|
Preface
| Table of Contents
| Chapter 1
The Witness of the Stars
E. W. Bullinger
Introduction
For more than two thousand five hundred
years the world was without a written revelation from God. The question
is, Did God leave Himself without a witness? The question is answered very
positively by the written Word that He did not. In Romans 1:19 it is declared
that, "that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath
showed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation
of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are
made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse."
But how was God known? How were His "invisible things," i.e., His plans,
His purposes, and His counsels, known since the creation of the world?
We are told by the Holy Spirit in Romans 10:18. Having stated in v. 17
that "Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word (the thing spoken,
sayings) of God," He asks, "But I say, Have they not heard? Yes, verily."
And we may ask, How have they heard? The answer follows--"Their sound went
into all the earth and their words (their teaching, message, instruction)
unto the ends of the world." What words? What instruction? Whose message?
Whose teaching? There is only one answer, and that is, THE HEAVENS! This
is settled by the fact that the passage is quoted from Psalm 19, [one]
part of which is occupied with the Revelation of God written in the
Heavens, and the part with the Revelation of God written in the Word.
This is the simple explanation of this
beautiful Psalm. This is why its two subjects are brought together. It
has often perplexed many why there should be that abrupt departure in verse
7--"The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul." The fact is,
there is nothing abrupt in it, and it is no departure. It is simply the
transition to the second of the two great Revelations which are thus placed
in juxtaposition. The first is the Revelation of the Creator, El,
in His works, while the second is the Revelation of the Covenant
Jehovah in His Word. And it is noteworthy that while in the first
half of the Psalm, El is named only once, in the latter half Jehovah
is named seven times, the last being threefold (Jehovah, Rock, and
Redeemer), concluding the Psalm.
Let us then turn to Psalm 19, and note
first--
The Structure* of the Psalm as a whole.
A. 1-4. The Heavens.
B. 4-6. "In them" the Sun.
A. 7-10. The Scriptures.
B. 11-14. "In them" Thy Servant.
* For what is meant
by "Structure," see A Key to the Psalms, by the late Rev. Thos.
Boys, edited by the present author.
In the Key to the Psalms, p. 17, it
is pointed out that the terms employed in A and B are astronomical,
* while in A and B they are literary Thus the two parts are significantly
connected and united.
* Vis., in A
(vv 7,8),--
"Converting," from
to return, as the sun in the heavens.
"Testimony," from to
repeat, hence, a witness, spoken of the sun in Psalm 89:37.
"Sure," faithful,
as the sun (Psa 89:37).
"Enlightening," from to
give light, as the sun (Gen 1:15,17,18; Isa 60:19; Eze 32:7).
In B (vv 11-13),--
"Warned," from to
make light, hence, to teach, admonish.
"Keeping," from to keep,
observe, as the heavens (Psa 130:6; Isa 21:11). Or as the heavenly
bodies observe God's ordinances.
"Errors," from to wander,
as the planets.
"Keep back," to hold
back, restrain.
"Have dominion over," from
to rule. Spoken of the sun and moon in Genesis 1:18. "The sun to
rule the day," &c. (Psa 136:8,9).
Ewald and others imagine that this Psalm is
made up of two fragments of separate Psalms composed at different periods
and brought together by a later editor!
But this is disproved not only by what
has been said concerning the structure of the Psalm as a whole, and the
interlacing of the astronomical and the literary terms in the two parts,
but it is also shown by more minute details.
Each half consists of two portions which
correspond the one to the other, A answering to A, and B to B.
Moreover, each half, as well as each corresponding member, consists of
the same number of lines; those in the first half being, by the caesura,
short, while those int he last half are long (or double).
A. 1-4. Eight lines
B. 4-6. Six lines = 14 lines
A. 7-10. Eight lines
B. 11-14. Six lines = 14 lines.
If we confine ourselves to the first half
of the Psalm * (A and B, verses 1-6), with which we are now alone concerned,
we see a still more minute proof of Divine order and perfection.
The Structure of A and B.
A&B. C. 1. The heavens.
D. 2. Their testimony: incessant. (Pos.)
E. 3. Their words inaudible. (Neg.)
D. 4. Their testimony: universal. (Pos.)
C. 4-6. The heavens.
* The other half
of the Psalm is just as perfectly arranged. For example, there are six
words used (vv 7-9) to describe the fulness of the Word of God, and they
are thus placed, alternately:
F. Two feminine singulars. (Law and Testimony.)
G. One masculine plural. (Statutes.)
F. Two feminine singulars. (Commandment and Fear.)
G. One masculine plural. (Judgments).
Here we have an introversion, in which
the extremes (C and C) are occupied with the heavens; while
the means (D, E and D) are occupied with their testimony.
The following is the full expansion of
the above, with original emendations which preserve the order of
the Hebrew words and thus indicate the nature of the structure:
C. a. The heavens
b. are telling (1)
c. the glory (2) of God:
c. and the work of his hands
b. is setting forth (3)
a. the firmament.
D. d. Day after day (4)
e. uttereth (5) speech,
d. And night after night
e. sheweth knowledge.
E. f. There is no speech (what is articulate)
g. and there are no words; (what is audible)
g. and without being audible, (what is audible).
f. is their voice (what is articulate).
D. h. Into all the earth (as created)
i. is their line (6) gone forth;
h. And into the ends of the world (as inhabited)
i. Their sayings.
