Merry Christmas! December 25th is NOT based on a Pagan celebration
The purpose of this Blog is to Refute and Rebuke so called Christians attacking Christmas. They are unwittingly aligning with the enemy in more ways than they can imagine. To steal the hope and joy of Christmas with the focus on the joy of our Savior's birth is evil.
We Christians live in this age of GRACE. We are no longer under the law. Pharisees who are law keepers will never quote Paul's Epistles but rather Old Testament laws and prophecy that chastised those living under the Old Covenant - Mosaic Law to not "worship" trees and make graven images from wood, etc. The standard scriptures they throw around are Jeremiah 10, Deuteronomy 12 and Isaiah 57. These scriptures are clearly denouncing the practice of carving idols from trees or worshipping of idols under trees and practicing idol worship. I've never met a Christian who hand carved idols or worships trees.
But more important we are under GRACE. Paul clearly states in Colossians 2:16 that we are not to allow any man to judge us in what we eat or drink or regarding any holiday or sabbath days. Let's examine Colossians 2:16
16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
Read full chapterThe Oxford English Dictionary page 1319 states the word Holiday came from the word Holy Day.
See a study I did back in 2018 on how we should address Pharisees who condemn Christmas Holidays as Pagan.
A so called Christian CINO (Christian in name only) who is really a Pharisee is no different than the atheists who mock Christmas. This is an AntiChrist spirit that is attacking the anointing.
Check yourself Christian.
Over the past decade there's been an overwhelming attack on Christmas. It started, it seems even further back some thirty years ago when we started seeing Merry X-mas. Taking Christ out of Christmas. But for the past decade a slew (slew: a violent or uncontrolled sliding movement) of fake Christians have been shaming us for celebrating Christmas. For even mentioning the word "Christmas" those of us who believe Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Christ are demonized for worshipping Satan. I'd mention them and call them out one by one, but I'm not going to waste my time.
I'm sickened and fed up with these "bastards"... Read about the bible account of a bastard begin with Hebrews 12:8 KJV and follow with the Bastard of Ashod of Zechariah chapter 9 which is a direct reflection of our Coming King, Jesus Christ.
These pathetic fake Christians who attack Christmas are actually current day
Pharisees white and pious and religious on the outward but are dead inside.
We true Christians who choose to celebrate Christmas to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ do NOT base our Holiday after the pagan rituals of the Roman Saturnalia, but rather as is always the case, Satan is a copy cat and that the pagan Roman Saturnalia was placed on the original Christmas and Hanukkah celebration by the Pagans. To get hung up with trees and gifts and Santa Claus is answerable by reading scripture Colossians 2:16 KJV. If these things bother you then do not do them, but do not place your burdens on others. Simply run along and enjoy your miserable existence in religious works.
Maranatha!
A note of major importance: Does the exact birth date of Jesus and the pure scientific proof of the star the Magoi followed really matter? Simple answer: No! What matters is who Jesus Christ is as he lives today. We only look at Christmas as a time to remember and honor the birth of our Savior. I'm only embarking on this study of the Christmas Star and the Birth of Jesus as a personal interest issue and not of essential doctrine that we need to believe in. What is essential doctrine is the Gospel: 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 KJV
1 Corinthians 15:1-4King James Version
1 Corinthians 15:1-4
King James Version
15 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
The Christmas Star
Video by Barry Setterfield. Disclaimer: I fully agree with Barry Setterfield's account that the Christmas story was hijacked by pagan practice of Saturnalia in the 3rd Century during the reign of Emperor Constantine. The first and second century Christians would have celebrated Christmas (see also the Hanukkah celebration at the same time). This video by Barry is a very good description of events related to Christmas and the Christmas Star. I believe that Barry is absolutely solid in his teaching that December 25 would have been the date the Magoi (Persian Wise men) visited the young child Jesus.
