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I had no idea you had collected so many scopes John.
One thing I realised...with the Biblical references it was not really about astronomy back then it was about astrology...now dont get me wrong I am one of the few people who like astrology and by that I mean studying it from a historical point of view and looking at what they believed and how it effected everything really.
Back then it was a very sophisticated business and actually led to the invention of many religions that have a demi God.
The Sun was seen as the God and it's behaviour is where we get the death and resurrection that we find in many religions as the Sun appears to die because its Southward journey seems to stop and after three days it is raised from the dead and heads North again. And interestingly the stars in Orion known as the Three Kings line up with Sirius ( almost certainly a certain famous Xmas star) to point where the Sun will be reborn, on 25 th December ( but on the cross..the Southern Cross.)..Many of the demi Gods through out history are associated with 12 followers which are really the 12 constellations of the zodiac...
In fact without a decent understanding of astrology it is difficult to study the invention of the religions who have a demi God as their deity.
There is one scientist who makes the case that astrology is evidenced in the early cave art...a very convincing evidence packed case actually.
I won't link it if folk are interested they can chase it up as the moment you mention astrology uninformed folk bleat how it is mere rubbish with no understanding of its extreme importance in ever culture we look at... their study of the stars was to understand what the Gods were up to and they believed for example certain events predicted certain things..eclipses for example depending on the type of eclipse and there were many gave different predictions.
But your church may not want to know about things like the Three Kings..it depends but most religious folk are happy to remain ignorant of how their religion started...here is a hint...study the Summarians
Alex
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