brilliancy, which appeared "in triumphal pomp, like, some all-powerful monarch on a visit to the
metropolis of his realm." It was blazing and glittering "like the most beautiful and glorious torch
ever seen when driven by a strong wind," and seemed to him to be "an exceedingly wonderful work
of God."^111 His genius perceived that this phenomenon must lead to the determination of the year
of Christ’s birth, and by careful calculation he ascertained that a similar conjunction of Jupiter and
Saturn, with the later addition of Mars, and probably some, extraordinary star, took place repeatedly
a.u. 747 and 748 in the sign of the Pisces.
It is worthy of note that Jewish astrologers ascribe a special signification to the conjunction
of the planets Jupiter and Saturn in the sign of the Pisces, and connect it with the advent of the
Messiah.^112
The discovery of Kepler was almost forgotten till the nineteenth century, when it was
independently confirmed by several eminent astronomers, Schubert of Petersburg, Ideler and Encke
of Berlin, and Pritchard of London. It is pronounced by Pritchard to be "as certain as any celestial
phenomenon of ancient date." It certainly makes the pilgrimage of the Magi to Jerusalem and
Bethlehem more intelligible. "The star of astrology has thus become a torch of chronology" (as
Ideler says), and an argument for the truthfulness of the first Gospel.^113
It is objected that Matthew seems to mean a single star (ἀστήρ, comp. Matt. 2:9) rather than
a combination of stars (ἄστρον). Hence Dr. Wieseler supplements the calculation of Kepler and
Ideler by calling to aid a single comet which appeared from February to April, a.u. 750, according
to the Chinese astronomical tables, which Pingré and Humboldt acknowledge as historical. But
this is rather far-fetched and hardly necessary; for that extraordinary star described by Kepler, or
Jupiter at its most luminous appearance, as described by Pritchard, in that memorable conjunction,
would sufficiently answer the description of a single star by Matthew, which must at all events not
be pressed too literally; for the language of Scripture on the heavenly bodies is not scientific, but
phenomenal and popular. God condescended to the astrological faith of the Magi, and probably
made also an internal revelation to them before, as well as after the appearance of the star (comp.
2:12).
If we accept the result of these calculations of astronomers we are brought to within two
years of the year of the Nativity, namely, between a.u. 748 (Kepler) and 750 (Wieseler). The(^111) In the beginning of his Bericht vom Geburtsjahr Christi (Opera, IV. 204) he describes this new star in these words:
"Einungewöhnlicher, sehr heller und schöner Stern ... der wie die schönste, herrlichste Fackel so jemahl mit Augen gesehen
worden, wenn sie von einem starken Wind getrieben wird, geflammet und gefunkelt, gerad neben den drey höchsten Planeten
Saturno, Jove und Marte." He calls this phenomenon "ein überaus grosses Wunderwerk Gottes." A fuller description of the
whole phenomenon he gives in his work De Stella Nova (Opera, II. 575 sqq. and 801 sqq., ed. Frisch). Upham (The Wise Men,
N. Y. 1869, p. 145) says: "Tycho de Brahe had observed a similar wonder in the constellation Cassiopeia, on the night of the
11th of October, in the year 1572. These were not luminous bodies within our atmosphere; were not within, or near, the solar
system; they were in the region of the fixed stars. Each grew more and more brilliant, till it shone like a planet. Then its lustre
waned until it ceased to be visible,—the one in March, 1574, the other in February, 1606. The light was white, then yellow, then
red, then dull, and so went out." On temporary stars, see Herschel’s Astronomy, Chap. XII.
(^112) The learned Jewish Rabbi Abarbanel, in his Commentary on Daniel (called Ma’jne hajeshuah, i.e."Wells of Salvation,"Isa.
12:3), which was published 1547, more than fifty years before Kepler’s calculation, says that such a conjunction took place three
years before the birth of Moses (a.m. 2365), and would reappear before the birth of the Messiah, a.m. 5224 (or a.d. 1463). Ideler
and Wieseler conjecture that this astrological belief existed among the Jews already at the time of Christ.
(^113) It has been so accepted by Dean Alford and others. See the note in 6th ed. of his Com. on Matt. 2:2 (1868), with the corrections
furnished by Rev. C. Pritchard. McClellan (New Test., I, 402) assumes that the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn was premonitory
and coincided with the conception of the birth of John the Baptist, Oct. 748, and that Kepler’s new star was Messiah’s star
appearing a year later.
A.D. 1-100.