Texts in Conversation
Isaiah 30 describes the distant future when the moonlight matches the sun and sun shines seven times brighter. 1 Enoch interprets the increased brightness as literal astronomy, describing the moon shining at one-seventh the sun’s natural brightness.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Isaiah 30:26
Hebrew Bible
25 On every high mountain and every high hill there will be streams flowing with water, at the time of great slaughter when the fortified towers collapse. 26 The light of the full moon will be like the sun’s glare, and the sun’s glare will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, when the Lord binds up his people’s fractured bones and heals their severe wound. 27 Look, the name of the Lord comes from a distant place in raging anger and awesome splendor. He speaks angrily, and his word is like destructive fire.
1 Enoch 73:3
Pseudepigrapha
2 Her circumference matches that of the heavens, and her chariot, driven by the wind, receives light in a defined measure. 3 Her rise and set change each month, and her days mirror those of the sun. When fully illuminated, her light reaches one-seventh the brightness of the sun. 4 She rises this way, first appearing in the east on the thirtieth morning, becoming visible alongside the sun at the portal where the sun rises, marking the first phase of the moon on the thirtieth day.
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Notes and References
... (literally, 'great') light and the moon the 'lesser' (literally, 'small') light. The solution proposed in this verse explains that they are both 'great lights' in size, but differ in brightness. The degree of difference is drawn from Isaiah 30:26, where the light of the sun during the days of creation (the 'seven days') is described as being seven times that of the moon. 73:1. the smaller light named the moon Echoing the designation of the moon in Genesis 1:16. 73:3. and its days [are] as the days of the sun That is, the lunar month, like the solar month, is thirty days. ...
Feldman, Louis H.
Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture
(p. 1403) Jewish Publication Society, 2013
* 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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