The Great Christ Comet (2 page)
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Authors: Colin Nicholl,Gary W. Kronk
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The Great Christ Comet
Revealing the True Star of Bethlehem
Colin R. Nicholl
The Great Christ Comet: Revealing the True Star of Bethlehem
Copyright © 2015 by Colin R. Nicholl
Published by Crossway
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Wheaton, Illinois 60187
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.
All photographs and illustrations used by permission.
Cover design: Josh Dennis
Cover image: Sirscha Nicholl
First printing 2015
Printed in China
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the ESV
®
Bible (
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version
®
), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. 2011 Text Edition. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture references marked NIV are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version
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, NIV
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. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.
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Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Single words or short phrases have been quoted from the American Standard Version (ASV), Common English Bible (CEB), Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB), International Standard Version (ISV), King James Version (KJV), NET Bible (NET), New American Standard Bible (NASB), New English Bible (NEB), Revised English Bible (REB), and Revised Version (RV).
In the Bible translations quoted, “Yahweh” is regularly substituted for “the
Lord
.”
Italics in Bible translations have been added by the author.
Translations of Biblical passages, phrases, or words by the author are marked as such.
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4335-4213-8
ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-4216-9
PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-4214-5
Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-4215-2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nicholl, Colin R., author.
âThe great Christ comet : revealing the true Star of Bethlehem / Colin R. Nicholl.
ââ1 online resource.
âIncludes bibliographical references and index.
âDescription based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.
âISBN 978-1-4335-4214-5 (pdf)
âISBN 978-1-4335-4215-2 (mobi)
âISBN 978-1-4335-4216-9 (epub)
âISBN 978-1-4335-4213-8 (hardcover)
â1. Comets. 2. Star of Bethlehem. 3. Astonomy in the Bible. 4. Bible. Matthew. I. Title.
QB724
226.2'085236âdc23 Â Â 2014025184
Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Build:
2015-10-09 03:38:29 PM
To my parents, Drew and Florence Nicholl
Contents
Introducing the Bethlehem Star
â2 Â Â “We Beheld (It Is No Fable)”
The Testimony of Matthew's Gospel
â3 Â Â “They Looked Up and Saw a Star”
The Story of the Star
Evaluating the Major Hypotheses
â5 Â Â “What Sudden Radiance from Afar?”
Introducing Comets
â6 Â Â “A Stranger midst the Orbs of Light”
The Star as a Comet
â7 Â Â “Yon Virgin Mother and Child”
The Celestial Wonder
â8 Â Â “With Royal Beauty Bright”
Messiah's Star
â9 Â Â “Lo, the Star Appeareth”
Profiling the Comet
10 Â Â “Following Yonder Star”
Tracking the Comet
11 Â Â “Brightest and Best of the Sons of the Morning”
The Greatest Comet in History
12 Â Â “The Light Everlasting That Fades Not Away”
The Ongoing Story
Appendix 1: The Chinese Comet Records
Appendix 2: The Meteor Storm of 6Â BC
  3.1   “The Magi in the House of Herod,” by James Tissot
  4.1   The Jupiter-Saturn Conjunction on May 29, 7 BC
  5.1   The nucleus of Comet Tempel 1
  5.2   The nucleus of Comet Hartley 2 as it degasses
  5.3   How a comet develops a coma and tail
  5.4   The coma of Donati's Comet, 1858
  5.5   Globular versus elliptical comas
  5.6   Comet Ikeya-Zhang on March 18, 2002
  5.7   Tail orientation at different stages of a comet's orbit
  5.8   The orientation of Halley's Comet relative to the Sun in 1531
  5.9   Comet tail lengths
  5.10   The Great Comet of 1577
  5.11   Coggia's Comet, 1874
  5.12   Comet Donati on October 5, 1858
