Note 2044 — Chapter XX · OTHER CHRISTIAN DISCUSSION OF MAGIC BEFORE AUGUSTINE

On the other hand, D. Friedrich Münter, Der Stern der Weisen: Untersuchungen über das Geburtsjahr Christi, Kopenhagen, 1827, adopted the astrological theory that the star of Bethlehem was really a major conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Pisces, which Jewish tradition, too, seems to have regarded as the sign of the Messiah, and that therefore Jesus was born in 6 B. C. This view had already been advanced by Kepler, but recent writers seem to prefer a conjunction in Aries: see H. G. Voigt, Die Geschichte Jesu und die Astrologie, Leipzig, 1911; Kritzinger, Der Stern der Weisen, Gütersloh, 1911; von Oefele, Die Angaben der Berliner Planetentafel P8279 verglichen mit der Geburtsgeschichte Christi im Berichte des Matthäus, Berlin, 1903, in Mitteil. d. Vorderasiatischen Gesellschaft.