Miraculous Events Associated with the Birth of Jesus Christ

This paper identifies the key chronological events in the conception and birth of Jesus of Nazareth derived from holy scripture, and the celestial sequence of events, or “celestial chronology” associated with the Star of Bethlehem. The celestial chronology was developed using standard planetarium software. The historical accounts of the early church historians and chronologists related to the birth of Christ are then discussed, allowing us to determine the degree of correlation between the celestial chronology and the historical records. Our findings show an incredible correlation: the historical accounts place the birth in the year 3/2 BC, leading to the conclusion that the Star of Bethlehem was a real, celestial occurrence and that the Bible, when coupled with the scientific astronomical records, provides an accurate, historical account of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth on 17 June 2 BC.

Within the canonical gospel literature the the nativity of Jesus is only recounted in Matthew and Luke, and in very different ways. The Matthew text is generally assumed to be older, and known to the author of the Luke text. Why did Luke feel he needed to substantially add to, or modify, the account already given in Matthew? We shall try to provide an answer to that question, and argue that the information in the two complementary nativity accounts provides sufficient elements for the precise astronomical dating of the narrated events.

The birth of Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of human history. Our years are numbered in accordance with the eras BC and AD signifying Before Christ and Anno Domini, i.e., “in the year of the Lord.” We celebrate the biggest holiday of the year in remembrance of His birth but amazingly, we still do not know the actual day He was born. For over two thousand years now, the date has remained shrouded in mystery. However, God may have provided for us just enough information to untangle this longstanding riddle. Sifting through that information will be the focus of this book. Using a combination of secular history, archaeology, astronomy, and Holy Scripture, we will develop a comprehensive theory, piece by piece, that supports the chronology for the birth, ministry, and crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. The evidence will be built on a firm foundation starting with God’s declaration in Genesis 1:14 that among other things, the heavens are for signs. The famous star that “stood over where the child was,” or the “Star of Bethlehem” is one of those signs. Step by step, we will sort through the evidence to build our case one layer at a time, comparing our theory and chronology with secular history, supporting our belief that God’s only Son truly walked among us, and that the Bible has provided for us an actual historically accurate account of the life of Jesus of Nazareth. The book was developed and organized to enable the reader to validate, challenge, or refute the evidence for themselves. A total of four hundred and forty-seven (447) endnotes have been provided to facilitate independent assessment and verification of the source references by the reader. The book’s findings are supported by a variety of illustrations, having seventy seven (77) figures and tables covering a wide range of topics using: celestial sky maps to illustrate the Star of Bethlehem’s course in the heavens, detailed timelines from the course of Abijah in Luke 1:5 to the birth of Christ in Luke 2:7, Herod’s last years, the Passion Week, Josephus’ histories of King Herod, and the Census of Quirinius. Tables dating the Governors of Syria, images of ancient coins, timelines of Gaius Caesar's Syrian governorship, the War of Varus, and much more.

2025

The Star that Revealed the King: Astronomical, Prophetic and Historical Synchrony of Christ's Birth (August 20-21, 1 BC). This study proposes a new astronomical and historical reconstruction of the Star of Bethlehem, centred on the hypothesis that a sequence of planetary conjunctions (Jupiter and Venus from 3 BC to 1 BC)—and particularly the exceptionally close conjunction of Jupiter and Venus in the constellation Virgo on 20–21 August 1 BC—marks the exact date of Christ’s birth. The analysis integrates astronomical simulations, biblical texts, data from the Second Temple priestly calendar, and historical records from Flavius Josephus. It argues that the celestial events would have been interpreted by Chaldean astronomers as progressive signs of a royal birth, culminating in the reappearance of the "star" as the Magi approached Bethlehem. This timeline aligns precisely with the biblical account of John the Baptist’s birth, the prophetic symbolism of Genesis 49:10, Isaiah 7:14, and Revelation 12:1–2, and a re-evaluated date for the death of Herod the Great following the lunar eclipse of 29 December 1 BC. The research presents a coherent chronology that challenges conventional datings and highlights the interdisciplinary convergence of astronomy, ancient prophecy, and Roman political context.

