Chronological timeline of texts tagged with The Phoenix
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The phoenix is a mythical bird in Greek tradition, closely associated with the sun and known for a long life that renews itself in a fixed cycle, most often every five hundred years. Greek and Roman writers describe its rebirth in two ways. In one, the phoenix decays on its nest of spices and a new bird grows from its body, beginning as a worm, and carries the remains to the altar of the sun at Heliopolis in Egypt. In the other, the phoenix burns itself on its nest and a new bird rises from the ashes. Rabbinic tradition identifies the phoenix with a bird in Job 29, apocalyptic texts such as 3 Baruch and 2 Enoch describe it as an escort of the sun, and Christian writers such as Clement of Rome and Tertullian refer to it as a sign of resurrection.
Note: Dates shown in this timeline are approximate and based on scholarly estimates.
Back to Tag5th Century B.C.E.
Job 29:18
Hebrew Bible
14 I put on righteousness and it clothed me; my just dealing was like a robe and a turban; 15 I was eyes for the blind and feet for the lame; 16 I was a father to the needy, and I investigated the case of the person I did not know; 17 I broke the fangs of the wicked, and made him drop his prey from his teeth. 18 “Then I thought, ‘I will die in my own home, my days as numerous as the grains of sand. 19 My roots reach the water, and the dew lies on my branches all night long. 20 My glory will always be fresh in me, and my bow ever new in my hand.’
1st Century B.C.E.
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.
30 B.C.E - 70 C.E.
2 Enoch 12:1
Pseudepigrapha
1 I looked and saw other flying elements of the sun, named Phoenixes and Chalkydri, marvelous and wonderful, with feet and tails shaped like a lion and a crocodile's head. Their appearance is tinged with purple, resembling a rainbow; they are nine hundred measures in size, with wings like those of angels, each having twelve. They attend and accompany the sun, carrying heat and dew, as commanded by God. 2 Thus, the sun revolves and travels, rising under the heaven, and its course continues under the earth, with the light of its rays shining unceasingly.
30 B.C.E - 70 C.E.
2 Enoch 15:2
Pseudepigrapha
1 Then the elements of the sun, called Phoenixes and Chalkydri, break into song. Therefore, every bird flutters with its wings, rejoicing at the giver of light, and they break into song at the command of the Lord. 2 The giver of light comes to give brightness to the whole world, and the morning guard takes shape, which is the rays of the sun, and the sun of the earth goes out, and receives its brightness to light up the whole face of the earth, and they showed me this calculation of the sun's going. 3 And the gates which it enters, these are the great gates of the calculation of the hours of the year; for this reason, the sun is a great creation, whose circuit lasts twenty-eight years, and begins again from the beginning.
100 C.E.
3 Baruch 6:2
Pseudepigrapha
2 and he showed me a chariot and four, under which burnt a fire, and in the chariot was sitting a man, wearing a crown of fire, (and) the chariot (was) drawn by forty angels. And behold a bird circling before the sun, about nine 3 cubits away. And I said to the angel, What is this bird? And he said to me, This is the 4 guardian of the earth. And I said, Lord, how is he the guardian of the earth? Teach me. And the angel said to me, This bird flies alongside of the sun, and expanding his wings receives its fiery 5 rays. For if he were not receiving them, the human race would not be preserved, nor any other 6 living creature. But God appointed this bird thereto. And he expanded his wings, and I saw on his right wing very large letters, as large as the space of a threshing-floor, the size of about four 7 thousand modii; and the letters were of gold. And the angel said to me, Read them. And I read 8 and they ran thus: Neither earth nor heaven bring me forth, but wings of fire bring me forth. And I said, Lord, what is this bird, and what is his name? And the angel said to me, His name is called 9 Phoenix. (And I said), And what does he eat? And he said to me, The manna of heaven and
