The Great Christ Comet

by The Great Christ Comet- Revealing the True Star of Bethlehem (retail) (epub)

  63 The star 80 Virginis is approximately at the level of Virgo’s genitalia. This seems to be true in the Virgo of Hyginus, Pseudo-Eratosthenes, and Ptolemy, and probably also that of the Egyptians and Bab­ylo­nians.

  64 My translation. Cf. NASB. This approach treats tekein as a verbal infinitive of purpose.

  65 My translation. Cf. ESV (“the agony of giving birth”). This approach treats tekein as an epexegetical infinitive (i.e., the infinitive explains the agony).

  66 In addition to the presence of kai, the fact that the usual indications of the purpose infinitive are absent here suggests this.

  67 It is interesting that in the fifth century AD Hephaistio of Thebes, Apotelesmatics, 1.24 (Hephaistio of Thebes, Apotelesmatics, Book I, trans. Robert Schmidt, ed. Robert Hand [Berkeley Springs, WV: Golden Hind Press, 1994], 58–60), refers to a “comet which is called Eileithyia,” the name of the goddess of childbirth and one of the names of Virgo. It is possible that Hephaistio’s assessment was based on an actual cometary apparition in Virgo, as Boll (Offenbarung Johannis, 105n1) proposed. This comet, according to Hephaistio, had the face of a virgin and golden hair and portended the dawn of a better era. See Hegedus, “Some Astrological Motifs,” 82.

  68 Curiously, Sibylline Oracles 8:456–457, from the second or third century AD, states concerning the Messiah that “as a new light he rose from the womb of the Virgin Mary” (J. J. Collins, “Sibylline Oracles,” in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, ed. James H. Charlesworth, 2 vols. [New York: Doubleday, 1983], 1:428).

  69 Hyginus, Fabulae 140. For more standard versions of the Apollo birth myth, see Robin Hard, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology (London: Routledge, 2004), 188–190.

  70 Geraldine Pinch, Egyptian Myth: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 76.

  71 On the popularity of Isis within the ancient world, note that the first-century BC author Diodorus Siculus (1.25) stated that “virtually the whole populated world” testified that Isis was to be honored for revealing herself in the healing of her devotees from all kinds of diseases. In that same passage Diodorus states that Horus was widely regarded as a benefactor of the human race, healing and granting oracles to those who sought his aid. Witts, Isis in the Ancient World, 222–254, details the history of the Roman emperors’ devotion to Isis—for example, he points out that Tiberius in AD 23 is represented as sacrificing to Horus and Isis. In the Greco-Roman environment Horus was often called Harpocrates. As Sharon Kelly Heyob (The Cult of Isis among Women in the Graeco-Roman World [Leiden: Brill, 1975], 76) has written, “To judge by the number of representations of Isis and Harpocrates it was in her role as mother that Isis achieved the greatest popularity in the Graeco-Roman world.”

  72 Geraldine Pinch, Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 146.

  73 For a fuller account of the Horus birth myth, see Bousset, Offenbarung, 354–355 (for his exegesis of Revelation 12, see pp. 335–358) and Charles, Revelation, 1:313. Bousset, in particular, points out the closeness between the Egyptian myth and the account in Revelation 12. As Charles (Revelation, 1:313) highlights, there were different variants of the story—another version has Isis giving birth at the conclusion of her flight, at Chemnis.

  74 Contra many, including Adela Yarbro Collins, The Combat Myth in the Book of Revelation (Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1976), 61–71; Grant R. Osborne, Revelation, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2002), 454; Frederick J. Murphy, Fallen Is Babylon (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1998), 279–280; and Beasley-Murray, Revelation, 192, who find Revelation 12’s narrative to be closest to the Greco-Roman form of the myth. According to Murphy (Fallen Is Babylon, 280), the Greco-Roman version of the myth and Revelation 12 have in common that a woman was pregnant with one who “will share in the divine rule of the universe,” that a dragon attacked her, that she was rescued, that water features in the story, and that the son goes on to defeat the dragon. However, (1) Leto bears not only Apollo but also Artemis/Diana; (2) the predominant version of the myth has Apollo born after the flight from the dragon, not before it, contrary to Revelation 12; (3) Apollo slayed the dragon within just 4 days of his birth, whereas Virgo’s son in Rev. 12:5 is caught up to God and his throne and does not vanquish the dragon until he returns at the end of the age; (4) the means of rescue and the role played by water in the Greco-Roman version are very different from the Biblical story; (5) the idea of “sharing in the divine rule of the universe” is hardly the way Revelation frames Jesus’s destiny.

  75 However, it is important to remember that, in the general period we are considering, it was common to identify gods from different regions. In particular, Diodorus Siculus 1.25 informs us that Horus was popularly identified with Apollo in the Greco-Roman world—like Apollo, Horus was believed to benefit humanity by his oracles and healings.