1985

2006

Of the many tensions characterizing the Gospel of John, one of its perplexities most needing to be addressed critically is the set of issues related to aspects of historicity. 1 On one hand, John is the most spiritual, theological, and symbolic of the canonical Gospels, leading scholars in recent decades to take seriously the literary fe atures of the work. On the other hand, there is more archaeologi cal, topographical, and apparently historical material in John than in any other Gospel, or even in all three combined. 2 It is no surprise, therefore, that many of the essays presented at the millennial conference on Jesus and archaeology held in Jerusalem (August 2000) dealt with issues and details alluded to directly in the Gospel of John. And yet, because the prevalent opinion among New Testa ment scholars ascribes little if any historical weight to the Fourth Gospel, this trend presents a formidable obstacle to the scientific investigation of Jesus and archaeology. Consider, for instance, the opinion of Edgar J. Goodspeed regard ing the purportedly ahistorical nature of the Fourth Evangelist: "It must be re membered that topography and chronology were among the least of the au thor's concerns. His head was among the stars. He was seeking to determine the place of Jesus in the spiritual universe and his relations to the eternal realities. 1. Tensions between the humanity and divinity of Jesus, the Son's egalitarian or subordinate relation to the Father, embellished and existentialized presentation of Jesus' signs, heightened or diminished sacramentology, present or future eschatology, and literary unity or disunity in John have been addressed especially in P. N. Anderson, Th e Christology of the Fo urth Gospel: Its Unity and Disunity in the Light of John 6, WUNT 78 (Tiibingen: J.C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1996; Val ley Forge, Pa.: Trinity, 1997); also included in Th e Dialogical Autonomy of the Fo urth Gospel-the Purpose, Development, and Meaning of John (Eugene, Ore.: Cascade Books, 2 006). 2. Professor von Wahlde's essay in the present collection examines over fifty archaeological and topographical passages in John, so the treatment of specific passages should be considered in his essay. These were the matters that interested and absorbed him, not itineraries a nd time tables, so that practical mundane considerations that might apply t(j' Mark, Matthew, or Luke have little significance for his work."3 Clearly, John fa greatly interested in Christology, but does that mean its narrator had no interest:� in the empirical details he includes in his narrative? If John's patent ahistoricity is a worthy thesis, this would be important to establish. This would mean that John's archaeological and topographical references would be disconnected: sev� ered from the events narrated, thus requiring an alternative explanation. How� ever, if this modernistic thesis itself emerges as less than resilient when sub� jected to critical scrutiny, the historical-critical scholar must explore alternative means of accounting for the distinctive character of the Johannine witness. This is especially important, given the fact of John's archaeological and topo-: graphical fe atures, many of which appear also to be accurate. Along these lines, several serious errors are made by otherwise critical scholars. (a) First, John's differences with the Synoptics are wrongly understood as three against one, with John being the lone Gospel out. If John and Mark: may be considered the Bi-Optic Gospels,4 John's differences with the SynoptiCS: are better considered one against one, with at least some of them consisting of an individuated perspective providing an alternative-perhaps intentionally so-to Mark. (b) Second, it is a gross error to assume that because John is theological in its tone it is ahistorical in its character and origin. By analogy, the crucifixion of Jesus was of paramount theological significance to early Chris� tians, but this fact alone does not prove its ahistoricity. Spiritualized reflection more often follows upon significant events rather than concocting them, and ' critical judgment must be used in discerning whether a theological comment in • John betrays a spiritualized refl ection upon an event or whether it reflects projection of a theological notion on to the narrative. Facile conjecture alone does not meet the test of critical scrutiny. (c) A third error is to fail to notice the many ways John's traditional accounts appear more authentic than, and even historically superior to, those in the Synoptics. This is not to deny the many ways that the Synoptic presentations of Jesus are preferable to the Johannine; the point is that the multiplicity of issues between the Gospels must be consid� 3. See Edgar J. Goodspeed, An In troduction to the New Tes tament (Chicago: University of•.

2021

Contents: 1. SCIENCE AND SCRIPTURE: 2 1.1 How to resolve contradictions 2 1.2 Why astronomy might be concealed in the Bible 3 1.3 Some key terms to understand of following text 3 2. DECIPHERING BIBLICAL CALENDARS 4 2.1 Three sons of Noah and three seasons of the year 4 2.2 Twelve sons of Jacob and the zodiac 4 2. THE CREATION OF THE WORLD AND THE EXPULSION FROM THE PARADISE: 5 When did it occur and what does it mean? 5 3.1 Primordial Heaven 5 3.2 What happened on the 6th of October 3760 BCE? 5 3.3 What might Eden symbolize? 6 3.4 The meaning of Cain-Abel story 7 3. THE GLOBAL FLOOD AND THE BABEL TOWER: 7 Where and when were they? 7 4.1 The centuries-old enigma of the Great Deluge 7 4.2 The Babel Tower is found 8 5. THE AGE AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE PATRIARCHS: 9 Precise astronomy, synchronization with neighbors, and the Santorini volcano eruption 9 5.1 Why did the Patriarchs live so long? 9 5.2 Contemporaries of Patriarchs in the neighboring 9 5.3 Seven years of famine after the Santorini eruption 400 years before the Exodus 10 6. REALITY OF THE EXODUS: 10 From the Plagues of Egypt to the capture of Jericho 10 6.1 The pharaoh of the oppression and the pharaoh of the Exodus 10 6.2 The Egyptian evidence of Moses? 11 6.3 The Biblical evidence of Merneptah? 11 6.4 Forty years from the Egyptian darkness to the eclipse of lunar Jericho: a chronological key ……………………………………………………………………………..…….…………. 11 7. JUDGES, KINGS, AND PROPHETS 12 The standing sun, the fiery chariot, the sky circles 12 7.1 When the sun and the moon stood and stones were falling from the heaven 12 7.2 Samson the hero among other Judges 12 7.3 Precise chronology of the first kings Saul, David, and Solomon 12 7.4 The celestial fiery chariot of Elias 13 7.5 Ezekiel the astronomer, a predecessor of Pythagoras 13 7.6. Daniel’s astronomy 14 8. THE CELESTIAL SIGNS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 14 8.1 Sky symbols of Jesus Christ and the Apostles 14 8.2 Heavenly Signs in the Book of Revelation: 15 9. APOCRYPHICAL BOOKS OF ENOCH: 16 Manuals of Megalithic Astronomy 16 9.1 What are these books? 16 9.2 Megalithic Observatory 17 9.3 1 Enoch: The Length of Day and Latitude 17 9.4 2 Enoch: Shift of the Sunrise Point and Latitude 18 9.5 The Seasonal Stars 19 9.6 The circumpolar Constellations 19

The Journal of the European Pentecostal Theological Association, 2020

2019

The biblical account of the wise men and the star that announced the coming of the Messiah of Israel has inspired and puzzled people for two millennia. Important aspects of Babylonian astronomy seem to be involved in understanding the star’s appearing. But in addition, this short book​ also explores the men and events from a profoundly Jewish perspective. The traditional Jewish names of stars and planets, Jewish symbols, as well as Jewish dates, all seem to be keys to unlocking the mystery of the famous star.