When Constantine ordered the New Testament written in 300 AD, they sifted through a lot of ancient records and cherry picked the ones he approved with edits. (religion.blogs.cnn.com)
This is not the same Eshba'al who is referenced in 1 Chronicles 8:33, a son of King Saul, but that's the only other mention of the name in ancient records, both from the identical era. (christianitytoday.com)
Sometimes ancient records have been examined for a natural explanation of the moving star (in 7 B.C. there was a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, and in 12 B.C. a record of a comet). (religion-online.org)