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Christmas takes place on December 25th, a date that celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, leading Christians to reflect on the incarnation of divinity. The moment also reminds us of the Three Wise Men (Belchior, Gaspar and Baltazar), who needed to travel long distances with the “GPS” they had at the time to find and present the boy.
What was the GPS of the Three Kings? Discover how people guided themselves in the past. Image: Freepik
According to the biblical narrative, the Three Wise Men left the East in search of the newborn Jesus Christ. The goal was to worship him and give him gifts. As the Bible describes, the deity was born in Bethlehem, during the period when Herod was king of Israel.
With the birth of Jesus, the kings saw a star, the Star of Bethlehemwhich worked like the GPS of the Three Kings at the time, indicating the correct path to reach Jesus.
As the New Testament says, the Three Wise Men were enchanted by a beautiful, very bright star that had appeared in the sky. For them, it meant the announcement of a promised “good news”, the birth of a savior king. So they left the East towards Bethlehem.
Following the star, they spent days and traveled hundreds of kilometers across the desert on camels. Along the way, they met King Herod in Jerusalem, who asked them to find the newborn and return with precise information about where he was.
Herod stated that he would like to worship Jesus. However, in reality, the king was afraid of the birth of another king and wanted to kill the child.
However, through dreams, Belchior, Gaspar and Baltazar were alerted and did not return to warn him. The kings walked further, following the Star of Bethlehem, and found Jesus in the small city of Bethlehem, today’s West Bank. Thus, the star disappeared.
What were the gifts of the Three Wise Men?
As Matthew’s gospel says, the Three Wise Men arrived at Jesus’ birthplace and, when they saw his mother, Mary, they placed themselves at the newborn’s feet as a way of recognizing his divinity.
Then, they presented him with gold (symbolizing that Jesus was the awaited “King of the Jews”), myrrh (a type of oil that was used to anoint and embalm, and could be used in a possible death and burial) and incense (used to say that the deity was worthy of worship).
What was “GPS” like in the past?
In the past, it was used guidance through the stars. This was an early form of geographic orientation. For a long time travelers used the stars, Sol e Luaas references for your destinations. However, despite the success in the trajectory of the Three Kings, this “” was not as accurate as the modern one.
Orientation through the stars was widely used by rural people, such as navigators and fishermen, who had a great deal of knowledge regarding the general characteristics of the sky at night. For example, the orientation of the northern hemisphere occurs through the constellation North Star. As for the southern hemisphere, it is Southern Cross.
To use the Sun as an orientation, it was necessary to know the direction of its birth, taking as a reference that it is the east of the city, field or forest. So, just place the right arm towards the Sun and know that the west is in the direction of the left arm, opposing the Sun, the front part of the person represents the direction to the north and the South is at the back.
How does GPS currently work?
Nowadays, the GPS (Global Positioning System) works through a satellite, defining the geographic location, giving an accuracy of around 5 meters. The technology is used in various devices, such as cell phones and even military items.
The system is made up of 24 satellites that orbit around 20,000 kilometers from Earth. They, individually, circle the planet twice a day and send the necessary signal so that the receiving equipment on the ground can give the correct location.
Then, the receiver compares the information with the locations of two other satellites, allowing the identification of the device’s real geographic position by latitude and longitude. If a fourth satellite is included in the calculation, altitude information may also appear.
Satellites have an atomic clock that is responsible for emitting a signal with information regarding position in each period of time continuously. Thus, the location of an object is determined with almost exact precision. Therefore, GPS technology is very useful for directing routes, in addition to other functions, such as tracking items.
