We three kings have traveled far,
how we wish we had a car.
how we wish we had a car.
The Star of Bethlehem, also called the Christmas Star, is a star in Christian tradition that revealed the birth of Jesus to the magi (or "wise men") and later led them to Bethlehem. According to the Gospel of Matthew, the magi were men "from the east" who were inspired by the appearance of the star to travel to Jerusalem. There they met King Herod of Judea, and asked where the king of the Jews had been born. Herod then asked his advisers where a messiah could be born. They replied Bethlehem, a nearby village, and quoted a prophecy by Micah. While the magi were on their way to Bethlehem, the star appeared again. As they followed the star, it stopped this time above the place where Jesus was born. The magi found Jesus with his mother, paid him homage, worshipped him and gave gifts. They then returned to their "own country".
Many Christians see the star as a miraculous sign given by God to mark the birth of the Christ (or Messiah). Some theologians claimed that the star fulfilled a prophecy, known as the Star Prophecy. In modern times, astronomers have proposed various explanations for the star. A nova, a planet, a comet, an occultation and a conjunction [alignment of planets] have all been suggested. The star has also been interpreted as an astrological event.
Many scholars question the historicity of the story and argue that the star was a fiction created by the author of the Gospel of Matthew. While its historicity is in dispute, the tradition of a star has given rise to other Christmas traditions, like topping the Christmas tree with a star. In the Philippines, the bamboo parol ("pah-role"), or star lantern, is the symbol of Christmas.
Interestingly, if the wise men had followed the star Sirius whenever it was visible, they would have indeed reached Bethlehem.
Examples:
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Comic Books
- One Marvel comic featuring Ghost Rider seemed to have this occurring in modern times, on Christmas Eve, no less, accompanied by several familiar scenes right out of the Bible. Turns out it was just the Miracle Man messing around with his powers.
- In a pre-Crisis Superboy/Legion story, the Teen of Steel wants to use his pals' advanced tech to finally locate the Star. Skeptical Brainiac 5 nonetheless aids the search, but all his efforts reveal is a planet full of a species of alien in desperate need of help. Though they never find the Star, Superboy decides that a planet in need of aid that they would never have found but for the search is the same thing as a star that seemingly never existed.
Film — Animated
- The read-along The Lion King (1994) storybook The Brightest Star, which came out the fall of that same year, tells the story of Simba's great-grandfather, Mohatu, a lion of great wisdom and kindness who would harm no other animal unless he absolutely had to and was determined to ensure all the animals lived together in peace. After his death, his star is said to be the largest and brightest in the sky; the fact Mufasa tells this story on "a cold winter's eve" and claims the star "was there to remind them to love and respect each other, no matter their differences" strongly suggests it is the Star of Bethlehem and makes Mohatu even more of a Jesus-analogue.
- The VeggieTales movie The Star of Christmas had wacky hijinks revolving around an ancient artifact "The Star of Christmas" representing the Star of Bethlehem.
Film — Live-Action
- Appears in Monty Python's Life of Brian. The magi come to the stable where Brian was born, rather than the one Jesus was born in (the one next to it).
- In Star in the Night, a Setting Update of the Nativity story to 1945, the star is the electronic star atop the Star Auto Court. It lures three cowboys who just happen to be bearing gifts to the auto court, where a young man named Jose and his pregnant wife Maria have arrived...
- 3 Godfathers involves three bank robbers who wind up stuck with a newborn baby to take care of in the desert. One of the three notes that it's Christmas Eve, and compares the three of them to the Three Wise Men. Then he points out an actual star in the sky over the town they need to get to—which is called New Jerusalem.
Jokes
- A joke: A teenaged girl and her mother are at the doctor's for some unexplained weight gain and mood swings. The mother virulently swears her daughter hasn't dabbled in extramarital sex, and thus cannot explain these symptoms. The doctor looks at them for a moment, then gets up and looks out the window.
What are you doing, doctor?
The last time this sort of thing happened, a star appeared in the daytime, and then three men on camels showed up with expensive gifts!
Literature
- The Star of Bethlehem appears in Volume 22 of A Certain Magical Index as an Ominous Floating Castle summoned by Fiamma of the Right.
