Ideler describes the result of his calculation (vol. II. 405) thus: I have made the calculation
with every care .... The results are sufficiently remarkable. Both planets [Jupiter and Saturn] came
in conjunction for the first time a.u. 747, May 20, in the 20th degree of Pisces. They stood then on
the heaven before sunrise and were only one degree apart. Jupiter passed Saturn to the north. In
the middle of September both came in opposition to the sun at midnight in the south. The difference
in longitude was one degree and a half. Both were retrograde and again approached each other. On
the 27th of October a second conjunction took place in the sixteenth degree of the Pisces, and on
the 12th of November, when Jupiter moved again eastward, a third in the fifteenth degree of the
same sign. In the last two constellations also the difference in longitude was only about one degree,
so that to a weak eye both planets might appear as one star. If the Jewish astrologers attached great
expectations to conjunction of the two upper planets in the sign of the Pisces, this one must above
all have appeared to them as most significant."
In his shorter Lehrbuch der Chronologie, which appeared Berlin 1831 in one vol., pp.
424–431, Ideler gives substantially the same account somewhat abridged, but with slight changes
of the figures on the basis of a new calculation with still better tables made by the celebrated
astronomer Encke, who puts the first conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn a.u. 747, May 29th, the
second Sept. 30th, the third Dec. 5th. See the full table of Encke, p. 429.
We supplement this account by an extract from an article on the Star of the Wise Men by
the Rev. Charles Pritchard, M.A., Hon. Secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society, who made a
fresh calculation of the constellation in a.u. 747, from May to December, and published the results
in Memoirs of Royal Ast. Society, vol. xxv., and in Smith’s "Bible Dictionary," p. 3108, Am. ed.,
where he says: "At that time [end of Sept., b.c. 7] there can be no doubt Jupiter would present to
astronomers, especially in so clear an atmosphere, a magnificent spectacle. It was then at its most
brilliant apparition, for it was at its nearest approach both to the sun and to the earth. Not far from
it would be seen its duller and much less conspicuous companion, Saturn. This glorious spectacle
continued almost unaltered for several days, when the planets again slowly separated, then came
to a halt, when, by reassuming a direct motion, Jupiter again approached to a conjunction for a third
time with Saturn, just as the Magi may be supposed to have entered the Holy City. And, to complete
the fascination of the tale, about an hour and a half after sunset, the two planets might be seen from
Jerusalem, hanging as it were in the meridian, and suspended over Bethlehem in the distance. These
celestial phenomena thus described are, it will be seen, beyond the reach of question, and at the
first impression they assuredly appear to fulfil the conditions of the Star of the Magi." If Pritchard,
nevertheless, rejects the identity of the constellation with the single star of Matthew, it is because
of a too literal understanding of Matthew’s language, that the star προῆγεν αὐτούςand ἐστάθη
ἐπάνω, which would make it miraculous in either case.
The Fifteenth Year of Tiberius.
(3) Luke 3:1, 23, gives us an important and evidently careful indication of the reigning
powers at the time when John the Baptist and Christ entered upon their public ministry, which,
according to Levitical custom, was at the age of thirty.^114 John the Baptist began his ministry "in
the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius,"^115 and Jesus, who was only about six months younger(^114) Comp. Num. 4:3, 35, 39, 43, 47.
(^115) In the new revision the passage, Luke 3:1, 2, is thus translated: "Now in the fifteenth year of the reign (ἡγεμονίας) of
Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor (ἡγεμονεύοντος) of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother
A.D. 1-100.