A Biblical Perspective on the Origins of Astronomy
The Declaration of the Heavens - Pt. I
In my last post I introduced the topic of Biblical Astronomy, and set before us the task of determining whether the claims of a prophetic function can be linked to the stars, constellations and heavenly bodies in general.
In this, part one of our investigation, I want to begin by analysing the biblical basis and background of astronomy in general. In this post, I hope to answer the question; ‘What is the biblical basis for the origin of astronomy?’
God Created the Heavens
On the first page of our bibles we read of the creation of the world through the framework of the six day creation week, where God begins by creating three created spaces (heavens, earth, sea) and fills them with created inhabitants (sun, moon, stars/ birds, fish, and animals/humanity). [More on the literary structure and meaning of these creation days in another post.]
For our purposes here, we want to turn our attention to the fourth day, where God creates the inhabitants of the heavens:
And God said, “Let there be lights in the vaulted dome of heaven to separate day from night, and let them be as signs and for appointed times, and for days and years, and they shall be as lights in the vaulted dome of heaven to give light on the earth… And God placed them in the vaulted dome of heaven to give light on the earth and to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate light from darkness.”
(Gen. 1:14-15, 17-18)
On the surface, the role of the ‘lights’ of heaven is to order time – they are to separate day from night, and to order days and years. In this function they מָשַׁל ‘moshal’ ‘rule’ or govern the process of separating light and dark, just as God has done (cf. Gen. 1:4). Interestingly, this function is very similar to that of the role given to humanity “to rule, to subdue” (Gen 1:26-28). From this parallel, we could claim that the word מָשַׁל ‘moshal’ means more than just simply ‘governing’ in the sense of being put in charge of something, but also speaks of the idea of a divine decree and role of governance on behalf of God. A role and phenomena that is observable still today in the movements of the stars.
However, if we examine the third part of their role, ‘for signs and for appointed times’, we find a more spiritual importance for their ‘ordering’. The Hebrew אוֹת ‘oth’ means literally ‘sign, symbol or omen’ in this sense, referring to symbolic or ‘spiritual’ use as well as ‘secular use’. We see an explicit prophetic or spiritual meaning for אוֹת ‘oth’ in Gen. 4:15 [the ‘mark’ of Cain]; 9:12 [the rainbow]; 17:11 [circumcision]; Ex. 3:12; 4:8; 10:2 [the signs and judgments against Egypt]; Num. 16:38; Deut 6:8 [signs of God’s law for the Israelites]. All of these are physical symbols that point to a divine reality. Furthermore מוֹעֵד, ‘mosad’ often translated as ‘appointed times’ refers to ‘sacred seasons’ or the liturgical calendar.
From this brief examination, we can see that the governance of the heavenly bodies as instituted on the fourth day of creation has both a natural and symbolic/spiritual function. The heavenly bodies are instituted to order the flow of natural time, but they are also instituted to guide liturgical or sacramental time. The function as ‘signs of the times’ so to speak, ordering the sacred calendar as well as the secular calendar. (Of course, the distinction between sacred and secular was not apparent in the Hebrew worldview, but for our purposes, it is helpful to draw attention to the clearly spiritual purpose of this emblems in the heavens rather than simply a materialistic one.)
The stars then, are not simply flaming balls of gas orbiting at dizzying speeds in the void of space, (as we would define them today) but were rather viewed as heavenly regents and priests, ruling and ministering in the heavens, exercising the divine decree of sacred time and space, and ordering and participating in God’s sacred plan for his creation.
The Heavenly Liturgy
It is in this sense that the ancient’s came to associate the observable movements of the heavenly bodies with the ordering of divine time. They based their liturgical seasons, calendars, and holy days on this, and had specific clerical roles devoted to the measuring and understanding of these phenomena. For them, the stars were not just something to behold on a clear night, but were part of the tangible sacred architecture of the cosmos. Thus, all ancient temples were modelled on their example, a reality we can even observe in Scripture [again, more on this in another post];
He built his sanctuary like the high heavens,
like the earth, which he has founded from eternity.”
(Ps. 78:69)
Liturgical furniture such as the golden lampstands, the gleaming golden utensils, and the deep colours of the drapes and curtains within the temple all served to imitate the phenomena of the stars and planets in the heavens, a fact made explicit by early Jewish interpreters:
“the seven lamps signify the seven planets ; for so may their were springing out of the candlestick. And the twelve loaves that were upon the table signify the circle of the zodiac and the year.”
(Josephus War 5:217).
Thus we can conclude as Beale does that:
“[the furnishings of the temple] symbolised the planets and the heavens…and were equated with the ‘lights in the expanse of the heavens’ from Genesis 1:14-16”
(G.K. Beale The Temple and the Churches Mission, 46.)
Likewise, the liturgical function of the heavens was also observed in the ordering of the temple ordinances themselves. As E. Walter Maunder writes:
[the movements of the stars] played an important part in the calendar making of the ancients…in the sublime and ordered movements of the various heavenly bodies, the Hebrews recognized the ordinances of God.”
(Maunder, Astronomy of the Bible, 61-62.)
For the Israelites, the temple ordinances (religious rites) were not idly implemented, but rather served as meaningful images of the heavenly temple, through which the priests, and by extension the people, could participate in the heavenly worship around the throne of God.
The Zodiac, the Sons of Seth and Astronomy
With all this in mind, we can understand the central role of astrological reading and interpretation for all liturgical practice. As we have just read, Josephus himself makes the claim that the temple furnishing imitated ‘the zodiac’, a claim that may seem scandalous. “Isn’t the zodiac a pagan thing? How can it feature in God’s holy temple?” The answer simply put, is “no, the constellations and signs that came to be associated with the pagan zodiac were not, according to the Bible, a pagan invention, but rather a good feature of God’s creation, and a skill he, apparently, passed to humanity, the vice-regent of creation.