- Science Fiction short stories sometimes like this star for a Tomato Surprise. For instance, in Arthur C. Clarke's The Star, a Jesuit astronomer is a member of the crew which finds the remains of a peaceful, near-utopian society on a planet that had a total extinction when its sun went supernova. His faith is shaken when he realizes that supernova was the Star of Bethelehem.
"Oh, God, there were so many stars you could have used. What was the need to give these people to the fire, that the symbol of their passing might shine above Bethlehem?"
Live-Action TV
- An early 1960s television show called Day in Court often played an episode near Christmas in which a hotel owner refused to rent a room to Jose and his very pregnant wife Maria, telling them to sleep in the garage. When Maria gives birth, someone calls the police, and the light of the police car directs a priest (just one) to the couple.
- In Doctor Who's "Joy to the World", Villengard Conflict Solutions plans to create an artificial star as a power source, life on Earth be damned. However, by episode's end, Joy contains the star in her body and flies it way out into the cosmos as a Heroic Sacrifice, and when the Doctor leaves through a cave back into the Time Hotel, the following words display on the screennote :
BETHLEHEM
0001 - Parodied in Top Gear (UK) during their Middle East Special. Jeremy, Richard, and James take cars and try to follow the route the Wise Men took to Bethlehem. They follow a bright light to a manger... where they discover a baby Stig.
- Arthur C. Clarke's aforementioned "The Star" was adapted into The Twilight Zone (1985)'s "The Star", but it has a happier ending.
- A proverbial Star of Bethlehem appears at William's Christ-like birth in The X-Files episode "Existence".
Music
- Many Christmas carols:
- "We Three Kings of Orient Are"
- "The First Noel"
- "Do You Hear What I Hear?"
- "Oh Holy Night"
- "Angels We Have Heard On High"
- In the Chris de Burgh song A Spaceman Came Travelling, the star turns out to be the spacecraft of the alien spaceman, parked over Bethlehem.
And over a village he halted his craft
'And it hung there just like a star, just like a star...
Video Games
- The Binding of Isaac features the Star of Bethlehem as an Angel Room item that will slowly migrate to the boss room of the current floor, including Delirium in the Void. The star emits an aura that, when Isaac stands inside it, grants him a plethora of buffs to his tears (damage, fire rate and homing effect) and the chance to completely No-Sell damage taken.
- In The Boy Jesus (1984), an educational Apple ][ and Commodore 64 game in The Baker Street Kids series based on The Bible, the titular kids enact the magi locating a (cardboard) star at its rising◊, followed by the same magi finding the child Jesus with his mother Mary (Amy) and adoring him by offering him gifts◊.
Web Video
- Parodied in the Dragon Ball Z Abridged movie "The Plan To Eradicate Christmas", where Bad Santa calls his outer space fortress the Star of Deathlehem.
Western Animation
- Invoked as a joke in the Family Guy episode "Jesus, Mary & Joseph!" where the three wise men, played by Cleveland, Quagmire and Joe, are following the star... only to discover it has air traffic lights.
Quagmire: Oh my god, it IS a f***ing plane!!
- Eventually, they make their way to Betlehem, presumably following the actual Star, where they find Joseph and an expecting Mary.
Joe: We are three wise men! We came here following a star!
Joseph!Peter: Those two statements contradict each other. - The Star is referenced in the 2013 animated film On Angel Wings, where Amos the elderly shepherd recounts that it had appeared in the sky and nobody had ever seen it before.
Miscellaneous
- In the Christmas story The Littlest Angel, the littlest angel's gift to the Child Jesus (a box he had on Earth, containing the sort of small things that are treasures to a very young boy — a butterfly, a bird's egg, two stones, and the collar that had been his dog's) is turned into the Star of Bethlehem. You can read it here..
- Spike Milligan recollected being sent out on a hazardous night trek into the front lines in late December 1942. Arousing the ire of the Sergeant Rock who had demanded silent movement (their job was to repair a break in a phone line caused by German mortar fire), one of Milligan's buddies drew attention to a star-shell illuminating the night sky above them. Milligan quipped that this meant a child had been born in Bethlehem. Then two more star-shells lit up the night. Milligan digested this and added "She's had triplets. That wasn't in the script."
