The “Star” II, more research

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