However, I have some issues with this video and with Barry Setterfield. I do not agree with Barry's use of multiple Bible translations. I believe in only the King James Version as the authentic and pure translation. Also I do not agree with Barry's misguided 'changing speed of light' theory and other crackpot science he has used in other studies but not in this one. I have no idea what his religious affiliation may be, but his teaching of the account of Jesus' birth is according to scripture. I also believe Barry is in error by discounting by failure to mention the planet Venus as it appears to to birth from Virgo in 3 BC as Venus is clothed in the sun when some accounts agree that in the fall of 3 BC Jesus was born.
This also includes the King Planet Jupiter and the relation Saturn had with Jupiter and Venus. I believe the Magoi would have certainly been very focused on these events in the heavens and is matched by scripture. In the video at time 22:40 Barry incorrectly states that the King Planet is in the constellation Virgo which is incorrect. I verified on Stellarium that at 20:04 Local time Jerusalem on 2 BC Jupiter is located in the Leo Constellation. The King Planet is located in the Leo constellation next to Regulus speaks volumes in significance to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.. And if the Magoi did enter Jerusalem on December 25, 2 BC, holding to the account that some believe Herod died in 1 BC and not 4 BC then this is what I'm sure the Magoi saw. It's also worth noting that a triple conjunction of Venus, Jupiter, in the Constellation LEO next to Regulus appears in the summer of 2 BC.
In my own research I believe we also need to look at some solid evidence that the Magoi were indeed tracking The King Planet Jupiter and The Changer of Ages Saturn in an extremely rare triple conjunction that took place in the constellation Pisces in September of 7 BC which was also a possible date of the birth of Jesus Christ. I realize 7 BC is in conflict with the widely held belief of 5 or especially 6 BC based on the supposed Census of Caesar mentioned in Luke 2. However, I'm sure Luke was referring to the Census that Caesar ordered in 7 BC based on studies by Dr. Elder as follows:
Dr. John Elder notes that:
...archeological discoveries prove beyond doubt that regular enrollment of taxpayers was a feature of Roman rule and have shown that a census was taken every fourteen years. A large Egyptian papyrus, telling of an enrollment AD 174-175, refers to two previous enrollments, one in 160-161 and another in 146-147, at intervals of fourteen years. A much earlier papyrus, dated in the reign of Tiberius [14-37 AD] reports a man's wife and dependents for enrollment and apparently has a reference to a tax roll compiled AD 20-21. Another shows an enrollment under Nero AD 62-63; another lists those exempt from the poll tax in the forty-first year of Augustus, who began his reign in 27 BC. Since Augustus records that he set about early in his reign to organize the empire, the first census may have been either 23-22 BC or in 9-8 BC; the latter would be the census to which the Gospel of Luke refers. (Elder, J. 1960. Prophets, Idols, and Diggers. Indianapolis/New York: Bobbs-Merrill Co., pp. 159-60).
The question has been raised whether the Romans would have instituted census and taxation procedures in Palestine while Herod the Great was ruling as king of the Jews. That they would not have hesitated to do so is suggested by comparison with Apamea on the Orontes in Syria. The autonomy of this city-state is shown by the fact that it minted its own coins, yet Quirinius himself had a census taken there. A gravestone found in Venice carries the inscription of a Roman officer named Q. Aemilius Secundus. He states that by order of P. Sulpicius Quirinius, whom he calls legatus Caesaris Syriae, he himself conducted a census of Apamea, a city-state of 117,000 citizens. As for Herod, Josephus reports that in the time when Saturninus and Volumnius were the presidents of Syria, Caesar Augustus demoted him from 'friend' (φ?λος= amicus) to 'subject.' Saturninus was listed above as governor of Syria in 9-6 BC, and Volumnius was evidently associated with him. By comparison with Apamea and specially from the time of Herod's demotion by Augustus, Palestine would scarcely be exempt from any census and taxation procedures the Romans wished to institute. (Finegan, J. 1964. Handbook of Biblical Chronology. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, p. 237).
https://biblearchaeology.org/research/new-testament-era/4192-a-brief-comment-on-the-census-in-luke-2
This would have matched the time frame experts believe Herod would have met the Magoi in late 5 BC to the beginning of 4 BC giving Jesus the age of 2 years plus a few months by the time the Magoi reached Jerusalem. I have done the additional research on Stellarium and found that in 5 BC there were fantastic signs in the heavens to include: a 70 day Nova recorded by the Chinese in addition to the conjuction of Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation Pisces. Why is Pisces is so important is because this constellation would have shown the Magoi that it was in Israel this super King would have been born. See information in links below.