  5.13   Comet Arend-Roland in April 1957
  5.14   Comet Lulin on January 31, 2009
  5.15   The Great Comet of 1680
  5.16   Comet Lovejoy in 2011
  5.17   Comet Holmes during its outburst in 2007
  5.18   Forward-scattering and backscattering
  5.19   Comet McNaught on January 20, 2007
  5.20   Comets as portrayed in Hevelius's
Cometographia
  5.21   The Great Comet of 1861 (Tebbutt)
  5.23   Sketch of the Great September Comet of 1882
  5.24   The orbital elements of a comet
  5.25   How meteoroid streams may give rise to meteor showers and storms
  5.26   The radiant of the Andromedid Meteor Storm on November 27, 1872
  5.27   Painting of the Great Comet of 1843
  5.28   Impression of the 1843 Comet
  5.29   Drawing of the Great Comet of 1811
  5.30   Painting of the Great Comet of 1811
  5.31   Engraving of the Great Comet of 1811
  5.32   Comet Ikeya-Zhang on March 20, 2002
  6.1   Giotto's “Adoration of the Magi” fresco in Padua
  6.2   Halley's Comet on June 6, 1910
  6.3   Halley's Comet in 1066 as portrayed on the Bayeux Tapestry
  6.4   Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997
  6.5   The Great Comet of 1881 (Tebbutt) on June 25/26, 1881
  6.6   Observational drawing of the Great Comet of 1843
  6.7   Watercolor of the Great Comet of 1680
  6.8   Wood engraving of the Great Southern Comet of 1880
  6.9   Wood engraving of Comet Wells of 1882
  6.10   Lithograph of the Great Comet of 1843
  6.11   Coin showing Caesar's Comet of 44 BC
  7.1   The scepters of Merodach-Baladan II and of Sargon II
  7.2   The Furrow (Virgo) holding an ear of grain
  7.3   Representations of Virgo from the 2nd century BC to the 2nd century AD
  7.4   Artistic re-creation of Ptolemy's representation of Virgo
  7.5   Isis with Horus, her child
  7.6   Virgo's crown of twelve stars
  7.7   Virgo on the ceiling of the Esna Temple in Egypt
  7.8   Parthian coin featuring Queen Musa
  7.9   Nebuchadnezzar, king of BabÂylon
  7.10   Jewish Virgo (Bethulah) on a zodiac wheel at Beth Alpha
  7.11   Virgo as envisioned in Revelation 12
  7.12   Astronomy of the zodiacal constellations
  7.13   The seven-headed Hydra
  7.14   Isis preparing to nurse her son Horus
  7.15   The BabÂyloÂnian constellation Serpent (or Hydra)
  7.16   Comet Hyakutake on March 21/22, 1996
  7.17   Comet Hale-Bopp on April 4, 1997
  7.18   Comet Hyakutake on April 13, 1996
  7.19   Comet Hyakutake on March 28, 1996
  8.1   Tiglath-pileser III, king of Assyria
  9.1   The Christ Comet's orbit viewed from the time of perihelion on September 27, 6 BC
  9.2   Halley's Comet on March 8, 1986
  10.1   The constellation Pisces as envisioned by Ptolemy
  10.2   Hale-Bopp on May 24, 1996
  10.3   The Christ Comet on November 21, 8 BC
  10.4   The constellation Aquarius
  10.5   The possible celestial scene on December 5, 7 BC
  10.6   The Christ Comet on December 17, 7 BC
  10.7   Movements of the Christ Comet from November 21, 8 BC, to December 17, 7 BC
  10.8   Movements of the Christ Comet from December 17, 7 BC, to September 29, 6 BC
  10.9   The Christ Comet and Earth on July 30, 6 BC
  10.10   The jets of Comet Daniel's coma on August 5, 1907
  10.11   Comet Tebbutt's jets
  10.12   The Christ Comet and Earth on August 14, 6 BC
  10.13   The Archer attacks the Scorpion
  10.14   The Christ Comet on September 15, 6 BC
  10.15   Section of the frieze from the Arch of Titus in Rome
  10.16   The trumpet-like Great Comet of 1843 on March 17
  10.17   Halley's Comet in 1910
  10.18   Photographic drawing of Halley's Comet on May 15, 1910
  10.19   The Great Comet of 1680
  10.20   The Great Comet of 1618
  10.21   The Christ Comet at perihelion on September 27, 6 BC
  10.22   The Christ Comet's coma on September 30, 6 BC
  10.23   The Christ Comet as a whole on September 30, 6 BC
  10.25   Comet Holmes on November 2, 2007
  10.26   Virgo begins active labor on October 15, 6 BC
  10.27   The Christ Comet on October 15, 6 BC
  10.28   Virgo's baby fully delivered
  10.29   The Christ Comet on October 20, 6 BC
  10.30   The Christ Comet on October 23, 6 BC
  10.31   The course of the Christ Comet from October 23 to November 30, 6 BC
  10.32   The Christ Comet as it set from October 31 to November 30/December 1, 6 BC
