[2040] Migne, PG, XII, 143-74.
[2041] Migne, PG, LVI, 61, et seq.
[2042] Migne, PG, LVI, 637, et seq. Homily II, “Opus imperfectum in Matthaeum quod Chrysostomi nomine circumfertur.” Ibid., 602, et seq., for opinions of various past writers as to its authenticity.
[2043] Migne, PG, LX, 274-5, in the 38th homily on the Book of Acts.
[2044] On the other hand, D. Friedrich Münter, Der Stern der Weisen: Untersuchungen über das Geburtsjahr Christi, Kopenhagen, 1827, adopted the astrological theory that the star of Bethlehem was really a major conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Pisces, which Jewish tradition, too, seems to have regarded as the sign of the Messiah, and that therefore Jesus was born in 6 B. C. This view had already been advanced by Kepler, but recent writers seem to prefer a conjunction in Aries: see H. G. Voigt, Die Geschichte Jesu und die Astrologie, Leipzig, 1911; Kritzinger, Der Stern der Weisen, Gütersloh, 1911; von Oefele, Die Angaben der Berliner Planetentafel P8279 verglichen mit der Geburtsgeschichte Christi im Berichte des Matthäus, Berlin, 1903, in Mitteil. d. Vorderasiatischen Gesellschaft.
[2045] Mâle, Religious Art in France, 1913, p. 208, was not able to trace the legend that the star of the Magi appeared with the face of a child beyond The Golden Legend compiled by James of Voragine in the thirteenth century. We shall, however, find it mentioned in the twelfth century by Abelard, who derived it from this spurious homily of Chrysostom.
[2046] They are twice so represented on the elaborately carved Christian sarcophagus in the museum at Syracuse, Sicily, where also the manger, ox, and ass are shown (compare note 4 below).
[2047] Hugo Kehrer, Die Heiligen drei Könige in Litteratur und Kunst, Leipzig, 1908, 2 vols. An earlier work on the three Magi is Inchofer, Tres Magi Evangelici, Rome, 1639.
[2048] J. C. Thilo, Eusebii Alexandrini oratio Περὶ ἀστρονόμων (praemissa de magis et stella quaestione) e Cod. Reg. Par. primum edita, Progr. Halae, 1834.
[2049] A. Bouché-Leclercq, L’Astrologie grecque, 1899, p. 611, “La royauté des Mages fut inventée (vers le VIe siècle), comme la crèche (sic! see Luke, II, 12 and 16), le bœuf et l’âne pour montrer l’accomplissement des prophéties.”