The influence of Daniel on the astronomy of the Star of Bethlehem: The Bible Over Brews Interview

My new novel, Daniel: Exile in Babylon, is basically Harry Potter goes to magician school and meets God. Think about it — Daniel was deported at sixteen, selected from Judah’s royal family, and placed in a Babylonian school of wise men where they taught astrology, divination, sorcery, and magic. He was there for three years learning forbidden practices. How does a young man of God survive that without compromising? You can’t just jump over that question. So I decided this first volume would be about those three years of training.

I gave Daniel’s three brothers real personalities because the Bible doesn’t tell us anything about them beyond the fiery furnace. Mishael is a jock — he’s the muscle of the group who’s been struggling as a scribe because he’s more athletic than scholarly. Hananiah is autistic, and not only does that create real difficulties for him in their culture, but his autism actually becomes a blessing from God that solves problems normal people never could. Azariah is fiercely protective of Hananiah but carries his own proud condescension toward commoners. They’re all from the royal class, and they all have to overcome their elitist mentalities. Aren’t we all elitists in our hearts? If we had the power, if we had the money, we’d be just like them.

Here’s what people don’t realize about the Magi who found Jesus — they were from the school of Daniel. Daniel became chief of all the wise men of Babylon and he was there for seventy years. He wrote Scripture about Messiah. So five hundred years later, these Magi in the Parthian Empire, somehow still influenced by Daniel, are following a star to find the Messiah. But where did that astronomical knowledge come from? It’s not in Daniel’s prophecies. So I did the research, and I’m setting up in this novel where that information might have originated — through Daniel’s own brothers in the School of the Magi. Using modern software, we can pinpoint exactly where the stars were thousands of years ago, and there are actual astronomical facts behind this. It’s a speculative retelling, but it makes sense with real data.

This Daniel trilogy is going to be the connecting point between all my series — the Chronicles of the Nephilim, the Chronicles of the Watchers, and the Chronicles of the Apocalypse. Daniel is that transition from the Old Testament stories of Watchers and giants into the Messianic story that connects to Revelation. And I’ll say this — by the second and third novels, it will become controversial, and it’s going to blow people’s minds. But don’t wait for the whole series. This first novel is a complete story with a beginning, middle, and end. I incorporate Jeremiah, the Battle of Carchemish, the fall of Jerusalem, the spiritual princes of nations from Daniel 10 — and the fallen Watchers are back, masquerading as the gods of Babylon. People are going to love this.

A great interview. You can watch or listen to it here.