New stars have appeared again and again. It was in 125 b.c. that a star, so bright as to be seen in the day-time, suddenly appeared. It was this that caused Hipparchus to draw up his catalogue of stars, which has been handed down to us by Ptolemy (150 a.d.).
This new star would show the latitude, passing at that time immediately overhead at midnight, every twenty-four hours; while the prophecy would give the longitude as the land of Jacob. Having these two factors, it would be only a matter of observation, and easy for the Magi to find the place where it would be vertical, and thus to locate the very spot of the birth of Him of whom it was the sign, for they emphatically called it “His Star.” There is a beautiful tradition which relates how, in their difficulty, on their way from Jerusalem to find the actual spot under the Zenith of this star, these Magi sat down beside David's “Well of Bethlehem” to refresh themselves. There they saw the star reflected in the clear water of the well. Hence it is written that “when they saw the star they rejoiced with exceeding joy,” for they knew they were at the very spot and place of His appearing whence He was to “come forth.”
There can be little doubt that it was a new star. In the first place a new star is no unusual phenomenon. In the second place the tradition is well supported by [pg 039] ancient Christian writers. One speaks of its “surpassing brightness.” Another (Ignatius, Bp. of Antioch, a.d. 69) says, “At the appearance of the Lord a star shone forth brighter than all the other stars.” Ignatius, doubtless, had this from those who had actually seen it! Prudentius (4th cent. a.d.) says that not even the morning star was so fair. Archbishop Trench, who quotes these authorities, says “This star, I conceive, as so many ancients and moderns have done, to have been a new star in the heavens.”
One step more places this new star in the constellation of Coma, and with new force makes it indeed “His star”—the “Sign” of His “coming forth from Bethlehem.” Will it be “the sign of the Son of Man in heaven” (Matt. xxiv. 30) when He shall “come unto” this world again to complete the wondrous prophecies written of Him in the heavenly and earthly Revelations?[34]
Thus does the constellation of Coma reveal that the coming “Seed of the woman” was to be a child born, a son given.
But He was to be more: He was to be God and [pg 040] man—two natures in one person! This is the lesson of the next picture.
2. CENTAURUS (The Centaur).
The Despised Sin-offering.
It is the figure of a being with two natures. Jamieson, in his Celestial Atlas, 1822, says, “On the authority of the most accomplished Orientalist of our own times, the Arabic and Chaldaic name of this constellation is בזה.” Now this Hebrew word Bezeh (and the Arabic Al Beze) means the despised. It is the very word used of this Divine sufferer in Isa. liii. 3, “He is despised (נִבְזֶה) and rejected of men.”