Why did the Christian messiah fail to fulfill the messianic prophecies?

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Most Bible scholars believe that John the Apostle did write revelations.

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I think that is wrong, most Bible scholars do not believe that the Apostle wrote the Revelation. And the text does not go any further than claiming the name "John", which was not unique even then.

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Well before posting, I did check first. Most of the links I found were from religious sites, so I went with the opinion expressed in Wikipedia. Why do you think that is wrong?

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It's not even the opinion I saw on Wikipedia Book of RevelationI checked Early Christian Writings first, but from my memory it seems that Revelation nearly got left out of the canon because of doubts concerning authorship.

I think that it is quite clear that Larson assumes that the star story was at least based on actual events and went looking for events that seemed to match. Thus he found the conjunction of Jupiter with Regulus, but preferred the later conjunction with Venus.

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I want to see the dates more clearly too. When did Jupiter start passing Regulus, what was the date? How long did the three passes take? Did they lead right up to Rosh Hashana or overlap it or what?

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Certainly Larson should provide that information- I guess that the problem with a video of a live talk is that sort of detail tends to be omitted. There are good reasons for preferring written sources.

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I don't think he started out looking for astrological meanings...

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I think that he did and he should have - but he should have done a better job of it. An astrological element is all but explicit in Matthew.

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But the most striking one in any case is the fact that the Virgo image is exactly what John saw

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Except that it looks like it isn't. The "crowned with twelve stars" seems contrived for a start. And as I pointed out it doesn't look like the chapter is even mostly astrological symbolism so it may be coincidence.

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And its rising on Rosh Hashana adds MUCH weight to its connection with Israel. (Would John have known anything about the constellations: About the position of Virgo at Rosh Hashana?

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It's not something that would be obscure. However there is nothing in the text of Revelation 12 that seems to suggest a connection with Rosh Hashanah, so the suggestion that it is important is certainly questionable.

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Then I'd like to know how long that conjunction lasted. If it's what the Magi saw in Babylon how did they know it was about the birth of a Jewish king? Since the conjunction wouldn't last long enough to be their guide to Bethlehem, why doesn't Larson talk about its being the much less bright Jupiter alone they follow?

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The answer seems to be that they would not have known. This is why I point out that Larson's astrological interpretation seems to be his invention.

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I think it's very striking when the blood moon rises after the crucifixion at the feet of the constellation Virgo. And touching. I would like to know exactly what time it rose though.

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Apparently it would not have been very striking in Jerusalem, with the eclipse ending before it became visible. Larson thinks otherwise, and even assumes that it would have been impressive which I think is hardly true even if the last moments are just about visible on the horizon.

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That much is true, yes, but I doubt when he started out he had any more expectation than that he was looking for a bright star to identify Jesus' birth, which would have been event enough at that point.

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He might well have gone for a nova (or supernova) or a comet - others have. But a bright star alone obviously wouldn't work - he needed astrological significance.

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The first wasn't bright enough to be the star, isn't that the idea?

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I don't see why it would have to be especially bright.

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Unfortunately his website isn't more informative on those points. He does provide more information about dating the crucifixion which looks interesting but I haven't spent time reading it yet.

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Any such work is speculative (not least since the Jewish calendar still relied on observing the moon, and could vary from the published dates) - making the main clue, the Passover, insufficient to reduce the possibilities.

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Well, I don't think he knew that's what they were.

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He would have to be remarkably ignorant not to know he was dealing with astrology. As I said it is pretty clear in Matthew that the magi used astrology.

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The image itself of Virgo with the sun and moon as described is quite enough. I'm not going to continue this argument.

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It may be enough for you, but where the symbolism is so uncertain it isn't really much.

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Not following you

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The magi would have used the astrology of their time. Larson implicitly argues that they would interpret things his way - which is based on his own thinking. But in reality that is very, very unlikely.

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It's a question of timing. Maybe he got something wrong about that.

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Which is a count against him. He makes quite a big point of it in the video, but if it is wrong he really shouldn't.