"... Astral deities were not an unfamiliar phenomenon for the ancient Israelites. A number of references in the Hebrew Bible indicate that Yahweh is Lord of the sun, moon and stars. The Babylonian creation epic – the Enuma Elish – describes that Marduk was the one who set the heavenly bodies in order and divided the constellations of the zodiac and months of the year among the great gods. The Babylonians recorded the positions of the sun, the moon and the planets Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, Saturn and Mars to the date of a birth. The constellations became the objects of a religious cult. The term 'mazzalot' appears only in 2 Kings 23:5 in the Hebrew Bible, referring to prohibited astral cults. The Masoretic Text furnishes scant information on specific constellations. 'Once the threat of idolatry had faded away' the zodiacal constellations were widely promoted within the Judaic culture. The zodiac was set into the background of rabbinical literature. Zodiac symbols are portrayed on the mosaic floors of several synagogues of the Roman and Byzantine periods. On the mosaic floor of the sixth century Beth Alpha synagogue – in Israel's Jezreel Valley – the Greek solar god Helios rides his four-horse chariot. Around him is the light of the moon and the night sky is sprinkled with stars. This, and other zodiacs on synagogue floors, 'illustrate an ancient Israelite tradition of retaining elements of pagan sun worship in their own worship'. The identification of Yahweh with the sun is supported in a number of biblical passages. (Passages such as Deuteronomy 33:2 'The Lord came from Sinai and dawned from Seir upon us; he shone forth from Mount Paran'; Psalm 80:3 'Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved') The epithet "Lord of Hosts" could intimate that Yahweh was in command of all the stars, and therefore also associated with the sun ..."