By Matthew Zuk

The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy. By James Evans. Download - Immediately Available. The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy combines new scholarship with hands-on science to bring readers into direct contact with the work of ancient astronomers. While tracing ideas from ancient Babylon to sixteenth. Ancient astronomy: Mechanical inspiration. Historian of astronomy James Evans at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, and his colleagues knew that the 360 divisions on the.

A depiction of the wise men http://www.stmary-dallas.org/stmary/images/stories/wise-men.jpg

The wise men are in the group of people commonly featured in most Christmas nativity scenes. They can also be grouped into the intelligent ancient man category. They were skilled astronomers, and while we don’t really know much about them, they are an important example for us about the true focus of Christmas.

Map of Parthia, the Magi most likely came from somewhere in the green area on the map. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Map_Parthian_Empire-fr.png

Origin of the Magi

The Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament translates the word extremely well:

“32.40 μάγοςa, ου m: a person noted for unusual capacity of understanding based upon astrology (such persons were regarded as combining both secular and religious aspects of knowledge and understanding)—‘a wise man and priest, a magus.’

ἰδοὺ μάγοι ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν παρεγένοντο εἰς Ιεροσόλυμα ‘soon afterward, some magi came from the East to Jerusalem’ Mt 2:1. In Mt 2:1 'μάγοι' may be translated as ‘men of wisdom who studied the stars.’”[1] So from the language used it is clear that they were men of great understanding (however they were not kings, that is another misconception that seems to be widely accepted today), and based on their knowledge of the Jews it seems probable that they were from Parthia. Babylon had a great knowledge of Jewish culture and prophecy because they held the Jews in captivity. This knowledge was retained by the kingdoms that came after the Babylonian empire. Thus the Magi were most likely of Persian descent and knew of the Jewish prophets such as Daniel.

When we first read about them they are seeking information about the king of the Jews:

“Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

How did they know?

It is interesting to note that they saw this star and ascertained that it was the star of the king of the Jews, the Messiah. There are many theories attempting to explain how they did that. Some say that they simply may have figured it out from the sky, they were after all called the “Magi” (specialists in astronomy as stated above). Others suggest that they received the information from Jewish prophecies such as Daniel’s. Some say they knew of Balaam’s prophecy of the “star” which was to come out of Jacob found in Numbers 24:17. It is possible that it is all three, however while it is unknown exactly how they knew what the star meant we do know why they travelled all the way to Bethlehem, to worship this newborn king, the Messiah.[2]

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How much did the Jews know?

“When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.”

From this passage it is plain that the scholars of Jerusalem knew full well the prophecies concerning the Messiah, and yet they rejected Him. This goes to show that knowledge of the truth does not mean acceptance of the truth. As we find in Romans 1, all people know that God exists but some suppress that truth in unrighteousness and reject Him as Creator God.

How old was Jesus when the wise men arrived?

“Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him. After listening to the king, they went on their way.”

Later we find out that Herod sent out an order to kill all infants two years old or younger, thus from that, we can ascertain that Jesus was no older than two years old at this time. Herod based his order off of the wise men’s response to his inquiry of when the star appeared.

“And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.”

Apparently the star had disappeared from the night sky for some time, thus they were grateful when it reappeared to lead them to Bethlehem.

“And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.”

A depiction of the 'three' wise men. http://sundayschoolsos.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/wise-men.gif

How many wise men were there?

It is unknown how many wise men there were. In most nativity scenes there are three wise men, one for each gift. This has led many to the belief that there were only three, however there is no place in Scripture that gives their number.

Conclusion

Based on what the Bible has to say about the wise men we can conclude that: they were skilled astronomers who were very familiar with the night sky; they knew who Jesus was and worshipped Him as King and Messiah; they were filled with reverence for Christ based on their long journey to worship Him and present gifts to Him.

What can we learn from them?

One day on the streets of Alexandria, Egypt, in the year 415 or 416, a mob of Christian zealots led by Peter the Lector accosted a woman’s carriage and dragged her from it and into a church, where they stripped her and beat her to death with roofing tiles. They then tore her body apart and burned it. Who was this woman and what was her crime? Hypatia was one of the last great thinkers of ancient Alexandria and one of the first women to study and teach mathematics, astronomy and philosophy. Though she is remembered more for her violent death, her dramatic life is a fascinating lens through which we may view the plight of science in an era of religious and sectarian conflict.

Founded by Alexander the Great in 331 B.C., the city of Alexandria quickly grew into a center of culture and learning for the ancient world. At its heart was the museum, a type of university, whose collection of more than a half-million scrolls was housed in the library of Alexandria.

