The Christmas Star

The Christmas Star Oh Beautiful Star of Bethlehem How brightly you did shine! Yet how you pale in comparison To child Jesus' light divine. According to Christian tradition, the Star of Bethlehem, also known as the Christmas star, revealed the birth of Jesus to the Magi (often translated as “wise men” but more accurately translated as “astrologers” or “astronomers”). According to the Gospel of Matthew, the three wise men were inspired by the star to travel from the East to Jerusalem. They knew from the star that the man whose appearance had been foretold had come into the world. They met with Herod to ask where the King of the Jews had been born saying ‘we have seen his star’. Herod was troubled because the magi told him that a king of the Jews had been born and gathered his chief priests and scribes together to find out where the Messiah had been born. His advisers quoted from scripture, the prophet Micah, and answered ‘Bethlehem, the birthplace of King David’. Herod gave this information to the magi but also determined from them at what time the star appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem to search for the child and to bring back word. The Magi departed “and the star which they had seen in the East went before them, until it came and stood over where the young Child was". (Matthew 2: 7 – 10) The magi were warned in a dream not to return to Jerusalem so they left for their own country by another route. When Herod realised he had been tricked, he ordered the execution of all male children in Bethlehem two years old and younger, based on the information the magi had given him concerning the time the star first appeared. by Jean McLoughlin