Nothing Miraculous to See Here, the Star of Bethlehem Was a Supernova

It happens every now and then. And it must have happened 2000 years ago. A supernova. And it appeared in Judaea at the time of the Birth of Christ.

The Bible tells us that Moses parted the Red Sea. Never mind the miraculous details, that was just Moses being Moses, or whoever wrote the Book of Exodus being whoever. The fact is, scientists explain, that a strong desert wind came sweeping down on Egypt just when the Israelites needed to escape the army of Pharaoh. So strong was this wind that it dried up a section of the Sea just in time for the 2,000,000 Israelites to pass through. It was just good timing, you see. Maybe God had something to do with it, but, for heaven sake, obviously, the walls of water did not stand on high to the right and left as we read in Exodus.

And Jonas? Well, no man could survive in the belly of a whale and get vomited out and live. We all know that. I won’t even get into Joshua and the sun standing still for a whole day. How could any rational person believe that? It can’t happen. Even God “can’t do that” say the scientists who do not believe in God.

So, we have this so-called “star.” And we have Magi following it from the East. So, Saint Matthew tells us. If the Magi were following it, it must have been moving. In fact, it must have been quite an extraordinary phenomenon. Scientists have more than one explanation for us. The most probable explanation is that several planets lined up at that time in their orbits, Mars and Jupiter get the big role. And that produced a “great light.” The phenomenon is in the “astrological record” for around that time. Catholic websites have given us that record, not to support a natural explanation for the Star, but just to be fair and open-minded. Hogwash! The Star was errant. It did not move east to west, but north to south. Stars do not do that. Only a miracle could. And this Star appeared and disappeared and then appeared again over Jerusalem. Thus, it was an extraordinary sign that gave the Magi “exceeding great joy.”

Now we know. Science has explained so many things to us.

Sometimes, I wonder. Why do Catholic websites publicize this nonsense? Why give kudos to rational explanations that deny anything miraculous. The fact is that there appeared a star in the East that was most extraordinary. And the Persian Wise Men, who knew the true religion and this prophecy of Balaam (who was also a Persian), “there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel” (Numbers 24: 17-19) recorded this prophecy. And they must have known  a lot more that had been passed on about this King of the Jews by the Hebrews in Persia during the Babylonian captivity.

Saint John Chrysostom (d. 407), among a host of fathers who also held it was a miracle, will have the last word: Thus, that this star was not of the common sort, or rather not a star at all, as it seems at least to me, but some invisible power transformed into this appearance, is in the first place evident from its very course. For there is not, there is not any star that moves by this way, but whether it be the sun you mention, or the moon, or all the other stars, we see them going from east to west; but this was wafted from north to south; for so is Palestine situated with respect to Persia. (Commentary of the Gospel of Saint Matthew)