The Star of Bethlehem

The imagery of the Christmas story traditionally shows a giant star hovering above the stable in Bethlehem like a pin in a map, guiding the wisemen to pay homage to the infant Christ. The star has been a source of fascination to many: was it simply a bright light in the sky? A planet or comet? How did it lead the Magi to a tiny village in Judea?

Fr Douglas McGonagle was an astronomer before he was ordained a priest. When he came across a book by the late Dr Michael Molnar, he was drawn into the mystery of the Star and fascinated by how Molnar followed clues from an ancient coin depicting a leaping ram and a star through the arcane workings of ancient astrology to explain the celestial sign that St Matthew writes about in his Gospel. In this book, Fr McGonagle builds on Dr Molnar's scholarship to show the importance of the Star of Bethlehem in how the story of the Nativity was told, how its meaning came to be obscured to more modern readers of Matthew, and how even for Christians today "the heavens proclaim the glory of God" (Ps 19:1).

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