David Weintraub

Weintraub served as the Chair of the Faculty Senate at Vanderbilt University for eight years (2011-2012), on the Faculty Council of the College of Arts & Science, serving as Chair twice (2003-2004 and 2016-2017), Director of the Undergraduate Program in Physics and Astronomy (2003-2018), and Director of the Science and Technology Communication Program (2006-2023). Over a ten-year period (1999-2009), he served on 13 different committees that conceived and developed the First-Year Commons and Residential College programs at Vanderbilt, served on committees that conceived and implemented the AXLE curriculum for arts and science students (1999-2006), and chaired the ad hoc task force to review Greek life for the Faculty Senate (2013-2016). He has been awarded the Vanderbilt Chancellor's Cup (2001), the Jeffrey Nordhaus Award for Undergraduate Teaching (2003), the Chancellor's Award for Research (2005), the Thomas Jefferson Distinguished Service Award (2009), and the Ernest A. Jones College Advisor. Award (2011). He has been honored as the John Wiley Jones Distinguished Lecturer at Rochester Institute of Technology (2012), the Distinguished Lecturer in Natural Sciences at Colgate University (2014), and the Robert M. Woods Memorial Lecturer at Westminster (PA) College (2016).

Professor of Astronomy, Professor Emeritus of History, Professor Emeritus of Science and Technology Communication.

Dr. David A. Weintraub is Professor of Astronomy at Vanderbilt University, where he founded and directs the Communication of Science and Technology program and is dedicated to research on the formation of stars and planets.

He is the winner of the 2015 Klopsteg Award from the American Association of Physics Teachers, which recognizes outstanding communication of the excitement of contemporary physics to the general public.

David Weintraub

According to the well-known story in the Gospel of Matthew, the Star of Bethlehem guided three wise men, or magi, to Jerusalem about 2,000 years ago. And after consulting with King Herod of Judea, the men found the newborn Jesus in the town of Bethlehem. Whether such an event ever happened in history is difficult to prove, but if so, what was the Star of Bethlehem?

That is a question that has long puzzled scholars, not only from a religious or historical perspective, but also from a scientific perspective. Many theories have been proposed, from an astronomical event to an astrological horoscope, but thanks to modern astronomy, scientists are getting closer to an answer.

“If what is in the New Testament is a historical account of something, then that historical account needs to be explained,” said David Weintraub, a professor of physics and astronomy at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee.

The Star of Bethlehem Wasn't a Comet or a Supernova

We know that Halley's Comet was visible in the sky in 11 BC, but as the Magi (Magi) walked towards Jerusalem and on to Bethlehem, it seems unlikely that they would have followed the comet, because its position would have changed as the Earth rotated, so the comet couldn't have guided them in one direction. What's more, comets were often considered bad omens in the ancient world.

"For Christmas cards, it's a nice picture of a comet with a tail, but in those days, comets in the sky were usually a harbinger of impending disaster," said Grant Mathews, a professor of theoretical astrophysics and cosmology at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. Novas and supernovas can also be ruled out. Both events would have produced a detectable remnant, but astronomers haven't found anything that can be dated to this time.

Besides, if the Magi had followed it, they would probably have walked in a circle. “You can’t follow a star from Baghdad to Jerusalem to Bethlehem,” Weintraub said. “Stars don’t do that. They rise and set, they don’t sit in the sky.” Such an event would certainly have been seen by others at the time. While novae are supposedly quite rare, you would still expect to find other historical records of a large bright event in the sky.

Other theories suggest that the cause is a supernova in the Andromeda galaxy, as described in a 2005 study published in the journal The Observatory. While it is possible to see the galaxy with the naked eye, it would not be possible to see a star passing through a supernova and exploding within it—even with the aid of a telescope.

Halley's Comet was visible in the sky in 11 BC, but it is unlikely that it was the Star of Bethlehem

(Illustrative Image)

The "star" could have been the entire sky of stars

This leads us to one of two possibilities. The first is that the wise men were making an astrological interpretation of the sky. The fact that they needed to ask Herod for directions upon arrival suggests that there was no single bright object guiding them to their final destination.

