CCATP #415 Bart Busschots Ponders the Mystery of the Christmas Star

Bart's opening slide Ponderint the Mystery of the Christmas StarBart Busschots takes us on a journey of discovery to try and see if we can determine what celestial body was seen in the sky on the night of Jesus birth in the city of Bethlehem. This discussion is not judgmental or prejudicial, but rather takes us through what we know of history at the time, what we know from the Bible and what we know from astronomy. Find out whether we can determine what celestial body or bodies were the Christmas Star.

When he gives this talk in person, he uses an application called Stellarium to demonstrate the night sky, and some scripts that he wrote that show the rotation and location of the celestial bodies at the time of Jesus’ birth in the city of Bethlehem. You can find links to download his presentation, Stellarium (which is open source and free for all desktop operating systems) and his scripts on his blog: bartbusschots.ie/s/2015/12/01/christmas-star-astro2-december-2015/


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3 thoughts on “CCATP #415 Bart Busschots Ponders the Mystery of the Christmas Star

  1. Ron - December 10, 2015

    Awesome show. I really enjoyed this

  2. Helen - December 10, 2015

    Heard the talk today. A few things caught my attention, so I did a bit of research. Here are three (short) articles which clear up some of the fuzzy history issues mentioned by Bart:
    http://www.ncregister.com/blog/jimmy-akin/the-100-year-old-mistake-about-the-birth-of-jesus
    http://www.ncregister.com/blog/jimmy-akin/jesus-birth-and-when-herod-the-great-really-died/
    http://www.ncregister.com/blog/jimmy-akin/what-year-was-jesus-born-the-answer-may-surprise-you/

    In addition to which, following on Bart’s use of astronomy, here is an astronomy article to back up the history argument above: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/jupiter-venus-to-converge-in-star-of-bethlehem-moment/?utm_campaign=buffer&utm_content=bufferebeb7&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com

    So, too, if anyone is wondering about how the Infancy Narratives in Luke and Matthew correspond, more can be read here: http://jimmyakin.com/2014/02/how-the-accounts-of-jesus-childhood-fit-together-6-things-to-know-and-share.html

    Thanks!

  3. Greg - December 17, 2015

    Took astronomy in college in the 70’s from Professor Karlis Kaufmanis who gave a lecture called “The Star of Bethlehem.” He also thought it was planets in conjunction. Here is a link to the University of Minnesota and a transcript of the lecture:

    https://www.lib.umn.edu/faq/5037

    A recording of lecture is available here:

    https://sites.google.com/site/astrologicalstarofbethlehem/

    Thanks for the fascinating podcast

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