100 C.E.
3 Baruch 6:4
Pseudepigrapha
1 And he took me and led me where the sun goes forth; 2 and he showed me a chariot and four, under which burnt a fire, and in the chariot was sitting a man, wearing a crown of fire, (and) the chariot (was) drawn by forty angels. And behold a bird circling before the sun, about nine 3 cubits away. And I said to the angel, What is this bird? And he said to me, This is the 4 guardian of the earth. And I said, Lord, how is he the guardian of the earth? Teach me. And the angel said to me, This bird flies alongside of the sun, and expanding his wings receives its fiery 5 rays. For if he were not receiving them, the human race would not be preserved, nor any other 6 living creature. But God appointed this bird thereto. And he expanded his wings, and I saw on his right wing very large letters, as large as the space of a threshing-floor, the size of about four 7 thousand modii; and the letters were of gold. And the angel said to me, Read them. And I read 8 and they ran thus: Neither earth nor heaven bring me forth, but wings of fire bring me forth. And I said, Lord, what is this bird, and what is his name? And the angel said to me, His name is called 9 Phoenix. (And I said), And what does he eat? And he said to me, The manna of heaven and 10 the dew of earth. And I said, Does the bird excrete? And he said to me, He excretes a worm, and the excrement of the worm is cinnamon, which kings and princes use. But wait and thou shalt
100 C.E.
3 Baruch 6:5
Pseudepigrapha
2 and he showed me a chariot and four, under which burnt a fire, and in the chariot was sitting a man, wearing a crown of fire, (and) the chariot (was) drawn by forty angels. And behold a bird circling before the sun, about nine 3 cubits away. And I said to the angel, What is this bird? And he said to me, This is the 4 guardian of the earth. And I said, Lord, how is he the guardian of the earth? Teach me. And the angel said to me, This bird flies alongside of the sun, and expanding his wings receives its fiery 5 rays. For if he were not receiving them, the human race would not be preserved, nor any other 6 living creature. But God appointed this bird thereto. And he expanded his wings, and I saw on his right wing very large letters, as large as the space of a threshing-floor, the size of about four
100 C.E.
3 Baruch 6:13
Pseudepigrapha
11 see the glory of God. And while he was conversing with me, there was as a thunder-clap, and the place was shaken on which we were standing. And I asked the angel, My Lord, what is this sound? And the angel said to me, Even now the angels are opening the three hundred and sixty-five gates 12 of heaven, and the light is being separated from the darkness. And a voice came which said, Light 13 giver, give to the world radiance. And when I heard the noise of the bird, I said, Lord, what is this 14 noise? And he said, This is the bird who awakens from slumber the cocks upon earth. For as men do through the mouth, so also does the cock signify to those in the world, in his own speech. For the sun is made ready by the angels, and the cock crows.
77 C.E.
He tells us that no person has ever seen this bird eat, that in Arabia it is looked upon as sacred to the sun, that it lives five hundred and forty years, that when it becomes old it builds a nest of cassia and sprigs of incense, which it fills with perfumes, and then lays its body down upon them to die; that from its bones and marrow there springs at first a sort of small worm, which in time changes into a little bird: that the first thing that it does is to perform the obsequies of its predecessor, and to carry the nest entire to the city of the Sun near Panchaia, and there deposit it upon the altar of that divinity.
90-100 C.E.
Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 25:1
Early Christian
1 Let us consider the marvelous sign which is seen in the regions of the east, that is, in the parts about Arabia. 2 There is a bird, which is named the phoenix. This, being the only one of its kind, lives for five hundred years; and when it has now reached the time of its dissolution that it should die, it makes for itself a coffin of frankincense and myrrh and the other spices, into which in the fullness of time it enters, and so it dies. 3 But, as the flesh rots, a certain worm is engendered, which is nurtured from the moisture of the dead creature and puts forth wings. Then, when it has grown strong, it takes up that coffin where are the bones of its parent, and carrying them journeys from the country of Arabia even to Egypt, to the place called the City of the Sun.
90-100 C.E.
Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 25:2
Early Christian
1 Let us consider the marvelous sign which is seen in the regions of the east, that is, in the parts about Arabia. 2 There is a bird, which is named the phoenix. This, being the only one of its kind, lives for five hundred years; and when it has now reached the time of its dissolution that it should die, it makes for itself a coffin of frankincense and myrrh and the other spices, into which in the fullness of time it enters, and so it dies. 3 But, as the flesh rots, a certain worm is engendered, which is nurtured from the moisture of the dead creature and puts forth wings. Then, when it has grown strong, it takes up that coffin where are the bones of its parent, and carrying them journeys from the country of Arabia even to Egypt, to the place called the City of the Sun. 4 and in the daytime in the sight of all, flying to the altar of the Sun, it lays them upon it; and this done, it sets forth to return. 5 So the priests examine the registers of the times, and they find that it has come when the five hundredth year is completed.
205-215 C.E.
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?
270-330 C.E.
On the Origin of the World 24:10
Nag Hammadi
Similarly, the three phoenixes ‹inside› Paradise: the first is deathless, the second lives for 1,000 years. Of the third it is written in the sacred Scripture that it is consumed. Similarly, as well, there are three baptisms: the first is spiritual, the second is with fire, the third is with water. Precisely as the phoenix symbolizes the angels, so is the case of the water hydri in Egypt, which symbolizes those who descend into the baptism of a true man. The two bulls in Egypt possess a symbolic meaning, namely, the sun and moon, which is a symbol of Sabaoth, on account of Sophia obtaining the universe from the day that she fashioned the sun and the moon, placing a seal on her heaven, until the age ends. And the worm born out of the phoenix is also symbolic of a human being, of which it is written, “the just man will blossom like a phoenix,” and the phoenix appears first alive, and dies, and rises again, functioning as a symbol of what will happen at the consummation of the age.
450-550 C.E.
Sanhedrin 108b
Rabbinic
With regard to the lion, a fever sustained it, since when it suffered from a fever, it did not need to eat; as Rav said: For no fewer than six days and no more than twelve days, fever sustains a person; he need not eat and is sustained from his own fats. Shem continued: With regard to the phoenix [avarshina], my father found it lying in its compartment on the side of the ark. He said to the bird: Do you not want food? The bird said to him: I saw that you were busy, and I said I would not trouble you by requesting food. Noah said to the bird: May it be God’s will that you shall not die, and through that bird the verse was fulfilled, as it is stated: “And I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the phoenix” (Job 29:18).
500 C.E.
Genesis Rabbah 19:4
Rabbinic
Rabbi Yehuda ben Rabbi Simon said: [The serpent said:] ‘Everything that was created after its counterpart dominates that counterpart. The heavens were created on the first day and the firmament on the second. Does it [the firmament] not hold them up? That is a rhetorical question. The firmament was created on the second day and the vegetation on the third – does it [the firmament] not supply water for it? Vegetation was created on the third day and the luminaries on the fourth – do they [the luminaries] not cause its [the earth’s] produce to grow? The luminaries were created on the fourth day and the birds on the fifth – the ziz is a very large bird and when it flies it obscures the orb of the sun. Man was created after everything in order to dominate everything. Hurry and eat [the fruit] now, before He creates additional worlds and they will dominate you.’
500 C.E.
Genesis Rabbah 19:5
Rabbinic
“Also [gam]” is an inclusive term; [as well as Adam,] she also fed the animals, the beasts, and the birds. All of them heeded her [and ate of the fruit] except for one bird that is called ḥol. That is what is written: “I will live many days, like the ḥol” (Job 29:18). The school of Rabbi Yanai says: It lives a thousand years, and at the end of a thousand years, fire emerges from its nest and burns it. An egg-bulk remains of it and it then grows limbs, and lives again. Rabbi Yudan ben Rabbi Shimon says: It lives a thousand years, and at the end of one thousand years, its body wastes away and its wings are shed. But an egg-bulk remains of it and it then grows limbs, and lives again.