When the 3 Wise Men following the stars to find baby Jesus?

Question

Where do you think the stars were and in the Western Hemisphere, such as California - where would one look to see the stars in the sky?

Answer 1

There is no star in the sky that wise men, (or kings or astrologers), would be seeing for the first time unless it was a supernova. The brightest star in the sky, seen in the east before midnight, would be Sirius; for them and for us. But it's been the brightest star since long before this Jesus story.

And hey, I never noticed that contradiction before. They saw a star in the east and followed it westward? Cool!

The most likely explanation is that the whole story is a myth.

Jared, if these guys came from there, then why would they say they saw the star in the east? And has anybody given a moment's consideration to all the poor worshippers who started their pilgrimmages from west of Bethlehem? Where did they end up? Morocco? Of course back then they had no idea how far away stars were, so the authors probably thought it would be seen in the direction of Bethlehem from every direction. (God should have known this before it ended up in the bible, huh?)

Answer 2

There's an interesting article in the December 2007 issue of Sky & Telescope on the Star of Bethlehem. The author indicates that modern biblical scholars feel the whole thing was an embellishment added to the gospel at least a century after Christ's birth, because a lot of the historical data are just plain wrong, as well as the story making little sense astronomically. I know I've always been puzzled by wise men from the east following a star in the east.

Answer 3

A lot has been written on this subject and many planetariums give programs about it. Wikipedia has some pretty good information. The second source is really good too. Here is a quote from it:

While writing this book, Kepler came across a work by Laurence Suslyga of Poland that argued that Christ was born in 4 B.C. Kepler immediately noticed that this was shortly after a triple conjunction that he calculated had occurred in 7 B.C., and wondered if there was a connection. In 1614 he published his conclusions: the triple conjunction of 7 B.C. was followed by a massing of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn in 6 B.C., and just as the conjunction and massing of 1603 4 had produced a new star, so the events of 7 6 B.C. had produced a miraculous nova, and that nova was the Star of Bethlehem.

Of course today we know that conjunctions to not produce novae, but we are talking about what people believed in the past here.

Answer 4

First, you have to keep in mind that the gospel accounts were written many years after the fact by people who weren't there when it happened, and later selected (and possibly edited) by people with a political agenda of sorts.

Possibly "we saw his star in the east" means to say "we, in the east, saw his star". The bit about the star stopping above the place of birth is difficult to make any sense out of and is probably totally fanciful. My guess is that the star story is a garbled retelling of a story about Persian astrologers supposedly foretelling the birth.

Answer 5

you have already got greater information than is in the Bible. E.g., the Bible says they have been Magi from the East. Magi have been priestly individuals of Zorastism. They have been prepared sky observers, and astrologers, which replace into then seen a science. the somewhat style of them isn't reported in any respect. Many assume 3 as there have been 3 presents, yet, their could have been greater, and jap custom advise there have been 12 of them. It replace into no longer the northern megastar they observed, yet, yet another megastar that they did no longer know. Astronomers have been attempting to be sure what celestial adventure it may desire to be, yet, none seems to artwork, because of the fact the main celestial activities in the years till now and after 1BC and 1AD could have been rather favourite for all people experienced in the sky to correctly known. uncommon, particular, yet, nonetheless properly understood. So, those adult males have been finding on the sky sooner or later, observed something they could no longer clarify, or that replace into new, yet they interpreted it as a demonstration of the beginning of a king: for this reason the royal presents. They desperate to stay with this megastar, which got here to sit down down back "over the homestead" the place Jesus replace into. We oftentimes think of of them as coming to the manger, yet, this could have been as late as 2 years after Jesus' beginning. My wager is far less, yet, somewhat long after Jesus replace into out of the manger. custom has it that it replace into 12 days after Jesus' beginning, in spite of the undeniable fact that this is no longer in the Bible. There are non-Biblical books that talk of those adult males, and Wiki has a short, yet enormously exciting article approximately them (see hyperlink under).

Answer 6

better question is... which way did they go?

I was listening to a Christmas carol the other night where the singer sang "Wise men from the East..." then the next line was "following the Star in the East"

What were they? Porpoises? Musta been good swimmers. I guess it helps to know a little geography.

Answer 7

Well there were not necessarily 3 of them. The Bible does not say how many. And they saw a star, not stars.


Here is what the Bibble actually says:

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."

Answer 8

It was a single, very bright "star" which was probably a comet or supernova. It would have been in the western sky as observed from the present day Iran/Afghanistan area. It is not visible now as it has either dimmed away (if it was a supernova) or has passed into the outer solar system (if a comet).

Answer 9

The bottom line is there probably never was 3 wise men.
Just something dreamed up by the twits who penned the bible.
Jesus didn't start public life till he was in his 30's. Any stories about him prior to that are myth.

Answer 10

well............i guess it could of been in my sky in hertfordshire uk. they are really bright sometimes. there was probably 27 stars they followed.
how they got to bethlehem is anyones guess............