  10.33   The Christ Comet at perigee
  10.34   The Christ Comet in the two hours after sunset on November 23, 6 BC
  10.35   The Christ Comet as it set on the night when the Magi arrived in Bethlehem
  10.36   The Christ Comet in outer space on November 23, 6 BC
  10.37   The Christ Comet in outer space on November 30, 6 BC
  11.1   Comet Hyakutake on April 17, 1996
  12.2   The partially eclipsed Moon in Virgo's womb on March 12/13, 4 BC
  14.1   The meteor storm of 1866
  14.2   The meteor storm radiating from Hydra's tail in 6 BC
  14.3   The radiant of the Leonid meteors on November 13, 1866
  14.4   The Leonid Meteor Storm of 1833
  14.5   The Leonid Meteor Storm of 1799
  14.6   The Leonid Meteor Storm of 1833
  14.7   The Chelyabinsk superbolide of February 15, 2013
  14.8   The tail of Hydra
  14.9   Possible orbits of the meteoroid stream responsible for the meteor storm of 6 BC
  14.10   The Leonid Meteor Storm of 1833
  14.11   The 1833 Leonid Meteor Storm
  14.12   The Great Meteor of August 18, 1783
  14.13   A fireball on September 30, 2011
  14.14   A 2002 Leonid fireball
  9.1   The Christ Comet's orbital elements
  9.2   The Christ Comet's absolute magnitude
  9.3   The Christ Comet's apparent magnitude on September 30, 6 BC
  10.1   The apparent magnitude on September 15, 6 BC
  10.2   The apparent magnitude on September 29, 6 BC
  10.3   The apparent magnitude on September 30, 6 BC
  10.4   The apparent magnitude on October 3, 6 BC
  10.5   The apparent magnitude on October 15, 6 BC
  10.6   The apparent magnitude on October 19, 6 BC
  10.7   The apparent magnitude on October 20, 6 BC
  10.8   The apparent magnitude on the evening of November 23, 6 BC
  10.9   The apparent magnitude on the evening of November 30, 6 BC
  11.1   The Christ Comet's range of possible absolute magnitude values
Since observing Comet Kohoutek in my senior year of high school, I have had a passion for comets. I have observed more than 300 comets and have written six volumes documenting recorded comets from the first millennium BC all the way through to modern times (
Cometography: A Catalog of Comets
, 6 vols. [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999-]).
I have also been interested in the Star of Bethlehem for many years and have been of the strong belief that it was a comet rather than something else like a planetary conjunction or a nova. I was pleasantly surprised when Colin Nicholl approached me on the subject in 2011, and I quickly became fascinated by his fresh approach to the topic and the new information he was contributing to the centuries-old debate about the identity of the Star. Colin was being aided by David Asher and Mark Bailey of the Armagh Observatory. I too was eager to assist him in his exciting research project. What Colin was doing with respect to the Star of Bethlehem reminded me of what historian John T. Ramsay and astronomer A. Lewis Licht had done with reference to Caesar's Comet of 44Â BC.
Colin had developed a new case for the Star of Bethlehem being a comet and was proposing that Revelation 12:1â5, a Biblical text previously unharvested in discussions about the Star, revealed what the Magi had seen in the eastern sky that prompted them to travel westward to Judea. Having deduced that only a comet could do what this passage described, Colin had developed a timeline of the comet's appearances and movement across the sky. From this I recognized that a close approach to Earth was necessary, as well as an unusual Earth-comet-Sun geometry.
Over the following months Colin and I dialogued as he continued to study cometary astronomy. During that time Colin came to the sensible conclusion that the Christ Comet was a long-period comet, and he figured out that the comet must have orbited in a retrograde direction. As for me, I was feverishly working on the sixth volume of
Cometography
and struggling to find time to complete my orbital calculations based on Colin's data. Meanwhile, Colin took it upon himself to work out the orbit within the set parameters. He then presented me with his considered orbit and I found that it was in accord with what I had been concluding based on my own preliminary investigations.