The current dating system, which places January 1, 1 A.D., a week after Jesus’ birth, was
established in about 525 A.D. by Dionysius Exiguus (Dennis the Little), a Scythian monk, who
hoped to repair a division in the church over the dates of Easter by preparing a new calendar.
Rather than use the then-standard Diocletian system (counting the years since the reign of this
late-third-century emperor, who had persecuted the Christians), Dionysius decided to count from
Jesus’ birth. To do this, he used an earlier calendric system, which dated to many centuries
before Jesus’ time—a Roman system based on the establishment of Rome. He fixed Jesus’ birth
date as December 25, 753 A.U.C. (Ab Urbe Condita, from the founding of the city of Rome). It isnot known how Dionysius chose that date. One theory is that he based it on the Book of Luke,
which states that “Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his work” (Luke 3:23) and that
this occurred “in the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius” (Luke 3:1). Tiberius’s reign
began around 767 A.U.C., or 14 A.D., so 754 A.U.C. became 1 A.D. Dionysius’s system of
counting years gradually caught on: Charlemagne made it nearly universal in the ninth century,
and the calendar we use today maintains Dionysius’s calculations, with a few adjustments made
by Pope Gregory in 1582. (Why December 25th was accepted as Jesus’ birthday is even more
obscure; it may be related to the Roman festival of Saturnalia, which was celebrated on that date.
It may also be related to the Jewish tradition of performing circumcisions one week after a birth—
in Jesus’ case, on January 1.)
But Dionysius had miscalculated. As Matthew’s Gospel tells usoutside sources, such as
Josephus, and from the dates of contemporaneous Roman leaders. This means that Jesus must
have been born before 4 B.C. Various calculations, based on astronom, Jesus was born during the reign of Herod the Great. Herod died in 4 B.C., as is known from y, history and the Bible,
have come up with dates between 7 and 4 B.C.—which means that we are already a few years
into the second millennium! But that won’t change anyone’s plans, or their calendars. Quote taken from
"The first Christmas" Biblical archaeology . org
This brings up another dilemma I encountered. If Jesus was born in 7 B.C.E. and was crucified in 33 AD/C.E. or even as late as 36 AD/C.E. then that would make him 40 years old or older. Here's some extremely interesting information I've found that seriously challenges the notion that Jesus was only 30 or 33 years old at the time of his crucifixion. Start your study by reading John 8:57 KJV and Hebrews 3:3-19 KJV. I'm still studying how we'd harmonize Luke 3:23 KJV, John 2:13, 6:4, and 11:55 KJV that Bible scholars deal with in the link I've attached here:
Jesus’ Birth Discussed at length by experts
James Tabor
We have seen his star in the east
The Star of Bethlehem studied by experts
The Christmas Star visible December 21, 2020 with notes
The Christmas star quotes from The First Christmas from Biblical Archelogy . ORG
2009 Biblical Archaeology Society
The only remaining candidate is a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 7 B.C.E.1
Already
in 1604 Johannes Kepler associated this event with the birth of Jesus. However, Jupiter and
Saturn did not come close enough to each other during this conjunction to be seen as a single
exceptionally bright star. Rather, they remained at least one degree apart (about two diameters of
the moon), leading one scholar to conclude: “This fact renders it impossible to explain the Star of
Bethlehem with reference to that particular conjunction.”2
The First Christmas
© 2009 Biblical Archaeology Society 17
It thus seems that from the viewpoint of modern science, the Star of Bethlehem cannot
be satisfactorily explained. We will have better luck, however, if we turn to ancient science, which
sheds light on how the magi themselves would have understood these celestial phenomena, in
particular the conjunction of 7 B.C.E. For although modern scholars might find it “impossible” to
identify this conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter with the magi’s star, Babylonian astronomers used
the term kakkabu, “star,” to refer to a single star or planet as well as a constellation.
