THE YOUNG JESUS
by Charlene & Friedhelm Dohmann

The Star in the East

Matthew gives the impression, that Jesus spent his first two years in Bethlehem. He recalls that soon after his birth three "wise men" came from the East to Jerusalem and asked, where the new-born king of the Jews was. They had seen his star and had come, to worship him.

They said the star, which showed them the way, stood exactly over the place, where Jesus was found. Many Astronomers have looked for historic proof of that star and thought it was a Comet, but nothing points to a Comet in the sky in the time window of Jesus birth. The famous Halley's Comet reappeared much later in 12 AD.

Two other rare phenomena in the night sky are the Nova and the Super Nova, a catastrophic stellar explosion in which so much energy is released that the Supernova alone can outshine an entire galaxy of billions of stars. A Super Nova explosion occurs when an evolved massive star has exhausted its nuclear fuel. Under these circumstances, the core becomes unstable against it collapse. Super Nova are fairly rare events. Only five have been observed visually in our Galaxy in the last thousand years.

A third natural explanation was the Conjunction of two planets, which would also have great meanings for astrologers. However it deals with the natural reflected light of two close planets, not necessarily with an exceptional bright star. Nevertheless some scientists believe Matthew described such an unusual event as a star.

Let us assume the wise men were astrologers, set aside todays negative image. Ever since astrology is based foremost on the positions of sun, moon and planets in reference to a given place and time, a Comet or a Super Nova should be ruled out. Phenomena of this kind are normally registered. Roman astrologers of those days left us a large number of documents, nothing extraordinary could be found.

Since Herod called the wise men to a secret meeting and asked them, when they had seen the star for the "first time", the presumption not a single occurrence, but a sequence of stellar events over several months guided the "Magi" towards the West, did set the stage. The search concentrated on Venus and the crescent Moon in the early evening sky, undoubtedly the most impressive show of all.

Never during the years, time and place in question (Bethlehem) could an angular separation between them of less than 1° be found in three consecutive months, except in 5 BC. Surprisingly and even more impressive, Saturn appears close to both Venus and the crescent Moon on February 10, to be replaced the next "new-month" by a close Jupiter on March 11, 5 BC. To find Jupiter's moons in a position of a cross, even if not visible to the eye and only on the simulated sky, can inspire someone's imagination further.

But nothing seems to be close to the spectacle of the following "new-month" on April 10, 5 BC, when Bethlehem's evening sky presents Venus and the 3 day old crescent Moon about 1° apart. One can imagine misreading the crescent Moon as a tail of a comet. The conjunction of Venus and crescent Moon repeated over a period of ninety days with a very close Saturn first and then Jupiter, gave the "Wise Men" enough reason and time to travel from far East to Jerusalem.

Some people in Jerusalem got nervous when those three arrived and asked about the new-born king of the Jews; especially Herod the Great, who owed his position to Roman Rulers, was frightened deeply.

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