Quote:
Originally Posted by Ian Robinson
Nope .... I don't buy ultraclose conjunction of Jupiter and Venus one either , this kind of thing will have happened regularly over the centuries and will not have been all that terribly special , and Herod's priestly astrologers , and those of the Romans , and those of the Greeks and Persians, and Egyptians have made no mention of the event. I suspect if there any substantiating and collaborating observations or references to seeing such a strange celestrial object had been uncovered by archeologists and historians by now , the Roman Catholic Church would have jumped on it quicker than Jack Flash and made a big song and dance about it (PROOF of yet another miracle .... etc etc .... well you get the drift)
Plus the fact that no one actually knows Jesus' actual birthday or even the year he was born , or really where he was born , and Xmas was pagen festible that was appropriated many decades after Jesus died (if he actually was crucified and killed that is) .
So ....
Conclusion : did not happen .
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There was an analysis of this in S&T a while back. From memory: Jesus was supposedly born under the reign of Herod; the census Joe and Mary were attending occurred after Herod's reign; the Jupiter-Venus conjunction also occurred after his reign but not necessarily in the same year as the census; the census likely occurred in August. The 'guiding star' story has been used before and since the Jesus story. The guide star was in the west but the last stage of the journey of the 'wise men' was from north to south.