Could the secret of the Star of Bethlehem lie with Jupiter and Venus?

But possibly no other planetary grouping can be equivalent to that of the two most twinkling planets Venus and Jupiter for the explanation that we seek. And if we acquire the only famed explanation of the Star literally, as given in St. Matthew, then what we genuinely postulate is the appearance of not hardly one, but two “stars.” The original appearance would have been encountered well in advance of the Magis arrival in Bethlehem, and the other at the ending of their long journey.

In Hellenistic star divination, Jupiter was the power planet and Regulus (in the constellation Leo) was the power star. As they traveled from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, the star “went before” the magi and then “stood over” the site where Jesus lived. In astrological renderings, these articulates are supposed to refer to receding motion and to stationing, i.e., Jupiter looked to reverse path for a time, then halted, and ultimately resumed its normal advance. In 3-2 BC, there was a series of seven connectives, including three between Jupiter and Regulus and a strikingly close conjunction between Jupiter and Venus nearby Regulus on June 17, 2 BC. “The fusion of two planets would have been a wonderful and awe-inspiring event” – according to any astronomers.

Others have purported a nexus between a double eclipse of Jupiter by the moon in 6 BC in Aries and the Star of Bethlehem, particularly the second occultation on April 17. This case was quite close to the sun and would have been trying to detect, even with a small telescope, which had not yet been invented. Occultations of planets by the moon are rather common, but an astrologer to Roman Emperor Constantine wrote that an eclipse of Jupiter in Aries was a sign of the birth of a divine king.

“When the majestic star of Zeus, the planet Jupiter, was in the east this was the most potent time to confer kingships. What Is More, the Sun was in Aries where it is animated. And the Moon was in very close co-occurrence with Jupiter in Aries.”