Was the star of Bethlehem a real astronomical event?

[CoxRox]

I'm curious as to how you thought that an astronomical event which contradicts the bible's dating ( flawed though that dating may be ) would in some way "support" the bible?

Being born is not a multi-year process. Matthew has Herod the Great alive ( he died in 4 BC ) and supposedly orders all male children under 2 killed...this takes us back to 6 BC.

Regarding dating the year of Herod's death:

''But modern scholarship has deepened our understanding of Josephus' manuscripts. A recent study was made of the earliest manuscripts of Josephus' writings held by the British Library in London, and the American Library of Congress. It revealed a surprise that allows us to target our mathematical telescopes better than could Kepler (10). It turns out that a copying error was a primary cause of the confusion about the date of Herod's death. A printer typesetting the manuscript of Josephus' Antiquities messed up in the year 1544. Every single Josephus manuscript in these libraries dating from before 1544 supports the inference that Herod passed in 1 BC. Strong recent scholarship confirms that date (11). Knowing this, and since Herod died shortly after Christ's birth, our investigation turns to the skies of 3 and 2 BC. ''

http://www.bethlehemstar.net/stage/stage.htm

Luke notes that it happened when Publius Sulpicius Quirinius became governor of Syria and ordered a census of the newly formed Roman prefecture of Judaea in 6 AD. He then has people who live in what was, at that precise moment in time, a separate country climb on a donkey and travel to Judaea to register for a census which did not concern them in the least. Figure the latest date for a birth could have been 7 AD. We have a 12-13 year period when the gospels, which YOU not I claim are inerrant for the birth of the hero of the story happened. Introducing a 3d date would, if proven, merely invalidate the other two gospel accounts. After all, if they got that wrong why should anyone take anything else they say seriously?

I've been looking into these interesting points that you raise. Here's a snippet from one article I found:

'....Taking all of this together, we have at least three censuses in the area of Judea - one in 8 B.C., one starting around (italics mine) 2 B.C. and one in 6 A.D. The only point that is really in question, then, is whether Luke was mistaken in ascribing this census to the time when Quirinius was in the role of Syrian Governor. Since Quirinius wasn't governor of the Syrian province until after Archelaus was deposed, critics claim Luke misidentified the census as the smaller one, which happened some 8-10 years after Herod died. Either Luke is wrong on his dating of Jesus' birth or Matthew made up the story of Herod the Great and the killing of the infants. Is this an accurate objection?.......'' The article then goes on to discuss that objection.

http://www.comereason.org/bibl_cntr/con1...z1bVcbXYZ5

I'm going to email Larson regarding this. I'll continue to check it out.