“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. Church Fathers and scholars alike have debated the ‘when’ and ‘what’ for almost as long, resulting in very different interpretations. However, what had been missing so far was a multi-disciplinary approach. 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.”— Silke Ackermann FSA, Director, Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford“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. 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. Since Matthew is not here to tell us, the reader will have the interesting task of judging among the expert views.”— George V. Coyne, S.J., Director Emeritus, Vatican Observatory“The nature of the Star of Bethlehem has fascinated our society for many centuries. ‘The Star’ has attracted the attention of artists, astronomers, historians, science fiction writers, theologians and others. This book summarizes the views of world-experts in a variety of fields presented at a multidisciplinary conference in Groningen in 2014. While there is no clear consensus on the nature of ‘The Star’, the twenty chapters provide an intriguing and eminently readable assessment of an enigmatic event that is directly connected to the advent of one of the major religions in our world.”—Tim de Zeeuw, Director General, European Southern Observatory (ESO)"The book raises vital problems of transmission of astral knowledge. (...) Most essays are forceful and will exert influence in their relevant fields of study. The volume itself is a contribution to the advancement of astral science and to the progress of biblical criticism. Altogether it warrants considerable approval. Congratulations to each author for their vigor and industry, and for the stimulus which prompted their incisive analyses and thorough researches."—The Ds Commentary, 2017
