Texts in Conversation
The Greek Septuagint translation of Psalm 92 compares the righteous to a palm, a Greek word also meaning phoenix. The Christian theologian Tertullian interprets it as the mythical bird of Greek tradition that dies and rises again, to prove resurrection.
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
LXX Psalms 91:13
Septuagint
10 For look, your enemies will perish, and all those who are working lawlessness will be scattered abroad. 11 But my horn will be raised up as a unicorn, and my old age will be with good olive oil. 12 And my eyes looked on my enemies, and my ear will listen to those acting wickedly, who rise up against me. 13 The righteous will bloom like a palm tree; like the cedar that is in Lebanon he will increase. 14 Those planted in the house of the Lord will flourish in the courts of our God. 15 Then they will increase in old age with plenty, and they will be well off 16 to report that the Lord, my God, is righteous, and there is no injustice in him.
Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh 13
Early Christian
I refer to the bird which is peculiar to the East, famous for its singularity, marvelous from its posthumous life, which renews its life in a voluntary death; its dying day is its birthday, for on it it departs and returns; once more a phœnix where just now there was none; once more himself, but just now out of existence; another, yet the same. What can be more express and more significant for our subject; or to what other thing can such a phenomenon bear witness? God even in His own Scripture says: The righteous shall flourish like the phœnix; that is, shall flourish or revive, from death, from the grave — to teach you to believe that a bodily substance may be recovered even from the fire. Our Lord has declared that we are better than many sparrows: Matthew 10:33 well, if not better than many a phœnix too, it were no great thing. But must men die once for all, while birds in Arabia are sure of a resurrection?
Date: 205-215 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Tags:
Search:
Notes and References
“... The homonymy of the phoenix’ name and the word for palm (Gk phoinix, Lat phoenix), led several Latin authors to assume a relationship between bird and tree (Lactantius, De ave phoen., 69-70; Isidore of Sevilla, Etymol., XVII.7:1). Tertullian, De resurr. mort., XIII:3, read in Ps 91:13 [LXX]: “The righteous shall flourish like the phoenix” (also in Pseudo-Ambrose, De trin., 34 [PL 17, 545A]; On the Origin of the World, NHC II 122:28-29; Byzantine Physiologus, 10). ...”
Broek, R. van den
"Phoenix" in Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst (eds.) Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible
(p. 655) Brill / William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999
* 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.
User Comments
,