Texts in Conversation
1 Enoch and Sirach similarly describe creation as steady and well ordered. They point to the stars and seasons to show how the world follows set patterns, and their shared language reflects a view that the heavens reveal a fixed design shaped by God.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Enoch 2:1
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
1 Observe everything that occurs in the heaven, how the celestial bodies do not alter their paths, and the lights in the sky, how they all rise and set orderly, each in its own season, without deviating from their assigned courses. 2 Look at the earth, and pay attention to the things that unfold from beginning to end, how consistent they are, how nothing on earth changes, how all of God’s works appear to you. 3 Observe the summer and winter, how the entire earth is filled with water, and how clouds, dew, and rain cover it.
Date: 300 BCE – 100 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Sirach 16:26
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
26 In the judgment of the Lord are his works from the beginning. From the making of them he determined their boundaries. 27 He arranged his works for all time, and their beginnings to their generations. They aren’t hungry or weary, and they don’t cease from their works. 28 No one pushes aside his neighbor. They will never disobey his word. 29 After this also the Lord looked at the earth and filled it with his blessings. 30 All manner of living things covered its surface, and they return into it.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Although some details in the verse are uncertain, due to textual variation, the major point in 1 Enoch 2:1 is clear. Heavenly bodies move with a regularity that accords with the divinely ordained structures of creation. God has set their paths through the heavens and has fixed the tuning of their movement along these paths: as obedient creatures, they do not change God's order and thus transgress God's commands. This assertion is demonstrated at great length in the astronomical and calendrical treatise(s) now summarized in chapters 72-82. The specific wording of this passage, moreover, is paralleled in the Enochic tradition in the later Book of Parables (41:5; 43:2; 69:20). The point is also made, in similar language in Sirach 16:26-28; Psalms of Solomon 18:10-12; 1Q34 - evidence that the present text reflects tradition ..."
George W. E. Nickelsburg, A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 1-36, 81-108 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001), 155–156.
* 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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