2°« S. NO 67., Atbit, 11. '67.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



293 



OF THE STAR WHICH GUIDED THE MAGI. 



(2"^ S. iii. 96. 231.) 



Having discussed that part of Dean Alford's 

 note which gathered the date of our Saviour's 

 birth from Kepler's notion, that the coming of the 

 Magi was occasioned by their observing a con- 

 junction of Jupiter and Saturn, it remains to 

 consider that other portion of the note, in which 

 the nature of the stellar appearance is involved. 

 In so doing, it is my wish to steer clear of theo- 

 logical discussion ; whilst treating the question as 

 debateable between persons who acknowledge 

 the language of Scripture to be decisive of the 

 truth, where it speaks distinctly ; and who are 

 capable of appreciating (as Mr. Alford's Cam- 

 bridge honour attests his being) the light which 

 science throws upon our subject. 



Though the Magi ought not lightly to be 

 charged with addiction to astrology — "a science 

 falsely so called" — and sternly condemned in the 

 Scriptures (Isaiah xlvii. 13, 14.), they were not 

 unlikely to have been observers of the heavens : for 

 contemplative men usually are such, in countries 

 where a peculiarly transparent atmosphere, and 

 the desirable coolness of many a night, invites 

 them " to meditate in the field at evening-tide." 

 Lexicographers have collected sufficient evidence 

 that the term Magi was primarily equivalent to 

 "devout sages;" though knavish pretenders to 

 superior wisdom gradually led to its being regarded 

 in the ill sense, which belongs to the thence formed 

 word magicians. Our authorised translators, there- 

 fore, did well in rendering the word wise men. 

 Such came, says the evangelist's plain and simple 

 narrative, "from the east to Jerusalem ;" and in 

 unison with this is their own expression : " We 

 have seen his star in the east." 



" Indicant," says Bengelius, " unde venerint. Arti- 

 culus 1-)} plagam illam denotat. In construe cum vidimus; 

 nam ex oriente viderant stellam ad occidentem, super 

 clima Palaestinfe." 



There must have been some peculiarity in the 

 star's appearance, to occasion their calling it '^his 

 star," J. e. the star of him whom they believed to 

 have been "born King of the Jews," and were 

 "come to worship." No ordinary star, but the 

 pole star, can guide the traveller through a night, 

 because it alone does not perceptibly change its 

 place ; whilst every other star is continually, and 

 perceptibly, describing either the whole or part of 

 a circle, parallel to that apparently described by 

 the sun. The traveller who should keep his horse's 

 head directed towards any one of the existing 

 heavenly bodies, except the pole star, would be 

 continually changing his direction. 



A stellar appearance fitted to guide its ob- 

 servers, in the manner distinctly stated (Matt. ii. 



9.), would be no sooner noticed by persons ac- 

 customed to watch the heavens, than they would 

 recognise, either in its suspension over one quarter, 

 or in its motion, an extraordinary departure from 

 the method of nature : not such as would give 

 them any means of ascertaining its cause, by their 

 own reasonings or science ; but such as would 

 reasonably strike them with the awe well fitted to 

 dispose them, though not perhaps till after long 

 anxiety (compare ver. 7. and 16.), to beseech the 

 great Ruler of the skies for instruction as to his 

 purpose, in exhibiting such a sign of his almighty 

 power. The narrative tells us that these wise 

 men were afterwards favoured with an especial 

 revelation of his will (ver. 12.) ; so that we shall not 

 be supposing any unlikely event, if we suppose 

 that it was by a similar intimation that they had 

 been made to know what they were to expect to 

 find by following the guidance of this peculiar star. 



Having been thus led into Judaea, they would 

 need no miraculous interference to induce them 

 to repair to Jerusalem, its religious as well as 

 political capital, in search of the king they desired 

 to worship ; and their very great joy, on after- 

 wards seeing the star again (ver. 10), is a sufficient 

 proof that it had disappeared. Had what they 

 called his star been nothing more than a notable 

 conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, it would have 

 been as conspicuous to the inhabitants of Jeru- 

 salem as to these travellers. But it is obvious, 

 from the narrative, that the appearance of which 

 they spoke had either not been seen at all by ob- 

 servers at Jerusalem, or, at any rate, had not been 

 regarded there as having any connexion with that 

 prophecy of Balaam which the Jews did know. 

 Herod, however, showed his comprehension of the 

 purport of the wise men's mission, by desiring the 

 interpreters of Scripture to say, "Where the 

 Messiah should be born;" and when they had 

 correctly gathered from the prophet Micah, that 

 Bethlehem was to be his birth-place, the wise men 

 would naturally seek for no farther instruction, 

 and would need no supernatural guidance to lead 

 them thither. 



But here another question is forced upon our 

 attention, to get a clear view of the consistency of 

 the narrative. Was the Holy Child then at Beth- 

 lehem ? 



We have, all of us, prejudices in favour of their 

 finding Him there : from popular hymns and com- 

 ments ; and from continually seeing pictures of 

 " The Adoration of the Magi," which artists have 

 made the more interesting by the contrasts they 

 exhibit, between the beauteous Virgin of their 

 fixncy, the mapger and the oxen, and the venera- 

 ble worshippers, and the infant with a glory round 

 his head, as though he had continually about him 

 a visible evidence of his divinity. But when we 

 bring these fancies of imaginative men to the test 

 of common sense, it will scarcely sufler us to be- 



