The Astrological Myths of Zeitgeist
(click on the name to jump to the section on this page)
A. On Heaven or Earth
B. Misquotes
C. Precession of the “Ages”
D. Moses the Ram and Taurus of Gold?
E. Was Jesus a Pisces?
F. Jesus' Fish
G. The "Water Bearer"
H. End of the "Aion"?
ON HEAVEN OR EARTH?
Following the list of short and erroneous comparisons between Jesus and other popular religious and mythological figures; “Zeitgeist” turns to an astrological explanation as to why these commonalities “exist”. They assert that the entire life of Jesus is based on the motions and relationships of the stars in the heavens. However, this is nothing more than an assertion. The entirety of their argument rests upon a misconception regarding the date of Jesus’ birth and a horrible twisting of information in the Bible to prove their points.
The first of these two, the December 25th birthdays, we have already talked about. No where in the entirety of the Bible does it indicate that Jesus was born on December 25th. This tradition crept into the early church as pagan rites and customs mixed with the maturing faith. Thus, most of what “Zeitgeist” has to say regarding the “astrology” of Jesus is made null and void because it just doesn’t apply.
When reading a text one must let that text explain it self and not filter it through pre-existing beliefs and agendas.
The creators of this movie are clearly doing this as they attempt to turn the story of Jesus’ birth into movements of stars and planets. There is nothing in the stories about the birth or life of Jesus which would lead the reader to think they were anything other than actual events on earth. Those who see the stories as events in the heavens make symbolic what is plain in spite of the obvious textual not to. When reading a text one must let that text explain it self and not filter it through pre-existing beliefs and agendas.
For example, there is no indication in Matthew that the star which the wise men followed was Sirius as “Zeitgeist” claims. In fact, as we mentioned before, there is reason to doubt that it was actual a heavenly body at all. This is due to the way the star moved, north to south when stars travel only from east to west.
There is also no reason to believe that the wise men, the number of which the Bible never tells, mentioned by Matthew were stars being humanized to tell a story. Astrology is not at all a part of the Jewish faith and therefore should not be part of the Christian faith which a new tree from the same root.
Astrology is continually said to be inferior to the wisdom and power of Yehova (Isaiah 47:13, Daniel 1:20, 2:27-28, 4:7-8, 5:13-17). Because of this, one should not try to understand the stories of the Bible in the same way as the stories of the Greeks, which often related to the Zodiac and the stars of heaven.
An example of such a silly interpretation can be found in the efforts of the film makers to link the constellation of Virgo to the city of Bethlehem. They say that Virgo means “house of bread”, and then say that because Bethlehem means “house of bread” they are one and the same. This is absurdity. The city of Bethlehem that is mentioned in the gospel attributed to Matthew is also named numerous times in the Old Testament from Genesis to Micah (Genesis 35:19, 1 Samuel 17:15, Micah 5:2, etc.). The fact that it is not ‘a place in the sky’ is made painfully clear because it is said to be IN Judea. This is made even clearer by the fact that the wise men travelled to it and entered a house there. It was the city Joseph and Mary returned to so they could be counted in a census, and Herod is said to have killed all the babies there in an effort to end Jesus’ life. (Matthew 2, Luke 2:4, etc.) All the times Bethlehem is talked about in the New Testament record show that the only understanding the text permits is a literal one; that it is an actual place upon the face of the earth. Again, all the assertions made in the film are forced upon the text rather than supported by it.
Another example of how plain things are made overly symbolic is found in the idea that the 12 disciples were merely representations of the 12 zodiac; each symbolic of a constellation which follows the sun. This too is forced interpretation. There is references to the fathers (Mark 3:17, John 21:12, etc.) wives (Matthew 8:14), fears (John 20:19), exploits (all of Acts), etc of the twelve men. As with the city of Bethlehem, the twelve disciples are referred to and described in such a way throughout the New Testament, that a literal interpretation is all that could possibly be intended.
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MISQUOTES
Following the unfounded assertion that all the twelves throughout the Bible were merely mirrors of the Zodiac, and the obvious reference to the cross being a pagan symbol (the fact that the cross is a pagan symbol is obvious because it was the Romans, a pagan nation, who crucified Jesus) the film produces a grade A list of misquotes from the Bible.
