Three years back, in December 2020, an extraordinary astronomical event took place — a great conjunction. Observers on Earth witnessed a striking alignment of Jupiter and Saturn, two prominent gas giants visible without telescopes. This rare occurrence had not taken place so closely for nearly four hundred years, and it had been almost eight centuries since it happened under the night sky. Its brilliance made it easily noticeable, especially since it occurred in December, culminating on the 21st, earning it the title of "Christmas Star."

Over the years, many researchers have pondered the true identity of the Christmas star referenced in the Gospel of Matthew — the one that captured the attention of the Magi, who were experts in astrology and believed it heralded a royal birth. As a child, I thought of the Star of Bethlehem as a miraculous creation that appeared for a brief moment and then vanished. However, as I matured, I encountered various other theories: it might have been a conjunction, a nova (a star that briefly shines brighter before returning to its normal state), a meteor, or even a comet. My intellectual idol, Johannes Kepler, speculated that the Magi witnessed a nova, possibly located in a constellation that symbolized the birth of a king.

Before diving into two prominent theories regarding the star's nature, let's revisit the biblical narrative of the Magi:

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod, wise men from the East arrived in Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. He gathered all the chief priests and teachers of the law and asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are by no means least among the rulers of Judah,

for out of you will come a ruler

who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

Herod then secretly called for the wise men and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. They opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

What was this celestial body that rose in the east and seemed to halt over the location of the holy family? It appears that Herod had no prior knowledge of any unusual astronomical event. Such phenomena would have been noticed by many who lived under the clear, starry skies of antiquity, unclouded by light pollution. Moreover, it’s likely that Herod's astronomers would have reported anything extraordinary that might have escaped the attention of ordinary citizens.

In The Great Christ Comet: Revealing the True Star of Bethlehem (Crossway, 2015), biblical scholar Colin Nicholl presents a compelling case that the object guiding the Magi was a comet. With remarkable detail, Nicholl illustrates how such a comet could have directed the Magi to Jerusalem, then to Bethlehem, and finally to the residence of Mary, Joseph, and the infant Jesus. When the star appeared to pause over the location of the Christ child, it was a comet "descending" toward the horizon (see Fig. 1). Nicholl argues that only a comet on a precise path could have achieved all that the Christmas star is said to have accomplished.

I first encountered Nicholl's book upon its release, and without a background in astronomy, I found reassurance in a review by Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez, an astronomer and co-author of The Privileged Planet. He noted:

The involvement of astronomers is evident in the book's quality and depth concerning technical astronomical discussions. Nicholl meticulously clarifies the basic movements of celestial bodies visible in the night sky, always considering aspects relevant to Ancient Near Eastern observers. He also effectively explains the anatomy, orbital mechanics, brightness variations, and visual characteristics of comets. I found no obvious mistakes in the astronomical content of the book.

Gonzalez concludes his assessment by expressing that he is inclined to believe, despite minor issues like a chronological discrepancy regarding Herod’s reign, that Nicholl has potentially solved the enigma of the Bethlehem star. He emphasizes that “even a single brief mention of a comet appearing on a specific date and in a constellation consistent with Nicholl’s theory would be sufficient for confirmation.” Esteemed scholars such as J.P. Moreland, John Lennox, Edwin Yamauchi, and Walter Kaiser, Jr. have endorsed The Great Christ Comet. For those interested, Eric Metaxas (another supporter) interviewed Nicholl shortly after the book's release; the video is available online.

Another compelling theory is presented in The Star of Bethlehem: The Legacy of the Magi by Michael R. Molnar (Rutgers University Press, updated edition, 2013). Molnar, who spent part of his career as an astronomy professor at Rutgers, also collected ancient coins and wrote about the fascinating astrological symbols they featured. He believed one of his coins, a Bronze Age Roman piece depicting a leaping ram gazing at a star, was directly related to the biblical story (see Fig. 2). This imagery represents Jupiter traversing the constellation of Aries (the Ram), an event known to have occurred in 6 B.C. The bright planet moved through Aries and then exhibited retrograde motion, appearing to briefly halt before resuming its forward path. During this time, two lunar occultations occurred (the moon eclipsed Jupiter), the first on March 20 and the second on April 17. In ancient astrology, a lunar occultation of Jupiter signified the birth of a king. Moreover, Claudius Ptolemy, the renowned pagan astronomer who established the long-lasting geocentric model based on Aristotelian principles, noted in his Tetrabiblios (circa 150 A.D.) that Judea was ruled by the constellation Aries. Other astrological sources support Ptolemy's statement, leading Molnar to assert that the Magi would have interpreted this event as signaling the birth of a significant king in Judea.

Nicholl critiques Molnar’s theory in chapter 4 of his book. He points out that neither of the lunar occultations of 6 B.C. would have been observable from Babylon, the origin of the Magi’s journey. Additionally, a lunar occultation of Jupiter in Aries was not an exceedingly rare event; another occurred in 54 A.D. Nicholl provides several more arguments against Molnar's theory, with varying degrees of persuasiveness. However, the absence of any known record in ancient literature regarding a comet traversing the ancient Near East within a plausible timeframe remains a mystery.

In conclusion, we may never uncover a definitive answer to the riddle of the Bethlehem star, but the theories are undoubtedly intriguing! Perhaps as research progresses, more clues will emerge.

Notes [1] Matthew 2:1–12 (NET).

[2] Guillermo Gonzalez, “The Great Christ Comet: Revealing the True Star of Bethlehem,” The Gospel Coalition, October 9, 2015.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Michael Molnar, “The Evidence for Aries the Ram as the Astrological Sign of Judea,” Journal for the History of Astronomy, Vol. 34, Part 3, 116, pp. 325–327 (2003).

— Melissa Cain Travis, PhD, serves as Affiliate Faculty at Colorado Christian University and is a Fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture. She authored *Thinking God’s Thoughts: Johannes Kepler and the Miracle of Cosmic Comprehensibility (2022) and Science and the Mind of the Maker: What the Conversation Between Faith and Science Reveals About God (2018). She holds positions on the Executive Committee of the Evangelical Philosophical Society and as President of the Society for Women of Letters.*