Jesus is the most controversial person in the Bible. Let’s take some time to examine him. Here’s the first blog post on Jesus.

There is much speculation and curiosity over many aspects of Jesus’s life. Let’s start with his birth. What was the star of Bethlehem? From the description and from what astronomers know of the skies back then, it was not a comet, meteor, or supernova.

However, in 3 B.C. there was a conjunction of Venus and Jupiter (meaning they were close to each other) in the constellation of Leo. People who studied the stars recognized Jupiter as a lucky object and a royal star and Leo as the tribal sign of Judah. In addition, the conjunction occurred near the star Regulus, which had something to do with kingship. If you put this all together, you end up with the idea of a king connected with the tribe of Judah in southern Israel. Others note that in 7 B.C. Jupiter and Saturn formed a conjunction in the sky; Saturn had special significance as a protector of the people living in the Eastern Mediterranean region. Plus, this conjunction took place in the constellation Pisces, which astrologers believed foretold important earthly events occurring in the land of the Hebrews.

But Matthew’s account is puzzling since he uses the word “star” when anyone could see that it was two planets. The account in the book of Matthew says that the star “came and stood over where the young child was.” Astronomical calculations show that these planets never stood overhead anywhere in Judea around the time of Jesus’s birth. Why didn’t Herod and his advisers, who knew astrology, understand what was going on?