Unleashing the Beast

M ORE S IGNS IN THE H EAVENS / 273

Josephus; Abarbanel, Eliazar and other historians affirm that Egyptian astronomers interpreted this sign as an indicator that a great man would be born among the Jews. Perhaps this is why Pharaoh placed heavier workloads on the Hebrews. What cosmic event happened between 3 and 2 B.C. that would have served as a sign of the birth of the King of the Jews? In both 3 B.C. and 2 B.C., there was a series of conjunctions that involved the planet Jupiter. In 3 B.C. Jupiter, the planet representing King David, was in conjunction with Regulus, the star of kingship, in the constellation Leo the lion, considered to represent the tribe of Judah. This conjunction in the lion would have served as a sign of the birth of a leader. The Book of Revelation gives the prophetic scene that unfolded at the birth of Christ, and tells us how Satan attempted to kill Christ after His birth: And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: and she being with child travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered (Revelation 12:1, 2). The scene is describing in graphic terms the astronomical activity at the time of Christ's birth. Mary, Christ's mother, was a virgin. The constellation Virgo represents a virgin. In Revelation 12, the sun appears to "clothe the woman." As the sun travels its elliptical trajectory through a year,