So horribly did they twist the meanings of the verses and ignore the context, that anyone who has knowledge of the Bible can barely hold back laughter. They quote the words of Jesus to Nicodemus about how a mortal can become harmonized with God (John 3:1-7) in an effort to make a common Christian phrase seem like it is referring to the rising of the sun.
They quote the words of Jesus explaining that after his ascension into heaven he will return to take his follows to a place he made ready for them (Acts 1:1-11, John 14:1-4) in a way which makes it again sound like a common sunrise.
Then after a couple more horrible twisting of the obvious, like these first two, they quote the phrase “crown of thorns” from the closing scenes of Jesus’ life in a manner as to make it seem like it is intended to mean the rays of the sun! Please read Matthew 27:29, Mark 15:17 and John 19:2-5, and see how it is very illogical to take the “crown of thorns” to mean anything other than an actual “crown of thorns”.
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PRECESSION OF THE “AGES”
This level of disregard for context and heritage of the writings contained in the Bible is continued further as the movie attempts to prove that straight forward stories are really just cryptic symbols of a New Age , a new ere of the Zodiac.
To do this, we need to first understand what Age means when used in connection with the Zodiac. If you were to draw a circle and then place the constellations of the Zodiac around its edge like the numbers of a clock, an Age would be the time it took for the sun (the hour hand) to move out of one constellation’s area and into another. If 12 was Capricorn and 1 was Sagittarius, it would be the time it took the sun to travel from 12 to 1. The time it takes for this to happen is roughly 2,150 years, and due to the motion of the sun and earth through space it happens in a counter clockwise motion.
To clarify, we normally move from Capricorn in January, to Aquarius in Feb, to Pisces in March etc. However, the precession of the equinoxes (the common name for this cosmic motion) occurs in reverse because of the sun’s orbit. So we have moved from the Age of Aries, to the Age of Pisces (which we are in now), and will later move on to the Age of Aquarius (the exact date this will happen varies and is ultimately unimportant to this discussion).
Now that we understand the idea of Zodiac Ages we can explore the movies’ claim that the Bible contains references to them.
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MOSES THE RAM AND TAURUS OF GOLD?
The first effort they make to show the Bible mentioning a change from one age to another is the story of the golden calf found in Exodus chapter 32. Here they say that Moses is symbolic of the age of Aries the Ram. The calf is symbolic of the age of Taurus the Bull, and Moses destroying the golden calf is supposed to represent the movement out of the Age of Tarus and into the Age of Aries.
This is 100% speculation and unstudied opinion. There is absolutely NOTHING in the entirety of the Bible which would give anyone reason to think that Moses is to be seen as a representation of the Age of Aries the Ram.
As for the Golden Calf being a representation of Taurus the Bull, that is not only speculation; it is an overlooking of the information contained in the text from which the story is taken.
If you read, the people worship the calf saying, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." (Exodus 32:2) To them it wasn’t Taurus but rather an idol, most likely based off of an Egyptian bull god such as Apis or Mnewer, who they credited for bringing them out of bondage.
Furthermore, any attempt to make the “shofar”, or the horn made from ram’s horn that is used at the different times of civil and religious import (Exodus 19:16, Leviticus 25:9, II Samuel 6:15, I Kings 1:24, etc.), into another representation of Aries meets with the same fate as the attempt to relate Moses to Aries. There is not one shred of evidence anywhere, and no religious tradition in the entire Bible which would even remotely lead in that direction.
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WAS JESUS A PISCES?
This same type of unfounded and purely speculative reasoning is found again when the film asserts that Jesus was a symbol of the age of Pisces. Just as they plucked a reference to a bull out of the Old Testament and said it represented Taurus, so they pluck out references to fish in the New Testament to represent Pisces. There is no reason to even begin to think that the straight forward mentioning of fishermen in the writings we call Matthew, Mark, Luke and John should be a metaphor for Pisces.
