Texts in Conversation
Isaiah says that in a future age the sun will shine seven times brighter. 1 Enoch repeats that sevenfold figure as ordinary astronomy that explains the difference between the sun’s light and the moon’s light.
Share:
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.
Date: 7th–5th centuries BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
1 Enoch 78:4
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
3 These are the two great lights, whose circumference is similar to that of the heaven, and the size of both is alike. 4 The sun contains seven portions of light which exceed those of the moon, distributed in definite measures until the seventh portion of the sun's light is depleted. 5 Both lights set and enter the portals of the west, orbit via the north, and emerge through the eastern portals facing the heavens.
Date: 300 BCE – 100 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Search:
Notes and References
... 2. The verse in the Astronomical Book: Judging from the history of exegesis elsewhere (see below), our writer uses Isaiah 30:26 to clarify a potential problem in Genesis 1:14-19. The language of the Isaianic passage is reflected in several places in the Astronomical Book; we should examine them before turning to the exegetical issue. 1 Enoch 72:37: “And thus it [= the sun] rises and sets; it neither decreases, nor rests, but runs day and night in (its) chariot. And its light is seven times brighter than that of the moon, but in size the two are equal.” Here we find the first declaration in the Astronomical Book that the two great luminaries are of the same size but the sun is distinguished from the moon by its far greater brightness. ...
James C. VanderKam, “Scripture in the Astronomical Book of Enoch,” in Things Revealed: Studies in Early Jewish and Christian Literature in Honor of Michael E. Stone, ed. Esther G. Chazon, David Satran, and Ruth A. Clements, JSJSup 89 (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 98–99.
* 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.
Your Feedback:
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.
User Comments
,