Texts in Conversation
Genesis notably refers to the moon as the lesser of two lights but does not name the moon as the word is also the name of a deity. 1 Enoch echoes that indirect language but then names the moon, making the connection that Genesis deliberately left out.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 1:16
Hebrew Bible
15 and let them serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” It was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to rule over the day and the lesser light to rule over the night. He made the stars also. 17 God placed the lights in the expanse of the sky to shine on the earth, 18 to preside over the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good.
1 Enoch 73:1
Pseudepigrapha
1 After this, I observed another law related to the smaller luminary, the Moon. 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.
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Notes and References
... The chapter fits in a sequence ('After this') and belongs, like chapter 72, in the literary category of a report about what Enoch (still unnamed) saw while he was with Uriel. The name of the great angel does not appear in this chapter, but it recurs in 74:1, which also has to do with the moon. The moon is designated the smaller light, following Genesis 1:16 (where the word 'moon' is not found), thus distinguishing it from the greater light, the sun. For the term 'law' (te'zaz), see on 72:2 above. ...
Nickelsburg, George W. E.
1 Enoch 2: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 37-82
(p. 430) Fortress Press, 2012
* 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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