the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Star of the Wise Men
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
or Matthew 2. (See MAGI.) Smith's Bible Dictionary ably disproves the theory of its being a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn which took place thrice in 7 B.C. (i.e. three years before Jesus' birth, for the B.C. dates from the fourth year after His birth), May, September, and December, answering to the seven months which would intervene between the beginning and the end of the wisemen's journey. Tacitus, Suetonius, and Josephus in their statements as to the universal expectation then prevalent of some great One about to appear in the East refer to Vespasian long after Christ. The star was probably a meteoric body employed by the God of nature to be His instrument in the world of revelation, to guide the wise men to the divine Messiah. Curiously a star appeared in September, 1604, between Mars and Saturn, after a conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Pisces, but at a shorter interval than the star of the Magi after the conjunction in 7 B.C.
These files are public domain.
Fausset, Andrew R. Entry for 'Star of the Wise Men'. Fausset's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/fbd/s/star-of-the-wise-men.html. 1949.