Further evidence of how ancient astronomers would have understood this conjunction
has been revealed by excavations in Babylon, which have uncovered four clay tablets bearing
astronomical computations for the year 7 B.C.E.c
This almanac indicates that, from the beginning
of the year, Jupiter and Saturn were continuously visible in Pisces for 11 months. In other words,
for most of the year the constellation Pisces served as a backdrop for the planets Jupiter and
Saturn as they traveled slowly through the night sky. The movements, stationary points, risings
and settings of both planets are accurately registered month by month (see the sidebar to this
article). They came closest together on three nights in May, October and December. It appears
from the almanac that toward the end of the conjunction, Mars also moved into Pisces; it was
visible near Jupiter and Saturn in mid-February.
That the almanac survives in four copies is remarkable, and, indeed, quite exceptional.
The overwhelming majority (85 percent) of the known almanacs are available in one copy only,
and only two other almanacs are available in four or more copies.d Unlike modern almanacs,
Babylonian almanacs were not drawn up for the general public but for the private use of a handful
of experts, and they were guarded as great scholarly secrets. That so many copies exist of this
one is all the more surprising when one considers its date: Cuneiform texts become rare in the
latter half of the first century B.C.E. (the latest known cuneiform tablet dates from 75 C.E. and
there are only four cuneiform tablets altogether from the Christian Era).
The great number of copies has an obvious explanation, however: An 11-month
conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in Pisces is an extremely rare event, occurring only once every
800 years. Because of the slow rotational velocity of both Jupiter (which has a 12-year orbit
around the sun) and Saturn (29.5 years), any conjunction of these planets (the so-called “great
conjunction”) will only happen every 20 years. The 11-month conjunction of 7 B.C.E., however,
was special in that the planets met three times in succession in the same constellation. It can
occur only when both planets are in opposition to the sun; that is, the sun is on the opposite side
of the Earth from the planets (see the sidebar to this article). Since 7 B.C.E. a triple conjunction of
Saturn and Jupiter has been observed only twice, in the years 786 and 1583.For the ancient Babylonian magi, however, the conjunction was not only important
astronomically, but astrologically and politically.
In the Babylonian system, Jupiter, the largest and brightest planet, was known as the star
of Marduk, the supreme god of Babylon. Saturn, the second largest planet, was the star of the
king, the earthly representative of the god. The Babylonians called Saturn Kaiwaµnu, “The
Steady One.” The constellation Pisces was associated with Ea, the god of wisdom, life and
creation. Pisces was also the last sign in the zodiac—that is, the last constellation that the sun
passed through each year (see the sidebar to this article). The conjunction of the planets in
Pisces accordingly portended two things: the end of the old world order and the birth of a new
savior king chosen by God. No Babylonian interpretation of this particular conjunction is extant—
surely because of the great rarity of the event—but we know that interpretations of planetary
conjunctions were based on an analysis of the astrological significance of the planets and the
accompanying circumstances, particularly the zodiacal sign in which the conjunction took place.
The fact that Mars, the star of Nergal, the god of war,e
joined the conjunction in its final phase
signified that the new king was to come from the West, specifically, from Syria-Palestine, for Mars
was the star of Amurru or the West (Syria-Palestine) in the Babylonian system.
