This is a repost of something I wrote back in December 2010, but is appropriate to the season. I hope that my star gazing friend Laci will particularly appreciate the seasonal astronomy portion that deals with the scientific aspects of the star of Bethlehem account in the Bible.
We celebrate Christmas at the 'wrong' time of year. According to the information in the original texts, and also going by the celebrations of the holiday in the early Christian churches, Christmas should be in the spring, sometime in April or May.
Certain Eastern Orthodox Christian Churches celebrate Christ's birth on January 7th, not December 25th - specifically, the Russian, Georgian, Egyptian, Ukrainian, Macedonian, Montenegrin, Serbian, and Greek Patriarchate of Jerusalem churches. It was an interesting experience to visit sites in Bethlehem in early January when a tourist in Israel some years ago, including viewing the image of a very western Santa Claus on a billboard, expecting Christmas to be over, other than possibly the feast of Epiphany on January 6th. Some Armenian churches don't celebrate Christmas until January 18th for Christmas eve, and the 19th for Christmas Day. So.......Christmas can quite literally be a celebration that keeps on giving well beyond the traditional 12 days of Christmas, into January, at the very least.
I want to focus specifically on the gospel of Matthew 2:1-12, referencing the astronomy and astrology of the Star of Bethlehem, and the visit of the wise men, or magi from the 'east'. The offering of the gifts of the magi, the gold, frankincense, and myrrh, are at least part of the basis of our sometimes manic, sometimes all too commercial tradition of gift giving, and therefore is very much at the heart of our seasonal celebration, whether we embrace the religious reasons for it, or only the secular traditions.
So.......having been to the Church of the Nativity, which is built over where the actual birthplace of Jesus is traditionally considered to be located, this is what you see. No, it doesn't look much like a stable, with a manger, at all. The church stands over a cave, not the freestanding stables we think of in our traditional nativity scenes. I vividly still remember that night after visiting the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, during this arc of traditional Christmas celebratory dates, looking up at the night sky in Jerusalem with my fellow travelers, and thinking that......nope! wrong stars! wrong night sky! wrong dates!
Because, yes..... I was something of a factchecking contrarian even then.
Why was I so certain that the traditional dates were wrong? ah....that is my holiday gift to you.
Some scholars place the change from spring dates to the Roman solstice celebration on December 25th, also known as Dies Natalis Solis Invictus. (For those few Pagan readers who may celebrate the more correct astronomical solstice that took place on Tuesday, Dec. 21st, at 5:38 p.m. - 'Blessed Be'. My pagan friends have added tremendous depth to my appreciation of certain liturgical language; for which I salute you.)
So, is the date of December 25th correct? What about all of those marvelous magical attributions - animals given the gift of speech briefly at midnight on Christmas eve, all the traditions surrounding Saint Nicholas, and so on? Sadly, no. If you accept as the inerrant word of God the various gospels, including the sections of Matthew which refer to the Wise Men from the east, then the date of Christ's birth is actually closer to mid April to late mid May, in 7 BC, and the 'star' of Bethlehem was actually most likely a conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn. And contrary to the Biblical accounts written well after the events, Herold most likely died before the birth of Christ. A lot of the confusion about actual events is attributed to a 6th century monk with the improbable name of Dionysius, who made some unusually bad computational errors relating to the calendar of his day. My source? I direct Penigma readers to this account of the famous Star of Bethlehem lecture given by the late professor of Astronomy at the U of Minnesota, the extraordinary Karlis Kaufmanis. I had the rare privilege of enjoying lectures from Professor Kaufmanis, including lectures ending with standing ovations, and more than one occasion of hearing him deliver this full lecture. However, I will direct our readers to follow the link rather than give cause for concern to my colleagues over possible copyright infringement by publishing too much of this intellectual property on Penigma. Enjoy! I hope our readers will find the astronomy cross referenced with the scripture enriches your Christmas experience, as it did for me when I was first introduced to it by a seminarian who was teaching our Sunday School classes. I will always think of Professor Kaufmanis as the epitome of a scholarly, old world courtly professorial gentleman. For me the term 'old school' will mean someone with his combination of warmth and formal manners.
Factual error and inaccurate Christian traditions are just some of the reasons why Pen was correct in his recent post about the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial that we should not embrace religious intrusion into the sciences, including teaching creationism.
And with all the recent snow fall, don't forget to beware of those 'snow snakes'!
and as offered by my excellent co-blogger Laci, an alternative:
Happy Holidays - fact checking Christmas
Certain Eastern Orthodox Christian Churches celebrate Christ's birth on January 7th, not December 25th - specifically, the Russian, Georgian, Egyptian, Ukrainian, Macedonian, Montenegrin, Serbian, and Greek Patriarchate of Jerusalem churches. It was an interesting experience to visit sites in Bethlehem in early January when a tourist in Israel some years ago, including viewing the image of a very western Santa Claus on a billboard, expecting Christmas to be over, other than possibly the feast of Epiphany on January 6th. Some Armenian churches don't celebrate Christmas until January 18th for Christmas eve, and the 19th for Christmas Day. So.......Christmas can quite literally be a celebration that keeps on giving well beyond the traditional 12 days of Christmas, into January, at the very least.
