The Epiphany was celebrated this past weekend. Epiphany is the celebration of the wise men (Magi) worshipping Jesus. If you are American then you might be wondering why the date is not Christmas. Well… Christmas is actually a celebration of the Magi arriving in Bethlehem, not necessarily the birth of Jesus. Which means the Epiphany is when the Magi find Jesus decide to not tell King Herod where Jesus is living. They do this because they are given an epiphany (a dream) to not return to King Herod. King Herod then order a Genocide against baby boys under 2 years old because he is unsure of the exact age of the boy who would become King of the Jews.
What makes the Epiphany interesting to me is the astronomical data we have about it. Given the prophecies of Daniel about Jesus which were what initially led the Magi and the Biblical account in Matthew, we can actually follow the exact star the Magi followed given our current astronomical technology. The technology allows us to create the star views as far back as the written word and forward for several hundred million years. Want to know what the sky will look like from your house in several hundred million years? We have the technology to show that.
Back to the star though. Using the astronomy technology we can see the star that the Magi tracked and how it even moved over Bethlehem after the Magi arrived in Jerusalem. If you want to know more here is the guy presenting much of this research.
What all this means though is that the Magi arrived in Bethlehem on December 25th, giving gifts to Jesus somewhere during the 12 Days of Christmas (Yes, the kind that the song is about, and the number of days between Christmas and the Epiphany). All of this, I find incredibly faith-affirming. If the Bible can be exact about the obscure details, then we can trust it for the harder details. I hope this affirms your faith as well.