Using my own research into the probable brightness of Halley's Comet in ancient times and the likely magnitude required for its discovery at each apparition, I was able to calculate brightness parameters for the Christ Comet based on Colin's orbit. This revealed that the Star became a spectacular object visible in broad daylight for a period of time. It was brightest at the time when it heliacally rose in the eastern sky in the aftermath of its perihelion. The comet's maximum brightness was reminiscent of what was observed
for the Great September Comet of 1882 and Ikeya-Seki in 1965, the brightest comets in the last two centuries. 30 to 40 days after the comet switched to the western sky, the Christ Comet would have been a striking object in the southern evening sky, being visible from about 6 p.m. until it set upright in the west around midnight. The profile of the comet that emerges is impressiveâit would have been the largest comet to come within Earth's orbit in recorded history and, as Colin claims, the greatest comet in history.
I was and remain excited about and fascinated by Colin's work on the Star of Bethlehem, and I very much enjoyed working on the project with him. I read through the majority of the manuscript and liked everything that I read. The research is solid and everything is explained very well. In every respect this volume is a remarkable achievement. I regard it as the most important book ever published on the Star of Bethlehem and enthusiastically commend it.
Gary W. Kronk
The Star of Bethlehem is one of the greatest mysteries in the Bible, in history, and in astronomy. What was the Star, and what precisely did it do that so deeply impressed the Magi? The modern academic quest to identify the Star can be traced back to Johannes KepÂler in the seventeenth century. Regrettably, after four centuries of scholarly discussion, we are still far from a solution.
Part of the reason for the lack of any significant advance is that Biblical scholars, intimidated by the astronomical aspects of the task or preferring to think of the Magi's Star as miraculous or mythical, have given the debate a wide berth. If they mention the topic at all, their comments tend to be brief, superficial, and inaccurate.
As a Biblical scholar with a high regard for the historical credentials of the Scriptural text, I have felt constrained to leave my comfort zone and wade into the field of astronomy in order to follow up Biblical leads concerning the Star. Doing so has been stretching and uncomfortable at times, but has also been incredibly rewarding and invigorating. In this book I present the fruits of my researchâwhat I believe is a decisive breakthrough in the quest for the historical Star of Bethlehem.
Any progress that I have made is in no small part due to help from others. In particular, I wish to express my profound gratitude to three astronomers who aided me greatly in my work from a very early stage.
First, a word of special thanks to David Asher, Research Fellow at the Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland. David is one of the top astronomers in his field, respected the world over. How often I have coveted his brain! Mercifully, David graciously and sacrificially shared his with me, simply because he believes in the academic enterprise and was fascinated by my research. He made many complicated calculations for me, spent two whole days in conversation with me in Armagh, and wrote countless painstaking, long emails answering my questions.
Mark E. Bailey, MBE, Director of the Armagh Observatory, played an important part in guiding me in astronomical matters. Mark is always brimming with creative, fresh, and penetrating ideas, questions, and insights. He read over an early draft of part of the book and offered valuable feedback, and he took the time to answer my questions and keep me informed of pertinent developments in astronomy.
Gary W. Kronk, highly esteemed author of the authoritative six-volume
Cometography
(Cambridge University Press), offered extensive assistance, support, and encouragement. Gary read several drafts of many chapters of the book, made calculations for me, answered countless questions, and graciously agreed to write the foreword.
I shared my discoveries and research openly with each of these three scholars, and their engagements with me influenced my thinking at many points. As much as they helped me, however, they bear no responsibility for any failings that remain. Nor, of
course, should it be assumed that they concur with all that I have written.
Two scholars assisted me by reading through an entire draft of the book and offering incisive criticism and counsel: John J. Hartmann, Pastor of New Reformation Church in St. Louis; and Paul L. Maier, Russell H. Siebert Professor of Ancient History at Western Michigan University.
