The Great Christ Comet (71 page)

1
 For example, David E. Aune, “The Gospel as Hellenistic Biography,”
Mosaic
20 (1987): 1–10; idem,
The New Testament in Its Literary Environment
(Cambridge: James Clarke, 1988). Cf. Charles H. Talbert,
What Is a Gospel? The Genre of the Canonical Gospels
(Philadelphia: Fortress, 1977).

2
 Richard A. Burridge,
What Are the Gospels? A Comparison with Graeco-Roman Biography
, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerd­mans, 2004).

3
 Note the statement of Graham Stanton,
Jesus and Gospel
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 192: “The gospels are now widely considered to be a sub-set of the broad ancient literary genre of biographies.” Also Craig S. Keener,
The Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary
(Grand Rapids, MI: Eerd­mans, 2009), 24; idem,
The Historical Jesus of the Gospels
(Grand Rapids, MI: Eerd­mans, 2009), 78–79; Richard A. Burridge, “About People, by People, for People,” in
The Gospels for All Christians: Rethinking the Gospel Audiences
, ed. Richard Bauckham (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerd­mans, 1998), 120–121.

4
 Burridge,
What Are the Gospels?
, 105–232. Burridge notes that “The genre of
bios
is flexible and diverse, with variation in the pattern of features from one
bios
to another. The gospels also diverge from the pattern in some aspects, but not to any greater degree than other
bioi
; in other words, they have at least as much in common with Graeco-Roman
bioi
, as the
bioi
have with each other. Therefore, the gospels must belong to the genre of
bioi
” (250).

5
 Keener,
Historical Jesus of the Gospels
, 78–81.

6
 Ancient biographies and ancient histories were different in genre but they could be very similar in practice—it is striking that Luke–Acts is a two-volume work, the first volume of which is biographical and the second of which is historical (see ibid., 81).

7
 See ibid., 84.

8
 Ibid., 80.

9
 David E. Aune, “Greco-Roman Biography,” in
Greco-Roman Literature and the New Testament
(Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1988), 125. As Keener (
Historical Jesus of the Gospels
, 81) observes, where a biographer deliberately falsified events, he was departing from the conventions of ancient biographical writing.

10
 Keener,
Historical Jesus of the Gospels
, 83–84.

11
 Cf. Martin Hengel,
Acts and the History of Earliest Christianity
(London: SCM, 1979), 3–68.

12
 Richard Bauckham,
Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony
(Grand Rapids, MI: Eerd­mans, 2007), 5.

13
 Ibid., 93–182, 305–357.

14
 Ibid., 93–113.

15
 Ibid., 319–357, building on Samuel Byrskog,
Story as History—History as Story
(Leiden: Brill, 2002).

16
 Bauckham,
Jesus and the Eyewitnesses
, 331–335, based on W. F. Brewer, “What Is Recollective Memory?,” in
Remembering Our Past: Studies in Autobiographical Memory
, ed. D. C. Rubin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 35–57; and Gillian Cohen,
Memory in the Real World
(Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1989), 118–125.

17
 Bauckham,
Jesus and the Eyewitnesses
, 346.

18
 Ibid., 490.

19
 Ibid., 506. To change the legal analogy, the Gospels should be regarded as innocent until proven guilty rather than vice versa. See particularly Joachim Jeremias,
New Testament Theology
, trans. John Bowden
(New York: Scribner, 1971), 37; R. T. France, “The Authenticity of the Sayings of Jesus,” in
History, Criticism, and Faith
, ed. Colin Brown (Downers Grove, IL: Inter­Varsity Press, 1976), 107;
I. H. Marshall,
I Believe in the Historical Jesus
(Grand Rapids, MI: Eerd­mans, 1977), 199–200; W. G. Kümmel,
Heilsgeschehen und Geschichte
, vol. 2 (Marburg: N. G. Elwert Verlag, 1978), 187–190; Robert H. Stein, “The ‘Criteria' for Authenticity,” in
Gospel Perspectives
1, ed. R. T. France and David Wenham (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1980), 225–253; S. C. Goetz and C. L. Blomberg, “The Burden of Proof,”
Journal for the Study of the New Testament
11 (1981): 39–63; Donald A. Hagner, “Interpreting the Gospels: The Landscape and the Quest,”
Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
24 (1981): 31–32; R. T. France,
Jesus and the Old Testament
(Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1982), chapter 1; Craig Blomberg,
The Historical Reliability of the Gospels
(Downers Grove, IL: Inter­Varsity Press, 1987), 240–243; Ben Witherington,
The Christology of Jesus
(Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1990), chapter 1; and Keener,
Gospel of Matthew
, 29, who observes that