Alexandria underwent a slow decline beginning in 48 B.C., when Julius Caesar conquered the city for Rome and accidentally burned down the library. (It was then rebuilt.) By 364, when the Roman Empire split and Alexandria became part of the eastern half, the city was beset by fighting among Christians, Jews and pagans. Further civil wars destroyed much of the library’s contents. The last remnants likely disappeared, along with the museum, in 391, when the archbishop Theophilus acted on orders from the Roman emperor to destroy all pagan temples. Theophilus tore down the temple of Serapis, which may have housed the last scrolls, and built a church on the site.

The last known member of the museum was the mathematician and astronomer Theon—Hypatia’s father.

Some of Theon’s writing has survived. His commentary (a copy of a classical work that incorporates explanatory notes) on Euclid’s Elements was the only known version of that cardinal work on geometry until the 19th century. But little is known about his and Hypatia’s family life. Even Hypatia’s date of birth is contested—scholars long held that she was born in 370 but modern historians believe 350 to be more likely. The identity of her mother is a complete mystery, and Hypatia may have had a brother, Epiphanius, though he may have been only Theon’s favorite pupil.

Theon taught mathematics and astronomy to his daughter, and she collaborated on some of his commentaries. It is thought that Book III of Theon’s version of Ptolemy’s Almagest—the treatise that established the Earth-centric model for the universe that wouldn’t be overturned until the time of Copernicus and Galileo—was actually the work of Hypatia.

She was a mathematician and astronomer in her own right, writing commentaries of her own and teaching a succession of students from her home. Letters from one of these students, Synesius, indicate that these lessons included how to design an astrolabe, a kind of portable astronomical calculator that would be used until the 19th century.

Beyond her father’s areas of expertise, Hypatia established herself as a philosopher in what is now known as the Neoplatonic school, a belief system in which everything emanates from the One. (Her student Synesius would become a bishop in the Christian church and incorporate Neoplatonic principles into the doctrine of the Trinity.) Her public lectures were popular and drew crowds. “Donning [the robe of a scholar], the lady made appearances around the center of the city, expounding in public to those willing to listen on Plato or Aristotle,” the philosopher Damascius wrote after her death.

Hypatia never married and likely led a celibate life, which possibly was in keeping with Plato’s ideas on the abolition of the family system. The Suda lexicon, a 10th-century encyclopedia of the Mediterranean world, describes her as being “exceedingly beautiful and fair of form. . . in speech articulate and logical, in her actions prudent and public-spirited, and the rest of the city gave her suitable welcome and accorded her special respect.”

Her admirers included Alexandria’s governor, Orestes. Her association with him would eventually lead to her death.

Theophilus, the archbishop who destroyed the last of Alexandria’s great Library, was succeeded in 412 by his nephew, Cyril, who continued his uncle’s tradition of hostilities toward other faiths. (One of his first actions was to close and plunder the churches belonging to the Novatian Christian sect.)

With Cyril the head of the main religious body of the city and Orestes in charge of the civil government, a fight began over who controlled Alexandria. Orestes was a Christian, but he did not want to cede power to the church. The struggle for power reached its peak following a massacre of Christians by Jewish extremists, when Cyril led a crowd that expelled all Jews from the city and looted their homes and temples. Orestes protested to the Roman government in Constantinople. When Orestes refused Cyril’s attempts at reconciliation, Cyril’s monks tried unsuccessfully to assassinate him.

Hypatia, however, was an easier target. She was a pagan who publicly spoke about a non-Christian philosophy, Neoplatonism, and she was less likely to be protected by guards than the now-prepared Orestes. A rumor spread that she was preventing Orestes and Cyril from settling their differences. From there, Peter the Lector and his mob took action and Hypatia met her tragic end.

Cyril’s role in Hypatia’s death has never been clear. “Those whose affiliations lead them to venerate his memory exonerate him; anticlericals and their ilk delight in condemning the man,” Michael Deakin wrote in his 2007 book Hypatia of Alexandria.

What Is Ancient Astronomy

Meanwhile, Hypatia has become a symbol for feminists, a martyr to pagans and atheists and a character in fiction. Voltaire used her to condemn the church and religion. The English clergyman Charles Kingsley made her the subject of a mid-Victorian romance. And she is the heroine, played by Rachel Weisz, in the Spanish movie Agora, which will be released later this year in the United States. The film tells the fictional story of Hypatia as she struggles to save the library from Christian zealots.

Ancient Arab Astronomy

Neither paganism nor scholarship died in Alexandria with Hypatia, but they certainly took a blow. “Almost alone, virtually the last academic, she stood for intellectual values, for rigorous mathematics, ascetic Neoplatonism, the crucial role of the mind, and the voice of temperance and moderation in civic life,” Deakin wrote. She may have been a victim of religious fanaticism, but Hypatia remains an inspiration even in modern times.