The Great Christ Comet (31 page)

At the same time, it is important to appreciate that ancients seem to have had somewhat elastic conceptualizations of the constellation figures. For example, individual peoples were capable of imagining Virgo as both standing and sitting.
43
As Ptolemy made clear and an analysis of constellation descriptions and drawings from the ancient world confirms, there was some fluidity in how given cultures could conceive of Virgo in relation to her stars.
44
This is an important observation that may have a bearing on the interpretation of Revelation 12:1–5, where Virgo is envisioned as coming to life. While in verse 1 Virgo appears to be enthroned in majesty, in verse 2 she is portrayed as screaming in torment as she strives to deliver her child. It seems reasonable to allow that observers might have assigned her a slightly different posture for childbirth. Therefore we do well to imagine Virgo in Revelation 12:1–5 as alive and active within the general constraints of her constellation.

In
fig. 7.11
we have sought to portray Virgo in a manner consistent with how the author of Revelation describes her.

The Date of the Opening Scene of the Celestial Drama (Revelation 12:1)

Remarkable as it may seem, if we accept that Revelation 12:1–5 is describing the celestial nativity drama that marked the Messiah's birth, the indication of the locations of the Sun and Moon with respect to Virgo in verse 1 enables us to pinpoint the year and, within it, the day when the opening scene took place.

In the scene, Virgo is “clothed with the Sun” (v. 1). This suggests that the Sun is located over her midriff,
45
which covers a roughly 10- to 11-degree zone from Virgo's chest (that is, just below the level of the stars
δ
–
γ
[Porrima]) to her groin (that is, the level on Virgo's body where 80 Virginis is).

At the same time, the Moon is under Virgo's feet. What is most remarkable about this is that it occurs when the Sun is clothing her. Because of how close the Moon is envisioned as being, we know that it is a waxing Moon and indeed a very young lunar crescent. To grasp what this means, it is important to pause and reflect briefly on the lunar cycle.

From the occurrence of a full Moon in the middle of a lunar month, the Moon enters a waning (shrinking in apparent size) phase. Eventually the Moon disappears from the sky for a few days at the end of the lunar month. Then it reemerges as a very thin crescent, barely visible over the western horizon in the aftermath of sunset. The Bab­ylo­nians and Hebrews would therefore, during a short, 1–2 hour window of time between sunset and moonset, scan the western sky for the new crescent Moon descending in the Sun's wake.
46
At this time the Moon is moving away from the Sun, falling on average a further 12 degrees behind it every day. As it does so, it waxes (grows in apparent size) until, on the fifteenth day of its cycle, it again becomes a full Moon.

What is described in Revelation 12:1 is not an annual occurrence. When we review the years 7 BC to 4 BC, the time period during which Jesus was born, we see that the Moon was under Virgo's feet
47
at the point when the Sun was clothing her only in 6 BC—on September 15,
48
to be precise (see
fig. 7.12
on why the Sun appeared to be clothing Virgo).
49
The
Moon was technically under Virgo's feet (corresponding to
λ
Virginis) for that whole day, from the moment it rose in the east (when it was 24 degrees from the Sun) until Virgo set in the west (when it was 28–29 degrees from the Sun). Subject to favorable weather, the young crescent Moon would normally have become clearly visible to the naked eye shortly after the Sun set that evening.
50

Does Revelation 12:1 indicate that the crescent Moon was actually observed on September 15, 6 BC? On the one hand, since some astronomers at the time of Jesus's birth calculated the locations of the Sun, Moon, and stars in advance and knew where they were even when they could not see them, it cannot be assumed that the Moon was actually observed on the evening of September 15. On the other hand, since the astronomical focus of a scene such as is described in Revelation 12:1 would usually be the Moon, and since the sight is part of a great “sign,” it seems most natural to conclude that it was observed. If observers did see the lunar crescent, they most likely did so between sunset and moonset.
51

We conclude that Virgo, with her 12-star crown, clothed with the Sun, and with the Moon under her feet describes an astronomical phenomenon that can be dated to September 15, 6 BC.

The Cometary Drama of Revelation 12:1–2

The Actors

In Revelation 12:1–2, the heavenly entities are acting out key roles in the grand drama.

