ASTRONOMY*

Science dealing with the phenomena outside the earth’s atmosphere but especially concerned with the observable arrangements, motions, and characteristics of the heavenly bodies. The word “astronomy” is based on two Greek words meaning “the law of the stars.”

Astronomy is by no means a modern science. Human beings have always been preoccupied with the heavens. The concern of the earliest civilizations with the universe appears to have been mainly astrological, but intellectual curiosity and the need for navigational orientation were certainly additional factors.

The Bible provides some interesting insights about astronomy. According to Genesis 1:14-19 the sun and moon, along with the stars, have the function of giving light on the earth, determining the seasons, and functioning as “signs.” The word “season” may denote festal seasons as well as the annual seasons. The Hebrew calendar was a lunar-solar calendar similar to that of the Babylonians. Hebrew festal seasons were based on the phases of the moon. The function of the heavenly bodies as signs seems to relate to their delineation of the heavens, permitting human beings on earth to orient themselves, navigate, etc.

Although the observed occurrence of an eclipse is never mentioned in the Bible, such a phenomenon is probably behind the numerous references to the darkening of the sun and moon in certain apocalyptic passages (Jl 2:31; Am 8:9; Mt 24:29).

A number of constellations are cited in the OT. It is difficult to determine with certainty, however, which constellations are intended by particular Hebrew words. The Hebrew word translated “Pleiades” (in many versions) means “cluster” or “heap.” It is reasonable to suppose that the term applies to the most prominent cluster of stars in the heavens, the Pleiades. That cluster, within the constellation Taurus, is alluded to in Job 9:9; 38:31; and Amos 5:8.

A Hebrew word possibly related to the word “fool” is frequently understood to be the constellation Orion. The connection between that constellation and the word “fool” is unknown. Other constellations are noted as “the constellations of the southern sky” and the “the constellation of the Bear” (Jb 9:9; 38:32, nlt). The Bear is known to most North Americans as the Big Dipper; it can be seen in the northern sky.

The stars are often referred to in Scripture. Their vast number was used as an analogy in God’s promise to Abraham (Gn 15:5). The apostle Paul referred to the varying magnitudes of the stars (1 Cor 15:41). The writer of Jude used the concept of wandering stars to describe teachers in the early church who were propounding false doctrine (Jude 1:13). The metaphor is thought by some to be based on the observable movement of the stars around the polestar. It is the fixed polestar, not the stars apparently moving in paths around it, that provides the reference point for navigation. A false teacher, like the apparently moving stars, would be an unreliable guide. It seems better, however, to understand Jude’s metaphor as referring to the planets. The study of astronomy by that time had advanced to the point where the regular apparent movements of the stars around the polestar and the position of constellations and star clusters were all well known. It is unlikely that all stars but the polestar were considered wandering stars. Planets, on the other hand, were regarded by ancient observers as traveling in erratic paths quite different from the fixed rotation of stars around the polestar. Some commentators think wandering stars referred to comets.