The prediction of such a king would have held wide interest in 7 B.C.E., when a power
vacuum of sorts prevailed in the Near East. The Seleucid empire created by the successors of
Alexander the Great had collapsed in 64 B.C.E., and its remnants, which included Judea, had
been annexed to Rome as a province named Syria. The power of Rome had not yet been
consolidated in the area, however. Even after Augustus changed Rome into an autocratic
monarchy in 27 B.C.E., his authority was questioned in the East, for the Roman emperor, unlike
the Seleucid kings and their predecessors, did not derive his authority from God. For this reason,
many people considered Roman rule illegitimate and hoped that a local Near Eastern king
appointed by God would drive the Romans out of the country and create a better world. These
messianic expectations are recorded by Josephus and reflected in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The conjunction of 7 B.C.E. would have been interpreted as a portent of the birth of
precisely this kind of king. The political vistas opened by it would not have escaped the attention
of any Babylonian astrologer.
When the year 7 B.C.E. began, Jupiter was already visible in the night sky. Saturn
appeared soon after, on the third day of the first month, Nisan (at the beginning of April). The
planets met for the first time on May 27, rising in the east at about 2 o’clock in the morning, the
brighter Jupiter first, and Saturn, considerably dimmer, soon after it.
The First Christmas
© 2009 Biblical Archaeology Society 19
The second meeting of the planets occurred on the 22nd of Tishri (October 6). Just as
Mars was the star of Amurru (the West), Tishri was known as the month of Amurru. This second
meeting may have inspired the magi to head West. That they chose to visit Herod’s court is
natural, as he was unquestionably one of the most powerful kings of Syria-Palestine.
The magi would have seen a brilliant and suggestive sight. Jupiter and Saturn were in
opposition to the sun and shining at their brightest, with Jupiter (the star of the supreme god)
appearing twice as bright as Sirius, the brightest star. Appearing directly above Saturn (the star of
the king), Jupiter thus seemed to embrace and protect Saturn in its light. The conjunction was
visible through the whole night, setting in the West. For the magi, the significance resided in the
astrological message, not the appearance: Matthew nowhere stresses the brightness of the star.
The journey of about 750 miles from Babylon to Jerusalem took about three weeks by
donkey or camel. If the magi left for Syria-Palestine in early Tishri (October), they would have
arrived there well before November 7, when Jupiter reached a stationary point (its second) and
for a moment seemed to come to a stop. This occurs whenever the Earth, traveling at a faster
rate in its smaller, inner orbit, catches up with Jupiter (or any outer planet). As the Earth
overtakes the planet, Jupiter appears from our vantage point to pause in the sky, then to travel
backward (westward) in retrograde motion until Earth has passed by. The planet then pauses a
second time and turns back in an easterly direction (see the sidebar to this article). On November
20, Saturn reached its (second) stationary point. Both dates—the 7th for Jupiter and 20th for
Saturn—would fit Matthew’s description of a star stopping above Bethlehem.
The third conjunction occurred at the time of the full moon, on the 14th of Kislev
(December 1), about three weeks before the winter solstice, when the Babylonians held their
annual celebration of the victory of their savior god, NabĂ», over the forces of darkness. The magi
may well have associated the birth of the child they were looking for with this festival, for the
Mesopotamian king was commonly regarded as an incarnation of NabĂ». Interestingly, the
Babylonians proclaimed NabĂ»’s victory as “good tidings” (bussuraµti) to all the people. Bussurtu,
“good tidings,” is the same word as Hebrew/Aramaic besorah, of which the Biblical euangelion
(gospel) is a Greek translation.
In Luke, the angel uses this very term to announce Jesus’ birth to the shepherds keeping
watch over their flock by night: “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news
[euangelion = bussurtu] of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a
Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord” (Luke 2:10–11).
The First Christmas
© 2009 Biblical Archaeology Society 20
How could a star lead the magi to Jerusalem and Bethlehem?f
These Babylonian
astronomers would have “followed” a star only based on its astrological significance. In 7 B.C.E.,
they read the message of the “star”—that a messiah-king would be born in Syria-Palestine—and
they headed to a leading political center in the region, King Herod’s court. There they were
directed to Bethlehem; as they traveled, both the planet of the king (Saturn) and the planet of the
supreme god (Jupiter) would have paused in the sky, as planets do when the Earth overtakes
them in their orbit. In late December, at the winter solstice, the magi would have rejoiced with
good news, or bussuraµti: Their savior king was born—several years before the Christian Era
even began!