We read of God creating, naming and leading the constellations in multiple places:
“He counts the number of the stars;
he gives names to all of them.”
(Ps. 147:4)
“He is the one who alone stretches out the heavens
and who tramples on the waves of the sea.
He is the one who made the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and the constellations of the south.
He is the one who does great things beyond understanding
and marvellous things beyond number”
(Job 9:8-10)
Can you lead forth the southern constellations at their appointed time,
or can you lead the Bear with its children?
Do you know heaven’s statutes,
or can you establish their rule on the earth?
(Job 38:32–33)
“The one who made the Pleiades and Orion and who turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens day into night, the one who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth, Yahweh is his name!”
(Amos 5:8)
In fact, we see often in scripture the associated with heavenly signs and the actions of God in history:
“And he brought him [Abram] outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
(Gen. 15:5)
“From heaven the stars fought, from their courses they fought against Sisera…”
(Jdg. 5:20)
“And I will set signs in the heavens and on the earth…the sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.
(Joel 2:30-31)
And there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars…for the powers of the heavens will be shaken…And then they will see the Son of Man arriving in a cloud with power and great glory.
(Lk. 21:24-27)
Indeed, we even see clear prophetic and astrological readings associated with the birth of Jesus himself;
“Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star at its rising and have come to worship him.” And when King Herod heard it, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him, and after calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired from them where the Christ was to be born.”
(Matt. 2:1-4)
From these we must acknowledge the fact that the issue with astrology is not an issue of its existence full stop (we see here that God created it, and seems to even use it at times) but rather a question of right and proper use of it (as with many things in Scripture)
The ‘right and proper use’ of astrological observation is for observing God’s decreed sacred time, and for glorifying him in his creation. Recall our brief discussion of Gen 1:14-16. There we read that the heavenly host are given their role of governance by God, as an extension of his own sovereign rule over creation. Their ordering of time and seasons on behalf of God and thus it is not to them that we should ascribe glory and honour, but to God himself. As the Psalmist reminds us, ‘the heavens declare the glory of…’ who? Yahweh (Ps. 8:1-3). The sun moon and stars then do not order and appoint their own sacred time, nor do they declare their own glory, but rather point to their creator as the ultimate source of their purpose and for the purposes of all creation.
It is in light of this observation that we can understand the ancient Jewish tradition associating the origination of astrological reading and understanding as a skill developed and passed on by the righteous sons of Seth:
“Now Seth… was a virtuous man and he was himself of an excellent character. He left behind many children who imitated him and his virtue… They were the inventors of that particular sort of wisdom which is concerned with the heavenly bodies and their order.”
(Josephus, Ant. 1:68-70)
“[Enoch] was the first of humanity…who learned writing, instruction and wisdom and he wrote down in a book the signs of the heavens in accord with the fixed patterns of their months so that humanity would know the times of the years according to their fixed patterns.”
(Jubilees 4:17)
In both of these versions which attribute the origin of astronomy to Seth, and by extension, to Enoch, it is the extraordinary righteousness of the individual which is highlighted in relation to this skill. Why? Because in the biblical imagination, to observe and understand the movements of the heavenly bodies was a way to draw near to God and to comprehend his counsels.
In fact, Josephus even claims that the antediluvian patriarchs extraordinary long lives were attributed to their favour in God’s eyes, and for the purpose of their astronomical practices;
“those ancients were beloved of God and God afforded them a longer time of life on account of their virtue, and the good use they made of it in astronomical and geometrical discoveries, which would not have afforded the time of foretelling the periods of the stars unless they had lived six hundred years…”
(Josephus, Ant. 1:106)
As Rolleston notes, clearly with words of Psalm 19 in mind:
“Astronomy not only manifests the existence, but the unity, the omnipotence and omnipresence of the Creator…it is thus the ‘poetry of heaven… Then, as now the heaven-guided spirit in man sought to trace the glory of the Creator in his works…”
(Rolleston, Mazzaroth, 49.)
Likewise, the role of naming the stars and constellations serves as a logical expansion on Adam’s divine appointment to name all of God’s creation:
“Adam, divinely led to give names to what he saw, must have had such for the sun moon and stars, and probably for the planets whose movements would attract his notice…Thither his eyes would reverently and most habitually turn: the starry world on nigh would be, if not the first, the most absorbing object of his contemplation, and astronomy would naturally be, as tradition declares, the earliest study, the first science of mankind….the family of Seth (his descendants) thus would have devised, carried on and completed this great work, which remains as a memorial of their unchanged piety, their intellect, and the revelation they were aspiring to perpetuate.”
(Rolleston, Mazzaroth, 66.)
To comprehend the functions of the heavens for signs and seasons then, meant to relish in this so called ‘poetry of heaven’, and to participate in the heavenly liturgy to the glory of God. Thus, it is Seth, the father of the promised line, and Enoch, a man who “walked with God and was taken” (Gen 5:22-24) who are both the fountain head from which the original noble form of astronomy stems.
These men were privy to God’s plans and purposes, and related their understanding of the heavenly liturgy playing out in the heavens themselves in order to instruct humanity and lead them in righteousness.
Indeed, from the biblical perspective, it is only after the flood and after the pollution of the created order via the combined efforts of humanities sin and external spiritual forces, that the art of astrological observation devolves into the scorned practices of pagan astrology that are so reviled in the biblical perspectives.
But more on that next time.