Father Sky

The “Star” III January 30, 2011

I ended my previous post on the Star of Bethlehem (Jan 22) with the promise of sharing some of my biblical astrology research. But before I begin I want to emphasize this is a Cultural Astronomy blog, not an astrology blog. I’m only sharing research on this one topic that happens to point to astrology.

I also recognize this is certainly a controversial topic but I usually don’t get very many hits on my blog so I decided, what the hey, and plowed forward.

Lets begin by laying out what it is we’ll be looking for. Astrology, like any belief system that has been around a long time, has it’s own “language” with words and meanings unique to it. Some are quite subtle, others stand out when you know what to look for.

We’ll look at three areas that, hopefully, will shed new light on words we’ve heard all of our lives. due to the depth of the matter, I’ll share the first point in this post and pick up the other two in the next:

#1. Influence: One of the tenants of astrology is that the heavens; especially the stars and planets including the sun and moon, have more of an influence on our lives than just light and heat and pretty little patterns. There are actually numerous examples of this but hopefully these mentioned here are sufficient samples (all from the NAS bible):

Genesis 1:16-18, “And God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. And God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to govern the day and the night…”   – so God placed them not merely to provide light (and heat), but also to govern, (my bolding).

Psalm 8:3 “When I consider Thy heavens  the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou has ordained…”   – When someone is ordained, they are given responsibilities. What responsibilities might we be talking about here?

1 Corinthians 15:41 “There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory…”   – Paul is telling the Corinthians that the glory of the heavenly bodies is heavenly and different than the glory of the earthly bodies.

Psalm 50:4 “He summons the heavens above, and the earth to judge His people…”   – speaks for itself.

Deuteronomy 4:26 “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today…”   – see also Deuteronomy 30:19 and 31:28 for more witnessing.

A few others in brief: Psalm 136:8-9 ruling day and night. Judges 5:20 stars fighting. Job 38:31-33 more ruling. Exodus 22:3 rules are different when the sun rises. Psalm 96:11 heavens be glad, earth rejoice. Isaiah 24:23 moon abashed, sun ashamed.    etc.

In summary of this first point, the bible often speaks of heavenly bodies behaving like objects (or beings) that truly interact and influence our lives. They also take on real personalities and carry out Gods wishes. All of this fits in the language of astrology.

Next time: Time & Place and Symbolic names.

The “Star” II, more research January 22, 2011

It’s been a while since I last posted. Some of the reason is I’ve gone in to much deeper research on this “Star of Bethlehem” story which takes time. My first post on the subject was October of 2009 where I shared some interesting ideas brought forth from Michael Molnar in his book, “The Star of Bethlehem”. Some 15 months later I still believe he was on the right track.

But lets back up a moment. I’ll assume you are familiar with the story so won’t repeat it here and just do a quick assessment. As I see it, there are just three choices about this story:

1. The story is completely true as written.

2. The story is completely false. The writers of Matthew made it up for various reasons. Or

3. The story could be valid if viewed from a different perspective than the spiritual or logical view most try to apply today.

My opinions:

#1 (True)… Highly unlikely – No record of this “star” in any other text of the day, neither religious nor “pagan” . Something that remarkable would certainly be noted by others. And just how does a star “stand over” a stable or house or whatever? The next clear night I invite you to go outside and look for any bright star that seems to be standing over a neighbors house. Now walk 50 yards either right or left. Now what house is that star standing over? Not that same one I assure you. I could also go on about us not finding any of the original texts of the New Testament, not knowing who really wrote it, etc. I’ll just summarize by saying this story doesn’t stand up to logical scrutiny.

#2 (False)… Likely – (see above)  But then we’d have nothing to write about!

#3 (not literal)… Possible – The reason for this post and which I hope to add some discourse to this possibility over the next few posts.

What I will focus on are the two special guests in the story, the Star and the Magi. Everyone else in the story is well known from all the other stories in the bible.

I’ll begin with the star. I will expand on this quite a bit in my next post but I’ll set the stage by saying no physical star acts like what was written in Matthew. What if Mr Molnar is correct?  I decided to do some research of astrology in those times. I am not a believer of modern astrology so this research was a bit difficult but I believe I have the essence.

Why astrology (besides what Michael Molnar suggested)? Because one of my first questions was, “If the writers of Matthew included some astrology in their writings, would I find it elsewhere in the bible?” The answer I found is certainly “YES”.

So bear with me. I won’t be able to lay this all out in one post. It’s too involved to cut it down to 500 words or so and I don’t want to leave things out. Stay tuned.

Peace