Texts in Conversation
Aratus names the five planets as orbs that wander across the Zodiac, each following an irregular path unlike the fixed stars. Jude draws on this concept of divine wandering stars to criticize what he calls false teachers, destined for judgment.
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Aratus Phaenomena 454
Classical
But of quite a different class are those five other orbs, that intermingle with them and wheel wandering on every side of the twelve figures of the Zodiac. No longer with the others as they guide couldst thou mark where lies the path of those, since all pursue a shifty course, and long are the periods of their revolution and far distant lies the goal of their conjunction. When I come to them my daring fails, but mine be the power to tell of the orbits of the Fixed Stars and Signs in heaven.
Date: 300-250 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Jude 1:13
New Testament
12 These men are dangerous reefs at your love feasts, feasting without reverence, feeding only themselves. They are waterless clouds, carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit—twice dead, uprooted; 13 wild sea waves, spewing out the foam of their shame; wayward stars for whom the utter depths of eternal darkness have been reserved. 14 Now Enoch, the seventh in descent beginning with Adam, even prophesied of them, saying, “Look! The Lord is coming with thousands and thousands of his holy ones,
Tags:
Search:
Notes and References
... our word “planet” is derived from the Greek planētēs, meaning “wanderer.” In the Septuagint the word is only attested in Hosea 9:17 as a translation of the Hebrew nōdědîm, referring to those who “flee, escape, wander about.” In the New Testament (Jude 13), as with all other early Christian literature, planētēs is used only in conjunction with asteres, “star.” So, in the pre-Copernican cosmological systems, planets were viewed as wandering stars, whose heavenly paths were irregular. Incidentally, we will see in the coming chapters that the wandering nature of the planets is what became the most perplexing feature of the Aristotelian and Ptolemaic systems. ...
Greenwood, Kyle
Scripture and Cosmology: Reading the Bible between the Ancient World and Modern Science
(p. 92) InterVarsity Press, 2015
* 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.