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November 20th, 2001
Received by H.R.
Cuenca, Ecuador
Hello, my dear brother. A few days ago I answered some questions about Jesus, leaving some more questions for their future answer, questions about Paul’s mission and the early church. I think that this is a good procedure. Each time when there are questions about chapters we have already dealt with, we will answer them immediately, and we will keep the rest for its treatment in due course of time.
There is a dispute, lasting already a long time, about the reliability of the messages received by Dr. Samuels. But as you already know, there are no 100% reliable messages. As a matter of fact, all so-called channelings bear the medium's stamp, who receives them. And so it happened with Dr. Samuels.
You became aware of those doubts for the first time, when D___ told you of the problem of the “Star of Bethlehem.” The text in discussion is the following:
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“Now, the first thing I wish to tell you about is the Star of Bethlehem, which in reality was not a star at all but an exploding nova, or supernova, which caused considerable light in the eastern skies over Tyre and Babylonia but not in Judea or Israel; and the three Wise Men who saw this exploding supernova in the heavens, being astrologers with a knowledge of an ancient Chaldean astrological lore, determined that a great event was to take place as a result of the appearance of the great light in the heavens. And in their readings of the Hebrew writings with which they were familiar, and also with Hebrew circles in Assyria, they determined upon a visit to Judea where it was predicted that a Messiah of the Hebrews and for all mankind was to be born.”
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An astronomer, reading this message, indicated that this could not be true, because a supernova is visible from anywhere on earth. Also the expression “in the eastern skies over Tyre and Babylonia” is false, since Tyre, as seen from Jerusalem, lies to the north and not to the east.
Very well, we don't need to discuss that; it is obvious that Tyre is in the north of Jerusalem or Bethlehem. It is also correct that a supernova is visible from all points on earth, and in spectacular cases, such as have been described in history, even in bright daylight.
The question is then, what did really happen and what about Dr. Samuels’ message reception?
I’ll be straightforward and say that the phenomenon was in fact a nova, but not a supernova. More specifically, it was a variable star. There are stars that all at once increase their brightness, under considerable loss of matter. This increased brightness may last several hours or even several months. It is not such a spectacular phenomenon as a supernova, but enough to attract the attention of the Chaldean astrologers.
A variable star is also visible from all over the earth, in theory, but meteorological reasons may impede this. In those ancient days men didn't have telescopes, of course, and astrologers could only use their eyes to detect these phenomena. There were no instruments for observation. The best astrological schools were in arid zones, where clouds rarely covered the skies, for example in Mesopotamia and in Egypt. Clouds, of course, impeded a continuous observation of events in the firmament at night or at dawn.
And it happened in one of those early mornings that the wise men observed the phenomenon. In many Bible translations you can read:
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“Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.” |
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But this is simply a bad translation. Actually, the Greek text does not state “in the east”; “en th anatolh” (en te anatole) simply means “as it rose” or “at its rising.” This, of course, happens always in the eastern sky, since the stars, as the sun, start their journey through the firmament in the east. In other words, the star didn't indicate the way to the wise men, because otherwise, they would have headed toward Persia, in opposite direction, since Palestine is located to the west of Mesopotamia.
The phenomenon of novas or the observation of variable stars is nothing unusual; on the contrary, it is frequent. What took the sages to suspect a context with the Jewish people was the star’s location in the zodiac.
Judaism in that time was already in full messianic phase, that is to say, people anxiously awaited God’s Messiah, so that he would establish the old glory of the Hebrews, and even more, to transform them into the rulers of the whole world. And the Jewish population in Babylon was very numerous. Babylon was a center of science, and therefore, the pagan sages learnt about these hopes of the Jews and knew their writings. This is why they undertook the wearisome journey to Palestine.
The text received by Dr. Samuels contains another error: He speaks of those “Hebrew circles in Assyria.” Assyria in that time was nothing more than a vague memory. The Assyrian empire had already been destroyed centuries ago, and its successors, the Babylonians, had already lost their power in front of the Median and Persian troops, but Babylon still was a metropolis, while only ruins remained of the Assyrian cities, especially Nineveh. The Assyrian society had already disappeared.
Yes, the wise men were Chaldeans, doctors from the observatory of Sippar in Babylonia.
So for the story of the “Star of Bethlehem.”
Then, what had happened in the transmission of this message? How were those errors introduced? Well, they are due to simple human interpretations, changing “nova” into “supernova,” which is a totally different thing, transforming “Mesopotamia” into “Assyria”, and due to negligence, saying “the eastern skies over Tyre and Babylonia” instead of “the sky over Tyre and further east, over Babylon.” He also used the word Israel, an anachronism, since there was no country with this name in that time. Here you have the proof of a message, which was not received through automatic writing but through impressions, which later were written on paper. And your messages, my dear brother, of course, run the same risk. This is why I repeat over and over, read the messages with your heart. The errors contained in the message under discussion are not important, but messages may also contain errors in fundamental points. It is you who decide about the truthfulness of the messages. Messages are never the Truth, but the medium's perspective, his or her truth.
In concluding, I desire to add one more sentence: Jesus really died in the week of Passover, in the month of Nissan. I state this without further comments, because I want to correct the idea that Jesus died at the date of the Purim feast. This is not true, and we will explain this more thoroughly when talking about this sad episode.
God bless you,
Your brother in the spirit,
Judas
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