Astronomer sights solution to Bethlehem star riddle

Now a British astronomer based in Spain has come up with a theory which, he believes, could lay the mystery to rest. In his bookThe Star of Bethlehem just published, Mark Kidger of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias in Tenerife examines evidence drawn from modern Biblical scholarship, recent findings in space and ancient Chinese history to suggest that conclusive proof of the star’s existence could be at hand. Kidger begins by arguing that the Nativity may well have taken place at some time in March or April rather than in December.

Christ’s birth is said to have taken place while shepherds were watching their flocks at night, he notes, something that takes place at lambing-time in the spring rather than in the depths of winter. Moreover if the local inns were full, as Matthew insists, this would be because of the Jewish Passover, which also occurs in the spring. Kidger thus concludes that Christ was born some time around March in 5 BC, taking account of the generally accepted fact that the inventor of the Christian calendar, the 6th century monk Dionysius Exiguus, was five years out in his calculations.

Kidger examines,only to dismiss them out of hand, several earlier theories, including the notion that the “star” could have been an unusual sighting of Venus, or perhaps Halley’s Comet or a meteor shower. More plausible, he says, is the popular theory that what the Magi saw was a planetary conjunction, which occurs when two planets pass very close to each other in the sky, often producing a very striking configuration. One such conjunction took place in 7 BC when Jupiter and Saturn came close to each other three times in seven months and were then joined by Mars, an event known to have been observed in Babylonia, well to the East of Bethlehem.

A more recent conjecture is that the Star of Bethlehem may have been an occultation of Jupiter by the moon that occurred in 6 BC, the re-emergence of the royal planet from behind the moon’s disc suggesting a royal birth.