Texts in Conversation
The philosopher Cicero describes the heavens as nine spheres, the seven planetary ones beneath the fixed stars turning the opposite way. Jude draws on this idea of planets as wandering stars when he calls the false teachers wayward stars.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Cicero Dream of Scipio 6.17
Somnium Scipionis
Classical
See! the universe is linked together in nine circles or rather spheres; one of which is that of the heavens, the outermost of all, which embraces all the other spheres, the supreme deity, which keeps in and holds together all the others; and to this are attached those everlasting orbits of the stars. Beneath this there lie seven, which turn backwards with a counter revolution to the heavens; and of these spheres that star holds one, which men on earth call Saturn's star. Next is that bright radiance, rich in hope and healing for the sons of men, which is called Jove's star; then one fiery red and dreaded by the world, which you call Mars; next lower down the sun holds nearly the middle region, the leader, chief and ruler of the other lights, the mind and ordering spirit of the universe, of such magnitude that he illumines the whole and fills it with his light. With him Venus and Mercury keep pace as satellites in their successive spheres; and in the lowest zone of all the moon revolves lighted up by the rays of the sun. Now below these there is nothing more but what is mortal and transient except those souls which the bounty of the Gods has given to the sons of men; above the moon all is eternal.
Date: 54-51 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,
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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.
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