that it
appears as a royal sceptre held by Jesus in Revelation 2:28. In
The date of the birth of Jesus
Early
risings of Venus occur only every 584 days. We can thus entertain the hope of
being able to fix the date of Jesus’ birth. The Revelation of John is a help:
John sees the following vision:
“A
great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with
the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head".
(Revelation 12:1ff.)
The
text is interpreted as a vision of the birth of the Messiah. If the woman is
the zodiac sign of Virgo and the Sun “clothes” it, this means that the Sun is
in Virgo, and thus outshines it, and makes it invisible. The Moon is “under her feet“, and thus just
in front of the zodiac sign of Libra. The child being born would then be the
morning star at its heliacal rising. In fact, there is a date that fits this
description: the 1st
September 2 BCE (=astronomical -1).
That
clarifies what one may think of the virgin birth (Matth. 1:18ff.): Jesus is
simply born in the zodiac sign of Virgo. An interesting detail: Venus did not
rise from the womb of the constellation Virgo but from its head. Thus, this is a “spiritual” birth, quite similar to the birth
of the virginal goddess Athena from the head of Zeus.
This
interpretation matches what follows in Revelation 12:3ff.:
“Then another sign appeared in heaven: and
behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads
were seven diadems. And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and
threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to
give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. And she gave
birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of
iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.”
The description of the dragon fits the constellation Hydra. The seven heads wearing diadems would be stars in the area of the head, and the ten horns would be bright stars at the side of the body, forming a kind of zigzag pattern. Hydra’s tail does not really comprise “a third” of all stars, but it is in fact a very long shape and stretches alongside of four zodiac signs, thus over a third of the zodiac. When Virgo is on the eastern horizon, Hydra really “throws” the stars of its tail “onto the earth” (see ill. 1). The “male child” would then be the morning star. In fact, in the days after its “birth” it first moved towards Hydra’s clutches and thus was in danger of being “devoured”, but after its standing still it moved away and was “snatched up”.
The date of Jesus’
birth thus established, it is remarkable to note that it took place precisely
on the day of the Jewish New Year (rosh
ha-shanah). In ancient
Consequently,
we can work out Jesus' astrological birth chart. Is it astrologically
convincing, according to the rules of ancient astrology? I believe that it is and
it must have striking for ancient astrologers. Leo ascendant corresponds to a
king of the Jews. Venus, Jupiter and Mars in conjunction at Leo ascendant
indicate a charismatic leader, and a passionate teacher of love, even more so
as Venus has just had its heliacal rising and Jupiter and Mars are going to
follow soon. Saturn in square to the Sun and Mercury symbolise the difficulties
Jesus had with orthodox Jewry.
A
detailed scientific treatment of the theme including references to all sources
can be found in the monograph:
Dieter Koch
The Star of
ISBN: 978-3-931806-09-5, 273 pages
© 2009 Dieter Koch, Zürich