LITMIR.BIZ

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(R.V. cluster) of the Pleiades (marg., the seven stars, Heb. Cimah), or loose the bands of Orion (marg. Heb. Cesil)? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth (marg., the twelve signs. R.V., ‘the twelve signs’: and marg., the signs of the Zodiac) in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons (R.V., the Bear with her train; and marg., Heb., sons).”{12}

      Isa. xiii. 10: ... “The stars of heaven and the constellations thereof.” ...

      Amos v. 8: “Seek him that maketh the seven stars (R.V., the Pleiades) and Orion.”

      Then we have the term “Mazzaroth,” Job xxxviii. 32, and “Mazzaloth,” 2 Kings xxiii. 5. The former in both versions is referred to the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac, while the latter is rendered “planets,” and in margin, the twelve signs or constellations.

      Others are referred to by name. The sign of “Gemini,” or the Twins, is given as the name of a ship: Acts xxviii. 11, Διόσκουροι, (i.e. Castor & Pollux).

      Most commentators agree that the constellation of “Draco,” or the Dragon (between the Great and Little Bear), is referred to in Job xxvi. 13: “By His Spirit He hath garnished the heavens; His hand hath formed the crooked serpent (R.V. swift. Marg. fleeing or gliding. See Is. xxvii. 1; xliii. 14).” This word “garnished” is peculiar. The R.V. puts in the margin, beauty. In Ps. xvi. 6, it is rendered goodly. “I have a goodly heritage.” In Dan. iv. 2, it is rendered, “I thought it good to show,” referring to “the signs and wonders” with which God had visited Nebuchadnezzar. It appears from this that God “thought it good to show” by these signs written in the heavens the wonders of His purposes and counsels, and it was by His Spirit that He made it known; it was His hand that coiled (חוּל) the crooked serpent among the stars of heaven.

      Thus we see that the Scriptures are not silent as to the great antiquity of the signs and constellations.

      If we turn to history and tradition, we are at once met with the fact that the Twelve Signs are the same, both as to the meaning of their names and as to their order in all the ancient nations of the world. The Chinese, Chaldean, and Egyptian records go back to more than 2,000 years B.C. Indeed, the Zodiacs in the Temples of Denderah and Esnéh, in Egypt, are doubtless copies of Zodiacs still more ancient, which, from internal evidence, must be placed nearly 4,000 B.C., when the summer solstice was in Leo.

      Josephus hands down to us what he gives as the traditions of his own nation, corroborated by his reference to eight ancient Gentile authorities, whose works are lost. He says that they all assert that “God gave the antediluvians such long life that they might perfect those things which they had invented in astronomy.” Cassini commences his History of Astronomy by saying “It is impossible to doubt that astronomy was invented from the beginning of the world; history, profane as well as sacred, testifies to this truth.” Nouet, a French astronomer, infers that the Egyptian Astronomy must have arisen 5,400 B.C.!

      Ancient Persian and Arabian traditions ascribe its invention to Adam, Seth, and Enoch. Josephus asserts that it originated in the family of Seth; and he says that the children of Seth, and especially Adam, Seth, and Enoch, that their revelation might not be lost as to the two coming judgments of Water and Fire, made two pillars (one of brick, the other of stone), describing the whole of the predictions of the stars upon them, and in case the brick pillar should be destroyed by the flood, the stone would preserve the revelation (Book i. chs. 1-3).

      This is what is doubtless meant by Gen. xi. 4, “And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven.” The words “may reach” are in italics. There is nothing in the verse which relates to the height of this tower. It merely says וְרֹאשׁוֹ בַשָּׁמַיִם, and his top with the heavens, i.e. with the pictures and the stars, just as we find them in the ancient temples of Denderah and Esnéh in Egypt. This tower, with its planisphere and pictures of the signs and constellations, was to be erected like those temples were afterwards, in order to preserve the revelation, “lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”

      This is corroborated by Lieut.-Gen. Chesney, well known for his learned researches and excavations among the ruins of Babylon, who, after describing his various discoveries, says,{13} “About five miles S.W. of Hillah, the most remarkable of all the ruins, the Birs Nimroud of the Arabs, rises to a height of 153 feet above the plain from a base covering a square of 400 feet, or almost four acres. It was constructed of kiln-dried bricks in seven stages to correspond with the planets to which they were dedicated: the lowermost black, the colour of Saturn; the next orange, for Jupiter; the third red, for Mars; and so on.{14} These stages were surmounted by a lofty tower on the summit of which, we are told, were the signs of the Zodiac and other astronomical figures; thus having (as it should have been translated) a representation of the heavens, instead of ‘a top which reached unto heaven.’”

      This Biblical evidence carries us at once right back to the Flood, or about 2,500 years B.C.

      This tower or temple, or both, was also called “The Seven Spheres,” according to some; and “The Seven Lights,” according to others. It is thus clear that the popular idea of its height and purpose must be abandoned, and its astronomical reference to revelation must be admitted. The tower was an attempt to preserve and hand down the antediluvian traditions; their sin was in keeping together instead of scattering themselves over the earth.

      Another important statement is made by Dr. Budge, of the British Museum.{15} He says, “It must never be forgotten that the Babylonians were a nation of star-gazers, and that they kept a body of men to do nothing else but report eclipses, appearances of the moon, sun-spots, etc., etc.”

      “Astronomy, mixed with astrology, occupied a large number of tablets in the Babylonian libraries, and Isaiah, xlvii. 13, refers to this when he says to Babylon, ‘Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now thy astrologers (marg. viewers of the heavens), the star-gazers, the monthly prognosticators stand up.’ The largest astrological work of the Babylonians contained seventy tablets, and was compiled by the command of Sargon of Agade thirty-eight hundred years before Christ! It was called the ‘Illumination of Bel.’”

      “Their observations were made in towers called ‘ziggurats’” (p. 106).

      “They built observatories in all the great cities, and reports like the above [which Dr. Budge gives in full] were regularly sent to the King” (p. 110).

      “They were able to calculate eclipses, and had long lists of them.” “They found out that the sun was spotted, and they knew of comets.” “They were the inventors of the Zodiac” (?). There are fragments of two (ancient Babylonian) planispheres in the British Museum with figures and calculations inscribed upon them. “The months were called after the signs of the Zodiac” (p. 109).

      We may form some idea of what this “representation of the heavens” was from the fifth “Creation Tablet,” now in the British Museum. It reads as follows:—

      “Anu [the Creator] made excellent the mansions [i.e. the celestial houses] of the great gods [twelve] in number [i.e. the twelve signs or mansions of the sun].

      The stars he placed in them. The lumasi [i.e. groups of stars or figures] he fixed.

      He arranged the year according to the bounds [i.e. the twelve signs] which he defined.

      For each of the twelve months three rows of stars [i.e. constellations] he fixed.

      From the day when the year issues forth unto the close, he marked the mansions [i.e. the Zodiacal Signs] of the wandering stars [i.e. planets] to know their courses that they might not err or deflect at all.”

      Coming down to less ancient records: EUDOXOS, an astronomer of Cnidus (403 to 350 B.C.), wrote a work on Astronomy which he called Phainomena. ANTIGONUS GONATAS, King of Macedonia (273-239 B.C.), requested the Poet ARATUS to put the work of EUDOXUS into the form of a poem, which he did about the year 270 B.C. ARATUS called his work Diosemeia (the Divine Signs). He was a native of Tarsus, and it is interesting for us to note that his poem was known to, and, indeed, must have been read by, the Apostle Paul, for he quotes it in his address at Athens on Mars’

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