The Great Christ Comet (80 page)

34
 A. Sachs, “A Late Babylonian Star Catalog,”
Journal of Cuneiform Studies
6 (1952): 146–150, and N. A. Roughton, J. M. Steele, and C. B. F. Walker, “A Late Babylonian Normal and
Ziqpu
Star Text,”
Archives of the History of the Exact Sciences
58 (2004): 566–567 (cf. van der Waerden,
Science Awakening II
, 99) point out that a pre-Seleucid-period fragmentary star catalog portrays Zavijava (
β
Virginis) as the rear foot of the Lion (Leo). Obviously, this imagining of the Lion, if it continued into the era when Virgo (consisting of the Furrow and the Frond) was conceived of as resting along the ecliptic, would not have been consistent with Virgo's head being where Hipparchus and Ptolemy located it, namely at
ξ
,
ν
,
ο
, and
π
. The only other catalogued Babylonian stars of Virgo, also from the pre-Seleucid period, are Spica (
α
Virginis) (called “the bright star of the Furrow”) and Porrima (
γ
Virginis) (called “the single star in front of the Furrow” and “the root of the furrow”).

35
 The Hebrew name for Virgo,
Bethulah
, was given alongside the image. For more on this fascinating image, see Eleazar Lipa Sukenik and Steven Fine,
The Ancient Synagogue of Beth Alpha
(London: Oxford University Press, 1932), 31 and plate XIII.2.

36
 See Boll,
Sphaera
, 58; cf. 210–211. In addition, Franz Boll described an ancient gem on which Isis was portrayed as Virgo holding Horus, who is carrying an ear of grain, with a star over Virgo's head and another ear of grain standing beside her (ibid., 211).

37
 Although many scholars claim that
stephanos
was not used of royal crowns, this is incorrect. Gregory M. Stevenson, “Conceptual Background to Golden Crown Imagery in the Apocalypse of John (4:4, 10; 14:14),”
Journal of Biblical Literature
111.2 (1995): 260, points out that in Hellenistic Greek
stephanos
was used of royal crowns and that this usage was “more common among Jewish authors.” The LXX translators and Josephus consistently preferred
stephanos
to
diad
ē
ma
when speaking of the crown worn by Israelite kings. This practice, he concludes, does not imply that these crowns were wreaths but rather “demonstrates that in the minds of some later Israelites
stephanos
was considered an acceptable term for describing a royal crown.” Aside from Rev. 12:1, Revelation uses
stephanos
of royal crowns in 6:2 (of the rider of the white horse); 14:14 (of the Messiah); 4:4 (of the 24 elders); and 9:7 (of locusts).

38
 Ernest L. Martin,
The Star of Bethlehem: The Star That Astonished the World
, 2nd ed. (Portland, OR: Associates for Scriptural Knowledge, 1996), available at
http://
www
.askelm
.com
/star
/star008.htm
(accessed March 26, 2014) stated that Prof. John Thorley, “When Was Jesus Born?,”
Greece and Rome
, 2nd series, 28.1 (April 1981): 87–88, had successfully identified from a star atlas the twelve stars of Virgo's crown. However, Thorley's list included eight stars firmly associated in the ancient mind with the constellation Leo (
σ
,
χ
,
ι
,
θ
, 60,
δ
, 93, and
β
, all Leonis) and only four associated with Virgo (
β
,
ν
,
π
, and
ο
, all Virginis). Moreover, the resultant crown was absurdly large, 16 degrees wide and 20 degrees tall, extending up as far as Leo's hindquarters. We can be confident that no ancient ever imagined Virgo's crown where Thorley did!

39
 A sketch of the Esna zodiac can be viewed at
http://
www
.repertorium
.net
/rostau
/secondary
/esnae.html
(last modified August 29, 2006).

40
 The crown functions in various ways in Rev. 12:1: to reveal the woman's identity, and to give a baseline for the proportions of Virgo as she is envisioned during this scene. At the same time, the crown contributes to the impression that this is an enthronement scene and that Virgo is destined to be greatly exalted.

