Bruce,

You mentioned some interesting things indeed, like the 1335 years, and also the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem.

The one thing that puzzles me, is about the planetary conjunction as a Bethlehem star.

30 years ago, Moody in Chicago, claimed that there had been some kind of celestial alignment / conjunction two millennia earlier.

The claim was that this had been the Bethlehem star, that the wise men saw.

However, a celestial alignment is very, very far above the surface of the earth.

Could that not just as easily have led them north to the Caucuses, or south to the Arabian peninsula, or east to India, rather than west to Bethlehem in Judea?

Stars move from east to west each night (even the north star moves slightly in a tiny circle around the north).

Some planets also move east to west in retrograde, but sometimes in prograde from west to east.

Certainly the nightly movement of objects in the sky was not different than it had been for a a couple thousand years before them.

Unless they observed and calculated that the movements of some planets were moving towards each other, and they headed out before the convergence.

Hoping to be, on the night of the full convergence, directly below it's point of perfect alignment?

i.e. too early would be too far east, or too late would be too far west.

However, using that, if their measurements were off a thousandth of a degree, they could be many miles off towards the north, south, east, or west.

Instruments that accurate were not available then.

We could consider that it happened just like it says:

Matthew 2:2 Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.

They saw a star while they were still in the east.

The wise men didn't say planets, and planets were known and worshipped long before that, and mentioned in II Kings 23:5

Matthew 2:9 When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.

The star then moved southward, i.e from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, which is not what the nightly stars or planets do.

But then it stopped moving and stood over the exact spot where Jesus was, which also is not what the nightly stars or planets do.

This unique star must not have been very far overhead, either.