The Astronomy of the Bible Part 12

It is to our shame that even to-day, in spite of all our enlightenment and scientific advances, astrology still has a hold upon mult.i.tudes.

Astrological almanacs and treatises are sold by the tens of thousands, and astrological superst.i.tions are still current. "The star of the G.o.d Chiun" is not indeed openly worshipped; but Saturn is still looked upon as the planet bringing such diseases as "toothache, agues, and all that proceeds from cold, consumption, the spleen particularly, and the bones, rheumatic gouts, jaundice, dropsy, and all complaints arising from fear, apoplexies, etc."; and charms made of Saturn's metal, lead, are still worn upon Saturn's finger, in the belief that these will ward off the threatened evil; a tradition of the time when by so doing the wearers would have proclaimed themselves votaries of the G.o.d, and therefore under his protection.

Astrology is inevitably linked with heathenism, and both shut up spirit and mind against the knowledge of G.o.d Himself, which is religion; and against the knowledge of His works, which is science. And though a man may be religious without being scientific, or scientific without being religious, religion and science alike both rest on one and the same basis--the belief in "One G.o.d, Maker of heaven and earth."

That belief was the reason why Israel of old, so far as it was faithful to it, was free from the superst.i.tions of astrology.

"It is no small honour for this nation to have been wise enough to see the inanity of this and all other forms of divination. . . . Of what other ancient civilized nation could as much be said?"[145:1]

FOOTNOTES:

[136:1] R. A. Proctor, _The Great Pyramid_, pp. 274-276.

[139:1] G. V. Schiaparelli, _Astronomy in the Old Testament_, p. 137.

[145:1] G. V. Schiaparelli, _Astronomy in the Old Testament_, p. 52.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By permission of the Autotype Co._

_74, New Oxford Street, London, W.C._

ST. PAUL PREACHING AT ATHENS (_by Raphael_).

"As certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also His offspring."]

BOOK II

THE CONSTELLATIONS

CHAPTER I

THE ORIGIN OF THE CONSTELLATIONS

The age of Cla.s.sical astronomy began with the labours of Eudoxus and others, about four centuries before the Christian Era, but there was an Earlier astronomy whose chief feature was the arrangement of the stars into constellations.

The best known of all such arrangements is that sometimes called the "Greek Sphere," because those constellations have been preserved to us by Greek astronomers and poets. The earliest complete catalogue of the stars, as thus arranged, that has come down to us was compiled by Claudius Ptolemy, the astronomer of Alexandria, and completed 137 A.D.

In this catalogue, each star is described by its place in the supposed figure of the constellation, whilst its celestial lat.i.tude and longitude are added, so that we can see with considerable exactness how the astronomers of that time imagined the star figures. The earliest complete description of the constellations, apart from the places of the individual stars, is given in the poem of Aratus of Soli--_The Phenomena_, published about 270 B.C.

Were these constellations known to the Hebrews of old? We can answer this question without hesitation in the case of St. Paul. For in his sermon to the Athenians on Mars' Hill, he quotes from the opening verses of this constellation poem of Aratus:--

"G.o.d that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us: for in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also His offspring."

The poem of Aratus begins thus:--

"To G.o.d above we dedicate our song; To leave Him unadored, we never dare; For He is present in each busy throng, In every solemn gathering He is there.

The sea is His; and His each crowded port; In every place our need of Him we feel; FOR WE HIS OFFSPRING ARE."

Aratus, like St. Paul himself, was a native of Cilicia, and had been educated at Athens. His poem on the constellations came, in the opinion of the Greeks, next in honour to the poems of Homer, so that St. Paul's quotation from it appealed to his hearers with special force.

The constellations of Ptolemy's catalogue are forty-eight in number.

Those of Aratus correspond to them in almost every particular, but one or two minor differences may be marked. According to Ptolemy, the constellations are divided into three sets:--twenty-one northern, twelve in the zodiac, and fifteen southern.

The northern constellations are--to use the names by which they are now familiar to us--1, _Ursa Minor_, the Little Bear; 2, _Ursa Major_, the Great Bear; 3, _Draco_, the Dragon; 4, _Cepheus_, the King; 5, _Bootes_, the Herdsman; 6, _Corona Borealis_, the Northern Crown; 7, _Hercules_, the Kneeler; 8, _Lyra_, the Lyre or Swooping Eagle; 9, _Cygnus_, the Bird; 10, _Ca.s.siopeia_, the Throned Queen, or the Lady in the Chair; 11, _Perseus_; 12, _Auriga_, the Holder of the Reins; 13, _Ophiuchus_, the Serpent-holder; 14, _Serpens_, the Serpent; 15, _Sagitta_, the Arrow; 16, _Aquila_, the Soaring Eagle; 17, _Delphinus_, the Dolphin; 18, _Equuleus_, the Horse's Head; 19, _Pegasus_, the Winged Horse; 20, _Andromeda_, the Chained Woman; 21, _Triangulum_, the Triangle.

The zodiacal constellations are: 1, _Aries_, the Ram; 2, _Taurus_, the Bull; 3, _Gemini_, the Twins; 4, _Cancer_, the Crab; 5, _Leo_, the Lion; 6, _Virgo_, the Virgin; 7, _Libra_, the Scales,--also called the Claws, that is of the Scorpion; 8, _Scorpio_, the Scorpion; 9, _Sagittarius_, the Archer; 10, _Capricornus_, the Sea-goat, _i. e._ Goat-fish; 11, _Aquarius_, the Water-pourer; 12, _Pisces_, the Fishes.

