Texts in Conversation
The Testament of Naphtali and the Psalms of Solomon contrast the unchanging order of nature with humans who disobey the Torah. The obedience of the sun, moon, and stars highlights stability, while the Gentiles’ rejection of God is intentional disorder.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Testament of Naphtali 3:2
Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs
Pseudepigrapha, Testaments
1 So do not be eager to corrupt your deeds through greed or to deceive your souls with empty words; for if you keep silent with a pure heart, you will understand how to hold fast to the will of God and to cast away the will of Beliar. 2 The sun, the moon, and the stars do not change their order; so you too must not change the law of God by the disorder of your deeds. 3 The Gentiles went astray and abandoned the Lord; they changed their order and obeyed sticks and stones, the spirits of dishonesty. 4 But you must not be like that, my children. Recognize in the sky, the earth, the sea, and all created things the Lord who made everything, so that you do not become like Sodom, which changed the order of nature.
Date: 100 BCE – 100 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Psalms of Solomon 18:10
Pseudepigrapha, Wisdom and Poetry
8 so that he may guide (every) man in the works of righteousness by the fear of God, so that he may strengthen them all in the Lord’s presence, 9 A good generation (living) in the fear of God in the days of mercy. Selah. 10 Our God is great and glorious, living in the highest heavens. (It is He) who has placed the lights (of heaven) in (their) courses for determining seasons from year to year, and they have not turned aside from the way which He appointed for them. 11 In the fear of God (they pursue) their path every day, From the day God created them and forevermore. 12 And they have not strayed since the day He created them. Since ancient generations they have not withdrawn from their path, unless God commanded them (so to do) by the command of His servants.
Date: 65–30 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Elsewhere in the Old Testament, lawfulness is attributed to the courses of the sun, moon, and stars, the ebb and flow of the tides, the alternation of seasons, and even to meteorological phenomena like the wind, rain, and lightning ... The stress here on nature’s obedience to God’s word was intended as a contrast to the foolishness of humans who disregard God’s (moral) laws, as the context makes abundantly clear (Sirach 16; 17). The contrast between the obedience of the luminaries and the rebelliousness of humans was made even more explicit in an early segment of 1 Enoch, and it reappeared in the Testament of Naphtali, the Psalms of Solomon, and the Dead Sea Scrolls ..."
Christopher B. Kaiser, “Early Christian Belief in Creation and the Beliefs Sustaining the Modern Scientific Endeavor,” in The Blackwell Companion to Science and Christianity, ed. J. B. Stump and Alan G. Padgett (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), 3–13.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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