John Byl On The Great Christ Comet

A recent post at his blog is about Colin Nicholl's book on the star of Bethlehem.

Another Response To Colin Nicholl

Sometime yesterday, apparently, he updated his response to me at his web site. The response is mostly the same, but some parts have been changed. He's added a section to the opening expressing a desire to be gracious, and some of the language has been changed so as to be less critical of me. That's good. He interacts with some of what I said in my response to his article. He occasionally says that he's interacting with that response, and a note at the end of his article mentions that the article was updated on November 29. But most of the changes he's made aren't identified as such, and somebody reading his article for the first time might come away with the impression that nothing significant has been changed. As I recall, he doesn't ever explain that my blog response to him was a response to the first edition of his article. People who have been reading both sides of our exchange should know that, but others might not.

I want to respond to what I think are the most significant changes in his update. There are some changes he's made on topics that are significant, but which I think Steve Hays and I have already covered adequately. What I'll do below is address a few points I don't think we said enough about previously.

An Exchange With Colin Nicholl

I recently reviewed Colin Nicholl's book on the star of Bethlehem. He's written a response. The references in parentheses that follow are page numbers in Nicholl's response to me, unless otherwise noted.

The Positive Attention The Great Christ Comet Is Getting

Christianity Today recently interviewed Colin Nicholl about his new book on the star of Bethlehem, which argues that the star was a comet. And Justin Taylor just put up a positive post on the book. Earlier in the year, it got some positive coverage from Tim Challies, Tim Keller, and others. The book's endorsements are highly impressive. You can read them in Justin Taylor's post linked above. I expect the book to get a lot of coverage during the upcoming Christmas season.

But I have some problems with Nicholl's argument. You can read my review of his book at Amazon here.

Was The Star Of Bethlehem A Comet?

Colin Nicholl recently published a book arguing that the star of Bethlehem was a comet. The book has gotten some impressive endorsements from several astronomers and New Testament scholars, as well as some scholars in other fields. It's also getting a lot of attention on the web. Here's a review I just posted at Amazon.