The southern constellations are: 1, _Cetus_, the Sea-Monster; 2, _Orion_, the Giant; 3, _Erida.n.u.s_, the River; 4, _Lepus_, the Hare; 5, _Canis Major_, the Great Dog; 6, _Canis Minor_, the Little Dog; 7, _Argo_, the Ship and Rock; 8, _Hydra_, the Water-snake; 9, _Crater_, the Cup; 10, _Corvus_, the Raven; 11, _Centaurus_, the Centaur; 12, _Lupus_, the Beast; 13, _Ara_, the Altar; 14, _Corona Australis_, the Southern Crown; 15, _Piscis Australis_, the Southern Fish.

Aratus, living four hundred years earlier than Ptolemy, differs only from him in that he reckons the cl.u.s.ter of the Pleiades--counted by Ptolemy in Taurus--as a separate constellation, but he has no constellation of _Equuleus_. The total number of constellations was thus still forty-eight. Aratus further describes the Southern Crown, but gives it no name; and in the constellation of the Little Dog he only mentions one star, _Procyon_, the Dog's Forerunner. He also mentions that the two Bears were also known as two Wagons or Chariots.

Were these constellations, so familiar to us to-day, known before the time of Aratus, and if so, by whom were they devised, and when and where?

They were certainly known before the time of Aratus, for his poem was confessedly a versification of an account of them written by Eudoxus more than a hundred years previous. At a yet earlier date, Panyasis, uncle to the great historian Herodotus, incidentally discusses the name of one of the constellations, which must therefore have been known to him. Earlier still, Hesiod, in the second book of his _Works and Days_, refers to several:--

"Orion and the Dog, each other nigh, Together mounted to the midnight sky, When in the rosy morn Arcturus shines, Then pluck the cl.u.s.ters from the parent vines.

Next in the round do not to plough forget When the Seven Virgins and Orion set."

Much the same constellations are referred to by Homer. Thus, in the fifth book of the _Odyssey_,--

"And now, rejoicing in the prosperous gales, With beating heart Ulysses spreads his sails: Placed at the helm he sate, and marked the skies, Nor closed in sleep his ever-watchful eyes.

There view'd the Pleiads and the Northern Team, And great Orion's more refulgent beam, To which around the axle of the sky The Bear, revolving, points his golden eye."

Thus it is clear that several of the constellations were perfectly familiar to the Greeks a thousand years before the Christian era; that is to say, about the time of Solomon.

We have other evidence that the constellations were known in early times. We often find on Greek coins, a bull, a ram, or a lion represented; these may well be references to some of the signs of the zodiac, but offer no conclusive evidence. But several of the constellation figures are very unusual in form; thus the Sea-goat has the head and fore-legs of a goat, but the hinder part of a fish; and the Archer has the head and shoulders of a man, but the body and legs of a horse. Pegasus, the horse with wings, not only shows this unnatural combination, but the constellation figure only gives part of the animal--the head, neck, wings, breast, and fore-legs. Now some of these characteristic figures are found on quite early Greek coins, and yet earlier on what are known as "boundary stones" from Babylonia. These are little square pillars, covered with inscriptions and sculptures, and record for the most part the gift, transfer, or sale of land. They are dated according to the year of the reigning king, so that a clear idea can be formed as to their age. A great many symbols, which appear to be astronomical, occur upon them; amongst these such very distinguishing shapes as the Archer, Sea-goat, and Scorpion (_see_ p. 318). So that, just as we know from Homer and Hesiod that the princ.i.p.al constellations were known of old by the same names as those by which we know them to-day, we learn from Babylonian boundary stones that they were then known as having the same forms as we now ascribe to them. The date of the earliest boundary stones of the kind in our possession would show that the Babylonians knew of our constellations as far back as the twelfth century B.C., that is to say, whilst Israel was under the Judges.

We have direct evidence thus far back as to the existence of the constellations. But they are older than this, so much older that tradition as well as direct historical evidence fails us. The only earlier evidence open to us is that of the constellations themselves.

A modern celestial globe is covered over with figures from pole to pole, but the majority of these are of quite recent origin and belong to the Modern period of astronomy. They have been framed since the invention of the telescope, and since the progress of geographical discovery brought men to know the southern skies. If these modern constellations are cleared off, and only those of Aratus and Ptolemy suffered to remain, it becomes at once evident that the ancient astronomers were not acquainted with the entire heavens. For there is a large s.p.a.ce in the south, left free from all the old constellations, and no explanation, why it should have been so left free, is so simple and satisfactory as the obvious one, that the ancient astronomers did not map out the stars in that region because they never saw them; those stars never rose above their horizon.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE ANCIENT CONSTELLATIONS SOUTH OF THE ECLIPTIC.]

Thus at the present time the heavens for an observer in England are naturally divided into three parts, as shown in the accompanying diagram. In the north, round the pole-star are a number of constellations that never set; they wheel unceasingly around the pole.

On every fine night we can see the Great Bear, the Little Bear, the Dragon, Cepheus and Ca.s.siopeia. But the stars in the larger portion of the sky have their risings and settings, and the seasons in which they are visible or are withdrawn from sight. Thus we see Orion and the Pleiades and Sirius in the winter, not in the summer, but the Scorpion and Sagittarius in the summer. Similarly there is a third portion of the heavens which never comes within our range. We never see the Southern Cross, and hardly any star in the great constellation of the Ship, though these are very familiar to New Zealanders.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CELESTIAL SPHERE.