What Did the Magi See?
What the Magi may have seen around the time of Jesus Christ’s Birth.
Magi in the East saw the “star” of the King of the Jews (Matthew 2). But what was it that they saw, and how did they interpret it? That question has been around for centuries, but astronomical information recently pointed out may answer it.
An improved chronology of Roman history around the time of Jesus is provided by Ernest L. Martin.1 Building on and beyond the work of W. E. Filmer,2 Martin demonstrates convincingly that Herod died after 4 BC, and that it was most probably January 28, 1 BC. Martin’s choice for the birth of Jesus is between 3 BC and 2 BC, in the late Autumn. He chooses the former, though he is less convincing here than for the year of Herod’s death. Over a 17-20 month time frame, various remarkable celestial events would likely have caught the attention of those who observed stars and planets, looking for their meanings. In Table 1 (next column), the more notable observational phenomena are compared with Roman history and events significant to Jesus’ life.
For dating Jesus’ birth (or anything else), Martin acknowledges that any reference to the woman clothed with the Sun, with the Moon under her feet (Revelation 12:1-5), is necessarily interpretive. 4 (The more so, as in the celestial realm Draco the dragon is too far away to stand before Virgo the virgin.) At any selected place on earth (e.g., Jerusalem at 18:23), Martin’s criteria of the Sun at 151°-170° right ascension and the Moon at 187°-194° are simultaneously met about four years out of ten. Here are two such occasions.
September 11, 3 BC (Wednesday, Tishri 1, 166°, 190°)
September 1, 2 BC (Monday, Elul 2, 151°, 191°)
The first of these, coinciding with the New Year, makes it the more auspicious. In later years, the next three also qualify, and the fourth one comes close enough to mention.
Adoration of the Magi
September 9, 28 AD (Thursday, Tishri 2, 160°, 194°)
August 30, 29 AD (Tuesday, Elul 2, 155°, 190°)
September 7, 31 AD (Friday, Elul or Tishri 1, 162°, 188°)
September 17, 30 AD (Sunday, Tishri 1, 172°, 193°)
Martin lists ten astronomical events in the fifteen months from May 20, 3 BC, to August 26, 2 BC. (Here we extend the range to September or the beginning of October.) The significance of the individual events, to the Magi observing them, would be intensified by the concentration of so many.
From the conception of John to the birth of Jesus was fourteen to fifteen months (as deduced from Luke 1:36). If one begins with Zechariah’s course of the priesthood and the angel’s message to Zechariah, the interval may be slightly longer. It may be reasonable to consider whether the events from Zechariah’s priesthood (and revelation from the angel Gabriel), to the birth of Jesus, are parallel to this array of astronomical phenomena. If so, it would point to the birth of Jesus near the Autumnal equinox of 2 BC.
Martin (page 112) accepts that Herod Philip died in 36 AD “in the twenty-second year [of the reign] of Tiberius” (Josephus, Antiquities, XVIII, iv, 6). So when John the Baptist began his ministry in the fifteenth year of Tiberius (Luke 3:1), it should be 29 AD (not 27), in the Spring. From the death of Augustus in 14 AD, the fifteenth year also brings us to 29 AD. So Jesus’ baptism would have been also in 29 AD (probably near the Autumnal equinox).
In 30 AD (Martin’s choice for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ), March 22 the conjunction of the Moon with the Sun occurred at 20:59 Babylonian time, or 20:22 Jerusalem time.5 By the following sunset (about 18:00) more than 21 hours had past; so that Nisan 1 would have begun on May 23 (Thursday), Roman reckoning, and 75% of that day would have corresponded to May 24 (Friday). Unless the Jews had poor eyesight or were deficient in calculation, the Nisan 14 crucifixion that year would have been on April 6 (Thursday), and not on Friday.
Moreover, a 30 AD crucifixion would necessitate compressing Jesus’ ministry into 2½ years at most, in apparent contradiction to the Gospel of John.6 The only other candidate for the crucifixion is April 3, 33 AD (Friday), which fits a 3½ year ministry (required by John’s gospel), and also a birth of Jesus near the Autumnal equinox of 2 BC.
– Bro. James Parkinson
(1) “The Star that Astonished the World,” Portland, OR: ASK Publications, 1996.
(2) “The Chronology of the Reign of Herod the Great,” Journal of Theological Studies, October 1966, pages 283-298.
(3) See “From Jordan to Golgotha,” Beauties of the Truth, February, 2011. That article examines the possibility that Jesus’ ministry lasted for a period of 1260 days.
(4) The probability is the number of days the sun is within the allow- able range in Virgo divided by the lunation period, then multiplied by the width of the Moon’s allowable range divided by its travel in one solar day, or P = (20 d / 29.53 d)(7° / 12°) = 0.395, or about 40%. The 170° limit (lower body) seems likely softer than the 150° limit (higher, towards the neck of Virgo). Separation of 10° or more between Sun and Moon is necessary for the New Moon to be seen. Thereafter, separation increases about (12° – 1° =) 11° per day. To a first approximation, for separations of 10°-21° the New Moon will mark the first day of the month (7th month Tishri, or 6th month Elul), separations of 21°-32° will mark the second day of the month, etc. Days near mid-September are more likely to be in the month, Tishri.
(5) Bryant Tuckerman, “Planetary, Lunar, and Solar Positions,” Volume 2, AD 2 to AD 1649; Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society (1964). At five-day and ten-day intervals at 7 pm Babylon/Baghdad time.
(6) Martin makes a case, largely based upon the astronomical phenomena, that Jesus’ birth was on September 11, 3 BC, and a good case at that. While that case is not repeated here, the case for BC 2 near the Autumnal equinox is sketched here. If Martin may have misinterpreted some of the data, he is nonetheless to be greatly appreciated for generating and collecting most of that data.