It's not surprising, in our present culture of digital watches and wall calendars, that we've lost the original astronomical meaning of these Bible stories.
Today most people never look at the stars or pay any attention to the position of the sun in the sky.
The following is the result of intensive investigation into the Bible, its contents, origin, history, and everything that modern day biblical scholars know.
"Traveling In Space With Jesus Christ " Is a series of lessons that will show you the similarities between the story of Jesus Christ's journey, while being compared to the journey that our very own Sun takes through the constellations.
This is a continuation from the first lessons series of 39.
In order for you to understand the entire concept, it is of extreme importance that you read all of this in order starting with lesson one.
Please DO NOT skip ahead. Doing so will just cause you confusion and eventually will end with you in cognitive dissonance.
Next Lesson (under construction)
Introduction
In ancient times people were very familiar with the Sun and the stars. At night they had nothing better to do than gaze up at the stars. They saw how the stars move across the sky during the night, and how different constellations are visible at different times of the year.
They made up stories which were allegories based on what they saw. Later on, these stories took on a life of their own, as the stories were passed down from generation to generation but the knowledge of what the stories represented was lost. People started believing the stories were real and actual history of events that actually really happened in the past, when originally the stories were nothing more than allegories for what people saw happening in the stars.
The ancients looked to the sky to determine what time of year it was. It was important to know what time of year it was. You needed to know when it was time to plant crops and when it was time to harvest the crops. As the year passed the Sun appears to make a journey through the constellations of the Zodiac. The entire story of Jesus’ ministry is an allegory for this journey.
Lesson 13: The Celestial Sphere
From our point of view the earth appears to be surrounded by a great celestial sphere upon which the fixed stars are attached. This celestial sphere slowly rotates upon its axis, making one complete revolution per day. During the night we see the stars affixed to this sphere slowly rise in the east, travel overhead, and set in the west. If we look northward we see the stars rotate around the north celestial axis.
If we are in the southern hemisphere we can look southward and watch the stars slowly circle around the southern celestial axis. The time lapse photograph below shows the stars circling the southern celestial pole. The southern celestial pole can only be seen when you are located below the equator in the southern hemisphere. This photo was taken from Australia.
Currently the star Polaris, also known as the North Star, is very close to the north celestial axis. If you can find the North Star you then know which way North is. More importantly, the angle between the horizon and the North Star tells you what latitude on earth you're at. This helps ships navigate the open ocean. 2000 years ago Polaris was not near the north celestial pole due to the Earth's Precession.
Also present against the celestial sphere is the sun. In the picture of the celestial sphere model above the sun can be seen to the right of the earth and just slightly below the equator. The sun's position on the celestial sphere changes during the year, which is why the sun is on a swivel arm. We will talk more about the sun's annual journey around the celestial sphere later, in a different lesson.
Philosophers have pondered for eons about what this great celestial sphere was made of. It was apparently made of some heavenly material we could not fathom. There was also the unexplained problem of five wandering stars known as "planets." Eventually the concept was abandoned when scientists decided it was the earth that was rotating on it's axis instead of a great celestial sphere rotating around the earth. The Foucault Pendulum is a very simple yet profound demonstration of the earth's rotation.
In 1633 the Catholic Church condemned Galileo for promoting a helocentric theory of the universe. They said, “The proposition that the sun is the centre of the world and does not move from its place is absurd and false philosophically and formally heretical, because it is expressly contrary to the Holy Scripture. The proposition that the earth is not the centre of the world and immovable, but that it moves, and also with a diurnal motion, is equally absurd and false philosophically, and theologically considered, at least erroneous in faith.”
References:
Numerous books contain various English translations of this document, such as:
- The Private Life of Galileo (1870) Appendix I.
- Galileo Galilei and the Roman Curia: From Authentic Sources, by Karl Von Gebler (1879)
- The Galileo Affair: A Documentary History, by Maurice A. Finocchiaro (1989)
Even though scientists have abandoned the Celestial Sphere theory, notwithstanding the objections of the Catholic Church, it is still convenient to use a celestial sphere as a map of where the stars and constellations are.
Lesson 14: Sunset
Sunset is the special time of day we can determine the sun's position relative to the stars. At sunset the sun dips below the horizon, the sky gradually gets dark, and the stars become visible. With the stars visible and the sun just below the horizon the position of the sun on the celestial sphere of stars becomes apparent.
The other time of day we can determine where the sun is relative to the stars is just before sunrise.
During the day the stars are still there, we just can't see them due to the bright blue sky. If the bright blue sky were to disappear, and the sun's brightness to dim a bit, we could see both the sun and the stars at the same time.
During a total solar eclipse, when the moon moves directly in front of the sun blocking almost all of it's light, the sky becomes dark enough for us to see some of the brighter stars, again allowing us to see the position of the sun on the celestial sphere of stars.
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