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Pseudo-Philo and Rabbinic tradition in Genesis Rabbah describe Abraham being lifted above the solid firmament to view the stars below, following ancient Near Eastern cosmology where the stars are attached to a solid dome over the earth.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Pseudo Philo Biblical Antiquities 18:5
Classical
4 In the night God said to him, “Who are the men who have come to you?” Balaam said, “Why, Lord, do you test the race of man? They cannot bear it, for you knew, more than they, all that was in the world before you founded it. Now enlighten your servant whether it is right that I go with them.” 5 God said to him, “Was it not concerning this people that I spoke to Abraham in a vision, saying, ‘Your offspring will be as the stars of heaven, when I raised him up above the firmament and showed him all the orderings of the stars, and required of him his son for a burnt offering’? He brought him to be laid on the altar, but I restored him to his father. And because he did not resist, his offering was acceptable in my sight, and for the blood of him I chose this people. Then I said to the angels who work subtly, ‘Did I not say of him, “To Abraham I will reveal all that I do”?’
Genesis Rabbah 44:12
Aggadah
Rabbinic
them, and He said to him: So will your offspring be” (Genesis 15:5). “He took him outside” – Rabbi Yehoshua of Sikhnin in the name of Rabbi Levi: Did He take him outside the world, that the verse should say: “He took him outside [haḥutza]”? Rather, he showed him the streets of the heavens, just as it says: “While He had not yet made earth and the outer ranges [ḥutzot]” (Proverbs 8:26). Rabbi Yehuda said in the name of Rabbi Yoḥanan: He took him up above the dome of the heavens. That is what He said to him: “Look [habet] now to the heavens” – [the expression] habata refers only to looking from above to below. The Rabbis say: [God told him:] ‘You are a prophet, not an astrologer,’ as it is stated: “Now, restore the man's wife, as he is a prophet” (Genesis 20:7). In the days of Jeremiah, Israel sought to adopt this mindset, but the Holy One blessed be He did not allow them to do so. That is what is written: “So said the Lord: Do not learn the way of the nations, and from
Date: 500 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Genesis Rabbah (44:12) also interprets the reference to YHWH bringing Abram 'outside' in an overtly cosmological manner, in a way that appears both to presuppose and to censure his use of astrology outright (Such an interpretation of the lifting above the firmament is, in fact, represented in the so-called Midrash Aggadah of Solomon Buber (based on a Mediaeval manuscript from Aleppo), which explicitly says (ad loc.) that although most humans are "under their constellation" (bënê ädäm tahat mazzäläm) which 'therefore judges them' (lëpikäk hammazzäl dän ötäm), Abra(ha)m is "above the dome of the firmament, in which the constellations are" (lëmalá mikktppat häräqta sehammazzäl säm), and therefore, presumably, exempt from astrological influence) ..."
Wikander, Ola
"Go Out from Your Sign": Rashi to Genesis 15:5 as a Reference to Astrological Primary Direction - Its Background in Rabbinic Literature and Parallels in Abraham bar Hiyya
(pp. 1-5) Old Testament Essays Vol.33, No. 3, 2020
* 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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