Is the Planetary Conjunction Really the Star of Bethlehem?

This December there is going to be a conjunction of the planets that will create a very bright “star” in the evening sky. It has been called the Star of Bethlehem, as people want to believe that it was this phenomena that was the star that led the Wisemen to the Christ child. They even date Christ's birth by the conjunction around that era. This is a nice tradition, and many scholars are willing to stand behind this idea, but is it true? Is there anything in Scripture that would point to this? Let’s take a look and see.

The first question is, what time of year was Christ born? Was it December 25? Does this conjunction at this time of year point to the year of Christ's birth? Or this date? Why do we celebrate Christ’s birth on that day if it wasn’t then? To find the answer to this question, we must go to the book of Luke.

The story is told of Zacharias and Elizabeth. They were childless. While Zacharias was carrying out his duties of priest in the temple an angel appeared to him and informed him that he and Elizabeth would have a child. Luke 1:8-9,11, 13, 23-24 “And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course, According to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord…...And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense…….But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John…..And it came to pass, that, as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house. And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived..”

Now when one studies the priesthood, one finds that there were twenty-four courses of priests. (1 Chronicles 24). It seems historically that the custom was that each course would take a week in the first half of the year, and a week in the second half of the year to work. That is forty-eight weeks. During the week long spring Feast of Unleavened Bread  and the week long fall Feast of Tabernacles, due to the great increase in sacrifices, all of the priests would work.That would cover the fifty weeks of the Jewish year, which is several weeks shorter than a normal year. As the religious year began in Nissan, the courses would begin with the beginning of the year, but as their calendar year moved in relation to the Gregorian calendar, the year would start anywhere from March to April. As Passover begins on Nissan 14, the third week in the year, there would be a week when the courses would be interrupted for all to work, then continue in order after that until they started with the first course again. Six months later the pattern would be repeated with the third week of the series of courses again being the feast week.

Zacharias was said to be in the course of Abia or Abijah. “There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia:” We find from the Old Testament that Abijah’s course was the eighth course of the year. 1 Chron. 24:10 “The seventh to Hakkoz, the eighth to Abijah,” As the courses would start with the year in the spring, and the third week of the year was a feast week, the eighth course would be the ninth week of the year and could be as early as the second week in May or as late as the second week in June depending on the year. If it were the fall when the angel appeared, it would have been six months later at either the beginning of November to the beginning of December when he made his appearance. So when Zacharias’ week was over, he would have gone home and Elizabeth would have conceived (probably immediately) anywhere from the third week in May to the third week in June or the early part of November to the early part of December, depending on which part of the year the angel appeared.

We know that Elizabeth was in her sixth month when Mary became pregnant. Luke 1:26-28, 31, 36 “And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women…..And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS…..And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.” So John the Baptist was six months older than Christ. That means that if John was conceived in the spring between May and June, then Christ was conceived sometime in early November to early December. And vice-versa. If John was conceived in the fall, Christ was conceived in the spring. That would put the due dates from February to March, or the end of August to the end of September.

So according to Scripture, Christ was not born in December, nor was he conceived at Christmas. It would have been early December, if that were the later fall conception time, and that is as close as it would come to December 25. The one clue as to which season it might have been has to do with the shepherds being in the field with their flocks. When Christ was born, would they have been more likely to have been in the field with their flocks during the winter from February to March, or in the summer from August through September? I will leave that for the reader to decide. It certainly wasn’t December 25.

Now as to the star itself, the idea that it was a conjunction of the planet in the sky holds a problem with what we are told in Scripture.

Matt. 2:1-10 “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet, And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel. Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also. When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.”

The first thing is that it tells us that the wise men were not basing their knowledge of Jesus on astrology or even astronomy, as most assume, but says that they were basing it on the prophecies of Scripture. There is a Scripture that foretells that a star will come that heralds the Messiah. Numbers 24:17 “I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.” They also knew that the King would be born in Bethlehem according to the Scriptures. It is assumed that these men were pagan magi, but many Jews had remained in Babylon after the captivity, and it is quite possible these were Jewish scholars from that area. At the very least, they were studying the Hebrew Scriptures. These men came to worship Him. Would pagan magicians worship the Jewish God? It is doubtful.

The next thing has to do with the star itself. This star had just suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It wasn’t that they were following the process of planets coming to a conjunction as astronomers or astrologers were. This star just suddenly appeared, for Herod asked for the specific time that it appeared. The next part of this is that which people have trouble wrapping their heads around. It says that the star went before them, until it came and stood over where the child was living. A star that is millions of miles away in outer space does not move in such a way that we can literally follow it. We can go in the general direction of north, south, east, or west, but that is the extent that the stars can guide our direction. It does not lead us to a town a few miles away, for Bethlehem was only about six miles away from Jerusalem. Nor does a star place itself directly above a single house, which this star did. It pointed the Wisemen to the exact domicile where Jesus was and hovered over it. This star was not a star in the sense that we think of stars.

In Scripture when one studies the angels, we find there are several places where angels are referred to as stars. Revelation being one of them. We know that the angels appeared to the shepherds in the field, so angels were very actively appearing at the time of the birth of Christ. It is not far-fetched to believe that this was a special angel who, in his glorified body of light (angels are known to be bright at times, hence calling them stars), led the Wisemen on their journey and stood over the place where Jesus lived. That this would be impossible for a star out in the universe to do is just common sense. A star or planetary conjunction does not stand over anything on earth. It is simply way out there in space. Nothing in this passage about the Wisemen indicates that this was an astronomical event or an astrological event, but everything points to it being a supernatural event discerned by the scholars of the Scriptures, who were watching for the sign of the Messiah. Considering they were Bible scholars, it is quite possible that they also understood the prophecy in Daniel which pinpointed the very time Christ would be born, and had been diligently watching for the sign of a special Star coming out of Jacob or appearing over Israel, as the time had come for the Messiah to be born. They would have then seen the angelic manifestation as a star (which no doubt appeared at the time of Christ’s birth) which then propelled them to go to Bethlehem to seek the Christ child.

So while the idea of the planetary conjunction being the Star of Bethlehem and appearing at this Christmas time seems like a fun or even spiritual tradition, it really has nothing to do with the birth of Christ. And Christmas is not the celebration of Christ’s birth. It is in actuality a veneer of Christianity that was applied to the pagan celebration of Sol Invictus around the time of Constantine. Sorry if that offends people. It is merely the factual truth.