Anyone who has a basic understanding of the events of Jesus’ day will know that in the towns, which Jesus frequented according to the New Testament, fishing was a main trade because those areas were near the Sea of Galilee. Therefore, when Jesus is said to bless two small fish (Matthew 14:17-19), and to call fishers (Matthew 4:18-19) as his disciples, there is no cryptic meaning behind it. Like the other examples, it is merely a literal account.
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JESUS' FISH
In our culture we have come to connect the fish symbol with the Christian religion, yet this is but another addition by the early church fathers and as such is a tradition. No where in any of the New Testament is the “Jesus fish” of today set up as a symbol for either Jesus or his teachings. What it is rather, is a common symbol reapplied and made popular by St.Clement, who made a neat acrostic out of it, well after the writing of the books we know as the gospels. For those who don’t know an acrostic is when the first letter of a few words is used to spell another like, F.E.A.R, “Face Everything and Recover” (credit to C.M.E.Slone for this particular acrostic).
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THE "WATER BEARER"
You would think that by now the movie would be running out of unfounded claims regarding the ages of the Zodiac, but they have saved the best for last because one brief mentioning of a man with water pots is supposed to be a hinting at the coming “Age of Aquarius”! The verse containing this reference is mentioned only twice in the all the New Testament (once in Mark 14:12-16 and recounted again in Luke 22:10-13) and is only a trivial fact. The account of Mark is recorded below:
| “On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus' disciples asked him, "Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?" So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, "Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. Say to the owner of the house he enters, 'The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?' He will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there." The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover. “ |
There is not one remote hint at anything even distantly relating to the Zodiac. Those who say this is, are merely trying to use the words and records of a well known and popular source, the Bible, to uphold their own views, without reason or honest study.
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END OF THE "AION"
The final error of this section is to be found in the assertion that Matthew 28:20 is the “major source” for the idea that the world is going to end.
The concept of the world ending due to the evil of man is a common thread which runs from Genesis(remember the story of the flood?) all the way through to Revelation. The second coming and the resurrection associated with it are one of the two greatest themes of the Bible; the other being the coming of a saviour for man’s sin.
The makers of Zeitgeist say that the “end of the world” mentioned in 28:20 is a mistranslation and should read “end of the age” (the Greek word “aion” being correctly translated as “age” and not “world”). With this correct reading, they then happily conclude that Jesus is not saying that he is going to be with his people till the end of the earth, but rather to the end of the “Piscean age” when we will move into the “Age of Aquarius”. Thus, the movie informs us that what millions of people believe to be “the end of time” is really just an astrological metaphor.
This concept however cannot be supported due to the high number of references to the end of the world throughout the rest of the Bible, and because when you compare Matthew 28:20 with other places in Matthew where “Aion” is being used, the end of the world is clearly being referred to.
For example, in Matthew 13, Jesus tells a parable of a land owner sowing seed in his garden and then an enemy fills his garden with weeds. The land owner lets the seeds grow until harvest lest he hurt the wheat. The wheat is then stored into the land owner’s barn and the weeds are burned. When explaining this parable Jesus said,
| "The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. "As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.” Matthew 13:37-43 NKJV. |
From this, it is clear that the “end of the age” is not some passive change from one position in heaven to another. Rather it is the total destruction of the wicked by the second coming of Jesus and the ending of the kingdoms of man.
That this was the intention of Jesus’ words is further supported by the information found in Matthew 24. I will not quote it here due to the length of it but the chapter begins with the disciples asking Jesus, “What shall be the sign of your coming, and the end of the world? [aion-age]” Matthew 24:3. After a long description of persecutions, natural disasters, heavenly signs etc., Jesus says that he will be seen coming in the clouds of heaven and that who ever is not ready will suffer the fate of those who wasn’t ready when the flood of Noah and the fires of Sodom came, death.
The horrible fate of those who haven’t taken the time to prepare their souls for facing Jesus is then compared to those who have, which who will be gathered into the mercies of God and rewarded for their faithfulness. Thus, this idea that there is some sort of “mistranslation” or “separation” between the “end of the age” and the “end of the world” of men is in error. Those who translated the word “world” in Matthew 28:20 did so correctly for they knew of the prior references where the “end of the age” could be referring to nothing except the end of the human kings and kingdoms upon the earth.
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Part Seven: More Claims of Copying