Other academics were also extremely helpful, even when they did not know the details of the project I was working on. Andreas Kammerer, a highly esteemed German amateur astronomer; David W. Pankenier, Professor of Chinese at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; and Josefina RodrÃguez Arribas, researcher at the Warburg Institute of the University of London, each graciously responded to a number of questions by email about comets, Imperial Chinese history, and medieval Jewish astrology, respectively. Professor RodrÃguez Arribas also read through a few pages I wrote to check that my understanding of Jewish medieval astrology was correct. I am grateful to Peter Jenniskens, senior research scientist at the Carl Sagan Center of the SETI Institute and at NASA's Ames Research Center, for doing orbital calculations for me and answering my questions about meteors and meteor showers.
Thanks are due the following scholars for their assistance: Peter V. Bias, Professor of Business and Economics at Florida Southern College and author of
Meteors and Meteor Showers
; Paul C. Hewett of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and, until recently, Director of the Institute of Astronomy of the University of Cambridge; Chandra Wickramasinghe, Director of the Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology, University of Buckingham; Sir Colin J. Humphreys, former Goldsmiths' Professor of Materials Science at the University of Cambridge; and Roberta Olson, Curator of Drawings at New-York Historical Society. Thanks also to Roger MacFarlane and Paul Mills for graciously giving me prepublication access to relevant parts of their forthcoming work (the first of its kind)
Hipparchus' Commentary on the Phaenomena of Aratus and Eudoxus
.
Tyndale House Library (and, in particular, Ian Wilson) in Cambridge, England, provided an invaluable service by sending scanned versions of journal articles in Biblical studies that I was otherwise unable to obtain. Atlantic Productions generously sent me a complimentary DVD copy of the documentary “Star of Bethlehem: Behind the Myth” that they produced.
I am grateful to the makers of the following planetarium software programs: Project Pluto's Guide, Simulation Curriculum Corporation's Starry Night
®
Pro, and United Soft Media's Redshift. Calculations regarding comet brightness and size are based on Guide 9.0. Star and planet brightness values and the apparent positions of a comet in the sky are largely derived from Starry Night
®
Pro. Determinations of the location of planets and comets in space are based on Redshift 7. Thanks are due Seth Meyers of Simulation Curriculum Corporation for permission to make use of images from Starry Night
®
Pro.
Images of the planets in the illustrations are courtesy of NASA.
I am grateful to the many organizations and individuals who granted permission for the use of their images. I am also thankful to a number of artists and designers for guidance regarding illustrations and images: Ross Wilson, a leading Northern Irish artist; Christoph Kaiser of Christoph Kaiser LLC, a designer and architect; and Josh Dennis, Senior Vice President, Creative Department, at Crossway.
Special thanks must go to my literary agent, Mark Sweeney, and the whole team at Mark Sweeney & Associates for all their labors on behalf of this book.
I would also like to express my gratitude to Justin Taylor and his colleagues at Crossway for all their work on this project. As an act of kindness, Justin read the first four
chapters at an early stage and offered valuable feedback, guidance, and encouragement. Little did he or I know that Crossway would end up being the publisher! Thanks also to Bill Deckard for his stellar editorial work.
How grateful I am to my daughters Gabriella and Evangelia. They were amazingly patient with Mommy and Daddy and readily made sacrifices so that this book could be finished. The girls also made sure that, no matter how stressed Daddy was, he regularly unwound. Gabriella was my astronomy buddy, learning with me and accompanying me on trips to see the Northern Lights, comets, planets, and meteor showers. Evangelia frequently thought she had spotted the Star of Bethlehem in the sky from the backseat of our car. Who knows? One day she might actually see it!
I am thankful for the backing of my family. In particular, I would like to express my gratitude to my brother Roy for his friendship, kindness, wise counsel, and enthusiastic support. In addition, my father-in-law engaged me in many conversations regarding the Star of Bethlehem and helped kindle in me an interest in the modern debate.
No one has done more to assist me in the writing of this book than my sacrificial, patient, and meticulous wife, Sirscha. She has strongly supported and encouraged me every step of the way and has done everything she could to free me up to do my research and writing. Moreover, I am particularly grateful to her for expending so much time and artistic energy to produce a beautiful set of illustrations for the book.
This book is dedicated to my father and mother, Drew and Florence Nicholl. I count it a great privilege to have them as my parents. Their love, faithfulness, prayers, and example have been a firm bedrock in my life. From my earliest years they have consistently got behind me as I have pursued my passion to study the Bible. Anything good that issues from my life may be credited to God and to them.
