Original subtitles

Male narrator: A strange light in the heavens.

The star that signals the birth of Jesus.

Is it faith, fable, or fact?

The star of Bethlehem is hard to identify thousands of years later.

Narrator: Can we decode the secret of the star with

the science of the universe?

What was it?

Where did it come from?

And will it return?

Ancient mysteries, shrouded in the shadows of time.

Now, can they finally be solved by looking to the heavens?

The truth is up there, hidden among the stars in a place we call

the universe.

Sync and corrections by n17t01 www.addic7ed.com

Every night, as the Earth turns away from the Sun, the stars come out.

They follow set paths across the arc of the sky, year after year.

Stars appear to rise in the east, move across the sky, and

set in the west, and that's because the Earth is

rotating from west to east, and so we just see, in a sense,

a reflection of that rotation of the Earth.

Narrator: But some say one star didn't obey these cosmic rules--

the star of Bethlehem.

You know the story, or you think you do.

Three men pursue a blazing star across the Middle Eastern desert

for a rendezvous with a miracle.

But who were the men?

And what was the star?

2,000 years ago, people didn't have the foggiest notion

what a star was, and there were different kinds of stars.

There were the stars.

There were the wandering stars, which we call planets.

There were bearded or hairy stars, which we call comets.

A star was a falling star, a meteor.

And today we still call some of these things by poetic terms,

like Venus is called "The Evening Star."

Narrator: So is the star of Bethlehem faith-based fiction,

or something that ancient stargazers actually saw in

the skies over Judea that modern astronomy can identify?

Was the star of Bethlehem real?

It might have been true.

It might have been a real event, in which case we have to rely on

ancient texts, whatever inscriptions, whatever

archeology, whatever we have that will pin the date down

enough that we can then look into the sky of that time to

know what the star might have been.

If you are going to narrow down what the object may have

been, if it was any object at all, you have to identify what

your time period is going to be.

Narrator: Our search for the star of Bethlehem begins just

over 2,000 years ago in the Middle East, divided between

the rival empires of Parthia in the east and Rome in the west.

The strategic heart of the region-- Rome's conquered

territory of Judea, with its capital of Jerusalem, ruled with

an iron hand by Rome's puppet-king, Herod The Great.

There was a lot of turmoil and discomfort among the Jewish

population in Judea with the rule of the Romans and King Herod.

And many people were turning to prophecies that a messiah would

appear to herald a new age of peace and freedom.

Narrator: One day, travelers from the Parthian Empire arrive

in Jerusalem to tell Herod that not only is the messiah

somewhere in Judea, but they have proof from the heavens.

"Wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, 'Where is

he that is born King of the Jews?

For we saw his star in the east and are come to worship him.'

and when Herod the King heard it, he was troubled, and all

Jerusalem with him."

Narrator: The wise men may assume Herod would welcome this

information, but for almost 40 years, Herod

has considered himself the King of the Jews.

Now, his power is threatened by a prophecy, an unknown child,

and a mysterious star that centuries of astronomers have

tried to identify.

The story is told in a single ancient text, but it's not an

eyewitness account.

The Gospel of Matthew was written at least 80 years after

the birth of Christ.

He, early on, may have actually been able to communicate with

people that had actually been there or seen something,

but we do not know.

Narrator: Among the mysteries of Matthew's Gospel...

Who are the wise men from the east who so easily get an

audience with the King of Judea?

And why are they talking about a star?

The answer lies in the original Greek in which the gospel was

written, where "wise men" is "magoi" or "magi,"

members of an ancient religious sect, widely respected as

scholars and stargazers.

But they're not astronomers;

they're astrologers.

"Magi" comes from the same word that "magic" does.

They were magicians in a sense.

And an important part of their job was to look for omens, so

they could advise the king or other people on what to do.

Narrator: Based in what is now Iran and Iraq, the magi who

visit Herod are deeply interested in the prophecies of

a Jewish messiah who will overthrow the power of the Romans.

For evidence that the prophecies have been fulfilled, they look

to the stars.

