BETHLEHEM STAR AND THE MAGI

ܘܐܡܪܝܢ ܐܝܟܘ ܡܠܟܐ ܕܝܗܘܕܝܐ ܕܐܬܝܠܕ ܚܙܝܢ ܓܝܪ ܟܘܟܒܗ ܒܡܕܢܚܐ ܘܐܬܝܢ ܠܡܣܓܕ ܠܗ
Wamerein aikuw malka d’yehuwdaya dateyalda chezin geir kawkabah bemedincha watain l’misgad leh
And they said: where is He the King of the Jews who has been born? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.
(Matthew 2:2, Peshitta)

In the Christmas story are the group described the Magi who came from the East to Jerusalem because it had seen a star as a sign of the birth of a Jewish king. Approximately star which can be equated with the Christmas Star or the Star of Bethlehem which guided the Magi had come to find Jesus? Are conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn occurred in 7 BC as mentioned by Johannes Kepler, an astronomer at the 17th century AD? Or, Novae star appearance in the year 5 BC, recorded by a Church Father, Clement of Alexandria who lived in the early 2nd century AD? (note that this star was also called by a Chinese astronomer named Ma Tuan Lien, in an ancient Chinese encyclopaedia entitled: Wen Kao Thung Hien. Jack Finegan, quoting Montifiore book, Novum Testamentum, Vol. 4 / 1960, wrote that the two stars that was used as a reference by the Magi.
Let's see one by one these arguments. Apparently conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn in 7 BC was matched with the findings of stone slabs on the ancient tower Zippar, on the banks of the Euphrates river. Thus, where the plate was also well matched with the origin of the people of ancient Babylon. The sound of the inscription on the slab in the language of ancient Babylon: Mullu-Baba zippati U kaiwanu ina. It means: "Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation of Pisces". Archeology evidence also found in a papyrus from the year 42 AD, which also noted the conjunction of these planets. The papyrus is now kept in Berlin.
This Zippar plate was first discovered by P. Scanable in 1925. According Scanable, in the Zippar city there has been a famous astrological school in the days of ancient Babylon. Interesting fact is when we track the astrological symbol of Babylon. In the Babylonian astrology, the stars are sometimes identified with the nations of their neighbors, but associated with other meanings. From the study of ancient manuscripts Babylonian religion, Pisces represents the end times, as the largest planet Jupiter, the royal planet in Babylonian astrology, symbolizing the Ruler or King. While Saturn symbolizes the Palestinian state. So, based on the way people think of ancient Babylon, astronomical phenomena that can be interpreted that a king had come at that time, his place in the Palestinian territories.
According to the tradition of the East Syrian Church (Assyrian) who is d Iraq, the Magi had mentioned "were apparently speaking Aramaic, had they could come only from the kingdom of Urhai or Edessa." And pull it again, in the Syriac Christian tradition, as related by Mar Mshihazkha in a book entitled: Sources Syriaques, mentioned that the first bishop of Adiabene area directly appointed by the Apostle Thadeus, namely Bishop Mar Pkidha, was a descendant of one of the Magi.
Back to Zippar plate, the plate is there a term in the language of Babylon Kaiwanu, his Aramaic term: Kawkabah. Perhaps the words of the Magi approaching dialect Peshitta text: kawkabah be Chezin Geir medinchah. "We have seen His star rising in the East." In the process of phonetic correspondence, it is common in allied languages studies. Kaiwanu, became Kawkabah, in Aramaic. And the term parallel with the term in Arabic: Kawakib, Kawkabat. It means the same, star or a star.

READING LIST

- Aziz A. Atiya, History of Eastern Christianity (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press)
- Jack Finegan, Handbook of Biblical Chronology (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1964)
- Santala Risto, The Messiah in the New Testament in the Light of Rabbinical Writings (Jerusalem: Koren Ahvah Meshihit, 1996)
- Samuel Hugh Moffett, A History of Christianity in Asia. Vol. I (New York: Orbis Book, 1998)