Date: December 25, 2009
Title: Star of Wonder
Podcaster: Adler Planetarium
Organization: Adler Planetarium, Adler Night and Day podcasts
Description: Star of Wonder examines the theories behind the celestial event that prompted the Magi (Three Kings) to travel to Bethlehem. Was this light an exploding star, a brilliant comet, or an unusual grouping of planets?
Bio: The Adler Planetarium — America’s First Planetarium — was founded in 1930 by Chicago business leader Max Adler. The museum is home to three full-size theaters, including the all-digital projection Definiti® Space Theater, the Sky Theater which utilizes a Zeiss optical projector, and the Universe 3D Theater. It is also home to one of the world’s most important antique instrument collections. The Adler is a recognized leader in science education, with a focus on inspiring young people, particularly women and minorities, to pursue careers in science.
Today’s sponsor: This episode of “365 Days of Astronomy” is sponsored by Craig Clark.
Transcript:
Mark
Welcome to a special edition of the Adler Planetarium’s bi-weekly podcast, Adler Night and Day. The Adler Night and Day podcast provides listeners with a glimpse of what you can see in the night sky as well as updates on recent solar weather, and riveting conversation. For the 365 Day of Astronomy, daily podcast of the IYA, we’ll be concentrating on the riveting conversation. Without further ado, I’m your host Mark and today I’m joined on Adler Night and Day by Dr. Marvin Bolt, curator and Vice President of Collections at the Adler Planetarium. Welcome Marv…
Marv
Hi Mark.
Mark
Today, we’re going to examine the theories behind the celestial event that prompted the Magi, the three kings, to travel to Bethlehem, as depicted in the books of Matthew and Luke in the bible. So, Marv… astronomers, astrologers, historians, and hobbyists have dabbled in investigation of the star of Bethlehem story for nearly 2000 years. If anything, what is the historical context for the story?
Marv
Well, Mark, the only account that mentions the star of Bethlehem comes from the biblical text in Matthew’s gospel, and that story informs and is shaped by the whole gospel, and it conveys significant messages to Jewish and Christian audiences of the first century. And I think it’s really hard, if not impossible, to understand that story without understanding that context. So the story isn’t just about science as we think of it today, that doesn’t make it uninteresting, just a little bit different from what one might expect. Theology, science, and philosophy… they’re all part of the same activity and, I would say, they are part of the same activity today but in very different ways from how it was 2000 years ago.
Mark
Sure. Okay, well so, was this light and exploding star? A brilliant comet? An unusual grouping of planets? Do we have any idea what the star of Bethlehem might have been?
Marv
I think we have some good ideas of about what it might have been and even better ideas of what it was not. I think if we want to understand what the star of Bethlehem was, we’ll have to look at what a wise man, 2000 years ago would have thought was interesting and significant. And to do that, we’re actually going to have to look at an event that is not just astronomical, but actually astrological, and if we’re looking for something we think is significant we’re going to miss the point. We have to look at something they would have thought was significant. So, people have come up with all sorts of suggestions. Was it a bright new star? Was it a comet? Was it something else that everybody else would have seen? Well, if we look at the story in Matthew it’s pretty clear that King Herod and his cohorts, they had no idea what was going on. They hadn’t noticed anything very bright or anything very unusual and that should tip us off that this star of Bethlehem was actually probably astrological and not astronomical. Now, what was the difference between astrological and astronomical? Well, he we have to look at what astrology was 2000 years ago and what people would have done was to look at events in the sky, such as, how the stars and planets and sun and moon were arranged and how they were positioned with respect to each other and how they would have tried to find meaning from those positions. About 2000 years ago an astronomer by the name of Ptolemy came up with a guidebook or a summary of astrology and by looking at that we can actually try to come up with a picture of how these wise men would’ve thought these kinds of events would’ve been significant, so… if you look at the internet and do a google search for star of Bethlehem bibliography, you’ll find something that a friend and colleague of mine has put together with hundreds of references and I can say that virtually all of them, if not all of them, are wrong.
Mark
(Laughs)
Marv
Now how can I say they’re all wrong? Well, if they’re all different, at most one of them can be right.
Mark
Yah, there you go.
Marv
But most of them actually look at what we think is important, about ten years ago and astronomer at Rutgers University came up with a very, very different approach and he wrote up this book called “The Star of Bethlehem” and it’s by Michael Molnar, and I would recommend that people take a look my friend’s website and to take a look at this book for a really detailed description of what this event could be. But the basic idea of this is as follows: if you take a look at the guidelines of Ptolemy wrote 2000 years ago about how to interpret the heavens, you’ll find out that certain planets have meaning if they’re in positions relative to each other and these meanings indicate that a king is born Judea and it would point the way to Judea, although not to Bethlehem, it’s not until the wise men consult the prophets that they are pointed to Bethlehem and actually find the way to the Christ child.
Mark
Okay, well, I’ll be very honest, most versions of the star of Bethlehem planetarium show lead to as many contradictions as conclusions. For example, if you follow the logic of the Adler Planetarium’s version, one of the possible conclusions would be that Zoroastrian astrology can accurately predict supernatural events, which is probably not an acceptable conclusion for Christians or astronomers. Do we go to far when we apply modern investigation techniques to religious and historical subjects?
Marv
I don’t think it’s inappropriate at all. But, I think we have to be really careful not to take the beliefs, opinions, and standards of 2000 years ago and apply them to today. Conversely, we also can’t take the beliefs, opinions, and standards of today and apply them to 2000 years ago.
Mark
Right
Marv
So, if we take a look at the gospel story you notice some very interesting features that actually help you to understand what this event is about. There are some interesting parallels between Matthew 1 and Genesis 1 about a creation story and a creation story tells us, or gives us answers to, where did people come from? What’s the origin of the universe? Were do people fit into the cosmos? And both Matthew and Genesis actually give some answers to this. And if you take a look at the gospel of Matthew, the story of the wise men takes place between two very different kinds of stories or events. The first is the people of God in the Old Testament and the people of God in the New Testament and this story actually makes a transition between a very small group of people associated with this people of God versus the whole, um, community of the world really, at the end of Matthew’s gospel. And so, this marks that transition in an interesting way showing that this, um, this new Adam, this second Adam, the parallel of the first Adam is actually similar but quite different and opens up the world in a new way. So if we take a look at the story of the star of Bethlehem we actually see a lot of very interesting theological parallels and some interesting claims that this star of Bethlehem marks and signals.
Mark
Well, that brings up an interesting point. When you’re dealing with a subject like this, do your religious beliefs have influence over your historical interpretation or vice-versa? Does your academic training influence your religious beliefs and how you might interpret this information?
Marv
I think that as an historian, my understanding of this event and this story is enhanced by religious beliefs and I think one’s religious beliefs can be enhanced by historical beliefs, but they have to be held together very carefully because it’s easy to have one bias and impact in ways that aren’t very helpful. I think I’m a better historian because of my convictions about this story but I think my convictions are also strengthened by my own historical understanding as a scholar. So I don’t think that they have to be held in contrast at all but they can mutually benefit each other and inform each other in helpful ways that make both of them much stronger.
Mark
Well, that’s pretty insightful, thank you Marv and thank you for joining us on this special episode of Adler Night and Day.
Marv
Alright, thank you Mark.
Mark
I’d also like to thank the listeners of the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast. To listen to full episodes of Adler Night and Day please visit www.adlerplanetarium.org/podcasts.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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