‘The Star’ has attracted the attention of artists, astronomers, historians, science fiction writers, theologians and others. “The nature of the Star of Bethlehem has fascinated our society for many centuries. Coyne, S.J., Director Emeritus, Vatican Observatory
Since Matthew is not here to tell us, the reader will have the interesting task of judging among the expert views.” Throughout the book there appears a wide range of judgments on the nature and historicity of Matthew’s story, from the claim that it is midrash, a rabbinical commentary which tells a beautiful story to interpret events to gentiles by the use of texts from the Old Testament, to the description of an historical happening. “When one considers that the source of the material treated in this book consists of only twelve verses of the Bible (Matthew 2: 1-12), this is a remarkable collection of research papers. Silke Ackermann FSA, Director, Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford
The Groningen symposium has done just that, for the first time ever asking experts in very different fields to answer the same four questions about the Star, namely ‘What?’, ‘When?’, ‘How?’ and ‘Why?’ The learned, surprising, thought-provoking answers in this fascinating volume are a must-read for anybody interested in a phenomenon that has influenced our culture like few others.” However, what had been missing so far was a multi-disciplinary approach. Church Fathers and scholars alike have debated the ‘when’ and ‘what’ for almost as long, resulting in very different interpretations.
“The Star of Bethlehem is known to almost everybody, whatever their personal faith - be it through the Nativity story told in Matthew’s Gospel or through art and material culture where the depiction of the Star has played a hugely important role for centuries.
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