The Star of Bethlehem

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A ponderer

Why did the so called Christmas star lead the magi from the east to Herod who wanted to kill jesus before it led them to Bethlehem?

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Type: Question • Score: 11 • Views: 3,819 • Replies: 36

[+3] - contrex - 12/10/2013Who knows? It's all a myth anyway.
[+3] - Pearlylustre - 12/10/2013You do know it's not a true story don't you?
[+3] - Setanta - 12/11/2013Ah-hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha . . . Woo-hoo!
[+3] - Setanta - 12/11/2013I agree with PL. Stars are many millions upon millions of miles away--no star was going to "stop over" a specific place on the surface of the earth. But more than that, it could only...
[+3] - izzythepush - 12/11/2013[quote="neologist"]And your proof is????????? [/quote] You're the one who needs to provide proof, because you're the one alleging that something happened.
[+3] - Setanta - 12/11/2013Don't have one . . . you surely didn't strain anything coming up with that loopy fairy tale . . .
[+3] - Setanta - 12/12/2013Finn as usual doesn't understand a goddamned thing. Smiley is a Christian.

@Smileyrius,

Who knows? It's all a myth anyway.

1 Reply

@Smileyrius,

You do know it's not a true story don't you?

1 Reply

@Smileyrius,

Two cent version:
The magi were not worshipers of Jehovah . The star led them to Jerusalem where they inquired of Herod about the" king of the Jews" having been born.They were eventually sent to Bethlehem After finding the infant Jesus and offering gifts they returned to their homeland by a different route,not obeying Herod's requests for details about Jesus' whereabouts.

The number of magi is not known. Three gifts mentioned, not three men.

BTW, we may be almost certain Jesus was not born around the winter solstice- too cold for shepherds to be outside with their flocks.

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@contrex,

contrex wrote:

Who knows? It's all a myth anyway.

And your proof is?????????

1 Reply

@Pearlylustre,

Pearlylustre wrote:

You do know it's not a true story don't you?

And we should listen to you because of your Mensa IQ?

1 Reply

@neologist,

I'm not really interested in mensa (bit wanky) but nice of you to assume that my IQ is that high. I probably wouldn't qualify but I don't think you need a high IQ to answer the star question anyway. My son has an intellectual disability and even he can tell the difference between fairy stories and science. Have you watched any Brian Cox documentaries? He knows a lot about stars and he's so pretty as well. I recommend them if you're genuinely interested in the behaviour of stars.

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I agree with PL. Stars are many millions upon millions of miles away--no star was going to "stop over" a specific place on the surface of the earth. But more than that, it could only have been one to two types of stars from the point of view of a naked-eye astronomer--a fixed star or a star which rises and sets. Either it rose in the east each night and set in the west, or, like the pole star, it described such a small arc as to appear to stay in one place, i.e., to be fixed. Even with a so-called fixed star, it is going to appear to be overhead from any point on the planet. It's bullsh . . . i mean, it's a myth.

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@Pearlylustre,

Are you from the UK? There's not a lot of us.

1 Reply

@neologist,

neologist wrote:

And your proof is?????????

You're the one who needs to provide proof, because you're the one alleging that something happened.

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By the way, this claptrap is characteristic of the naïve and childish point of view of some (not by any means all) of the people on the earth 2000 years ago that the earth was a flat disc over which the "heavens" moved. It is incredible to me that any intelligent person today would attempt to defend such a fatuous point of view.

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@izzythepush,

No I'm Australian Izzy.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

The only real 'evidence' is the Gospel of Matthew. If Herod did slaughter the innocents as a result of the visit of the Magi, why is Matthew the only one to mention it?

Quote:

Although consistent with other documented actions of King Herod the massacre cannot be positively verified outside of the biblical source. Based on the sole Biblical source, it could be estimated that the number of infants killed at the time in Bethlehem, a town with a total population of about 1000, would be about twenty. The single account of the Massacre comes in the Gospel of Matthew: it is not mentioned elsewhere in the gospels or by the well-known Roman Jewish historian, Josephus (37 – c. 100). The difference of historical opinion tends to align with whether or not the scholar in question views the New Testament narratives as historically valuable or not, with those crediting the New Testament as at least quasi-historical willing to accept the possibility, while those skeptical of the New Testament's historicity tending to doubt the massacre's occurrence.

Amongst those historians who doubt the massacre's historicity, Geza Vermes and E. P. Sanders regard the story as part of a creative hagiography. Robert Eisenman argues that the story may have its origins in Herod's murder of his own sons, an act which made a deep impression at the time and which was recorded by Josephus. Other arguments against historicity include the silence of Josephus (who does record several other examples of Herod’s willingness to commit such acts to protect his power, noting that he "never stopped avenging and punishing every day those who had chosen to be of the party of his enemies") and the views that the story is an apologetic device or a constructed fulfillment of prophecy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_of_the_Innocents

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@Pearlylustre,

Fair enough, thanks for not mentioning the cricket.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

It wasn't any effort at all. Are we winning? (Not kidding - I honestly don't know!)

1 Reply

@Pearlylustre,

Yes you're winning, by quite a considerable margin.

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@Smileyrius,

Quote:

A ponderer

Why did the ... star lead the magi ...

Stars would be pointless otherwise.

Lee was a ponderous star.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_of_Bethlehem

“As I looked out into the night sky, across all those infinite stars, it made me realise how insignificant they are.” P Cook.

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I'm sorry to offend your intellectual sensibilities with these pesky Bible references. It appears quite obvious from the entire Bethlehem 'story' that the 'star' was part of Satan's goal of destroying the seed promised in the 3rd chapter of Genesis. Please recall that the 'story' covers a considerable period of time, evidenced by Herod's attempt to kill all male infants younger than a certain age.

As far as the 'star' is concerned, my understanding is that, if the rebel called Satan is real and was able to create the appearance of a talking snake, he certainly could create a light mirage.

The Star of Bethlehem

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