41
 Cf. Gen. 37:9, where the Moon, together with the Sun and eleven stars, is envisioned as bowing down before Joseph.

42
 So Hipparchus, Hyginus, Pseudo-Eratosthenes, and Ptolemy. See Boll,
Offenbarung Johannis
, 113.

43
 In a famous sculptured zodiac from a temple in Dendera, Egypt, Virgo seems to be presented as standing with an ear of grain in her hand, and right below her is a woman sitting down, with Horus standing by her right side, which some have suggested may possibly be a second representation of Virgo (see Boll,
Sphaera
, 243). For beautiful images of the Dendera Zodiac, go to the website of the Louvre Museum:
http://
cartelen
.louvre
.fr
/cartelen/visite
?srv
=
car
_not
_frame
&
idNotice
=
19044
(accessed April 4, 2014). While Teukros of Babylon portrayed Virgo as seated on a throne, a cuneiform tablet from Uruk in Seleucid Babylonia, also in the holdings of the Louvre (AO 6448), portrays the Furrow (an early conceptualization of Virgo) as standing.

44
 Ptolemy,
Almagest
,
book 7, H37.

45
 Cf. Martin,
Star of Bethlehem
(
http://
www
.askelm
.com
/star
/star006.htm
[accessed March 26, 2014]): the Sun was “mid-bodied to her, in the region where a pregnant woman carried a child.” Martin chose September 12 in 3 BC as Jesus's day of birth based on Rev. 12:1 (ibid.). However, (1) v. 1 is not the moment of birth, but the prelude to the birth, the birth itself being related in the following verses; (2) dating Jesus's birth to 3 BC is based on a flawed chronology of Herod and the Herodian dynasty, as we have already seen.

46
 For a useful overview of new lunar crescent observation in the ancient Near East, see Leo Depuydt, “Why Greek Lunar Months Began a Day Later than Egyptian Lunar Months,” in
Living the Lunar Calendar
, ed. J. Ben-Dov, W. Horowitz, and J. M. Steele (Oxford: Oxbow, 2012), 153–164; and John M. Steele, “Living with a Lunar Calendar in Mesopotamia and China,” in ibid., 374–380. For treatments of ancient Jewish New Moon Observations, see Sacha Stern, “The Rabbinic New Moon Procedure: Context and Significance,” in ibid., 211–230; and Lawrence H. Schiffman, “From Observation to Calculation: The Development of the Rabbinic Lunar Calendar,” in ibid., 231–243.

47
 The description of Virgo in Ptolemy's
Almagest
indicates that, to the ancient mind, the feet of Virgo corresponded with
μ
Virginis and
λ
Virginis, unlike some modern representations of Virgo (such as in Starry Night
®
Pro 6.4.3) that portray her feet at 109 and
μ
Virginis.

