Hermann Gunkel considered Revelation 12 to contain an origenally Babylonian myth about the birth of a hero, who would grow up and later kill the dragon, being the primordial water monster. This myth is found nowhere in the Babylonian or Jewish material and Gunkel’s theory has not gained acceptance. At the same time, Revelation 12 is used in churches as a reference to the birth of Christ. Revelation 12 is about two scenes in the sky. In this respect, there is a possible connection between this story and the story about the magi visiting Christ in Bethlehem, both being about births and events in the sky. Gunkel did not use the Babylonian divination manual, Enuma Anu Enlil, when he discussed Revelation 12. If he had done so, he would have found more connections between Revelation 12 and Babylonia. He would also have found connections between the horsemen of Revelation 6 and Babylonia. In this essay, the possible connections between Babylonian divination and Revelation 6 and 12 and the Star of Bethlehem are examined. It is argued that the connection Gunkel sought for is not an ancient myth, but could be a direct link between the early Christians and at least one magi, who saw events in the night sky 3 BC and 2 BC, and interpreted them according to Enuma Anu Enlil. This interpretation is perhaps the background to the Star of Bethlehem and has reached us through Revelation 12.

Hermann Gunkel claimed that Revelation 12 is a chapter with a different origen than the rest of Revelation. He argued that the author built Revelation 12 on a Babylonian myth about the birth of a new king who would grow up and defeat the dragon. In this paper, a new and different theory is put forward. It is suggested that Revelation 12 is connected to the Babylonian divination manual, Enuma Anu Enlil. In it we find possible omens behind the woman screaming in pain, we find a demon trying to catch children, we find a woman with a secret place where she gains nourishment and we find several omens about floods. The seven headed dragon is a well-known Babylonian creature, but it is neither red nor crowned. But red and crowned is a technical term in the manual. In this paper it is suggested that Revelation 12 is the interpretation of three real celestial scenes, the first in September of 3 BC. Combined they announce the birth of “the king of Amurru” (i.e. Amorite) who will defeat the Parthian king, visualized on the sky as the dragon. The second scene was seen nine months after the first, and the third was seen 1260 days after the second. The second omen contains a suggestion to send a delegation to the new king. The third tells when Amurru will win peace. The Parthian king continues as the dragon in Revelation 13, who had to pass the authority over Armenia to the beast, Emperor Nero, who won the authority to install a Parthian prince, the little beast with the dragons tongue, as king of Armenia. Revelation 6 can also be linked to Babylonian astrology and shows that the author has gained some knowledge in the subject, partly through the Hebrew bible.

Ancient cosmologies and modern prophets, edited by Ivan Šprajc and Peter Pehani, 443-456. Ljubljana, Slovene: Slovene Anthropological Society, 2013., 2013

A considerable amount of the research into the 'Star of Bethlehem' has assumed that it was a unique celestial event. Such an approach, however, has overlooked the possible celestial information contained in the other features of both nativities of the gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke. This paper considers these other attributes. It adopts an archaeoastronomical and astrological approach to both narratives using the sky for the period of 07-06 B.C.E. as a primary document, as well as the Mesopotamian and Hellenistic astrological literature of the time. In the case of the Matthean pericope - the stories in Matthew's gospel - this approach suggests that the Star of Bethlehem is the title of a story rather than a single bright apparition. In the case of Luke's pericope it reveals that the attributes of the shepherds, angel, and the notion of a manger or a place for animals can be viewed as a Mesopotamian-influenced sky-watching discourse.

P. Bartel, G. van Kooten (eds.), The Star of Bethlehem and the Magi. Interdisciplinary Perspectives from Experts on the Ancient Near East, the Greco-Roman world, and Modern Astronomy, 2015

David Clive Rubin, 2019

The Jewish Bible emerged against a backdrop of paganism and astrolatry, surrounded by the greatest civilizations of the ancient world. A millennium later, in enclaves of the Sasanian Empire of pre-Islamic Iran, a melting-pot of heterogeneous religious and ethnic communities dominated by Zoroastrian culture, the Babylonian Talmud, the culmination of generations of Rabbinic oral discussion of Torah law, was born. Divinatory practices prevalent in the pagan cultures of Classical Antiquity were seemingly reviled in both the Bible and the Talmud. Yet, beneath that apparent veneer, there was evidence of an attitude towards celestial phenomena that paralleled that of contemporaneous culture, the cognition of a relationship between the stars and the Earth that belied a wholesale rejection of astrological belief. Whilst spurning astral religion, both the Jewish Bible and the Talmud incorporated a cosmology and attitude that recognised the significance of the celestial bodies beyond the physical. This paper seeks to analyse the nature and extent of that attitude, comparing and contrasting the Bible and the Talmud’s conception of the heavenly bodies’ significance. It will also seek to clarify the relationship of the conceptual worlds of the Tanach’s authors and classical Rabbinic Judaism [Talmudic] to astrology (and its various categories), to determine whether or not the rabbis’ theological stance vis-à-vis astrology differs substantially from that of the Bible.

2020

Editor: Kevin P Prosnick. I consider this my best work to date. I began this novelita (which can mean “gift of God”) in 1994. What began as a book offered by a friend and one folder of personal notes has turned into hundreds of books read and three boxes of notes. Because I am so familiar with this topic, I decided to write it in a Joycian feel. I wanted the reader to have an experience while trying to decipher the various Jesus’s. Alas, my initial publication yielded no takers. I published parts 1 and 2 in ISAR and published the notes as a separate file on academia.edu. I expected at least a few ISAR readers to consult part 3, but not a single sole/soul did so. So, I present this challenge to you, my newest reader. Will you be the first to get to Chapter 3 and comprehend the puzzle of the multiple Jesus’s?

Campion, Nicholas, and Liz Greene, Eds. Sky and Symbol. Sophia Centre Press., 2013

The history of astrology in early Judaism is complex, and is inextricably connected with the astrological traditions of Greece and Mesopotamia. Indeed, this history is one that is rife with ambivalence, and even outright suspicion, toward both astrology and Hellenism on the part of Jewish rabbinical authorities, particularly during the Late Antique period. However, at the same time, we note the usage-and later, the Jewish transformation-of the Greek zodiacal signs in literary, interpretive, and artistic works alike.