greatest importance, although it seems to have been hitherto overlooked. Since the

appearance of Münter's well known tractate on the Star of the Magi,  51 writers have

endeavoured to show, that Jewish expectancy of a Messiah was connected with a peculiar

sidereal conjunction, such as that which occurred two years before the birth of our Lord,52

and this on the ground of a quotation from the well-known Jewish commentator

Abarbanel (or rather Abrabanel ).53 In his Commentary on Daniel that Rabbi laid it down,

that the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation Pisces betokened not only

the most important events, but referred especially to Israel (for which he gives five

mystic reasons). He further argues that, as that conjunction had taken place three years

before the birth of Moses, which heralded the first deliverance of Israel, so it would also

precede the birth of the Messiah, and the final deliverance of Israel. But the argument

fails, not only because Abarbanel's calculations are inconclusive and even erroneous,54

but because it is manifestly unfair to infer the state of Jewish belief at the time of Christ

from a haphazard astrological conceit of a Rabbi of the fifteenth century. There is,

however, testimony which seems to us not only reliable, but embodies most ancient

Jewish tradition. It is contained in one of the smaller Midrashim , of which a collection

has lately been published.55 On account of its importance, one quotation at least from it

should be made in full. The so-called Messiah-Haggadah (Aggadoth Mashiach) opens as

follows: 'A star shall come out of Jacob. There is a Boraita in the name of the Rabbis:

The heptad in which the Son of David cometh - in the first year, there will not be

sufficient nourishment; in the second year the arrows of famine are launched; in the third,

a great famine; in the fourth, neither famine nor plenty; in the fifth, great abundance, and

the Star shall shine forth from the East, and this is the Star of the Messiah. And it will

shine from the East for fifteen days, and if it be prolonged, it will be for the good of

Israel; in the sixth, sayings (voices), and announcements (hearings); in the seventh, wars,

and at the close of the seventh the Messiah is to be expected.' A similar statement occurs

at the close of a collection of three Midrashim - respectively entitled, 'The Book of

Elijah,' 'Chapters about the Messiah,' and 'The Mysteries of R. Simon, the son of Jochai'  56

- where we read that a Star in the East was to appear two years before the birth of the

Messiah. The statement is almost equally remarkable, whether it represents a tradition

previous to the birth of Jesus, or originated after that event. But two years before the birth

of Christ, which, as we have calculated, took place in December 749 a.u.c., or 5 before

the Christian era, brings us to the year 747 a.u.c., or 7 before Christ, in which such a Star

should appear in the East.57