The Star of Bethlehem

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 Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him”

One day, about 2000 years ago, Jesus was born in this world. He came in unannounced. Secretly and silently God entered the world of man. The Desire of all nations was born obscure and unregarded. No one knew the exact location of his birth. That was when the wise men saw the famous star of Bethlehem. Historians tell us they might have been philosophers , priests , or astronomers. They lived chiefly in Persia and Arabia. They were the learned men of the eastern nations, devoted to astronomy, to religion and to medicine. They were held in high esteem by the Persian court, were admitted as counselors , and followed the camps in war to give advice. These experts in the studies of the stars looked at the star of Bethlehem. They immediately sensed something extraordinary about this star and began to follow it. That was the best decision of their life. It led them to Christ.



Among the ancients, the appearance of a new star or comet was regarded as an Omen of some remarkable event. Many such appearance are recorded by the Roman historians at the birth or death of distinguished men. It is said that at the death of Julius Caesar a comet appeared in the heavens and appeared seven days. Many years prior to the birth of Christ, Balaam had prophesied about the star of Jacob in connection with the birth of Messiah.



Various scientific explanations and conjectures have been offered to account for the star of Bethlehem. It would be absurd to imagine it was a literal star in the sky. Stars are vast bodies fixed in the skies. They might have had their use in navigation because their position relative to other stars was always kept; but being fixed stars, they could be sent to guide the wise men. In Bible times, certain “restless” night lights , moving slowly. So these were not kept on standard star charts. They looked like stars , but , behaved differently. These were actually planets. The Greek word for planet is planets and means “Wanderer”. So the star of Bethlehem was surely not a wandering star as it was guiding the wise men along a definite course. Some say that the star of Bethlehem was a comet or rather a meteor as it was hovering in the lower regions of the air. Other’s guess it might have been a conjunction of planets. But the course of this star was highly irregular in contrast with the course of planets. It went before the wise men, leading them from Jerusalem to the actual place where Jesus was born. Then it stopped. In fact, it was so unusual that it can only be accounted for as a miracle.