What the Magi Saw
Sidebar to: The Magi and the Star
The Triple Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn
Ancient astronomers believed that the Earth was the center of the universe. They thought
that the sun, moon and the five visible planets—Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn—
circled around the Earth at different distances and speeds. Farthest away was the great celestial
sphere in which the stars, and the constellations they formed, were embedded. The constellations
on the celestial sphere thus appeared as a backdrop to the sun, moon and planets as they moved
across the heavens.
The First Christmas
© 2009 Biblical Archaeology Society 21
The group of 12 constellations in front of which the sun, moon and planets appear to
move are probably the best-known features of the night sky: They are the constellations of the
zodiac—Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus and so on. The band along which these constellations
appear is called the ecliptic. In the drawing below, for example, the sun is “in” (really, in front of)
Virgo. Of course, the ancients could never really see the sun in any particular constellation since
the stars aren’t visible in the daytime; but since they were familiar with the order of the zodiac and
the sun’s rising and setting throughout the year, they could easily calculate which constellation
the sun was “in,” even if they couldn’t see it. It is much easier to see a planet in a constellation at
night, as shown in the photo taken on December 16, 2000, which shows a conjunction of Jupiter
and Saturn in Taurus (see photo of conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn).
Whereas the sun makes a smooth journey across the ecliptic, spending exactly one
month in each of the zodiac’s 12 constellations, the planets behave much more strangely. Their
motion is erratic—at times changing speed, and even changing direction. In fact the word planet
comes from the Greek word planeµteµs, meaning “wanderer” or “nomad.” The outer planets
Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, for example, spend most of the year traveling eastward against the
backdrop of stars, but every so often, and almost always at separate times, each planet will
appear to make a loop or switchback in its journey. It will slow down, “stop” and then travel back
toward the west for a short distance—in what astronomers call retrograde motion—then it will
slow down again, stop and resume travel in an easterly direction.
Early astronomers came up with ingenious theories to explain the planets’ strange
behavior. In about 87 C.E., the Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy suggested that each planet
moved in small circles or “epicycles” as it moved along its greater orbit around the Earth. Like
wheels-within-wheels, these epicycles helped explain why sometimes a planet would appear to
move relatively quickly across the sky from night to night, while at other times it would slow down
and change direction for brief periods.
It wasn’t until the 16th century that the much simpler truth of the matter was finally
recognized. The Polish astronomer Copernicus realized that the retrograde motion of planets was
actually an illusion due to the fact that the sun, not the Earth, was the center of the solar system,
and that the Earth was just another planet circling it.
To understand Copernicus’s insight, and to grasp why the planets aren’t really traveling
backward even if they seem to at times, imagine a racetrack with several lanes, with the sun in
the center. Each planet is a car, racing around the sun in the same, counterclockwise direction,
and always staying in its own lane—Mercury on the inside track, Venus next to it, then Earth,
Mars, Jupiter and finally Saturn. (Later astronomers discovered more planets, of course, but they
The First Christmas
© 2009 Biblical Archaeology Society 22
aren’t visible without telescopes.) And no racetrack would be complete without the grandstands
that surround it, where people sit and watch the race. These are the stars, farther from the sun
than any planet, and (for all practical purposes) motionless.
This planetary race is fixed: Not only do the cars/planets in the inner lanes always go
faster than those in the outer lanes, but every car also has an added advantage over the car
immediately to its right: It has less far to go to complete a lap. So in this imaginary racetrack,
Mercury always wins, Venus always comes in second, Earth third, and so on. (Poor Saturn!) And
since every car travels around this racetrack counterclockwise, passing is always on the left.