If you were an ordinary person 2,000 years ago, you are

going to see a sky full of stars, and changing

constellations and planets moving across those background

stars, but you will not know what they mean.

That knowledge, and what that portends about the fate of the

king, that is knowledge that is jealously guarded by the astrologers.

Narrator: So the magi see something in the sky that sends

them westward across the desert.

But here's where the story takes an unexpected turn.

They have to ask Herod for directions.

"'Where is He that is born King of the Jews?'"

The star of Bethlehem didn't actually send the magi directly

to Bethlehem.

They actually went first to Jerusalem to visit with King Herod.

Narrator: Herod's advisors consult ancient texts and say if

the messiah has been born, it would be in Bethlehem.

Herod sends the magi to Bethlehem, hoping that when they

locate the newborn messiah, he can kill this young rival to

his power.

It's not a long trip for the magi.

Bethlehem is less than six miles south of Jerusalem.

Then, something incredible happens.

"And lo, the star which they saw in the east went before

them, till it came and stood over where the young child was."

And this is a difficult statement.

Narrator: The star the magi from the east have followed

westward across the desert seems to make a turn to the south and

stands still over Bethlehem.

No normal star moves like that.

So if Matthew's text is accurate, then the star of

Bethlehem can't be a star.

The most challenging issue is that it has to somehow move and

sit straight over the position of the nativity.

That really calls for an object in the heavens to move and

guide you and sit in front of you, according to the story.

Narrator: One kind of star is known to blaze bright and move

across the sky-- a falling star.

When a rock or a piece of dust from interstellar space is

zooming through our atmosphere, heating up and lighting up the

gases behind it, that's when you see the brilliant meteor in the sky.

Narrator: Some believe that it takes more than one meteor to

make the star of Bethlehem.

So there's one hypothesis-- the star of Bethlehem was two meteors.

One that occurred first that the magi saw that led them to

Jerusalem, and another one that occurred over Bethlehem that led

them there.

The problem is, meteors happen all the time,

and as a scientific hypothesis, we can't test it because

there's absolutely no way to go back in time and find out if

there really was even the most spectacular meteor at just the

right moment.

Narrator: And there's another objection to the meteor theory.

The primary problem with the star of Bethlehem being a meteor

or meteors really has to do with timing.

Narrator: If the wise men come from around the city of

Baghdad, it's just under 550

miles to Jerusalem.

If they go by camel, traveling at a top speed of 20 to 40 miles

a day, the trip would take at least two or three weeks and

possibly much longer.

A shooting star is only going to last in the sky for a few seconds.

The way it was written in the Book of Matthew doesn't seem

consistent with such a brief event like a meteor.

Narrator: But if the star of Bethlehem isn't a meteor, could

it be something else streaking across the ancient night?

And could there be evidence outside the Bible in the

astronomical records of another ancient society?

Narrator: Can modern astronomy solve a 2,000-year-old

mystery and find the truth behind the star of Bethlehem?

In our search for the star, we're looking for a bright

light, guiding the magi to Jesus, moving unlike anything

else in the sky.

If you are trying to identify what the star of Bethlehem is,

you need to be able to narrow something down.

[Bell tolling]

Narrator: There may be a clue here in Padua, Italy, at the

medieval Arena Chapel.

In one wall of the chapel is a fresco completed in 1305 by

Giotto, the father of realistic painting.

It depicts the magi giving gifts to the baby Jesus.

The star blazes above the manger, and Giotto has clearly

painted a comet, and many say, not just any

comet, but the most famous comet of all--

comet Halley, which passes Earth about every 76 years.

The comet is visible for more than a month in 1301.

Giotto doubtless sees it and uses it as the model for his fresco.

But in his art, does Giotto also encode an ancient tradition

about the reality behind the star?

In the 3rd century, the Christian scholar Origen--

who himself might have seen Halley's comet-- writes that the

star of Bethlehem might have been a comet.

