The word for star was aster or astor which can mean a heavenly event. That opens up many possibilities.
Standing - Earth moves faster, object (planet) seems to go backward. In between, it stops or stands.
Rising - with the Sun
The star they saw in the East stood and rose before them --
The event they calculated or saw back in the East involved the "s" pattern a planet can make, and it involved
something rising with the Sun (maybe Venus). The Moon did pass in front of Jupiter but that could not be "seen".
They could calculate these things a year or two (or more) in advance. So the astrological chart for April 17, 6 BC,
must have been impressive to the top scientists in the world at the time, who were astrologers.
Standing - Earth moves faster, object (planet) seems to go backward. In between, it stops or stands.
Rising - with the Sun
The star they saw in the East stood and rose before them --
The event they calculated or saw back in the East involved the "s" pattern a planet can make, and it involved
something rising with the Sun (maybe Venus). The Moon did pass in front of Jupiter but that could not be "seen".
They could calculate these things a year or two (or more) in advance. So the astrological chart for April 17, 6 BC,
must have been impressive to the top scientists in the world at the time, who were astrologers.