Embedded in a Midrash!

Abstract

• Astronomical and biblical historians have long searched ancient texts to identify and explain a mysterious Star which was mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 2:1-12, 16-18), i.e., the Star of Bethlehem. The purpose of this paper is to provide an in-depth study and understanding of three observations left by the author making it possible for the modern historian to unlock the secrets of the Stars of Bethlehem, the identity of a priesthood known as the Magi, their observations of wandering stars at an ancient observatory in central Turkey and afterwards their travels on tributaries of the Silk Road to Jerusalem and later Bethlehem.
• The Legend of the Star of Bethlehem has long been imagined as a non-historical, largely fictional literary form known as a Midrash. The description of the Star appears so vague that it seems nigh impossible to definitively identify any of multiple transients over a period of one hundred years, from the time when the Star appeared to a time when the author wrote the Midrash. Recent unearthed evidence and hypothesis suggests otherwise.
• The ancient Greek word, “Anatolia” ἀνατολῇ (anatolē) translates as “the East.” Anatolia was mentioned in Matthew 2:1. The author utilized this word to describe both the homeland of the Magi and the type of astronomical observations which were conducted at a remote ancient observatory. While history has long suggested the Greek word is a description for the Magi’s homeland in Babylon or Sinai, a careful study of the text suggests that the author spoke about a specific priesthood of Magi that were commissioned during the reign of the sovereign, Antiochus I (70 BCE to 30 BCE) in the Kingdom of Commagene, roughly 60 miles northwest of the ancient city of Edessa, Mesopotamia (modern Urfa or Şanlıurfa, Turkey). In ancient times, the Greek word “Anatolia” (the East) referred to a sub-region of central Turkey less than one hundred miles south of the Black Sea.
• At the ancient astronomical observatory of Nemrut Dağ in Anatolia, the Magi studied the movement of the wandering stars (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) as they traveled the Ecliptic through the twelve Zodiacal constellations. The author also utilized the same Greek word “Anatolia” to describe the type of astronomical observations (helical) the Magi conducted at the ancient observatory (“For we saw of Him the Star in the East.” Matthew 2:2b)
• A careful study of two additional observations the author left in Matthew 2:7 (“Then, Herod secretly having called the Magi, inquired exactly of them the time of the appearing Star”) and Matt. 2:9-10 (“And having heard the King, they went away and behold, the Star which they saw in the East went before them until having arrived it stood over where was the Child. Having seen now the star, they rejoiced with joy great exceedingly”) shows that the text employed a form of the same Greek word to describe not one but multiple Stars.
• In Matthew 2:16b, the author also left a cipher which identified a unique candidate for the observations in Matthew 2:7 and Matthew 2:9-10 that unequivocally revealed a Star which was recorded in a catalogue of comets observed by ancient Chinese astronomers.
• The presentation provides a holistic historical understanding of the text, the Stars’ identities, the priesthood of Magi who traveled from central Turkey first to Jerusalem and later Bethlehem and the purpose for the Midrash in the author’s work. The final observation (Matthew 2:9-10) described the Magi, who, after reaching Jerusalem around the middle of April 5 BC, twelve days later, made a nocturnal journey to Bethlehem and arrived early morning at the beginning of May shortly before sunrise. There, they viewed the Star hanging in the heavens over the village. The final observation (Matthew 2:9-10) described an eyewitness account of the Star viewed on or around May 2nd, 5 BCE which can be corroborated by a simulation of the Star’s approximate position using a modern online computer planetarium program.
• Such in depth studies of this Midrash and other ancient writings which built upon the Legend of the Star over succeeding generations can provide a treasure trove of historical and celestial informational gems about the identities of celestial transients which may have otherwise been lost to legends and myths.