I want to focus specifically on the gospel of Matthew 2:1-12, referencing the astronomy and astrology of the Star of Bethlehem, and the visit of the wise men, or magi from the 'east'. The offering of the gifts of the magi, the gold, frankincense, and myrrh, are at least part of the basis of our sometimes manic, sometimes all too commercial tradition of gift giving, and therefore is very much at the heart of our seasonal celebration, whether we embrace the religious reasons for it, or only the secular traditions.
Because, yes..... I was something of a factchecking contrarian even then.
Why was I so certain that the traditional dates were wrong? ah....that is my holiday gift to you.
Some scholars place the change from spring dates to the Roman solstice celebration on December 25th, also known as Dies Natalis Solis Invictus. (For those few Pagan readers who may celebrate the more correct astronomical solstice that took place on Tuesday, Dec. 21st, at 5:38 p.m. - 'Blessed Be'. My pagan friends have added tremendous depth to my appreciation of certain liturgical language; for which I salute you.)
So, is the date of December 25th correct? What about all of those marvelous magical attributions - animals given the gift of speech briefly at midnight on Christmas eve, all the traditions surrounding Saint Nicholas, and so on? Sadly, no. If you accept as the inerrant word of God the various gospels, including the sections of Matthew which refer to the Wise Men from the east, then the date of Christ's birth is actually closer to mid April to late mid May, in 7 BC, and the 'star' of Bethlehem was actually most likely a conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn. And contrary to the Biblical accounts written well after the events, Herold most likely died before the birth of Christ. A lot of the confusion about actual events is attributed to a 6th century monk with the improbable name of Dionysius, who made some unusually bad computational errors relating to the calendar of his day. My source? I direct Penigma readers to this account of the famous Star of Bethlehem lecture given by the late professor of Astronomy at the U of Minnesota, the extraordinary Karlis Kaufmanis. I had the rare privilege of enjoying lectures from Professor Kaufmanis, including lectures ending with standing ovations, and more than one occasion of hearing him deliver this full lecture. However, I will direct our readers to follow the link rather than give cause for concern to my colleagues over possible copyright infringement by publishing too much of this intellectual property on Penigma. Enjoy! I hope our readers will find the astronomy cross referenced with the scripture enriches your Christmas experience, as it did for me when I was first introduced to it by a seminarian who was teaching our Sunday School classes. I will always think of Professor Kaufmanis as the epitome of a scholarly, old world courtly professorial gentleman. For me the term 'old school' will mean someone with his combination of warmth and formal manners.
Factual error and inaccurate Christian traditions are just some of the reasons why Pen was correct in his recent post about the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial that we should not embrace religious intrusion into the sciences, including teaching creationism.
And with all the recent snow fall, don't forget to beware of those 'snow snakes'!
and as offered by my excellent co-blogger Laci, an alternative:
Try this for the astronomical meaning of Christmas:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=n2M8NWjcBQo
Watched it - it is pretty good, but I would refer you to the early ecumenical councils when Christianity was in it's early years. Clement of Alexandria was the one advocating for a spring celebration, and at the time there was arguably a much larger, more established bunch of practicing Christian churches subordinate to Alexandria than elsewhere, as Christianity spread around the Mediterranean. Alexandrian Christianity of course was started by St. Mark, which parallels the rise of the church in Rome, started by St. Peter, and Alexandria has the claim on a very early use of the term pope associated with the Alexandria Patriarchy. In point of fact, the date for Christmas was one of the religious political footballs in play, including after the first Council at Ephesus, where doctrinal issues were being ironed out, and the earlier first Council held in Nicea, which came up with the date for Easter, and the Nicean creed.
ReplyDeleteI am skeptical about a lot of the things mentioned in this youtube video, notably the references to the Southern Cross, which was considered part of the constellation Centaurus; the term southern cross is relatively modern term, dating to the 16th century, by which time it was not easily visible from the northern hemisphere. Your youtube video plays a bit fast and loose with what things were called, and when and how well they were known, and by whom. What I offered, was respectfully, more historically accurate, in terms of astronomy, astrology of the era, and is more consistent with the development of doctrines and celebration dates for key holidays documented in early Christian history sources --- some of which are perfectly reliable for what happened at the time.
Instead of posting it as just part of a comment, I'm going to add it here at the end of my post - if you wouldn't mind.