s should be regarded as signs from heaven, tokens of Divine wrath
towards some, and of the interposition of Divine providence in favour of
others. As Seneca well remarked: 'There is no man so dull, so obtuse, so
turned to earthly things, who does not direct all the powers of his mind
towards things Divine when some novel phenomenon appears in the heavens.
While all follows its usual course up yonder, familiarity robs the
spectacle of its grandeur. For so is man made. However wonderful may be
what he sees day after day, he looks on it with indifference; while
matters of very little importance attract and interest him if they
depart from the accustomed order. The host of heavenly constellations
beneath the vault of heaven, whose beauty they adorn, attract no
attention; but if any unusual appearance be noticed among them, at once
all eyes are turned heavenwards. The sun is only looked on with
interest when he is undergoing eclipse. Men observe the moon only under
like conditions.... So thoroughly is it a part of our nature to admire
the new rather than the great. The same is true of comets. When one of
these fiery bodies of unusual form appears, every one is eager to know
what it means; men forget other objects to inquire about the new
arrival; they know not whether to wonder or to tremble; for many spread
fear on all sides, drawing from the phenomenon most grave prognostics.'

There is no direct reference to comets in the Bible, either in the Old
Testament or the New. It is possible that some of the signs from heaven
recorded in the Bible pages were either comets or meteors, and that even
where in some places an angel or messenger from God is said to have
appeared and delivered a message, what really happened was that some
remarkable phenomenon in the heavens was interpreted in a particular
manner by the priests, and the interpretation afterwards described as
the message of an angel. The image of the 'flaming sword which turned
every way' may have been derived from a comet; but we can form no safe
conclusion about this, any more than we can upon the question whether
the 'horror of great darkness' which fell upon Abraham (Genesis xv. 12)
when the sun was going down, was caused by an eclipse;[38] or whether
the going back of the shadow upon the dial of Ahaz was caused by a mock
sun. The star seen by the wise men from the east may have been a comet,
since the word translated 'star' signifies any bright object seen in the
heav