THE MAGI: HOW THEY RECOGNISED cumsrs STAR
The Magi: How They Recognised Christ's Star. By Lieutenant- Colonel G. Mackinlay. (Hodder and Stoughton. 6s.)—Colonel Mackinlay rejects the notion that the Bethlehem Star was a conjunction of planets or a meteor. It was, he thinks, the Morning Star (the planet Venus). Its shining was, if we under- stand him, natural, so far as the Magi's first observation of it was concerned. They were led, however, by various reasons—here, it seems, much is taken for granted about their acquaintance with Daniel, Malachi, and other Scriptures—to connect it with a divine event. When they came near to their journey's end there was, it is suggested, a miraculous interposition. The star moved,—not the whole planet, but some appearance of the planet. We must own that this presents a considerable difficulty. The book is fall of ingenious argument and worth study. One result of accepting its conclusions is that the date of the Nativity is thrown back to B.C. 8. So far Sir W. M. Ramsay agrees with him. Christmas, again, must be transferred from December to September. The story of the shepherds watching their sheep in the open field, unlikely, to say the least, of a winter month in the high land of Judaea, has always been held to make this probable.
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