48
 This is a Julian date.

49
 In 5 BC, the other major candidate for the year of Jesus's birth, the Sun was too high in Virgo, namely over her left shoulder, to be plausibly regarded as clothing her. Some revisionist chronologists date Herod's death to early 1 BC (Ormond Edwards, “Herodian Chronology,”
Palestine Exploration Quarterly
114 [1982]: 29–42; W. E. Filmer, “Chronology of the Reign of Herod the Great,”
Journal of Theological Studies
17 [1966]: 283–298; Ernest L. Martin,
The Birth of Christ Recalculated
, 2nd ed. [Pasadena, CA: Foundation for Biblical Research, 1980]; Andrew E. Steinmann, “When Did Herod the Great Reign?,”
Novum Testamentum
51 [2009]: 1–29). Doing so facilitates dating Jesus's birth in 3–2 BC. The Moon passed over 5 degrees to the south (left) of
λ
Virginis (which the Greeks regarded as her left foot), and was essentially level with it, while the Sun was over the upper abdominal region on September 11, 3 BC. That far from
λ
Virginis, the Moon could not plausibly have been construed as being under her feet. In 2 BC the Moon similarly passed over 5 degrees to the south (left) of
λ
Virginis and then only when the Sun was far from Virgo's torso. Moreover, the case for dating the death of Herod to 1 BC is weak. It cannot plausibly explain why Herod's sons Archelaus, Antipas, and Philip II all dated their reigns to 4 BC (see Timothy D. Barnes, “The Date of Herod's Death,”
Journal of Theological Studies
19 [1968]: 204–209). The idea that Herod appointed all three as coregents years before his death is uncompelling. Herod was, after all, having extraordinary problems, right up to his death, deciding who would succeed him—he wrote six or seven wills denominating who would succeed him, the final one five days before his death. Since Archelaus and Philip II were introduced into Herod's will only in the immediate run-up to Herod's death, it is hardly likely that they were appointed coregents three years before it. The claim that the events that Josephus reports to have occurred between the eclipse and Passover cannot be accommodated between the lunar eclipse on March 13, 4 BC, and Passover, over 4 weeks later (e.g., Steinmann, “When Did Herod the Great Reign?,” 15–16), is artificial. For instance, Steinmann's estimates (pp. 15–16) of the time necessary for travel and treatments are exaggerated, failing to take any account of the urgency of the moment or to reckon with overlaps. The suggestion that a partial lunar eclipse would not have been taken as a bad omen (pp. 16–17) is wrong—in the ancient Near East throughout the first millennium BC, partial eclipses could be regarded as terrible portents that augured death for kings or disaster for kingdoms.

50
 Actually, the new lunar crescent should technically have become visible on the evening of September 14, in ideal conditions.

51
 However, it is theoretically possible that it could have been seen before sunset by eyes shielded from the Sun.

52
 While Matthew presents the Messiah's mother as Mary, Rev. 12:1–5 identifies her as Israel. The two are compatible, for Mary is the representative of Israel when she gives birth to the Messiah (cf. Isa. 9:1a; Mic. 5:2–3).

53
 Cf. Isbon T. Beckwith,
The Apocalypse of John
(New York: Macmillan, 1919), 622.

54
 For example, the coma of the large Comet Hale-Bopp in 1996–1997, and the coma of the small but hyperactive Comet Hyakutake, which made a close pass by Earth (see the photographs of Hyakutake in Robert Burnham,
Great Comets
[Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000], 7; and those of Hale-Bopp in ibid.,
chapter 4 [pp. 100–135]). It is also worth noting that a more fan-shaped parabolic coma can look like a glorious human or even possibly a baby draped in a blanket. Interestingly, Pliny referred to an extraordinarily bright comet that looked like a god in human form (
Natural History
2.22).

55
 Note that, in her Magnificat (Luke 1:46–55), Mary's exaltation through her
conception
of the Messiah is highlighted.

56
 Farrer,
Revelation
, 141, suggested that v. 1 implied that Virgo would be especially exalted in the lunar month thus initiated.

57
 Tamsyn Barton,
Ancient Astrology
(London: Routledge, 1994), 103.

58
 Ibid.

59
 See Marten Stol,
Birth in Babylonia and the Bible: Its Mediterranean Setting
(Groningen: Styx, 2000), 105–106.

60
 As we will highlight below in chapter 8, the influence of LXX Isa. 7:14 (“the virgin shall be with child and bear a son”) on Rev. 12:2 (“And she was pregnant; and she was crying out because of labor pains and the agony of giving birth”) is strong. Therefore, it is preferable to regard the clause “she was with child” in Rev. 12:2 as relating to a distinct phase of the vision and not merely as a redundant subset of the delivery scene (contra NIV, “she was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth”). For this reason, the NASB is justified in placing a semicolon (rather than a comma) after “she was with child” and before “and she cried out” in Rev. 12:2: “she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth.”

61
 In the Greek text a participial phrase (
en gastri echousa
, “having in the womb,” “being pregnant”) is used. The employment of the participle here is probably Semitic, it being used for a finite verb, as in Rev. 1:16 (
ech
ō
n
) and 19:12 (
ech
ō
n
) (so also Charles,
Revelation
, 1:316). Alternatively, it is possible that we have here a periphrastic participle, in which case
estin
is implied.