LT.-COL. G. MACKINLAY ON BIBLICAL ASTRONOMY. 



143 



sun was an ancient figure of speech, and it is probably used in 

 II Thess. ii, 8, R.V., " That wicked . . . whom the Lord 

 . . . shall bring to nought (katargesei) with the manifesta- 

 tion of His coming." In Nahum iii, 16, 17, " the stars . . 

 when the sun ariseth they flee away/' bears out the same idea 

 —if it is allowable for the verb to refer to the stars as well as 

 to the locusts — and both refer to the great men of Nineveh. 

 " He must increase but I must decrease " (John iii, 30), may be 

 derived from a similar idea, as the morning star, herald of the 

 dawn, modestly decreases very much, but (at its brightest) does 

 not disappear altogether, on the rising of the orb of day. 

 John the Baptist may perhaps here be likened to the morning 

 star,* as " he was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness 

 of that Light " (John i, 8 ; see also Mai. iii and iv, 2). 



At the beginning of the Lord's ministry, which was probably 

 in the autumn, John twice repeats the sentence almost in the 

 same words (John i, 15 and 30, E.V.), " After me cometh a man 

 that is become before me, for he was before me," a phrase quite 

 in accord with the figure of the morning star and the sun. 



In John v, 35, E.Y., the Lord speaks of the Baptist as " the 

 lamp that burnetii and shineth : and ye were willing to rejoice 

 for a season in his light." The name for Venus of " Light " or 

 " Lamp " is no uncommon one. With regard to the phrase 

 "rejoicing in his light," an Egyptian, Atallah Athanasius 

 (associated with Dr. Harper of Cairo), states that " travellers 

 by night when they see the morning star rejoice exceedingly, 

 and sing special songs in its honour, calling it ' the release,' 

 because it announces that the troubles of night and its 

 darkness are coming to an end." 



If, as is probable, John made his comparison (John i, 15, 30) 

 and the Lord made His comparison (John v, 35) to the 

 morning star at times when it was distinctly visible towards 

 the end of each night, we have a probable indication of the 

 exact date of the Crucifixion, which is generally believed to 

 have occurred within the dates 29 and 33 a.d. 



Mr. Wickham, Senior Assistant, Eadcliff'e Observatory, 

 Oxford, has calculated for me that the planet Venus was at its 

 brightest as the morning star about 10th July, 28 A.D., and 

 again about 14th February, 30 a.d. new style, or 27th June, 

 28 A.D., and 1st February, 29 a.d., old style (for the old style 

 year began on the 25th March) ; this involves its shining as the 

 morning star for about three weeks before and two or three 



* See Jlimpriss' Gospel Treasury, section xiii, part ii, p. 132. 



