Q: Is there any scientific evidence for the star mentioned in the Gospel, which guided the Three Kings to adore Baby Jesus, or is it just a literary image used to make a spiritual point? I have heard both sides. … Continued
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Johannes Kepler (d. 1630), who wrote Laws of Planetary Motion, proposed that the conjunction of the planets Jupiter, Saturn and Mars caused a brilliant light (about 7 B.C.). Kepler had observed such a phenomenon in 1604, and calculated that this would have occurred at about the time of Christ’s birth. He posited that a supernova occurred simultaneously which would have caused an intense, brilliant light that lasted for weeks.
Konradin Ferrari d’Occhieppo in 2003 proposed that the star was the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in the constellation Pisces in 7-6 B.C. He wrote, “Jupiter, the star of the highest Babylonian deity (Marduke), entered its brightest phase when it rose in the evening alongside Saturn, the cosmic representation of the Jewish people.” Commenting on this finding, Ferrari d’Occhieppo posited that astronomers in Babylon (an ancient center for astronomy) would have interpreted this phenomenon as a universally significant event, namely the birth of a king in the land of the Jews who would bring salvation.
Roger Sinnott using evidence from Bryant Tuckeman’s Planetary, Lunar, and Solar Positions, 601 B.C. to A.D. 1 (American Philosophical Society, 1979), presented a most interesting finding: In 3-2 B.C., three unusual planetary alignments (a triple conjunction) of the planets Jupiter and Venus with the star Regulus in the constellation Leo occurred. Interestingly, the splendor of this event would have climaxed Dec. 25, 2 B.C. Jupiter was named for Jupiter, the king of the Roman gods; Venus, named for Venus, the Roman goddess of love and motherhood; Regulus, a star that means “little king” and symbolizes a scepter; and Leo, the lion, the symbol for the tribe of Judah.
“Al cap dels sèt cent ans, verdejera lo laurel.“
After seven hundred years, the laurel will be green again. - 1309, Guilhèm Belibasta