The Witness of the Stars. E. W. Bullinger

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СКАЧАТЬ | n | unto their ends (regress):

      | j | and there is nothing hid from his heat (i.e., from him){10}

      Surely there is something more referred to here than a mere wonder excited by the works of the Creator! When we read the whole passage and mark its structure, and note the words employed, we are emphatically told that the heavens contain a revelation from God; they prophesy, they show knowledge, they tell of God’s glory, and set forth His purposes and counsels.

      It is a remarkable fact that it is in the Book of Job, which is generally allowed to be the oldest book in the Bible,{11} if not in the world, that we have references to this Stellar Revelation. This would be at least 2,000 years before Christ. In that book the signs of the Zodiac and the names of several stars and constellations are mentioned, as being ancient and well-known.

      In Isa. xl. 26 (R.V.) we read:—

      “Lift up your eyes on high,

      And see who hath created these,

      That bringeth out their host by number:

      He calleth them all by name;

      By the greatness of His might,

      And for that He is strong in power,

      Not one is lacking.”

      We have the same evidence in Psalm cxlvii. 4. (R.V.)

      “He telleth the number of the stars;

      He giveth them all their names.”

      Here is a distinct and Divine declaration that the great Creator both numbered as well as named the stars of Heaven.

      The question is, Has he revealed any of these names? Have any of them been handed down to us?

      The answer is Yes; and that in the Bible itself we have the names (so ancient that their meaning is a little obscure) of Ash (עָשׁ, a name still connected with the Great Bear), Cesil (כְּסִיל), and Cimah (כִּימָה).

      They occur in Job ix. 9: “Which maketh Arcturus (R.V. the Bear), Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south.” (Marg., Heb., Ash, Cesil, and Cimah.)

      Job xxxviii. 31, 32: “Canst thou bind the sweet influences (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 СКАЧАТЬ