CHAPTER 1

Of the Things that happened at the Incarnation, and of the Star that appeared at Our Saviour's Birth.

MOSES, in the Book of Numbers, says of the star that appeared at the Birth of our Saviour, as follows.

[Passage quoted, Num. xxiv. 15-19.]

We are told that Balaam's successors moved by this (for the prediction was preserved most likely among them), when they noticed in the heavens a strange star besides the usual ones, fixed above the head, so to say, and, - 151 - vertically above Judaea, hastened to arrive at Palestine, to (418) inquire about the King announced by the star's appearance. Matthew the Evangelist witnesses to this as follows:

1. "And when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem saying, 2. 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." 

And when they had been sent on their way they reached Bethlehem.

9. "And, behold, again, the (same) star, which they saw before in the east, went before them, until it came and stood over where the young child was. 10. And when they saw the star, they rejoiced with (b) exceeding great joy, and going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and fell down and worshipped him."

This is the account in the Holy Gospel. But the word of the prophecy says that striking events will be heralded by the rising of the star and the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ, viz., the crushing of the leaders of Moab, and the raid on the sons of Seth, and the inheriting by the Jewish nation of its other enemies, these being Edom and Esau. What could be thus figuratively described by the leaders (c) of Moab, but the destruction of the invisible rulers, I mean the daemons whom the Moabites had of old considered gods? But others were not mentioned, because of Israel's idolatry in the wilderness, when "the people were initiated into the rites of Belphegor." (This daemon was honoured as a god by Balak, King of Moab.)

As, therefore, Israel was conquered on this occasion by the invisible powers of Moab, I mean by those regarded as gods by the Moabites (for they committed idolatry and worshipped idols, as Scripture says, and were initiated into the cult of Belphegor, a Moabitish daemon, and committed - 152 - adultery with the women of Moab), Balaam in his prophecy appositely paints the picture of a complete reversal and change in days to come: "A star shall rise out of Jacob, and a man shall spring from Israel, and he shall crush the leaders of Moab." As if he had said, more plainly, that the daemons of Moab who once triumphed over Israel would suffer a crushing defeat on the birth of the subject (419) of the prophecy, and that when these were crushed, the sons of Seth, Edom and Esau, and the other nations, by whom, I think, are meant those that had long been the slaves of daemonic error, would be converted from their superstition to the service of Him that was foretold. For it says: "And Edom shall be an inheritance, and Esau his enemy shall be an inheritance." So it says that those who were once enemies of God and of Israel will become the inheritance of Him that was prophesied. For He it was to Whom it was said by God and His Father: "Desire of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance." And while they enter into the inheritance of the (b) saints, the reverse is prophesied for Israel—for it says: "Israel hath wrought in strength." And it wrought in strength the worst sin of all; wherefore He will be aroused by them, and will drive them out. Who is this but the Word of God that was foretold, Who also "destroyed him that was saved from the city"? And I think that this refers figuratively to Jerusalem, in which all that were saved perished, or perhaps to the whole constitution of the Jewish nation. I need not describe at greater length (c) how this was fulfilled, how, when our Saviour shone forth on mankind, the nations that before were idolaters were converted and became His portion, at the same time that the Jewish nation and their mother-city underwent unexampled sufferings. Thus, I will conclude what I have to say of the agreement of prophetic prediction with Gospel fulfilment. Let us now learn the reason why the star appeared. Now Moses says, that all the stars were set in the firmament by God "for signs and for seasons." But this was a strange and unusual star, not (d) one of the many known stars, but being new and fresh by its appearance here it portended a new luminary that should shine on all the Universe, the Christ of God, a great and a new Star, whose likeness the star that appeared - 153 - to the wise men symbolically shewed. For since in all the holy and inspired Scriptures the leading object of the meaning is to give mystic and divine instruction, while preserving as well the obvious meaning in its own sphere of historical facts, so the prediction before us was properly and literally fulfilled in the matter of the star that was prophesied to appear at our Saviour's Birth.¹

In the case of other remarkable and famous men we (420) know that strange stars have appeared, what some call comets, or meteors, or tails of fire, or similar phenomena that are seen in connection with great unusual events. But what event could be greater or more important for the whole Universe than the spiritual light coming to all (b) men through the Saviour's Advent, bringing to human souls the gift of holiness and true knowledge of God? Wherefore the herald star gave the great sign, telling in symbol that the Christ of God would shine as a great new light on all the world.

And the prophecy foretells a man as well as a star, for it says: "A star shall rise out of Jacob, and a man shall spring from Israel," naming first the heavenly light, the Word of God, and next the Humanity. And He is called, as I have shewn in my former books, in other places by the varying names of Rising, Light, and Sun of (c)  Righteousness. And here, by applying to Him the verb from "Rising," "a star shall rise out of Jacob," it shews His Diviner aspect, as "giving light to every man that cometh into the world"; while it shews the Humanity, by the suffering that comes to Him, where it foretells that He will fall to rise again, in words like what Isaiah says of Him: "And there shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to rule the Gentiles; in Him shall the Gentiles - 154 - trust." And we see how true it is that the light of our (d) Saviour, which rose from Jacob, that is from the Jews, has shone on all nations but Jacob, from whence it came forth.

And while this can be found in many prophecies, which say as it were to Christ Himself: "Behold, I have set thee for a light to the Gentiles, for a covenant of thy race," it is especially obvious in the words of Balaam, when he says: "A man shall come from his seed, and shall rule many nations." Whose seed but Israel's, as the context shews? And thus our Saviour, the Word, as the prophecy foretold, ruling over the nations threw down the invisible noxious powers which had governed them so long, the spirits of evil, and the band of daemons, called figuratively here the princes of Moab, Seth, Edom, and (421) Esau.

The words: "I will point to him, but not now, I bless him but he draws not near," which are obscure in the Septuagint, are more clearly rendered by Aquila: "I shall  see him, but not now; I expect him, but he is not near." And Symmachus more plainly still says: "I see him but not near." Balaam would speak thus of things revealed to him that would be accomplished a very long time after (b) his own days. And so at the conclusion of two thousand years after his prediction they were fulfilled in our Saviour's Coming among men.