[quote author=“dougsmith” date=“1197326986]There is no report of any particular astronomical event around that time anyhow.
I object, my honour!
It probably was pasted into the story later, of course, but because of the date (2 BC), the possible astrological meaning and the parallels with the story, I find it quite convincing. I presume the story was bent to fit the astrological constellation.
OY! It’s just literature. My point is, the priests were astrologists. They did everything by the stars, including treating the ills of people. Now you won’t find the medicine of the priestcraft in the story, but since the story is a series of midrashes from previous stories- one example being that of Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt with the baby Jesus to save him from the king. This midrash goes back to Moses and Krishna, there could be more. The author of Matthew borrowed from those two to make his story. Now the star is also symbolism, but I can’t explain that well except to say Jesus is another Sun god. Solstice is “sun stood still”. It doesn’t really, but to the naked primitive eye… Basically we are talking astrotheology when talk about the brightest star in the sky. Back then it could have been almost anything, but now days, we see Venus in our December night skies.
The date for Christ’s so called birthday, is only a pagan holiday, which is no surprise since Christianity is mostly pagan traditions. I’m not going to get into a debate as to which previous pagan god was born when, because they too are also stories and it really doesn’t matter. The thing is, to set the date on Yule after Mother Night, brought in pagans from other religions, which is what Rome wanted so it could have dominance. It worked. As for the star in the story, it’s just an astrological fictacious deal that works for the priestcraft and for years they could get away with pointing to Venus- which was also a Roman deity that lived in the “heavens”.
Is anyone following this or am I too vague?