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Aaron Adair

The Star of Bethlehem: A Skeptical View Paperback – Illustrated, September 9, 2013

by Aaron Adair (Author), Bob Berman (Foreword)

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The Star of Bethlehem: A Skeptical View is an analysis of the astronomical portent found in the Gospel of Matthew which supposedly led the Magi from the East to the birthplace of Jesus. Throughout history, people have tried to connect the Star to real, naturalistic phenomena, as well as to explain it in other ways. Adair takes a thorough look at all of these explanatory attempts, using the tools of science and astronomy, and finds them fundamentally wanting. Take a trip through the heavens above with Adair as he critically explores many centuries of flawed hypotheses, looking to answer the question "Did the Star of Bethlehem really exist?" This book is at the conjunction of science and religion.

"Well researched, scientifically reasoned, elegantly concise, this book will long be required reading on the 'Star of Bethlehem'. Full of fascinating historical facts, and better informed and more careful than any other book on the subject, this should be on the shelf of everyone interested in that legendary celestial event." Richard Carrier, Ph.D., author of Proving History: Bayes's Theorem and the Quest for the Historical Jesus.

"A fascinating and readable feat of hardcore historical legwork and keen scientific analysis." David Fitzgerald, author of The Complete Heretic's Guide to Western Religion: The Mormons.

"...tightly-argued, well-reasoned.... Adair masterfully demonstrates why every effort to rationalize the Star thus far has failed.... A concise and rigorous must-read for anyone interested in religion, history, and modern efforts to understand the past." Jason Colavito, author of The Cult of Alien Gods.

Print length

168 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Onus Books
Publication date

September 9, 2013
Dimensions

5.25 x 0.39 x 8 inches
ISBN-10

0956694861
ISBN-13

978-0956694867
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Onus Books; Illustrated edition (September 9, 2013)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 168 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0956694861
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0956694867
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.39 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,144,482 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3,414 in Christian Bible Exegesis & Hermeneutics
- #4,754 in New Testament Criticism & Interpretation
- #5,382 in Christology (Books)

Customer Reviews:
19 ratings

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Mando44646

Highly recommended!

Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2013

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Aaron does a fantastic job of evaluating the 'best' theories for the Star of Bethlehem and shows how they are all lacking any kind of real evidence, both scientific and historical. He goes on to do a great job of showing how the Star should be understood as a theological event used by a Gospel writer for very specific theological reasons, not historical ones.

In short, if you have any interest in the Biblical birth stories and/or want to find out about the Star, this is your best bet. Aaron stays very focused on that target but also includes references and citations galore to other works in case you'd like to fact check or if you'd like to read more on the topic.

6 people found this helpful

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Edwin Herbert

A Rising Star

Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2016

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Early on, most believers were content to call the Star of Bethlehem a miracle. But over the last few centuries, rationalists have sought to identify the Star with an actual stellar phenomenon — something natural rather than supernatural. In his book, physicist Aaron Adair outlines and evaluates the various hypotheses put forward.

Among the explanations were meteors, ball lightning, and even UFOs. But three phenomena stand out as most likely to rise in the east and be interpreted by Persian Magi (Zoroastrian priests) as astrologically significant: novae, comets, and planetary conjunctions. Fortunately, the Chinese, among others, kept meticulous records of stellar events during the period.

With superb prose and scientific perspicacity, Adair delineates a better explanation for the star in the Gospel of Matthew's lurid tale. Mythos Christos

One person found this helpful

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Minnie

Excellent Read

Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2013

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I have thoroughly enjoyed Dr. Adair's book. He is an excellent writer and proves his point many time over. Although I am a religious person.. I am open to hearing other people's ideas. I think Aaron Adair does a marvelous job in this book and has many references to back up what he feels.

9 people found this helpful

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Peter Aleff

A much needed critical view

Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2014

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Cutting through the fog of much faith-tainted confusion, Adair clearly lists and discusses the pros and cons for each proposed solution and finds them all wanting. This is to be expected for an event that appears to have been merely mythical to begin with, and it is refreshing to see many fairy tales about it debunked.

2 people found this helpful

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Eric Haas

Excellent

Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2013

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Adair does an excellent job of debunking rationalist explanations for the star of Bethlehem, leaving the star as a literary creation of the author of Matthew being pretty much the only possibility.

8 people found this helpful

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Jason Engwer

Mostly Good, But Overreaches

Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2014

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(References below are approximate ones in the Kindle edition.)

Aaron Adair's book is mostly a response to astronomical explanations of the star of Bethlehem. He interacts with Ernest Martin, Mark Kidger, Michael Molnar, and a lot of other sources who have argued for an astronomical view of the star. Adair makes some good points, and I agree with his rejection of all of the astronomical arguments for the star's historicity. He also rejects other arguments for the historicity of the star, like appeals to a UFO or some sort of supernatural object. I'll have more to say about the latter below.

Adair had some commendable reasons for writing the book. For example, he rightly disdains the practice of planetariums running star of Bethlehem shows that they know to be inaccurate. He's also critical of the misleading media coverage of the star that we frequently see during the Christmas season. Dubious theories about the star are reported by newspapers, web sites, and other sources year after year, without much scrutiny, while more substantive points that could be made about Matthew's account are neglected.