In the chapter as a whole, the woman symbolizes Israel—it alone can be reckoned to have given birth to the Messiah (v. 5) and to have fathered Christianity, the religious movement consisting of “those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus” (v. 17).
52
She consists of the twelve tribes represented by Virgo's twelve-starred crown. In the opening verses, however, Virgo represents Israel as embodied in the mother of Jesus, that is, so to speak, Israel with the face of Mary. The constellation figure is playing the part of Israel/Mary pregnant, in labor, and delivering her son, the Messiah. John may be
deliberately recalling the portrayal of Israel as the Messiah's mother in Micah 5:2–3, the text to which the Jewish scholars turned in order to identify the location of the Messiah's birth for Herod the Great (Matt. 2:5–6).
53

The role of the messianic baby that appeared in the virgin's womb could only have been played by a bright new celestial object. The fact that, according to Revelation 12:2–5, the pregnancy progressed, climaxing with an agonizing delivery, strongly suggests that this celestial entity grew in the manner of a human baby in its mother's womb and eventually descended down and out of her belly. Virgo's baby was unquestionably, therefore, a comet, more particularly a cometary coma. Only a comet can grow large and move relative to the fixed stars. Moreover, a cometary coma that is essentially oval (elliptical) in shape could readily pass for a baby when located in an area of sky regarded as a womb.
54
It is very normal for a large, long-period comet with a close perihelion distance to have this type of coma. Naturally enough, viewers would assume that a baby in its mother's womb was head-down. This assumption might have been reinforced if the coma had an area of condensed brightness around the nucleus on the sunward side of the coma—this might have looked like the shining face of the baby.

As regards the Sun in verse 1, it functions as the royal robe of Virgo as she is enthroned in splendor and is highly exalted. At the same time, the fact that in verses 2–5 Virgo is portrayed as heliacally rising with a cometary baby in her womb may inject the earlier scene on September 15, 6 BC, with additional significance. In and of itself, verse 1 does not explain why Virgo is portrayed in such exalted terms. However, verses 2–5 do explain why
55
—she becomes pregnant (literally, “having in her womb”) and gives birth to a special baby representing the Messiah. The Messiah will conquer the forces of Chaos and establish his kingdom of justice and righteousness in the world, exercising dominion on behalf of Israel over all nations. In light of this, it is natural to interpret the opening scene in the celestial nativity play as a conception scene, with the Sun playing the part of God, the father of Virgo's baby. This is, of course, reminiscent of what Luke reports concerning Jesus's conception: Gabriel announced to Mary that “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (Luke 1:35).

The Moon in Revelation 12:1 seems to function as a footstool under Virgo's feet, emphasizing her great glory at or near the start of the new lunar month.
56
At the same time, the Moon was closely associated with menstruation and conception in the ancient world. In the ancient Greco-Roman world the close association of the Moon with conception was made explicit by a number of Greco-Roman medical writers and various natural philosophers.
57
Indeed, Aristotle and some Hippocratic authors claimed that conception was largely controlled by the Moon.
58
As for the Bab­ylo­nian astrologers, we have evidence that they believed that omens relating to the Moon could speak of conception or childbirth. For example, they believed that if the Moon was surrounded by a halo within which was Scorpius, then high priestesses would conceive.
59
Consequently, in light of the fact that verses
2–5 portray Virgo as having become pregnant, there is good reason to wonder if the Moon's presence in the celestial scene on September 15, 6 BC, detailed in verse 1, would have been interpreted as suggesting that Virgo had at that auspicious moment conceived her special child.

Having introduced the main actors in verses 1–2, we must now consider the narrative that unfolds in these verses.

The Course of the Celestial Drama in Revelation 12:1–2

The wonder of Revelation 12:1–2 has three essential elements: (1) The crowned Virgo is clothed with the Sun and has the Moon under her feet. (2) Virgo is pregnant. (3) Virgo is crying out because she is in labor and in torment due to giving birth (or in order to give birth). This last element may be divided into two distinct components: dilation and fetal expulsion.

Technically, these three or four elements constitute three or four different chronological moments,
60
but in verses 1–2 they are brought together to form a single wonder distinct from, though closely related to, verses 3–5.

By its very nature the celestial scene described in verse 1 can occur only around the start of a new lunar month, the beginning of either the first or the second (evening-to-evening) day, and in the western evening sky. The location of the Sun with respect to Virgo in verse 1 makes it clear that the area of sky associated with Virgo's womb was not visible at the time, because it was hosting the Sun and hence its stars were bleached out by intense sunlight. Obviously, therefore, the sighting of Virgo's baby did not occur then. It could only have occurred a few weeks later in the month inaugurated by the scene in verse 1, when, as Virgo heliacally rose over the eastern horizon, observers would have been able to catch a glimpse of the contents of her womb for the first time since September 15. Consequently, the pregnancy and labor mentioned in verse 2 follow the scene in verse 1, just as they are themselves followed by the successful delivery of the child in verse 5.

One implication of this is that the celestial activity in verse 2 is based on comet sightings in the eastern sky in the period leading up to dawn from a number of different observing sessions. In effect, then, in verse 2 we have a series of film frames that, when viewed as a moving picture, tell a grand narrative of a celestial pregnancy.

Each predawn observing session would have revealed more and more of Virgo as she heliacally rose over the eastern horizon before the stars were bleached from the sky by the rising Sun. As Virgo reemerged from her annual encounter with the Sun, steadily rising up over the eastern horizon in the last part of the night, she was seen to be with child—“she had [a baby] in her womb.”
61
In other words, a bright comet had made its way into her womb to play the part of her baby in the celestial nativity play.