  76 On identifications of Seth-Typhon in the stars, see Herman Te Velde, Seth, God of Confusion: A Study of His Role in Egyptian Mythology and Religion (Leiden: Brill, 1977), 86–87; Boll, Offenbarung Johannis, 98–124, esp. 108–109; W. Hadorn, Die Offenbarung des Johannes (Leipzig: Deichert, 1928), 131–132; H. Kraft, Die Offenbarung des Johannes (Tübingen: Mohr, 1974), 164; Jan Willem van Henten, “Dragon Myth and Imperial Ideology in Revelation 12–13,” in The Reality of Apocalypse: Rhetoric and Politics in the Book of Revelation, ed. D. Barr (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2006), 186–188.

  77 I have substituted “fire-colored” for the ESV’s “red.” The Greek word is purros and most naturally connotes the color of fire. See Johannes P. Louw and Eugene A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1988), §79.31.

  78 My translation.

  79 The Greek word surō most often means “drag” or “pull” (as in John 21:8; Acts 8:3; 14:19; 17:6), but here, with reference to the action of a dragon’s tail, it could mean “sweep” (so most English versions).

  80 My translation.

  81 So Boll, Offenbarung Johannis, 101–102.

  82 White, Babylonian Star-Lore, 183.

  83 Charles, Revelation, 1:317–318. Aune, Revelation, 2:685, points out that some Mesopotamian cylinders portrayed divinities fighting a serpent with seven heads (James B. Pritchard, Ancient Near East in Pictures Relating to the Old Testament with Supplement, 2nd ed. [Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969], 221 no. 691; cf. no. 671). On Tiamat sometimes having been portrayed as having seven heads, see Eberhard Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, 3rd ed., ed. H. Zimmern and H. Winkler (Berlin: Reuther und Reichard, 1903), 504, 512; Collins, Combat Myth, 77.

  84 On the Canaanite seven-headed Chaos Monster, see James B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament with Supplement, 3rd ed. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969), 138; J. C. L. Gibson, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 2nd ed. (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1978), 50, 68–69 (Ugaritic Baal Cycle 1.3.5.1–3, 27–30); and Caird, Revelation, 150. Walter Burkert, Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979), 80–83, discusses evidence that Hydra was sometimes considered to have seven heads.

  85 Ptolemy’s Almagest, trans. Toomer, 393. Aratus, Phaenomena 443–448 (third century BC) states that Hydra’s tail hangs over the Centaur, which is consistent with the tail extending to π (Pi) Hydrae. This is the predominant conceptualization of Hydra today: see, for example, Jim Kaler’s discussion regarding π (Pi) Hydrae at http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/pihya.html (last modified April 24, 2011).

  86 See Condos, Star Myths, 120, 122.

  87 See Hipparchus’s Commentary on the Phenomena of Aratus and Eudoxus, in C. Manitius, ed. Hipparchi in Arati et Endoxi Phaenomena Commentariorum Libri Tres (Leipzig: Teubner, 1894), 219. I am grateful to Roger MacFarlane and Paul Mills for graciously giving
me prepublication access to relevant parts of their forthcoming English translation (the first of its kind), Hipparchus’ Commentary on the Phaenomena of Aratus and Eudoxus. On the influence of Babylonian astronomy on Hipparchus, see especially F. X. Kugler, Die Babylonische Mondrechnung. Zwei Systeme der Chaldäer über den Lauf des Mondes und der Sonne (Freiburg: Herder, 1900), 4–8, 50–53; and G. J. Toomer, “Hipparchus and Babylonian Astronomy,” in A Scientific Humanist: Studies in Memory of Abraham Sachs, ed. Erle Leichty, Maria Ellis, and Pamel Gerardi (Philadelphia: Occasional Publications of the Samuel Noah Kramer Fund, 1988), 353–362.

  88 This assessment is consistent with Teukros of Babylon’s description of that part of the sky (see Boll, Catalogus, 202; for an English translation, see James H. Holden, ed. and trans., Rhetorius the Egyptian [Tempe, AZ: American Federation of Astrologers, 2009], 176–178) and with Eudoxus’s claim that Hydra’s tail did not set until Pisces rose (in Manitius, Hipparchi in Arati et Endoxi Phaenomena Commentariorum, 170, 172).

  89 It is an aoristic or dramatic perfect; see Daniel Wallace, Greek Grammar: Beyond the Basics (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), 578.

  90 Although in theory Hydra’s “standing” could refer to its actual heliacal rising, that is most unlikely, because third-magnitude stars close to the ecliptic, like π (Pi) Hydrae, have to be a few degrees above the horizon in order to be visible at their heliacal rising.