Astrology was widely used at the time, and since the wise men (magi) came from Babylon, it is possible that they were astrologers. And because of the strange alignment of the planets and stars, they could read hidden meanings among the stars that led them to King Herod. For example, the depiction of Jupiter here may have had great significance because astrology associated the planet Jupiter with kingship, so the moon passing around it in the constellation of Aries on April 17, 6 BC, could have heralded the birth of Christ. "Modern astronomers don't give astrology any credence, but 'modern' is important in this context," Weintraub said. "What's important is what people thought 2,000 years ago. Astrology was a big deal back then. I find the most reasonable explanation is that it was astrological."

The Star of Bethlehem could have been a conjunction

The Star of Bethlehem may have been the result of a conjunction, in which two or more celestial bodies appeared to meet in the sky. Above is an image taken with ESO’s Very Large Telescope at Paranal, showing a conjunction. Here, Venus (in the center of the image) and Jupiter (to the right of Venus) are joined by the Moon.

The second – more astronomical – explanation is that there was actually a bright object in the sky – a conjunction between planets and stars. A conjunction occurs when two or more celestial bodies appear to be in the same place in the night sky from our position on Earth. These events can continue every night in a similar location for days or weeks. If the wise men had followed the moment of conjunction, it is possible that they would have been guided in a specific direction.

Astronomer Michael Molnar has suggested in his book The Star of Bethlehem (Rutgers University Press, 1999) that the conjunction theory might be correct; if the “star” was the result of a conjunction, then there are several different alignments that could be the culprit.

Perhaps the most promising, and the one Mathews favors, is the alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, the moon, and the sun in the constellation Aries on April 17, 6 BC. This conjunction fits the story for several reasons. First, this conjunction occurred in the early morning hours, which is consistent with the Gospel description of the Star of Bethlehem as the rising morning star. The wise men also lost sight of the star before they saw it come to rest over the spot where the baby Jesus lay in the manger. This could be the result of Jupiter's retrograde motion, which means it appears to change direction in the night sky as it orbits Earth.

"Normally, planets move eastward when you watch them in the sky," Mathews said. "But when they go retrograde, they turn around and go in the direction that stars rise and set at night [westward]."

Two other conjunctions at similar times also look promising. One is the conjunction of Jupiter, Venus, and the star Regulus in the constellation Leo on June 17, 2 BC. Without the aid of a telescope, the two planets would appear as a single "star," brighter than Venus and Jupiter individually. Another conjunction occurred in 6 BC, between Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars in the constellation Pisces. But neither of these last two conjunctions fits the description in the New Testament as closely as the conjunction that occurred on April 17, 6 B.C.

The Mystery of the Star of Bethlehem Continues

While scientists have ruled out several possibilities, we may never know for sure what the Star of Bethlehem was, or whether it even happened, barring remarkable archaeological discoveries. But it is a question that comes up year after year, and it will continue to pique the interest of scientists and historians for years to come.

"Nothing in science is ever closed, nor in history," Mathews said. "We may never know whether the Star of Bethlehem was a conjunction, an astrological event, or a fable to support Christianity. Maybe it was simply a miracle."

Source:
https://www.space.com/star-of-bethlehem

Can Astronomy Explain the Biblical Star of Bethlehem?

Experts Consider Whether the Gospel Account of Jesus’ Birth, Including the Wise Men Being Guided by a “Star in the East,” Has Any Scientific Value - David Weintraub

Bright stars adorn Christmas trees in Christian homes throughout much of the world. Believers sing about the “Star of Miracles” that led the wise men to the manger in the town of Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. They recall the Star of Bethlehem described by the evangelist Matthew in the New Testament. Is the Biblical description of the star pious fiction, or does it contain some astronomical truth?

Riddles for Astronomy

To understand the Star of Bethlehem, we must think like the three wise men. Motivated by this “star in the east,” they first traveled to Jerusalem and told King Herod a prophecy that a new ruler of the people of Israel would be born. We must also think like King Herod, who asked the wise men when the star appeared, because he and his court apparently knew of no such star in the sky. These events present us with our first astronomical puzzle of the first Christmas: How could King Herod’s own advisors not recognize a star so bright and obvious that it could have led the wise men to Jerusalem?