A comet is a chunk of dirty ice a couple miles across, and

when it gets near the Sun-- which does rarely and for a

short period of time-- it grows a tail as the Sun heats

that icy nucleus, evaporates the ices, releases

dust that's trapped within it to blow back and form a long and

beautiful tail.

Narrator: So was Halley's comet visible in the Middle East

during the time when Jesus was born?

The only eyewitness accounts come not from the Middle East

but from 4,000 miles away in China.

We owe a lot to Ancient Chinese astronomers.

It was remarkable the detail that they kept, and without

those records, we wouldn't really know much about any of

the historical astronomical events.

Narrator: Ancient Chinese astronomers record a

broom star, or comet, that we now call Halley's comet.

It shines brightly for some two months.

People across the Middle East would certainly have seen the

comet as well.

Now this is interesting because comets move against the

background sky.

Narrator: If Halley's comet is the star of Bethlehem, then

millions of people alive today saw it when it returned in 1986,

and millions will see it when it returns again in 2061.

But there's a problem.

The Chinese records indicate Halley's comet appeared in

12 BC, several years before most scholars think Jesus was born.

Like the star itself, Jesus's birthday is shrouded in mystery.

In his gospel story, Matthew never gives us a specific date.

When Jesus was born, people didn't count years consecutively

like we do now.

They counted them by the reign of emperor.

But even those dates weren't used in local documents.

There were no birth certificates.

Narrator: Our current division of time into before and

after the birth of Christ is a legacy from a 6th century monk,

Dionysius Exiguus.

Partly basing his calculations on the reigns of Roman emperors,

the monk devises a calendar in which Jesus is born on December

25th, 1 BC.

Six days later comes January 1st, 1 AD, for Anno Domini,

Latin for "The year of our Lord."

But Brother Dionysius makes some mathematical errors.

It's ironic that our modern calendar was based on an

estimate of when Jesus was born, and that estimate turned out to

be wrong.

Narrator: Scholars point this out over the centuries, and in

the year 2012, the Pope agrees.

Benedict XVI acknowledges in a book that Jesus was actually

born before 1 BC, although no one has proof of exactly when.

Many scholars place Jesus's birth between 7 BC and 2 BC,

and since Halley's comet appears in 12 BC, that removes it from

consideration as the star of Bethlehem... or does it?

One theory puts Halley's comet center stage at a bizarre

combination of fiction and history.

A generation after Jesus, in the year 66 AD, another group of

magi performs a strange seance in Rome for the Emperor Nero,

so he can ask one of his victims for forgiveness.

That same year, Halley's comet is seen in the skies above Rome.

When Matthew wrote his gospel, it was 80 AD.

Now, in 66 AD, just 14 years earlier, Halley's comet made a

close flyby of the Earth.

He would have seen it.

It would have been fresh in his mind as a symbol in the sky when

he wrote his gospel.

Narrator: Does Matthew transfer the historical reality

of magi visiting the tyrannical Nero in Rome in the time of

Halley's comet to other magi visiting the tyrannical Herod in

Jerusalem?

Is the gospel story just a story?

Or is there another historical comet that really could be the

star of Bethlehem?

In March of 5 BC, around the time most scholars think Jesus

was born, the Chinese record another comet that would have

been visible in the Middle East.

Some modern astronomers think this comet is the star of

Bethlehem, and some people think it's returned.

In the year 2012, a comet streaks towards Earth.

It's called Ison.

As it gets closer, a belief spreads across the globe and the

internet that this is the same light recorded by the Chinese in

5 BC, the same light that led the magi.

In early 2013, some people thought that the comet Ison was

the recurrence of the star of Bethlehem.

Narrator: Comet Ison doesn't survive the journey.

700,000 miles away from the Sun, Ison splits apart from the heat.

If Ison was the star of Bethlehem returning after

2,018 years, then modern astronomical instruments have

witnessed its utter destruction.

But this is one theory that's torn apart as easily as the

comet itself.

By measuring the trajectory of comet Ison, we've learned

that it's a parabolic trajectory, which means it enters in our

solar system, it would have passed by the Sun, and then

escaped forever.

