[Anneskobsen]

dear friends,

http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_te...cle3263447.ece

be well, be love.

david

star of wonder: what was the bright light that drew the magi to bethlehem?
david whitehouse believes he has the answer – and that we should be celebrating christmas in september
published: 19 december 2007

"in the time of king herod, after jesus was born in bethlehem of judea, wise men from the east came to jerusalem, asking, where is the child who has been born king of the jews? for we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage." gospel of st matthew

what was it that summoned the magi to make a long and dangerous journey to a foreign land? what was this star and its urgent message? the clues can be found in one of the gospels and in other religious texts of the time that also describe the birth of jesus as well as in the words of medieval monks and astronomers. two thousand years ago only the wise men saw it, but if you solve the clues then anyone with a computer and a simple starmap program can witness the star of bethlehem.

the star is only mentioned in the gospel of st matthew, though the gospel of st luke also gives an account of the birth of christ. why is there is no mention of the star in luke? although mark is the earliest gospel and provides much of the material for both matthew and luke, depicting jesus as a man and the son of god, it is matthew's gospel – with the aim of proclaiming jesus as the fulfilment of ancient prophecy – that is taken as the first one because it provides a bridge between the old and new testaments.

but the star is not only mentioned in the bible. there is a non-biblical text of the time called the protoevangelium of st james. in it the description of the star is very different; "and the wise men said; 'we saw how an indescribably greater star shone among these stars and dimmed them so that they no longer shone.' "

[romalama]

it was a conjunction of venus and mercury that occurred on 25th december 7bc both were at over 95% of the brightest they ever appear. this particular conjunction appears regularly every 480 years. it was supposed, by some, to herald great events. hence the, sometimes speculated, passover date of 1447 bc and the, sometimes speculated, date of the building of king solomon's temple of 967 bc. it has also been speculated that this is the 'divine shekinah'. thats an awful lot of speculation!

[mazabotman]

in the matter of speculation, my husband and i have often thought that this bright "star" might have been a spaceship.
since it is mentioned that it "moved" and came to stand over the bethlehem site.
it also occurred to us that the child that was born of a virgin might have been an embryo transplant from a much advanced civilization and that this child inherited many of the skills from this highly developed civilization that we are only beginning to develop. they may have been observing the developments from their spaceship. i have only recently begun to realize that miracles can happen in ways we never dreamed possible.

[MarlboroCig]

hmmm.......

i thought jesus wasn't born on the 25th of december?
i thought this date was used because it was the birth date of other, similar and older gods who's stories were used to blend in with that of jesus........

still, i always keep an open mind and am aware that anything is possible.

there is so much we as yet do not know.

[Accor$314]

hi everyone,
you may want to check out the thread "christ jesus" since the book reviews shared therein point out some of the discrepencies in gospels of matthew and luke. matherne's review of steiner's "according to luke" had this to say about the star:
"zarathustra called this spirit of the sun ahura mazda and said that this spirit was coming ever closer to the earth, that he would visit the earth one day. this great spirit came to be called by many names, among others, the christ.this name was appied many hundreds of years before jesus's birth.
zarathustra, when he died, because of hsi refined spiritual nature, left behind in the spiritual world his etheric, astral, and ego bodies. later his etheric body entered the man known by the name moses and helped him to become a great leader of his people. zarathustra's astral body entered the egyptian hermes who therefore possesed all the knowledge of zarathustra and became a great teacher of that knowledge. hermes is best known among modern day historians as the founder of the arts connectd with writing. in 600 b.c. the ego body of zarathustra entered another persian known as zarathas, often confused with zarathustra who founded the chaldean mystery schools. the wise men who studied in these schools of the east were variously called kings or magi. they felt a deep connection to their beloved leader zarathas and through him to their spiritual leader zarathustra.

(page 100)they saw in him the 'star of humanity', for zoroaster(zaranthustra) means 'golden star', or, 'star of splendor'. they saw in him a reflection of the sun itslef. and with their profound wisdom they could not fail to know when their master was born again in bethlehem. led by thier 'star', they brought as offerings to him the outer symbols for the most precious gift he had been able to bestow upon men...symbols(of) gold - the symbol of thinking, frankincense- the symbol of the piety which pervades man as feeling, and myrrh - the symbol of the power of will." nina

[Accor$314]

this is the link
http://www.doyletics.com/arj/goslrvw.htm