{"id":79,"date":"2014-05-14T12:00:10","date_gmt":"2014-05-14T12:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?p=79"},"modified":"2014-05-08T21:08:05","modified_gmt":"2014-05-08T21:08:05","slug":"matthew-21-12-the-visit-of-the-magi-bible-difficulties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-21-12-the-visit-of-the-magi-bible-difficulties.html","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 2:1-12; The Visit of the Magi (Bible Difficulties)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What was the \u201cstar in the east\u201d that the Magi saw? Only God knows for sure, but that hasn\u2019t stopped scholars and devotees from speculating. Here are two theories:<\/p>\n<p><i>It was an angel<\/i>. Elsewhere in Scripture, angels are described as beings of light (Acts 12:7; 2 Corinthians 11:14). Thus some think the \u201cstar in the east\u201d was actually an angel (or choir of angels) shining brightly down from the heavens to announce Christ\u2019s birth.<\/p>\n<p><i>It was an explainable celestial phenomenon<\/i>. Modern astronomers calculate that several possibilities like this could have happened. Jupiter and Saturn are believed to have aligned around 7 B.C., and could have \u201ccreated a star of unusual brightness.\u201d An alignment of Venus and Saturn around 3 B.C. could have also been unexpectedly bright, as well as other planetary configurations in 3 and 2 B.C&#8230; Even a comet passing earth is seen as a plausible explanation.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of what the star actually was, it signified to readers of Matthew\u2019s gospel the fulfillment of another messianic prophecy, found in Numbers 24:17: \u201cA star will come out of Jacob\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/371\/2014\/04\/StarNASA1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-214\" alt=\"Matthew 2:1-12\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/371\/2014\/04\/StarNASA1.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/workscited.html\" target=\"_self\">Works Cited<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>[MAT, 52-53]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u2126\u2126\u2126<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Bible Study Nerds\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-for-bible-study-nerds.html\">About: For Bible Study Nerds\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Mike Nappa\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-mike-nappa.html\">About: Mike Nappa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2014 to present by\u00a0<a title=\"Nappaland Communications Inc. official website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nappaland.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nappaland Communications Inc<\/a>. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What was the \u201cstar in the east\u201d that the Magi saw? Only God knows for sure, but that hasn\u2019t stopped scholars and devotees from speculating. Here are two theories: It was an angel. Elsewhere in Scripture, angels are described as beings of light (Acts 12:7; 2 Corinthians 11:14). Thus some think the \u201cstar in the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":571,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,2],"tags":[39,34,302,38],"class_list":["post-79","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bibledifficulties","category-matthew","tag-angels","tag-magi","tag-matthew","tag-star"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Matthew 2:1-12; The Visit of the Magi (Bible Difficulties) - For Bible Study Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-21-12-the-visit-of-the-magi-bible-difficulties.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matthew 2:1-12; The Visit of the Magi (Bible Difficulties) - For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What was the \u201cstar in the east\u201d that the Magi saw? Only God knows for sure, but that hasn\u2019t stopped scholars and devotees from speculating. Here are two theories: It was an angel. Elsewhere in Scripture, angels are described as beings of light (Acts 12:7; 2 Corinthians 11:14). Thus some think the \u201cstar in the&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-21-12-the-visit-of-the-magi-bible-difficulties.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-14T12:00:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-05-08T21:08:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/04\/StarNASA1.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Nappa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Matthew 2:1-12; The Visit of the Magi (Bible Difficulties) - For Bible Study Nerds","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-21-12-the-visit-of-the-magi-bible-difficulties.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Matthew 2:1-12; The Visit of the Magi (Bible Difficulties) - For Bible Study Nerds","og_description":"What was the \u201cstar in the east\u201d that the Magi saw? Only God knows for sure, but that hasn\u2019t stopped scholars and devotees from speculating. Here are two theories: It was an angel. Elsewhere in Scripture, angels are described as beings of light (Acts 12:7; 2 Corinthians 11:14). Thus some think the \u201cstar in the&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-21-12-the-visit-of-the-magi-bible-difficulties.html","og_site_name":"For Bible Study Nerds","article_published_time":"2014-05-14T12:00:10+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-05-08T21:08:05+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/04\/StarNASA1.jpg"}],"author":"Mike Nappa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-21-12-the-visit-of-the-magi-bible-difficulties.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-21-12-the-visit-of-the-magi-bible-difficulties.html","name":"Matthew 2:1-12; The Visit of the Magi (Bible Difficulties) - For Bible Study Nerds","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-21-12-the-visit-of-the-magi-bible-difficulties.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-21-12-the-visit-of-the-magi-bible-difficulties.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/04\/StarNASA1.jpg","datePublished":"2014-05-14T12:00:10+00:00","dateModified":"2014-05-08T21:08:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-21-12-the-visit-of-the-magi-bible-difficulties.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-21-12-the-visit-of-the-magi-bible-difficulties.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-21-12-the-visit-of-the-magi-bible-difficulties.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/04\/StarNASA1.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/04\/StarNASA1.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-21-12-the-visit-of-the-magi-bible-difficulties.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Matthew 2:1-12; The Visit of the Magi (Bible Difficulties)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/","name":"For Bible Study Nerds","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Mike Nappa","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575","name":"Mike Nappa","description":"Mike Nappa is an entertainment journalist at FamilyFans.com, a bestselling author\u2014and a notorious Bible Study Nerd. 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