This is in contrast to a recurrent or elliptical orbit,

like comet Halley, which will constantly return.

Ison was a one and done.

The idea that comet Ison was the return of the star of

Bethlehem is just something that one can dismiss out of hand.

Narrator: But many say that no comet can be the star of

Bethlehem, because people of ancient times looked on comets

as symbols of disaster.

Comets were bad omens.

They were omens that told us that something bad was going to happen.

The death of somebody, a plague, a famine, a war-- not heralding

the savior of mankind.

Narrator: Others say that what the Chinese see in

5 BC-- near the time when many scholars think Jesus was

born-- isn't a comet but something even stranger.

Narrator: The star of Bethlehem-- is it real?

If so, is the light the magi see a new star?

Or maybe a dead one?

Our search for the star of Bethlehem now takes us to the

city of Prague in the year 1604

and the royal astronomer.

Johannes Kepler.

He was the transition from astrology to modern astrophysics.

He was the person that looked at the motions of the planets and

figured out how they must actually move in real space.

And therefore, figured out there were actual laws governing that motion.

Narrator: In 1604, Kepler is fascinated by a new star that

shines for over a year, then disappears.

Kepler calls it a "Nova,"

Latin for "New star,"

but it isn't a new star-- it's the light from a dead one,

a supernova.

A nova is a sudden brightening of a star, and a

supernova is a much, much greater brightening of a star.

A supernova is the explosion of the entire star, whereas a nova

corresponds to an explosion of only the surface layers of a star.

When you look for the remnants of a nova, you're

basically looking for hydrogen and helium gas emanating from

the source star.

In the case of a supernova, you're looking for all sorts of

elements, from the lightest to the heaviest elements that make

the appearance of, essentially, a giant explosion in the sky.

Narrator: In 2011, a Japanese satellite takes a closer look at

the supernova remnants, providing new evidence about the

origin of the light seen in 1604.

23,000 light years from Earth, near the center of the Milky

Way, two stars are locked in a death grip.

One is a white dwarf, a star whose nuclear fusion has stopped.

As it draws in material from its partner, its density and gravity

increase until it reaches critical mass and explodes.

In 1604, the light reaches Earth and Kepler's eyes.

He wonders if there's a link between the nova and another

celestial event that year, a rare conjunction of Mars,

Jupiter, and Saturn.

A conjunction occurs when objects in the solar system

appear to be in about the same part of the sky as viewed by us,

so there could be two planets very close together, or a planet

and the Sun, or a planet and the Moon.

Narrator: Kepler wonders if somehow the unknown energies of

the combined planets had created the new star, and if a previous

conjunction produced another star that shone and disappeared--

the star of Bethlehem.

Kepler worked back the positions of planets to biblical

times and realized there was a similar grouping of planets.

Narrator: Kepler is aware of the errors in the Christian

calendar, and that Jesus was born before 1 BC.

He calculates that the two largest planets, Jupiter and

Saturn, come near each other in the year 7 BC.

And Kepler thought that perhaps that similar grouping

had produced the star of Bethlehem.

Narrator: Later astronomers learn that planets don't give

birth to stars.

Kepler was a brilliant scientist, but it was 400 years ago and

observational capabilities were very limited, so not everything

he postulated was right.

That's the nature of science.

Narrator: But Kepler's work jump-starts 400 years of

speculation that the star of Bethlehem is a nova or supernova,

and there might have been a nova sighting within the time frame

modern scholars believe Jesus was born.

We return to the Chinese record of the comet of 5 BC.

At least, they write it down as a comet, but it doesn't have the

usual tail of a comet.

Some say this is because the weather is bad and the

observations are faulty.

Others say the comet wasn't a comet.

The comet of 5 BC could have been an exploding star.

Narrator: One theory identifies the 5 BC light

as a star intertwined with a white dwarf.

A very dense white dwarf can actually be pulling the

atmosphere of its partner away like a vacuum cleaner onto its

surface, accumulating all of this hydrogen gas.

