Josephus and the Star Prophecy: two points

[Japhethite]

4/5 mar 31 ad "ladder formed by all wandering stars";
15 aug 31 ad "Venus rose in sextans (included as part of leo)";
32 ad darkness/eclipse [crucifiction] (Thallus/Africanus); /
/ fri 3 apr 33 ad "eclipse/blood-moon"?
(19 mar-)5 apr 33 ad "Venus (& sun) rose in pisces".
ad 66 Halley's comet (Nero/Tiridates)

[Giuseppe]

Alright, after a bit more light research it looks like the star of Vespasian was Halley's comet of 66 ad. Thats for Giuseppe.

Thanks, Japhethite. This confirms that after all Josephus was not so a flatterer!

[outhouse]

. Some scholars doubt the existence of Caesar's Comet, i uncertainly wonder it could even be possible that it is the star of Bethlehem and that the "magi" started out from China decades earlier.

Some scholars doubt certainties. Non sequitur.

The Magi are probably fiction. The unknown authors were way to far removed from any Galileans life, and had no clue of his origin or birth.


Whether Jesus is mythical or not, the authors used rhetoric to paralleling the Emperor, and not having knowledge of his birth created this mythology.


These were the kings of plagiarization, and even if the celestial event did not happen with the emperor, these authors copied the traditions in place real or not. That is a certainty.

[John2]

Goldberg has an article that discusses what you guys are talking about and also notes that the Dead Sea Scrolls cite the Star Prophecy four times.

"There is another source: the oracle of Balaam is quoted four times in the Dead Sea scrolls in conjuncture with Messianic prophecies. It appears in the War Scroll (1QM 11.6-17), the Damascus document (CD 7.19-21), the Messianic Testimonia (4Q175 1:9-13), and the Priestly Blessings for the Last Days (1QSb 5:27). (WIse, Abegg, & Cook, The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation)."

Yet he doesn't see any connection to this and the 66-70 CE war: "Thus well before the war the prophecy of Balaam was actively used to predict the coming of the warrior king."

http://www.josephus.org/starOfBethlehem.htm

But to me this is an indication that the DSS do pertain to the 66-70 CE war (not to get into it here, just saying).