Now, if you’re driving the third car and watching one of the slower cars on the outer
tracks to your right—say car five—as you overtake it, your opponent will seem to slow down and
actually move backward relative to the fans sitting farther away in the bleachers. But when you’ve
put some distance between you and car five, you will again be able to see clearly that it’s moving
forward the same way you are. Its backward movement was just an illusion produced by the
relative motion of your two cars and a more distant point of reference. (You can observe this
phenomenon on an ordinary highway too: While you’re passing a car next to you, it will briefly
seem to move backward relative to the more distant trees even though you know it is actually
going forward.)
The apparent backward motion of the planets that are farther from the sun than the
Earth—Mars, Jupiter and Saturn—against the backdrop of stars is no different. It happens each
time the Earth overtakes or “laps” these slower planets as we make our yearly journey around the
sun. The Earth overtakes an outer planet when it is in opposition to the sun; that is, the sun, Earth
and planet are aligned with the Earth in the middle, as shown in the drawing below. In this
drawing, Earth and an outer planet are shown at various stages in their orbits around the sun.
The looping line at top shows how the outer planet appears to travel across the sky, starting in
the west (at right), when viewed from Earth. As Earth overtakes the planet, the planet appears to
loop backward, although of course it’s still moving forward.
Jupiter, with its 12-year orbit, and Saturn with a 29.5-year orbit, always appear to move
slowly through the night sky—but as the Earth is overtaking them, they appear to slow down even
more. What makes the events of 7 B.C.E. so unusual, astronomically speaking, is that the Earth
overtook both Jupiter and Saturn at the same time, when they were in conjunction. It’s very rare
for these two planets to come into conjunction at all—it only happens once every 20 years—and
it’s even less common for this to happen when they are in opposition and the Earth is passing
them, making them both go into apparent retrograde motion at about the same time.
This meant that in 7 B.C.E., the two slowest planets lingered for a long time—11
months—together in the same small corner of the sky (in Pisces). While in Pisces, they came into
conjunction—passed especially close to each other in the sky—three different times.
The First Christmas
© 2009 Biblical Archaeology Society 24
The diagram (above) depicts the similar, looping paths these planets took that year
starting in the west (at right) and moving, at first, in an easterly direction (to the left). The
Babylonian year began in the month of Nisan (our April). Saturn first appeared on about the third
of Nisan (April 4 in the drawing), and moved slowly eastward from night to night. Jupiter appeared
a few weeks later, on April 24. Jupiter was moving more quickly in its smaller orbit and caught up
to Saturn on May 27—the date of the first conjunction.
For the next couple months, both planets appeared to travel in the typical easterly
direction, but Earth was gaining fast. As the Earth began to overtake Saturn, Saturn appeared to
slow its eastward advance, stop and then switch direction on July 6. Jupiter did the same thing
when Earth passed by it: On July 16 it appeared to stop and change direction. Now both planets
appeared to move from east to west across the sky, with Saturn in the lead once again. On
October 6, 7 B.C.E., at 10 p.m., Jupiter caught up with Saturn. This was the second conjunction
of the year, made even more striking by the full moon that shone nearby that evening.
The planets continued to travel west until November. As the Earth moved farther ahead,
the planets appeared to pause for a second time: Jupiter on November 7, Saturn on November
20. They then appeared once again to travel in their usual, easterly direction. Saturn again was in
the lead, but Jupiter quickly caught up. On December 1, at 9 p.m., the two planets came into
conjunction for the third and final time that year. It would be another 20 years before they would
meet again, another 200 years before they met in Pisces and another 800 years before they
would meet in a triple conjunction.
This article first appeared in Bible Review magazine, December 2001. You can view this
article fully illustrated in the BAS Library, along with more than 30 years of articles by the world’s
foremost scholars of Biblical archaeology and related fields.
Visit www.biblicalarchaeology.org/library for more information.
Thanks for the info, Brother Andrew; thanks to my Dutch background, I was already familiar with "Sinterklaas" but not so much with the rest. Setterfield's changing speed of light theory is, well, scientific nonsense. And I agree with you that the exact date of birth of Christ, while interesting, is not important; the same applies to the scientific proof of the star followed by the Magi.
ReplyDeleteThank you Brother. Merry Christmas!
Delete