Then, to get to Bethlehem, the wise men had to travel directly south from Jerusalem; somehow the “star in the east” “went ahead of them until it came and stopped over where the young child was.” Now we have our second astronomical puzzle of the first Christmas: how could a star “in the east” lead our wise men south? The guides of the North Star lost the tourists going north, so shouldn’t the star in the east have led the wise men east?

And here is a third astronomical puzzle of Christmas Eve: how does Matthew’s star move “ahead of them,” like the taillights on a snowplow you might watch during a snowstorm, and then stop and stand over the manger in Bethlehem where baby Jesus is supposedly lying?

What could the “star in the east” be?

The astronomer in me knows that no star, comet, Jupiter, supernova, conjunction of planets, or any other real bright object in the night sky could do these things. One could argue that Matthew’s words describe a miracle, something outside the laws of physics. But Matthew chose his words carefully, writing “star in the east” twice, suggesting that these words had special meaning for his readers.

Can we find any other explanation consistent with Matthew’s words that does not require violating the laws of physics and that has something to do with astronomy? The answer is surprisingly yes.

Astrological Answers to Astronomical Riddles

Astronomer Michael Molnar points out that “in the east” is a literal translation of the Greek expression en te anatole, which was a technical term used in Greek mathematical astrology 2,000 years ago. He was describing very specifically a planet that rises above the eastern horizon just before the Sun appears. Just a moment after the planet rises, it disappears into the bright glow of the sun in the morning sky. Except for a brief moment, no one can see this “star in the east.”

We need a little astronomy here. In human life, virtually all the stars remain fixed in their places; the stars rise and set every night, but they do not move relative to each other. The stars in the Big Dipper always appear in the same place year after year. But the planets, the Sun, and the Moon, travel around the fixed stars; in fact, the word “planet” comes from the Greek word for wandering star. Although the planets, the Sun, and the Moon all follow roughly the same path through the background stars, they move at different speeds, so they often overlap each other. When the Sun catches up with a planet, we can't see it, but when the Sun passes far enough behind it, the planet reappears.

And now we need a little astrological background. When a planet first reappears, rising into the morning sky just a moment before the sun, for the first time in many months after being hidden in the sun's glare for many months, this moment is known to astrologers as heliacal rising. Heliacal rising, that special first reappearance of a planet, is what en te anatole spoke of in ancient Greek astrology. Greek astrologers considered the reappearance of a planet like Jupiter in particular to be symbolically significant for anyone born on that day.

So the “star in the east” refers to an astronomical event with presumed astrological significance in the context of ancient Greek astrology.

What about the star parked directly above the first manger? The word usually translated as “stood over” comes from the Greek word epano, which also had an important meaning in ancient astrology. It refers to the specific moment when a planet stops moving and changes its apparent direction from westward to eastward motion. This occurs when the Earth, which orbits the Sun faster than Mars, Jupiter, or Saturn, catches up with or orbits another planet.

A rare combination of astrological events (the right planet rising before the Sun; the Sun being in the right zodiacal constellation; plus a number of other combinations of planetary positions that astrologers considered important) would have indicated to ancient Greek astrologers: a royal horoscope and a royal birth.

Wise Men Looking to the Sky

Molnár believes that the wise men were actually very wise and mathematically skilled astrologers. They also knew of the Old Testament prophecy that a new king would be born from the family of David. They had most likely watched the heavens for years, waiting for the alignment that would foretell the birth of this king. Having identified a powerful set of astrological omens, they decided that the time was right to set out in search of the prophesied leader.

If Matthew’s wise men did indeed set out to seek the newborn king, the bright star did not guide them; it merely told them when to set out. And they would not have found the baby wrapped in a manger. After all, the baby was already eight months old when they decoded the astrological message that they believed foretold the birth of the future king.

The prelude began on 17 April 6 BC (the heliacal rising of Jupiter that morning, followed by its occultation of the Moon in the constellation of Aries at noon) and lasted until 19 December 6 BC (when Jupiter stopped moving west, briefly stopped, and began moving east relative to the fixed stars in the background). By the time the men could have arrived in Bethlehem at the earliest, Jesus would likely have been at least a toddler.

Matthew wrote this to convince his readers that Jesus was the prophesied Messiah. Given the astrological clues embedded in his Gospel, he must have believed that the story of the Star of Bethlehem would be compelling evidence for many of his audience.

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