Over time, as that hydrogen gas builds up, it can actually

induce spontaneous fusion, releasing a massive amount of

energy, which rips apart part of the surface of that star.

Narrator: Some say the 5 BC

nova erupts again, in a burst observed from Earth in 1925.

A star can get that extra fuel from its companion.

It goes unstable, becomes a nova, burns off that fuel essentially.

It starts accumulating fuel again to perhaps happen at a

later time, so a nova can actually repeat for a given

binary situation.

Narrator: Modern astronomers can't pinpoint the location of

the 5 BC light based on Chinese records, but this burst

is in the right area, in the Constellation Aquilae.

Could the same object have erupted twice, with one flash

seen in 1925 and another almost 2,000 years earlier, puzzling

the Chinese and inspiring the magi?

The arguments against it is that it's been determined

that the nova in D Aquilae is not a recurrent event.

Additionally, the spectral emission from that star shows

that it would have been too dim to be observed by the naked eye.

If the event that was observed around the time of Jesus was a

nova, it is almost certainly not the nova that we've observed in 1925.

Narrator: Some astronomers say there's another problem with

identifying a nova or supernova with the star of Bethlehem

guiding the magi to their destination.

The nova does not change its position relative to the fixed stars.

Narrator: In our search for the star of Bethlehem, we've

considered cosmic phenomena that shine brightly in the sky,

but what if the star of Bethlehem is really almost invisible?

And what if the evidence is linked to one of the Bible's

bloodiest crimes?

Narrator: In our search for the star of Bethlehem, we've

been looking for bright lights in the sky, but is it possible

that the star might not be a huge shining object... but

something only the magi notice?

When you look at a Christmas card, you see this brilliant

star that everyone would have seen.

But remember, Herod and his advisors didn't know about it.

They had to ask the magi what they had seen,

so it can't have been that kind of object.

Narrator: It's time to take a closer look at what the magi say

in Matthew's Gospel.

"For we saw his star in the east, and are come to worship him."

Now, there are a couple ways that you can interpret this

statement, "We saw a star in the east."

Narrator: To decode the truth, we turn again to the

original Greek of the gospel.

"We saw his star in the east."

"In the east" is actually "En te anatole,"

or "At its rising in the east."

The phrase has a very specific

meaning for ancient stargazers.

It's what modern astronomers call a heliacal rising, the

reappearance of a star or planet

that's been out of sight for weeks or months.

We don't see all of the stars

all of the time because the

tilt of the planet points us in

one direction or another,

and the stars that are around us

in all directions-- some become

hidden, some become apparent,

and that just changes with the seasons and with the months.

So if we see a heliacal rising of a planet, that means

it's rising just before the Sun.

The word "Heliacal" has the same root as "Helios,"

which means "Sun."

Narrator: Heliacal risings are very important in ancient times.

In Egypt, the heliacal rising of

the star Sirius corresponds with

the annual flooding of the Nile.

But astrologers, like the magi,

could interpret a heliacal

rising as a supernatural omen.

Is this the key to the mystery of the star?

Rather than something spectacular and brilliant in the

sky, the star of Bethlehem may

have actually been an obscure

astrological concept of the form

of astrology practiced by the magi.

King Herod and his advisors

would not have understood what

the magi would have been talking about, because to Jews,

astrology is not something that's typically practiced

or followed.

Narrator: But Herod has enough knowledge of Greek,

Roman, and Eastern ideas to try

to talk to the magi on their own terms.

"Then Herod privily called the wise men and learned of them

exactly what time the star appeared."

Narrator: Matthew has Herod act on their astrological information.

The puppet king, feeling his political power threatened by

the young messiah, orders a mass murder.

"Then Herod sent forth and slew all the male children that

were in Bethlehem and in all the borders thereof, from two years

old and under, according to the

time which he had exactly learned from the wise men."

Narrator: Many astronomers see this story as a key clue

Matthew provides about what the star of Bethlehem must be.