  91 It is unclear from Rev. 12:3–4 whether the meteor storm lasted for a short time (with Earth quickly passing through the dense section of the meteoroid stream) or endured until sunrise (or beyond!). The fact that the scene climaxes with Hydra’s standing may possibly suggest that the most intense part of the meteor storm was over by the point at which π (Pi) Hydrae rose.

  92 My translation.

  93 Note that the same Hebrew word (shbt) is used in Num. 24:17 (“scepter”); Ps. 2:9 (“rod of iron”); and Isa. 11:4 (“rod of his mouth”). Essentially, as Murphy, Fallen Is Babylon, 140, comments, “The scepter is a rod symbolizing kingship, but it can also be seen as a weapon. Kingly power carries destructive potential.” Ps. 2:9 itself was probably picking up on Num. 24:17. Recall also the connection between Ps. 2:8–9 and Num. 24:17 in Rev. 2:26–28: the conquering believer’s reward will be participation in the Messiah’s iron-scepter reign (cf. Ps. 2:9) and reception of the “morning star” (cf. Num. 24:17). The linking of star and scepter in Rev. 2:26–28 clearly reflects Num. 24:17 (“a star shall rise . . . , a scepter . . .”). In addition, Rev. 22:16 (“I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star”) recalls Num. 24:17 when it refers to Jesus as the Star (the verse also alludes to Isa. 11:1–16 [particularly v. 4], a text that highlighted the messianic significance of the sign of the virgin’s giving birth and revealed that Balaam’s prophecy against Moab and Edom in Num. 24:17–19 still awaited future fulfillment in connection with the Messiah).

  94 Balaam’s star and scepter are frequently linked to the Magi’s Star in other early Christian literature—for example, Matt. 2:2 (“his [i.e., the Messiah’s] star”); Testament of Levi 18:3; Testament of Judah 24:1; Justin, Dialogue with Trypho 106:5–6 (cf. 126:1) and First Apology 32:12–13; Ignatius, To the Ephesians 19:2–3; Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses 3.9.2–3, and Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching 58; Origen, Contra Celsum 1:60, and Homilies on Numbers 13:7; Eusebius, Demonstratio Evangelica 9.1; also possibly LXX Zech. 6:12 (Anatolē). For more, see Jean Daniélou, Primitive Christian Symbols, trans. Donald Attwater (London: Burns & Oates, 1964), 102–123.

  95 On the tradition that Balaam was a father of the School of the Magi, see Tim Hegedus, “The Magi and the Star in the Gospel of Matthew and Early Christian Tradition,” Laval théologique et philosophique 59 (2003): 87–89, who mentions that, among others, Ambrose of Milan, Origen, and “a certain history” used by Eusebius all held this view.

  96 Richard A. Parker and Waldo H. Dubberstein, Babylonian Chronology 626 B.C.—A.D. 75 (Providence, RI: Brown University Press, 1956), 45, match the Babylonian luni-solar calendar with the Julian calendar, and their accommodation of the intercalary months at that time can be relied upon. We know this because the Babylonian almanac for 7/6 BC indicates that an intercalary month was added in the spring of 6 BC (Addaru II) (A. J. Sachs and C. B. F. Walker, “Kepler’s View of the Star of Bethlehem and the Babylonian Almanac for 7/6 B.C.,” Iraq 46 [1984]: 49). With respect to the Hebrew calendar at the time, like the Bab­ylo­nians, the Jews evidently added 7 months in a 19-year cycle, but the method they used is not entirely clear. It seems that they attempted to make sure that the Passover fell shortly after the vernal equinox, and so declared Nisan 1 only on or close to the vernal equinox. According to this principle, September–October in 6–5 BC would have corresponded to the Hebrew Tishri–Heshvan.

  97 William Ramsay, Was Christ Born at Bethlehem? A Study on the Credibility of St. Luke (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1898), 193.

  98 Cf. Martin, Star of Bethlehem (http://www.askelm.com/star/star006.htm [accessed March 26, 2014]).

  99 The astronomical scene of Rev. 12:1 occurred in the western evening sky, when Virgo’s belly was hosting the Sun. The scene in v. 2 evidently took place in the eastern sky not long afterwards (since it is part of the same wonder), when Virgo’s belly was beginning to reemerge after its encounter with the Sun. The narrowly inclined comet—as we have seen, only a narrowly inclined comet could have played the role of Virgo’s fetus and newborn—must therefore have been in conjunction with the Sun before rising to play the part of Virgo’s child (that is, it heliacally rose in the eastern sky).

  100 Matthew’s Star rose over the eastern horizon after being in conjunction with the Sun, which implies that it had previously been present in the western evening sky. Since, after its performance in the eastern sky, the Star seems to have guided the Magi westward and, later, southward, it must have shifted quickly from the eastern to the western sky. As for the comet of Rev. 12:1–5, since it was narrowly inclined, it must have been present in the western sky before heliacally rising in Virgo’s womb in the eastern sky. Then, after descending toward the eastern horizon and the sunlight to be born and to be delivered from the dragon, it must have returned to the western sky.

