Summary: On this day in history, June 17, 2 BC, a rare celestial conjunction took place at sunset which may relate to Matthew 2’s account of the Magi coming to Jesus in Bethlehem, having followed his star from the East.
Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” – Matthew 2:1-2 (ESV)
I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel. – Numbers 24:17 (ESV)
The Anniversary of the Spectacular Star
Today is June 17, 2022, the anniversary of a spectacular sky event which happened in 2 BC. At sunset on that day anyone in the middle latitudes of the northern hemisphere could easily see the extraordinarily brilliant point of light appearing over the western horizon.
In fact, Jupiter and Venus, each very bright, had been moving closer together in the sky for many nights. But on June 17, they appeared to have fused into one great star. No one alive had seen anything like it; centuries separate conjunctions like this.
This event was one in a sixteen-month-long progression of events, each involving Jupiter, the kings’ star. What kind of meaning might ancient astrologers have attached to all this and could it be what sent the Magi on their way to Bethlehem?
Astrologers and Ominous Omens
If you had been an astrologer in the East (Mesopotamia), you would have consulted omens lists to interpret such events. Those omens lists were many centuries old, and they had come to be revered as a kind of scripture.
These classical omens still exist on a series of cuneiform tablets, the Enuma Anu Enlil. The omens have also been compiled in Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars, edited by Simo Parpola, and Babylonian Planetary Omens by Erica Reiner. Their relevance has been brought to our attention by Dag Kihlman, The Star of Bethlehem and Babylonian Astrology.
The ancient people of the East took their sky omens with the utmost seriousness. In fact, if an omen threatened the life of the king, a substitute king might be placed on the throne for a time, so that the evil destined for the king could happen to the substitute. After enough time had gone by, the true king would resume his place, and the substitute would be put to death.
Here are some examples of the hundreds of omens which have come down to us:
“We watched the moon; on the 14th day the moon and the sun saw each other. (This means) well-being.” (Letters, p. 111)
“If on the 14th of Tebet (X) [the moon] is not seen [with the] sun: [there will be deaths], and the god will eat.” (Letters, p. 71)
“[If Venus at her appearance is red] the crop of the land will succeed…” (Babylonian Planetary Omens, Part 3, Erica Reiner, p. 61)
Now consider this omen:
“If Venus enters Jupiter (UD.AL.Tar): the king of Akkad will die, the dynasty will change, either a soldier will go out or the enemy will send a message (asking for peace) to the land.” (Babylonian Planetary Omens, Part 3, Erica Reiner and David Pingree. Cuneiform Monographs 11, Groningen, Styx Publications, 1998, p. 93)
Venus entering Jupiter refers to a close conjunction of the planets. In fact, this had happened in mid-August of 3 BC, some ten months before the brilliant celestial spectacle of June 17, 2 BC. And the king of Akkad (the East) did die at just that time!
Musa, the concubine of Parthia’s King Phraates IV, poisoned her husband with the help of her son. Mother and son then married and ruled together. But Musa had been a Roman slave, so the queen was not of pure Parthian blood, and neither was her son, the new king, Phraataces V.
In that sense the dynasty changed when the king died, just as the sky omen had warned. Astrologers in the East had seen their omens confirmed in a striking way.
Heliacal Rising
That mid-August conjunction had been impressive, though not as impressive as the one of June 17; it was in the eastern sky, not the west. The two planets rose over the horizon just ahead of the rising sun, visible again after going unseen for months. Astrologers called this: heliacal rising. It could signal an important birth. When the Magi in Matthew 2 say they saw the king’s star when it rose, this is no doubt what they refer to.
Then the June 17 conjunction of Jupiter and Venus threatened death to the king again, and between these two Jupiter-Venus conjunctions, a third frightening portent had occurred in the sky. Jupiter moved back out of Leo and passed the bright star, Regulus.
The omens said:
“And the matter of the planet Jupiter is as follows: If it turns back out of the Breast of Leo, this is ominous. It is written in the Series as follows: ‘If Jupiter passes Regulus and gets ahead of it, and afterwards Regulus, which it passed and got ahead of, stays within its setting, someone will rise, kill the king, and seize the throne.’ This aforesaid is the only area which is taken as bad if Jupiter retrogrades there. Wherever else it might turn, it may freely do so, there is not a word about it.” [Simo Parpola, Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars, SAA 10 (Helsinki: Helsinki University Press, 1993), pp. 9–10 rev. 12–22.]
I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel. – Numbers 24:17 (ESV)
Three striking omens in succession warned against someone killing the king, changing the dynasty. And the first such omen had already proved true with the murder of Phraates IV. According to the other two omens, the new king was now in great danger.
“The enemy” was normally Amuru. This was in general the West. That’s where King Herod still ruled over his kingdom, struggling to stay alive despite horrific illness both physical and mental. Who would succeed Herod? Would it be that “someone will rise” referred to in the omen?
Whoever that “someone” might be, it was time to send ambassadors to prevent war and secure peace. The first of the omens had prescribed such attempts: “send a soldier.”
The House of the Magi
Who would go? In the Parthian Empire, one house of the government was the House of the Magi. They were the persons who read the sky and advised the kings, based on the omens. These Magi were normally the ones who approved kings before they took the throne. They were the ones to whom such assignments belonged.
It makes perfect sense that a delegation of Parthia’s Magi ventured west to find that “someone” who would rise, and secure peace rather than face war. (Phraataces V was already recklessly taking provocative action against the Roman Empire’s presence in Armenia.)
John’s Revelation
There is another sky event that belongs to this time. It is from a different biblical tradition than Matthew, the Book of Revelation. John in his vision saw the sign in heaven of a woman clothed with the sun, the moon at her feet, and twelve stars forming a crown around her head (chapter 12). She gave birth to a child who was clearly the Messiah. (That biblical text is rightfully deserving of a Thinkers Update all its own.)
We will only say for now that this unique configuration of the sun, moon and stars in the constellation Virgo happened within a month of that heliacal rising of Venus and Jupiter. So, these two different sky events from two different biblical traditions, each in its own way, place the birth of Jesus at essentially the same time in 2 BC.
Conclusion
The fact is: we can now attach calendar dates to the different scenes in that sixteen-month-long pageant involving the kings’ planet Jupiter in 3 and 2 BC. The pageant culminated in a stationing (stopping against the background stars) of Jupiter, seen from Jerusalem as shining above Bethlehem. That was on the 25th of December, 2 BC. Matthew’s story of the Star has become virtually undeniable. Keep thinking!
TOP PHOTO: A re-creation of the June 17, 2 BC, conjunction of Venus and Jupiter at sunset. The two planets were no longer seen as individual planets, but appeared to have merged into one (top, center). (Note, the “-1” in the time and date window is equivalent to 2 BC.) Source: Dr. Fred Baltz, Stellarium software.
 | This Thinker Update has been adapted from When the Bible Meets the Sky: The Star of Bethlehem and Other Mysteries by Frederick Baltz. |
NOTE: Not every view expressed by scholars contributing Thinker articles necessarily reflects the views of Patterns of Evidence. We include perspectives from various sides of debates on biblical matters so that readers can become familiar with the different arguments involved. – Keep Thinking!