The burden of proof thus rests with New Testament scholars who betray an unduly skeptical bias toward the Gospel accounts . . . ; such scholars must imply that disciples who considered Jesus Lord were far more careless with his words in the earliest generations of Christianity than first- and second-generation students of most other ancient teachers were. . . . Especially given how much of Jesus' teaching was disseminated in public during his lifetime, the sort of “radical amnesia” this skepticism requires of Jesus' first followers . . . is certainly not typical of schools of other early sages.

20
 Bauckham,
Jesus and the Eyewitnesses
, 506–508.

21
 Ibid., 507.

22
 See Blomberg,
Historical Reliability
, 73–152, on the reliability of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the three so-called Synoptic Gospels.

1
 Alfred Plummer,
An Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to S. Matthew
(London: Elliot Stock, 1909), 11; W. C. Allen,
The Gospel according to St. Matthew
, 2nd ed., International Critical Commentary (New York: Scribner, 1907), 14; John Nolland,
The Gospel of Matthew
, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerd­mans, 2005), 106–107; and Gregory W. Dawes, “Why Historicity Still Matters: Raymond Brown and the Infancy Narratives,”
Pacifica
19 (2006): 163, who also adds the following comment: “the evangelists' theological message not only takes the accuracy of these reports for granted; it actually
requires
that they be accurate” (164), since the theological message is built on the foundation of the historical claim (175).

2
 See Josephus,
Ant
. 17.

3
 See George M. Soares Prabhu,
The Formula Quotations in the Infancy Narratives of Matthew: An Enquiry into the Tradition History of Mt 1–2
(Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1976), 298; also R. T. France, “Herod and the Children of Bethlehem,”
Novum Testamentum
21 (1979): 113.

4
 Allen,
Gospel according to St. Matthew
, 14–15.

5
 Plummer,
Matthew
, 11–12.

6
 W. F. Brewer, “What Is Recollective Memory?,” in
Remembering Our Past: Studies in Autobiographical Memory
, ed. D. C. Rubin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 35–57; Alan D. Baddeley,
Human Memory: Theory and Practice,
rev. ed. (Hove, England: Psychology Press, 1997), 213–222; Gillian Cohen,
Memory in the Real World
(Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1989), 118–125.

7
 Cf. Paul Gaechter,
Das Matthäus-Evangelium
(Innsbruck: Tyrolia, 1963), 290.

8
 J. N. M. Wijngaards, “The Episode of the Magi and Christian
Kerygma
,”
Indian Journal of Theology
16 (1967): 32–33.

9
 Cf. Warren Carter, “Matthew 1–2 and Roman Political Power,” in
New Perspectives on the Nativity
, ed. Jeremy Corley (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 2009), 86.

10
 F. W. Farrar,
The Herods
(London: James Nisbet, 1899), 154, points out that it is hardly surprising that the episode is not mentioned by Josephus, since it was only one of many terrible atrocities during Herod's reign.

11
 Translation from R. H. Charles,
The Assumption of Moses
(London: A. & C. Black, 1897), 22. Johannes Tromp,
The Assumption of Moses: A Critical Edition with Commentary
(Leiden: Brill, 1993), 201, highlights the correspondences between what is described here and Josephus's account of the career of Herod the Great.

12
 The non-Christian Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius, around the turn of the fifth century, mentioned the Massacre of the Innocents in his work
Saturnalia
(2.4.11), although it is of questionable reliability.

13
 C. E. B. Cranfield,
On Romans, and Other New Testament Essays
(Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1998), 159; cf. Ethelbert Stauffer,
Jesus and His Story
(New York: Knopf, 1960), 38–42.

14
 My translation of the Greek text in Emile de Strycker,
La forme la plus ancienne du Protevangile de Jacques
(Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1961), 174.

15
 Douglas Hare,
Matthew
, Interpretation (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1993), 12.

16
 My translation.

17
 However, as we shall see, it is possible that the Septuagint does reflect a messianic interpretation of Isaiah's oracle.