The book is detailed enough, and cites enough significant and recent sources, that the vast majority of readers should learn a lot from it. Even conservative Christians (I'm one) should agree with much of what Adair has to say.

Contrary to what Bob Berman writes in the foreword, however, Adair's book isn't the "final word" (144) on the star. The last chapter, in which Adair argues against views that take Matthew's account as historically accurate and identify the star as a supernatural object, is the worst part of the book. Unlike his material on astronomical matters, Adair doesn't interact much with the scholarship or arguments he disagrees with on issues like the authorship, dating, and genre of Matthew's gospel, the identity of the magi, and the verisimilitude of Herod's behavior in Matthew 2. A much better case can be made for the historicity of Matthew's account than Adair suggests.

A good place to start on background issues, like genre and historicity, would be the introductions to Craig Keener's commentaries on Matthew (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1999) and Acts (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2012). Though the latter is a commentary on Acts, not Matthew, it has a lot of relevant material. Keener says many things about Luke's gospel that are applicable to Matthew's as well, and there's much that's said about source citation, ancient literary practices, and other issues Adair brings up in his book.

He thinks the account of the magi "and perhaps the entire Gospel of Matthew" belong to the genre of novel (1772). He doesn't cite any ancient sources who interpreted the star account or the entire gospel that way. He doesn't interact with the large number of early Christian and non-Christian sources who contradicted his views on issues like genre and authorship.

Adair never justifies his claim that the magi were Persian Zoroastrians. It's more likely that they were Arabian. See, for example, Tony Maalouf, "Were the Magi From Persia or Arabia?", Bibliotheca Sacra, 156 (October 1999), 423-42.

Adair argues that the magi's visit should have caused an international incident that would have been mentioned by ancient historians. His argument is problematic. He draws analogies involving state officials who come into conflict. He refers, for example, to what would have happened if the Soviet Union had sent delegates to "set up a new governor of Puerto Rico" during the Cold War (1619). But Matthew's star account and the remainder of his gospel suggest that the magi weren't acting on behalf of any state and weren't perceived as state representatives. Adair is drawing some analogies that aren't analogous. His argument that sources other than Matthew should have mentioned the magi's visit is unconvincing.

I'll be addressing these issues and others in more depth in a lengthier review of Adair's book at my blog. Those who are interested can do a search for "The Historicity Of The Star Of Bethlehem" at Triablogue.

But, again, what I'm criticizing is a minority of the book. There's a lot that's good about the rest of it.

14 people found this helpful

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Caleb Lack

Informative and enjoyable

Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2013

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Adair does a masterful job in examining the various attempts by Christian apologists (and some others) to explain the Star of Bethlehem in a non-supernatural way. His writing is clear and concise, and does a thorough job showing that not only is the Star only mentioned in one of the Gospels (Matthew), but that it's physically impossible for any natural celestial object to do the things described in the text. Very informative.

4 people found this helpful

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Roger S. Leblanc

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2016

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Brilliant!

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Ventura Angelo

Erudito e interessante

Reviewed in Italy on March 3, 2014

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Sono stati in molti a chiedersi se il racconto della Stella di Betlemme sia stato ispirato da un reale evento astronomico. L'autore qui esamina le varie possibilita', giungendo a una conclusione che non piacerà a coloro che vogliono che i miti corrispondano necessariamente a eventi reali. La realtà e' che occorre tener conto del fatto che i fenomeni celesti erano visti, nel mondo antico, in funzione del mondo terrestre: per la maggioranza della popolazione erano segni e simboli da interpretare per conoscere il futuro, non fenomeni da indagare scientificamennte.

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Johnny P

Brilliant

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 4, 2013

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Adair should be the go-to guy on things concerning the Star of Bethlehem. A super book chock full of interesting facts and nuggets. Great stuff. The literal understandings of the nativity accounts are seriously debunked with thee help of this easily digestible number.

2 people found this helpful

Stellar thinking by Aaron Adair

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 21, 2014

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Highly recommended! This book could stimulate an interest in astronomy.
Reading through the spectrum of possibilities makes the Bible tale more interesting.
How could you follow a star to a house in Bethlehem ?

There is a free planetarium program on the internet @ stellarium org
It is easy to download. Select the viewing location as Jerusalem, switch off the atmosphere, put to play fast forward and watch the constellations crossing the sky. Place the cursor over one point in the sky to represent a geostationary star like light. Wouldn't real Magi have said that the star appeared to cross several constellations each night? Job 9v9 mentions the constellations of Orion, Pleiades & Ursa Major, Wouldn't the author of the gospel attributed to Matthew have mentioned whether the bright light appeared to pass above or below the constellation of Orion?
If planet means wandering star then why not say there was a bright light in the sky which was brighter than any planet and also appeared to move across the constellations more rapidly than any planet. Why not say the bright light moved around in the sky unlike any other known astronomical thing. Why call the light a star if it wasn't a star ?

With Stellarium it is also possible to set the viewing location as another planet.

3 people found this helpful

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