Texts in Conversation
Isaiah describes God calling every star by name like an army where not one goes missing. 1 Enoch reshapes that roll call so the named stars stand for the faithful on earth, turning praise of the Creator into a hidden count of God’s people.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Isaiah 40:26
Hebrew Bible
25 “To whom can you compare me? Whom do I resemble?” says the Holy One. 26 Look up at the sky! Who created all these heavenly lights? He is the one who leads out their ranks; he calls them all by name. Because of his absolute power and awesome strength, not one of them is missing. 27 Why do you say, Jacob, Why do you say, Israel, “The Lord is not aware of what is happening to me; my God is not concerned with my vindication”?
1 Enoch 43:1
Pseudepigrapha
1 And I saw other lightnings and the stars of heaven, and I saw how He called them all by their names and they listened to Him. 2 And I saw how they are weighed in a righteous balance according to their proportions of light: I observed the width of their spaces and the day of their appearing, and how their movements produce lightning, and their movements according to the number of the angels, and how they maintain faith with each other.
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Notes and References
... 43:1-2 Like 41:5-6, 43:1 emphasizes the obedience of the heavenly bodies. The author's interest in the stars in particular is evident from the similarity between verses 1bc, 2f and several interrelated biblical passages: He reckons the number of the stars, he gives (literally 'calls') to all of them their names. (Psalm 147:4) Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these; He who brings out their host by number, calling all of them by name. (Isaiah 40:26) ...
Nickelsburg, George W. E.
A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 37-82
(p. 146) 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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