I don't think it's a coincidence that the Dead Sea Scrolls's calendar,
that the Qumran people used, is the only calendar in the ancient world
that creates a time window for the Messiah's arrival that matches Jesus.
Okay, I don't think that's a coincidence.
This is a Zodiac mosaic in a Jewish synagogue. There are a lot of these,
a couple dozen of them that archaeologists have found.
And you would look at this and say, «well, you know,
these Jews must have been pagans then.»
No, they had a different perception of what was going on in the sky,
and who's in charge, and what it means, as opposed to the pagans.
Pagan astrology/astronomy, there really wasn't much of a difference in the ancient world,
is more like what we think of today with horoscopes; that individual birth signs,
when I was born, what day, what's going on in the stars, that determines my fate.
It determines my personality, it determines the outcomes of my life.
No, it doesn't do any of those things. A Jew would say; that's heresy.
Only God is sovereign. What you can tell is that God is working a plan,
because God's plans are linked to time.
So we need to be paying attention to what the skies are doing, because they might
tell us something about what God is about to do. The people who are really into this
would be the people at Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.
They have a number of astronomical texts there. They track this, like...
let's put it this way;
they separated from the Pharisees (they thought the Pharisees were liberals)
because the Pharisees used a calendar they didn't like.
You know, we hear that we think it's crazy, but they were that serious about it.
But I want to move from this idea that there was a Jewish conception
of the skies were important, what's going on here because they telegraph certain things,
to Revelation 12. Now, I can't prove this.
But I suspect that what Paul was thinking, we actually have recorded in Revelation 12.
But John, in Revelation, says this, you know, several times he says,
«I looked up in the sky and saw.» What if john actually meant what he said?
What if he's keying parts of Revelation to astronomical signage?
What if he's doing that?
«And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun,
with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.
She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth.
And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon,
with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems.
His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth.
And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth,
so that when she bore her child he might devour it.
She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron,
but her child was caught up to God and to his throne.»
Ok, verse 5 is crystal clear. It's quoting a messianic Psalm.
Okay, it's quoted elsewhere about Jesus. This is a reference to the birth of the Messiah.
The notion of being caught up to God in His throne
is a notion of the resurrection and ascension.
But before that, you get all this astronomical imagery.
Now, I'm not the first one to suggest this. But I suspect very strongly
that this is what Paul was thinking about when he said;
hey, you know, have people heard about the Savior, heard, you know,
what's going on here? And again, you're expecting to say no,
and he says, well, they actually have.
And then he quotes Psalm 19. See Revelation 12, doesn't exist yet.
Okay, Revelation is the last book of the New Testament, but he quotes Psalm 19.
It says, yeah, they've heard, the heavens declare the glory of God, so on and so forth.
All these verbs of communication. Paul is associating
the knowledge of the Messiah King, his arrival with something going on in the skies.
That much we can say, and Revelation 12 gives us a pretty easy thing to track
in an astronomy program. Now, I'm going to go through some of this,
but before I do, let me just saying what I'm not saying;
there are those in evangelical circles. Their belief was that
you could look at the constellations of the skies
and they told you the entire plan of salvation,
like they went through the Romans' road in the heavens, I don't believe that.
Okay, that overclaims the data. What I do believe is that, like the Magi,
there's something going on at a certain time in history that told them;
there's going to be a divine King born in Bethlehem,
saddle up the camels, we have to go see.
Jews would have noticed that, Gentiles like the Magi would have noticed it,
because they were watching. And they believed that the Creator God, the God of Israel,
was capable of telegraphing stuff like this.
I don't think it's a coincidence that the Dead Sea Scrolls calendar,
that the Qumran people used, is the only calendar in the ancient world
that creates a time window for the Messiah's arrival that matches Jesus.
Okay, I don't think that's a coincidence.
So having said that, let's get into what I think we can claim.
On your screen, you see a few things: there's the sun, and the moon.
And then there's a line, the line is called the ecliptic.
This is a line that astronomers will draw
to track the movement of the constellations.
You notice the sun and the moon there, the sun is in the midst of the woman,
the Virgin, Virgo. Okay, and Virgo. Again, there's different ways to understand
the 12 stars around her head, depending on which astronomer you would read,
that you can get 12 stars in this or that method. But again,
she's the woman with the 12 stars, the virgin who is about to give birth,
the sun is in her midst, that's Revelation 12, and the moon is at her feet.
You notice above her head, I've included, I've let my astronomy program show,
Regulus and Jupiter. They are not mentioned in Revelation 12, but if you put
the information in Revelation 12 into an astronomy program, this is produced.
What's the big deal about Regulus and Jupiter?
Jupiter was the king planet because it's the biggest one.
Regulus was viewed as the King star because of its brightness.
Here they are overlapped. They are superimposed on each other.
If you are one of these old ancient astronomy guys,
that's going to draw your attention because both are associated with kingship.
«Constellation Virgo is the only constellation that represents a woman.
For 20 days Virgo was "clothed" with the sun,
but the exact day when "the moon was under her feet"» at the same time
and by the way when Regulus and Jupiter intersect.
And this is the view over Jerusalem by the way.
«That can only occur during an 80 minute period within those 20 days.»
Okay, astronomy is linked to time, so we can calculate.
You'll notice I put the stick figures in for the constellation
so you can see this a little better. We've got in the center there that's Virgo.
She doesn't look as attractive as a stick figure.
Sun, Moon at her feet, Jupiter and Regulus co joined,
and what is the constellation above Virgo? It's the lion. It's Leo.
What does that mean to a Jew?
The lion is the sign of what? The tribe of Judah. Okay. Judah, Regulus and Jupiter
are intersecting in Leo. What was that King?
You know, what tribe was he supposed to be from?
Oh, yeah, yeah, Judah. And you notice below her feet, in modern astronomy programs
we have two constellations. One is Libra, the other is Scorpio. In the ancient world,
they were one constellation and it was like a scorpion with pinchers.
And scorpions were at times referred to as a dragon.
But you have another option for the dragon. That is Hydra, also located below Virgo.
But off the ecliptic. Doesn't really matter. You got two choices.
Okay, he's ready to devour the child when the child is born.
There's a small window of time when all of these things are present.
«September 11, 3 B.C. date also corresponded [what a coincidence]
to Rosh-Hashanah (Tishri 1), New Year's Day for Jews and the Day of Trumpets.
Tishri 1 was also the "New Year's Day" of the civil calendar according to the calendar
accepted in Judah during the divided monarchy. In other words,
it marked the first day of the reign of every new Davidic King.»
What a coincidence.