18
 So, for example, Donald A. Carson, “Matthew,” in
Expositor's Bible Commentary
, rev. ed., ed. Tremper Longman III and David E. Garland, vol. 9 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010), 109; and Ulrich Luz,
Matthew 1–7
:
A Continental Commentary
, trans. Wilhelm C. Linss (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1989), 107.

19
 
Dio's Rome, Volume 5
, trans. Herbert Baldwin Foster (New York: Pafraets, 1906), 59.

20
 Ibid., 60.

21
 Ibid., 61.

22
 Raymond Brown,
The Birth of the Messiah: A Commentary on the Infancy Narratives in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke
, 2nd ed. (New York: Doubleday, 1993), 167.

23
 As Hare (
Matthew
, 13) points out, the scholarly consensus favors the view that
magoi
here designates astrologers or astronomers, not magicians or Zoroastrian Persian priests (the original meaning of the term). On the term, see W. Bauer, W. F. Arndt, F. W. Gingrich, and F. W. Danker,
A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature
, 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 608, and especially G. Delling, “
magos
,” in
Theological Dictionary of the New Testament
, ed. Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich, 10 vols. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerd­mans, 1964–1976), 4:356–359.

24
 David W. Hughes,
The Star of Bethlehem Mystery
(London: J. M. Dent, 1979), 52, suggests that they may have been Jews who had lapsed into astrology, but this is an unnecessary and implausible theory.

25
 Plummer,
Matthew
, 15.

26
 Craig Evans,
Matthew
, New Cambridge Bible Commentary (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 51; Edwin M. Yamauchi, “The Episode of the Magi,” in
Chronos, Kairos, Christos
, ed. Jerry Vardaman and E. M. Yamauchi (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1989), 28; Craig S. Keener,
The Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary
(Grand Rapids, MI: Eerd­mans, 2009), 84. The second-century BC
Sibylline Oracles
3:221–230 praises the Hebrew nation for abstaining from astrology and Chaldean divination. Yamauchi highlights that the New Testament (see Acts 8:9–24 and 13:6–11), the Apostolic Fathers, the Apologists, and second-century Christians unanimously held to a negative view of astrology (“Episode of the Magi,” 27–28). At the same time, it seems that astrology had made significant inroads into the thinking and practice of Jews by the turn of the ages (see Keener,
Gospel of Matthew
, 101).

27
 E.g., Justin, Tertullian, Epiphanius, and the
Dialogue of Athanasius and Zacchaeus
.

28
 Keener,
Gospel of Matthew
, 99.

29
 So, for example, Clement of Alexandria, Chrysostom, Cyril of Jerusalem, Cosmas Indicopleustes, the
Arabic Gospel of the Infancy
, and early iconographic tradition; Craig Blomberg,
Matthew
, New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman, 1992), 61–62.

30
 David Pingree, “Astronomy and Astrology in India and Iran,”
Isis
54 (1963): 240–241.

31
 So Celsus; Origen; Jerome; Augustine of Hippo; also Allen,
Gospel according to St. Matthew
, 11; Edwin M. Yamauchi,
Persia and the Bible
(Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1990), 481; Carson, “Matthew,” 111; Donald A. Hagner,
Matthew
, 2 vols., Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, 1993–1995), 1:27.

32
 See Simo Parpola, “The Magi and the Star: Babylonian Astronomy Dates Jesus' Birth,” in
The First Christmas: The Story of Jesus' Birth in History and Tradition
, ed. Sara Murphy (Washington, DC: Biblical Archaeology Society, 2009), 14.

33
 Eric F. F. Bishop, “Some Reflections on Justin Martyr and the Nativity Narratives,”
Evangelical Quarterly
39 (1967): 33.

34
 Ibid.

35
 T. Boiy,
Late Achaemenid and Hellenistic Babylon
(Leiden: Brill, 2005), 191. Strangely, however, there was a widespread tendency among Greco-Roman authors to state that Babylon was little more than a desert with the temple of Bel in it: Strabo 16.1.5; Pausanias 8.33.3; Pliny the Elder,
Natural History
6.121–122; Martianus Capella 6.701; Diodorus 2.9.9; cf. Cassius Dio 68.30.1.

