Star of Bethlehem

The star that, in Matthew’s Gospel, the wise men saw and followed until it stood over the place where the child was. In nativity scenes it shines over the stable as the sign that led the Magi to Bethlehem.

Christmas symbols. Also called Christmas star, star of the Magi.

Meaning

Matthew tells the story. Wise men came from the east to Jerusalem asking where the newborn king of the Jews was, “We have seen his star out in the east, and we have come to worship him.” Herod sent them on to Bethlehem, and the star “was there going before them, till at last it stood still over the place where the child was”. They found the child with Mary and offered gold, frankincense and myrrh. For Pope Francis, writing on the nativity scene in 2019, the angels and the guiding star are a sign that Christians too are called to set out and worship.

Origin and history

Early Christian art drew the star without a tail. The mosaic of 433 in Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome gives it eight spikes, according to INTERS, the encyclopedia of religion and science of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. The tailed star came later. Giotto painted it as a comet in his frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua at the start of the 14th century, perhaps with Halley’s comet in mind, which had been seen in 1301. Piet van der Kruit, an astronomer at the University of Groningen, likewise dates the bright star with a tail to the Middle Ages. The kings came late too: he writes that tradition made the Magi kings around the sixth century and fixed their number at three from their three gifts.

Is the star in the Bible?

Yes, in one book. Matthew’s Gospel is the only part of the New Testament that tells of it, and INTERS notes that his Greek word is astér, a star. The phrase usually translated “in the east” may mean “at its rising”, a reading INTERS prefers.

What was the star?

Astronomers have not agreed, as INTERS puts it. Tycho Brahe held that it was no natural phenomenon at all. Johannes Kepler, after watching Jupiter and Saturn meet before Christmas 1603, calculated that the two planets had met three times in 7 BC, between May and December, and proposed that conjunction; van der Kruit calls it the relevant one, while adding that the story may be “only fiction”, told to raise the significance of Jesus’ birth. The Catholic Encyclopedia (Walter Drum, 1910) lists the comet, the conjunctions of 7 and 6 BC and a new star, and rejects them all because none explains how the star went before the Magi and stopped: “Only a miraculous phenomenon could have been the Star of Bethlehem.” John Chrysostom thought the same in the fourth century.

Sources

Matthew, chapter 2, The Holy Bible, Knox translation, via New Advent, Matthew 2:1–2, 2:9–11
Bethlehem, Star of (INTERS – Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science), INTERS – Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science, edited by G. Tanzella-Nitti, I. Colagé and A. Strumia (Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome), INTERS (Pontifical University of the Holy Cross), sections I–IV
Magi (Catholic Encyclopedia), Walter Drum, “Magi”, The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 9 (New York: Robert Appleton, 1910), New Advent, The star
Star of Bethlehem (Piet van der Kruit, University of Groningen), Piet C. van der Kruit, Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen, lecture notes (PDF), University of Groningen, Biblical evidence; triple conjunctions
Admirabile signum (Pope Francis, 2019), Apostolic Letter Admirabile signum of the Holy Father Francis on the meaning and importance of the nativity scene, Greccio, 1 December 2019, The Holy See, section 5

The same shape elsewhere

Browse symbols formed from lines or stars.

Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research

Added October 9, 2026.

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