Herod is killing all the children that are up to two

years old, so could the star of Bethlehem actually be

a two-year-long phenomenon?

Narrator: So the star of Bethlehem may not be an object

but a process.

If you are going to open up the possibility to maybe

multiple conjunctions of planets with stars, then you can finally

have a phenomenon, or rather a series of phenomena, that

stretch out over a few years' time.

Narrator: To astrologers,

conjunctions-- stars and planets

lining up in the sky in unusual

ways-- were cosmic messages to be decoded.

The magi would have watched for the motions of planets.

They would have tabulated and recorded every conjunction.

They would have tried to see meaning in it.

Narrator: So perhaps in 7 BC, near the time some

scholars think Jesus was born,

the magi observe the two largest planets--

Jupiter, the Planet of Kings, named for the king

of the Roman gods;

and Saturn, which many ancient astrologers think controls the

fate of the Jewish people.

Between May and December 7 BC, Jupiter and Saturn seem

to pass right next to each other, not once but three times.

To astrologers, this conjunction

could mean a change of kingship in Judea,

but it's really an optical illusion called retrograde motion.

Retrograde motion is the term

we give when a planet appears to move backward,

but it really is just how it appears.

The planet isn't actually changing its direction.

The general shape of the Solar System is a bit like this velodrome.

Planets are like bikes, each orbiting in their own lane

if you will.

Some of them are on smaller

lanes, and some of them are on larger lanes.

They orbit in curved lines, and if you go on a line with a

shorter distance, you're gonna end up overtaking a bike that is

on a higher line, which has to travel a larger distance.

Retrograde motion happens when a planet which is closer to the

Sun and is moving faster catches up with the planet which is

further away from the Sun and moving more slowly,

so every so often the planet on the inner track is gonna catch

up and lap the planet on the outer track.

Narrator: On the track, both bikes are going forward,

but from the right angle, it looks like the more distant

bike is going backwards.

And because Jupiter's orbit is on an outer track from Earth's

orbit, a similar illusion occurs in 7 BC.

From the magi's perspective on Earth, Jupiter seems to pass

Saturn and then falls backward

and passes again, then goes forward and passes

a third time-- a triple conjunction.

This may signal the magi to watch what Jupiter does next,

and the following year, 6 BC, the King Planet moves

against the constellation of Aries the ram, which like

Saturn, is granted astrological influence over the Jews.

To ascribe to individual constellations different traits

or different properties seems silly to many of us, but at the

time that would have made perfect sense.

In April of 6 BC, Jupiter would've been rising in the

east, right before dawn, when suddenly the thin crescent Moon

would've completely passed over

Jupiter, occulting it, blocking

its light, until suddenly

Jupiter would've popped out from behind the dark limb.

Narrator: Astrologically, this can be interpreted as the

birth of a new king, and since Jupiter is often in the

constellation Aries in 6 BC,

the interpretation is that the new king will arise in Judea.

This was of great astrological significance.

Narrator: It may be enough to get the magi on their camels,

but our search for the star of Bethlehem isn't over.

In recent years, a new conjunction has been identified.

Can this settle the questions of what the star really is and the

real date of Jesus's birth?

Narrator: Is the truth behind the star of Bethlehem to be

found, not just in the science of astronomy, but encoded in the

ancient secrets of astrology?

Many astronomers think the star in Matthew's Gospel is a

conjunction-- planets and stars lined up in a natural event--

with a supernatural interpretation provided by the magi.

If you look into the sky of 5, or 6, or perhaps 7 BC, the

most interesting set of conjunctions in those years was

a triple conjunction involving Jupiter and Saturn,

and if you believe that Jesus was born then, then that's

probably what the star was.

Narrator: But others look to another, perhaps more dramatic,

conjunction that could rewrite history.

In the years 3 to 2 BC, the planet Jupiter came

incredibly close to the planet Venus-- so close that they had

appeared to merge into one star, and this was done in the

constellation of Leo, very low on the eastern horizon,

right before dawn.