  101 My translation of the Greek text in Emile de Strycker, La forme la plus ancienne du Protevangile de Jacques (Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1961), 168–170.

  102 We shall explore, in a moment, the significance of “House of Grain.” This meaning would have been evident to Hebrew/Aramaic readers of the Gospel of Matthew if the Gospel was originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic (as seems to be suggested by the early church father Papias, as cited by Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 3.39).

  103 A mother who had just delivered a baby boy was permitted to enter the temple only after 40 days of purification, day 1 of which was the day of childbirth (Lev. 12:2, 4, 6–8). In Western exclusive counting, therefore, the mother went to the temple to be purified on the fortieth day.

  104 See F. Richard Stephenson, “The Ancient History of Halley’s Comet,” in Standing on the Shoulders of Giants, ed. Norman Thrower (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), 244.

  105 Koch-Westenholz, Mesopotamian Astrology, 43n6, 78, following David Pingree, “Mesopotamian Astronomy and Astral Omens in Other Civilizations,” in Mesopotamien und seine Nachbarn: Politische und kulturelle Wechselbeziehungen im alten Vorderasien vom 4. bis 1. Jahrtausend v. Chr., ed. Hans Jorg Nissen (Berlin: Reimer, 1982), 613–631; Hermann Hunger and David Edwin Pingree, eds. MUL.APIN: An Astronomical Compendium in Cuneiform (Horn, Austria: Ferdinand Berger, 1989), 67–69, 144. J. Koch, Neue Untersuchungen zur Topographie des babylonischen Fixsternhimmels (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1989), 34–52, thinks that it was composed around 700 BC.

  106 Van der Waerden, Science Awakening II, 288.

  107 Francesca Rochberg, Babylonian Horoscopes (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1998), 46–50; cf. Koch-Westenholz, Mesopotamian Astrology, 134
–136.

  108 Curiously, the Syriac Cave of Treasures, perhaps attributable to Ephrem in the fourth century, states, “Now, it was two years before Christ was born that the star appeared to the Magi. They saw the star in the firmament of heaven, and the brilliancy of its appearance was brighter than that of every other star. And within it was a maiden carrying a child, and a crown was set upon his head” (The Book of the Cave of Treasures, trans. E. A. Wallis Budge [London: Religious Tract Society, 1927], 203–204). The Ethiopic Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan has a very similar section but lacks mention of the two years: at the time of Jesus’s birth, “a star in the east made it known, and was seen by Magi. That star shone in heaven, amid all the other stars; it flashed and was like the face of a woman, a young virgin, sitting among the stars, flashing, as it were carrying a little child of a beautiful countenance. From the beauty of His looks, both heaven and earth shone, and were filled with His beauty and light above and below; and that child was on the virgin woman’s arms . . .” (translation from S. C. Malan, The Book of Adam and Eve, also Called the Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan [London: Charles Carrington, 1882], 204). It is conceivable that these late sources reflect a garbled awareness of the original sign, although more likely they simply reflect speculation.

  109 No doubt the appearance of the baby in Virgo’s womb at the point of the heliacal rising proper deeply impressed the Magi and played an important part in disclosing to them that a divine figure was coming into the world, the offspring of a virgin’s womb. In a sense, everything that the Star did thereafter within Virgo unpacked the meaning of that unforgettable opening scene. Moreover, since the comet as a whole probably looked like a scepter as it heliacally rose, this might well have seemed a powerful fulfillment of Balaam’s oracle (Num. 24:17). Therefore the Magi could have been referring to the heliacal rising proper alone in Matt. 2:2 (“at its rising”). However, it was in the predawn observing sessions following the heliacal rising proper that the Magi would have come to appreciate that the sign consisted not just of a single snapshot but of a developing drama; not just of the first trimester of a virgin’s pregnancy but of the virgin’s whole pregnancy and delivery; not just of a fetus but also of a newborn baby; not just of a bright scepter but also of an extraordinarily long one that eventually stretched from one horizon to the other; and not just of a remarkable cometary rising but also of an extraordinary astronomical wonder. In the days following the rising, the allusions to key Old Testament oracles concerning the Messiah’s birth would have become clearer and stronger. Moreover, only at the climax of the drama was the Messiah’s birthday disclosed. So, while it is possible that when the Magi spoke of “his star at its rising” they were reflecting narrowly on the heliacal rising proper alone, it seems more likely that they were speaking generally (perhaps using synecdoche) of all that the Star did in the eastern sky at its rising proper and in the following days and weeks. Since ancient Near Eastern astronomers who observed comets took special note of key moments in an apparition, such as heliacal risings, it was natural for them to identify a particular stage of a comet’s apparition with reference to such chronological astronomical landmarks.