by JW Answers 45 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
A Star as seen in the night sky anywhere on earth is a Sun millions and billions of light years away from earth.
Much like our Sun only bigger or smaller but still giving off light and heat .
They do not move across the sky as depicted in the biblical account ,it just didn`t occur .
To make an accurate position from viewing a single star in the sky by simply viewing it through the human alone is impossible, particularly to a single house on land .
....... logic follows reason.
On Josephus not writing about this particular incident: Wikipedia offers a possibility Here.
On the star: There would be no problem with the Magi reporting of seeing a star's rising and their interpreting of it. That was their business. They never said they followed it to Jerusalem. They merely reported having seen it and interpreted some meaning to it. How they arrived at their interpretation is not explained in the account.
It is the star that they saw after leaving Herod and that led them to the house that would have had to be something else, not a real star. That part of the story would depend on whether a person accepted the possibility of a God who could intervene miraculously in that way.
It is the star that they saw after leaving Herod and that led them to the house that would have had to be something else, not a real star. That part of the story would depend on whether a person accepted the possibility of a God who could intervene miraculously in that way.
It wouldn't have had to be a particularly great miracle either. Even a skilled hypnotist can cause a willing subject to see things that are not really there. So it wouldn't even have had to been something anyone else saw.
This may have been passed on to Joseph and Mary before the Magi left for home. The parents tell the story to Jesus as he is growing up. Jesus passes it on to his disciples while they are camped out during their travels. And Jesus makes the connections with OT passages. Matthew decides to use it in his gospel account. The other gospel writers don't mention the account because they weren't with Jesus during his travels. All very plausible.
Interesting perspective regarding the Magi, Bobcat.
Any thoughts on how why/how the Magi came to the conclusion that it was a Jewish king and not a king from a different country? Someone gave them accurate info.
"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." Matthew 2:1,2 (KJV)
Interesting perspective regarding the Magi, Bobcat.
And that is all it is, a plausible chain of events. The account is terse in its explanations and is apparently written for an audience who will accept the account prima facie.
Any thoughts on how why/how the Magi came to the conclusion that it was a Jewish king and not a king from a different country? Someone gave them accurate info.
This is some commentary on the passage from the NICNT-Matthew commentary (R T France; p. 62):
Secondly, the star which plays such a prominent role in the story invites reflection on Balaam's prophecy in Num 24:17-19 of the rise (LXX anatelei, echoed in Matthew's anatole, vv. 2, 9) of a "star out of Jacob and a scepter out of Israel," which is then interpreted as a ruler who will destroy Israel's enemies and take possession of the lands of Moab and Edom, a prophecy which was understood to point forward to the conquests of King David, and which thus also foreshadows the victory of the "son of David."
"Thirdly, the likely influence of Balaam's prophecy suggests that perhaps Balaam himself, the man who "saw" the messianic star rise (Num 24:15-17), may also be in mind as a model for the magi. He, like them, was a non-Israelite "holy man" and visionary from the East: Num 22:5 locates his home on the Euphrates, while LXX Num 23:7 speaks of his being summoned from Mesopotamia and uses the same phrase ap' anatolon ("from the East") which Matthew uses in Mt 2:1. He, like the magi, was pressurized by a king (Balak) intent on destroying the true people of God, but refused to cooperate and instead took the side of God's people."
Of course, the Balaam comparison can only be pressed so far. . .
On how they came to their interpretation, I would think it would have to be some Jewish influence. How the rising of one particular star could be interpreted so specifically . . . that I don't know. This page offers a plausible scenario.
The smallest known star right now is OGLE-TR-122b, a red dwarf star that's part of a binary stellar system. This red dwarf the smallest star to ever have its radius accurately measured; 0.12 solar radii. This works out to be 167,000 km.
The smallest theoretical mass for a star to support nuclear fusion is 0.07 or 0.08 solar masses, so smaller stars are out there.
Don't you just love Google?!
So, the smallest star is still much too big and too HOT to be close enough to earth to mark out a single house in a small town or village on planet earth as it is roughly the size of Jupiter.
This is why I mentioned the hypnotism idea above. It would allow 'stars' to get closer and move around without doing any real damage.
The other gospel writers don't mention the account because they weren't with Jesus during his travels.
I mentioned this a couple posts above without really thinking about it. The fourth gospel is traditionally attributed to John, who would have been a traveling companion of Jesus. But this thread considers another possibility.
Of course, the fourth gospel doesn't discuss any details of Jesus' childhood. So the missing account of the Magi in that gospel can also be attributed to thematic reasons.
obviously, these uninspired bible writers had no idea what a star was, nor whether it was a fish or a whale that could swallow and sustain a human for 3 days. size matters.
These "guiding light" stories are for infantile credulous consumption.
Ancient mythology from various ancient civilizations were drawn out and envisioned by what the ancients saw in the sky and what they saw was perceived as active supernatural beings that had control to what was occurring on earth and to living people at the time.
Astrology, Sun worship, the change of light and darkness, season changes, moon worship a new coming savior light to eventually overcome the evil darkness. etc.
Human ignorance is an indefensible fact.