Narrator: Astrologers like the magi might interpret this as

the King Planet, Jupiter, joining the Mother Planet,

Venus, in the Constellation of the Lion, the king of beasts--

a constellation, like Aries, associated by ancient

astrologers with the Jews.

Perhaps, the magi think, a great Jewish leader has been conceived.

Later, between September 3 BC

and May 2 BC, retrograde motion makes it look like

Jupiter, the King Planet, passes three times above a special star

that ancient astrology says also rules the fate of kings.

Regulus is the brightest star of Leo, and so Regulus has the

same root as "Regal."

It's the king star in the Lion Constellation, the constellation of kings.

As the Earth passed Jupiter in its orbit, Jupiter would appear

to pass Regulus in a rare triple conjunction.

According to some astrologers, by connecting these dots,

Jupiter appears to crown Regulus.

Narrator: The magi might take this as a sign that a great king

is about to be born.

Then Jupiter lines up with Venus again.

It's nine months after their previous conjunction--

the time it takes for a woman to conceive and give birth.

In June of 2 BC, as Jupiter was lowering, it would

meet Venus now coming upwards, and the two would once more join

and make a single bright star, but this time over Judea.

Narrator: To the magi, are these the signs for the birth of

the King of the Jews, the Messiah?

Is this June conjunction the final sign that sets them on

their journey to the west?

Some say they don't arrive in Jerusalem until late December

2 BC because in that month, Jupiter has moved into the

southern sky, and some calculate that retrograde motion makes the

planet which the magi have followed look like it's standing

over Bethlehem on the 25th of December.

It's not Jesus's birthday or anywhere near it.

The Gospel of Matthew says he's already a young child, not a baby,

but could the memory of the magi's visit be one reason,

centuries later, that the church picks December 25th as the date of Christmas?

Many say this explanation for the star of Bethlehem is the one

that best connects the gospel with astronomy,

but others say it's impossible because it happens in 2 BC,

two years after Herod the Great dies in 4 BC.

According to Matthew, the birth of Jesus and the death of Herod

are linked and can't be separated.

"Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the King."

All right, so this sets the time frame.

Herod had to have been king, and he must've been alive.

The conjunction in 2 or 3 BC could not have been the

star of Bethlehem if King Herod really did die in 4 BC.

Narrator: But what if traditional history is wrong?

According to Flavius Josephus, an historian of the late

1st century, Herod dies after a lunar eclipse and before the

spring feast of Passover.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon's orbit around the

Earth takes it through the shadow of the Earth, and the Earth blocks the Sun.

Narrator: Many scholars assume that the eclipse Josephus

refers to is the partial eclipse of March 13, 4 BC,

but in the late 20th century, a controversial new theory

arises... that Josephus is really referring to the total lunar

eclipse of January 10th, 1 BC, an event that would

terrify any who see it.

The Moon looks deep red during a total lunar eclipse.

Narrator: Red like the blood shed by Herod.

Is this the celestial sign that his own death is not far away?

If you believe that Herod died in 1 BC, then you want to

look for the star in the years 2 or 3 BC, and an amazing

series of conjunctions of planets and stars that occurred

in those years, and if that's the correct time

frame, then I think it's safe to say that's what the star was.

Narrator: If this conjunction is the true star of Bethlehem,

then Jesus is born in 2 BC, very close to the traditional date of his birth.

But if this is when Jesus is born, then generations of

traditional scholars are wrong about when King Herod dies, and

it's time to rewrite history.

I would love it if some day archaeologists were to find clay

tablets, papyrus scrolls, something that gave more light

on these ideas that come down to us that may have actually had

an astronomical origin, but if that's going to happen,

we have to wait and see.

Narrator: We've looked to the heavens to find the star that signaled Jesus's birth.

We've crossed out comets, meteors, and exploding stars

to identify the star the magi saw as one of a series of

conjunctions involving a planet that billions see every night--

Jupiter, a planet named for a pagan god

whose movements through space interpreted by ancient astrologers

have been immortalized as the star of Bethlehem.

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