Biblegems
#289
Question: Does Revelation 12:1-2 refer to a
literal astronomical “sign” in the heavens and, if so, what does the sign mean
and how would people recognize it?
(The
reader would do well to read Bible Gems #116, “Christmas in the Stars” as background for this present article.)
The passage
in Revelation reads:
Rev.
12:1-2
A great sign appeared in heaven: a
woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve
stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to
give birth.
This
question has several components: (1) Does Revelation 12:1-2 refer to a literal astronomical
event? (2) Is such an astronomical event a “sign”? (3) If it is a sign, what
does it mean? (4) How would people know to recognize such an obscure
astronomical event as a sign? This post, therefore, will be Part 1 on this
topic.
Does Revelation 12:1-2 refer to a
literal astronomical event?
John’s vision portrays
a specific astronomical alignment of the sun, moon stars set in relation to “a woman” (v.1) in the night sky. If
this “woman” is a constellation, the
only candidate would be Virgo. In the ancient mythology of many cultures Virgo
went by different names but was always associated with fertility, and often as
a goddess of fertility.
The apostle John, who
certainly did not accept the popular mythology, still knew the constellations
by their sometimes mythological names, even as we do today. Not only so, but
the astrological / mythological
interpretations themselves were distortions of God’s intended purpose of the
heavenly bodies serving humanity as “signs.” It is God, not man, who gave the stars and their
groupings in constellations their names and meanings for “signs and seasons” (Ps. 147:4).
In the Book
of Numbers God revealed the birth of the Messiah to Balaam by indicating a
“sign” that would appear in the night sky:
Num. 24:17 I
see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel. He will
crush the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of all the sons of Sheth.
Hundreds of
years later, the Magi in Persia saw the appearance of the star predicted by
Balaam and understood its meaning.
Matt. 2:1-2 After
Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from
the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king
of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”
Likewise, John’s
vision seems to depict a specific astronomical event: the constellation Virgo,
with “the
moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head,” plus another celestial body traveling
through this constellation, soon to exit. This extremely specific alignment is in
fact scheduled to occur throughout the nine-month period from November 20, 2016
to September 23, 2017 (see graphic above). According to the interactive astronomy site, “theskylive.com”, the planet Jupiter, among the brightest
objects in the sky, enters the constellation Virgo on November 20th
and exits 9 ½ months later in September with the sun rising behind it. The
heavens, indeed, declare the glory of God!
