On December 21, 2020, a celestial event touted as being the same phenomenon behind the Star of Bethlehem took place in the night sky.

On that evening, Jupiter and Saturn appeared a mere six arcminutes apart. This close encounter, a great conjunction, had occurred only four times since 1200 and was the closest the two planets had been to each other since 1623.

Unless you had a telescope, it was, in fact, unremarkable—just two bright stars overhead in the night sky.

Being something of an amateur astronomer, I had taken my eight-inch reflector outside that evening. A small number of curious neighbors stopped by to take a glimpse through the eyepiece.

This was certainly not the celestial phenomenon that caught the attention of the Magi, who, being astrologers and astronomers, were familiar with the predictable movements of the stars and planets across the night sky.

It would have had to be something absolutely remarkable—yet perhaps not entirely unexpected—to motivate them to undertake a journey of nearly 1,000 miles from Persia to Bethlehem.

But the Magi were also theologians. One could say they were the multi-disciplinary academics of their day; learned “Wise Men,” who knew how to integrate the historical narrative of Israel, the oracles from the Jewish prophets of a coming Messiah who would be King, and the science of astronomy.

How they obtained a knowledge of Jewish scriptures requires a bit of history.  

In 605 B.C., Babylon invaded Judah and took captive the Nation of Israel. During those seventy years under captivity, the Jewish people lived, worked, and worshipped among the Babylonians. The prophet Jeremiah had encouraged them to “Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce” (Jeremiah 29:5). Rather than losing their Jewish identity, their presence influenced Babylonian culture.

Fast forward some 530 years. It’s 5 B.C. The knowledge of ancient Jewish scriptures has persisted in what is now Persia. It has fallen into the hands of a curious group of wise men, “seekers of truth and wisdom,” the Magi.

They have seen something incredible appear in the night sky. It is not a star. It is not a great conjunction. It is not even a supernova. It is a great comet sporting an enormous tail.

A great comet, with its luminous head and gaseous tail, is the only celestial phenomenon that could be characterized as a star with a scepter; emerging, rising, and moving across the night sky from east to west.    

The Magi were familiar with the Jewish prophecies about a coming king. The prophet Micah had written during the second half of the eighth century B.C., “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.”

They set out on a months-long journey, following the comet’s progression across the night sky. “And the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was” (Matthew 2:9).  

There should be astronomical records of a comet as spectacular as the Christmas comet. And, in fact, there are. A NASA planetary scientist’s “recent groundbreaking study, identifies a bright comet recorded by ancient Chinese astronomers in 5 BC as the celestial phenomenon described in the Gospel of Matthew.”

This isn’t the first time a great comet has been offered as an explanation for the Star of Bethlehem. In 1992, Colin J. Humphreys wrote a fascinating article entitled, “The Star of Bethlehem, a Comet in 5 BC and the Date of Christ’s Birth.”

More recently, Colin R. Nicholl’s 2015 book, The Great Christ Comet, details the Bible’s prophecies surrounding Christ’s birth together with the science of comets and the historical accounts of their appearances over the last two millennia.

As a science professor, it is fascinating to speculate about the celestial event that led the Magi to Bethlehem. But scientific curiosity should not overshadow the deeper meaning of this Three Kings Day.

John Henry Hopkins, Jr. reminds us in his famous 1857 carol, “We Three Kings,” that the Magi brought gifts and worshipped that “Perfect Light,” the one who was “King forever, ceasing never, over us all to reign.”    

“O come let us adore Him, Christ, the Lord.”