The astronomical information contained herein is based upon Michael R. Molnar's book, "The Star of Bethlehem: The Legacy of the Magi". The suggestion that the Magi's journey and the star's normal transit were parallel pilgrimages is my own conclusion. To those who, reading Matthew's nativity account, believe that the star descended into the lower atmosphere in order to become a floating beacon to lead the pilgrims to the house in Bethlehem, I would offer this question: If a beacon that powerful had descended, why would Herod have invited the Magi to return to tell him the location of the Child? Could he not have just sent his own people to follow the same beacon? And, to those who believe it was actually a guidance system, I would point out that it failed to guide them to the right place the first time and, in so doing, led them to Jerusalem----which inadvertently led to the massacre of the innocent children. The very idea that God would construct a faulty guidance system that then led to the murder of children is, in itself, blasphemously ludicrous. The fact that it did not lead them to Bethlehem first eliminates the theoretical guidance system; therefore, apparent motion of the star must have had some other meaning. It does: a double meaning as both a parallel to the pilgrimage of the Starwatchers, and then as an allegorical parallel to Christ's post-resurrection activity in the past, now, and in the future.