36
 My translation.

37
 My translation.

38
 Boiy,
Babylon
, 189.

39
 Ibid., 192.

40
 Ibid., 191–192.

41
 Ibid., 191.

42
 Ibid., 320.

43
 Cf. ibid., 297.

44
 Ibid., 187–188, 191.

45
 Ibid., 297–303.

46
 Francesca Rochberg,
Babylonian Horoscopes
(Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1998), 12.

47
 Boiy,
Babylon
, 302.

48
 Porphyrius in the third century AD and later authors called Teukros “the Babylonian.” A number of scholars have struggled to accept that he was from Mesopotamian Babylon and postulated that he was from a little-known fortress town near Cairo called Babylon. However, as Otto Neugebauer,
The Exact Sciences in Antiquity
(Mineola, NY: Dover, 1969), 189, highlighted, there is no evidence to substantiate this view (see also Franz Boll,
Sphaera
[Leipzig: Teubner, 1903; Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1967], 158–159; Wolfgang Hübner, “Teukros im Spätmittelalter,”
International Journal of the Classical Tradition
1.2 [1994–1995]: 45). The mere fact that his writing betrays a strong Greco-Egyptian influence should not be regarded as inconsistent with Mesopotamian Babylon. As Boll (
Sphaera
, 158–159) pointed out, there was much interplay between the Greek, Egyptian, and Chaldean worlds, including in the realm of astronomy, around the time of Teukros. Teukros was probably—as most, it seems, now accept—from the astronomical capital of the ancient world: Babylon on the River Euphrates.

49
 As Otto Neugebauer,
A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy
, 3 vols. (Berlin: Springer, 1975), 555, concluded.

50
 Boiy,
Babylon
, 308–309.

51
 Mark R. Kidger,
The Star of Bethlehem: An Astronomer's View
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999), 29–30.

52
 Colin J. Humphreys, “The Star of Bethlehem, a Comet in 5 B.C., and the Date of the Christ's Birth,”
Tyndale Bulletin
43 (1992): 34 and 48. See also idem, “The Star of Bethlehem—A Comet in 5 B.C.—And the Date of the Birth of Christ,”
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society
32 (1991): 389–407; idem, “The Star of Bethlehem,”
Science and Christian Belief
5 (1995): 83–101.

53
 E.g., Kenneth D. Boa, “The Star of Bethlehem” (ThM thesis, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1972), 34 (
http://
www
.kenboa
.org
/downloads
/pdf
/TheStarofBethlehem.pdf
, accessed March 12, 2013).

54
 Even if one were to assume that the Magi's joy marked the appearance of the Star as they embarked on their journey from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, that would hardly require that they had not seen it for the duration of their journey. The Eastern astrologers might conceivably have assumed that the Star, having led them to Judea, had done its job and would therefore no longer play a role in their pilgrimage.

55
 Most modern scholars believe that the use of the singular phrase
en t
ē
anatol
ē
should be rendered “at its rising.” However, a minority favor “in the east,” claiming that the preposition with the article can on rare occasions be used of compass directions, as in Hermas,
Vis
1.4.1, 3. Furthermore, they point out that the singular form of
anatol
ē
can be used of “the east,” as in Rev. 21:13 and Hermas,
Vis
1.4.1, 3, and as is common in Josephus (Friedrich Blass, Albert Debrunner, and R. W. Funk,
A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature
[Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961], §141.2). They try to explain the change from the plural (
anatol
ō
n
) in Matt. 2:1 to the singular (
anatol
ē
) in v. 2 as merely stylistic. Luz,
Matthew 1–7
, 128n1, states that it is awkward to assign different senses to
anatol
ē
in vv. 1 and 2 (although he does opt for the meaning “rising” rather than “east” here). However, the case for “at its rising” in v. 2 is stronger: (a) This meaning is more likely in an astronomical context. (b) The preposition with the article is only rarely used of compass directions (see Blass et al.,
Greek Grammar
, §253.5). (c) The employment of the singular in v. 2 (
en t
ē
anatol
ē
), in contrast to the plural form in v. 1 (
apo anatol
ō
n
, “in the east”), suggests that the sense is different. Of course, whichever way we translate it, the phenomenon was probably seen in the east, since generally heliacal risings occur in the east (on “heliacal” risings, see note 57, and the accompanying main text). In the final analysis, “in the east” is possible, but “at its rising” is to be preferred.