C. j. For the sun He hath set a tent (an abode) in them;
k. l. and he as a bridegroom (comparison)
m. is going forth from his canopy, (motion: its rising)
l. he rejoiceth as a mighty one (comparison)
m. to run his course. (Motion: its rapid course.)
k. n. From the end of the heavens (egress)
o. is his going forth, (egress)
o. and his revolution (regress)
n. unto their ends: (regress)
j. and there is nothing hid from his head (i.e. from him (7))
(1) From to cut
into, or grave, hence, to write. It has the two senses
of our English verb tell, which means to count, and also
to narrate. The first occurrence is Genesis 15:5, "Tell the
stars, if thou be able to number them." Genesis 24:66, "The servant
told Isaac all things that he had done." Psalm 71:15, "My mouth
shall show forth (tell of, RV) thy righteousness and thy
salvation all the day; for I know not the numbers (i.e., the
accounts) of them," i.e., all the particulars.
(2) From to be heavy,
weight, the context determining whether the weight spoken of is advantageous
or not. The first occurrence is Genesis 12:10, "The famine was grievous
in the land." The next, 13:2, "Abram was very rich." It is often
applied to persons who are of weight and importance, hence,
glorious and honourable. It is used of the glory of the Lord, and
of God Himself, as we use Majesty of a person. See Isaiah 3:8, 4:2, 11:10,
43:20; Haggai 2:8; Exodus 16:7, 24:17; 1 Samuel 4:21; Psalm 26:8 (honour),
63:3.
(3) From to set before,
to set forth, to shew. First occurrence, Genesis 3:11, "Who told
thee that thou wast naked." Psalm 97:6, "The heavens declare His
righteousness"; 111:6, "He hath shewed his people the power of his
works."
(4) This is the English idiom
for the Hebrew "Day to day." The lamed is used in its sense of adding
or superadding to, as in Isaiah 28:10, "precept to precept"; i.e., precept
after precept, line after line. Genesis 46:26, "All the souls that came
with Jacob" (to Jacob; i.e., in addition to Jacob. So here, "Day to day";
i.e., Day in addition to day, or, as we say, Day after day).
(5) From to tell forth,
akin to to prophesy, from root to pour forth. Literally,
here, poureth forth discourse. Psalm 145:9, "abundantly utter."
(6) Their line, i.e., their
measuring line. By the figure of metonymy the line which measures
is put for the portion or heritage which is measured, as in many other
places. See Psalm 16:6, "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places;
yea, I have a goodly heritage." (See also Psalm 78:55, &c.) Here, it
means that "Their measuring line has gone forth unto all the earth"; i.e.,
All the earth inherits this their testimony (i.e., has this testimony for
its heritage), and to the ends of the world (the inhabited world)
their instruction has gone forth. With this agrees, in sense, the LXX here,
and Romans 10:18, which each has a sound, or voice; i.e.,
a sound in relation to the hearer, rather than to that which causes it.
The meaning of the passage is, "All the earth has their sound or
testimony as its heritage, and the ends of the world hear their words."
Symmachus has a sound, or report. Compare Deuteronomy 4:19,
"divided."
(7) [It] means that which
is hot, and is a poetical name of the sun itself.
Surely there is something more referred to
here than a mere wonder excited by the works of the Creator! When we read
the whole passage and mark its structure, and note the words employed,
we are emphatically told that the heavens contain a revelation from God;
they prophesy, they show knowledge, they tell of God's glory, and set forth
His purposes and counsels.
It is a remarkable fact that it is in the
Book of Job, which is generally allowed to be the oldest book in the Bible,
* if not in the world, that we have references to this Stellar Revelation.
This would be at least 2,000 years before Christ. In that book the signs
of the Zodiac and the names of several stars and constellations are mentioned,
as being ancient and well-known.
* Job is thought
by some to be the Jobab mentioned in Genesis 10:29, the third in descent
from Eber.
In Isaiah 40:26 (RV) we read:--
"Lift up your eyes on high,
And see who hath created these,
That bringeth out their host by number:
He calleth them all by name;
By the greatness of His might,
And for that He is strong in power,
Not one is lacking."
We have the same evidence in Psalm 147:4 (RV).
"He telleth the number of the
stars;
He giveth them all their names."
Here is a distinct and Divine declaration
that the great Creator both numbered as well as named the
stars of Heaven.
The question is, Has he revealed any of
these names? Have any of them been handed down to us?
The answer is Yes; and that in the Bible
itself we have the names (so ancient that their meaning is a little obscure)
of Ash (a name still connected with the Great Bear), Cesil,
and Cimah.
They occur in Job 9:9: "Which maketh Arcturus
(RV the Bear), Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south."
(Marg., Heb., Ash, Cesil, and Cimah.)
Job 38:31,32: "Canst thou bind the sweet
influences (RV cluster) of the Pleiades (marg., the seven stars,
Heb. Cimah), or loose the bands of Orion (marg. Heb. Cesil)?
Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth (marg., the twelve signs. RV, "the
twelve signs": and marg., the signs of the Zodiac) in his season?
or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons (RV, the Bear with her train;
and marg., Heb., sons)."*
* Note the structure of this
verse:
A. The seven stars,
B. Orion,
A. The twelve signs,
B. Arcturus.
Isaiah 13:10: ..."the stars of heaven and
the constellations thereof"...
Amos 5:8: "Seek him that maketh the seven
stars (RV, the Pleiades) and Orion."
Then we have the term "Mazzaroth," Job
38:32, and "Mazzaloth," 2 Kings 23:5. The former in both versions is referred
to the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac, while the latter is rendered "planets,"
and in margin, the twelve signs or constellations.
Others are referred to by name. The sign
of "Gemini," or the Twins, is given as the name of a ship: Acts 28:11,
Castor & Pollux.
Most commentators agree that the constellation
of "Draco," or the Dragon (between the Great and Little Bear), is referred
to in Job 26:13: "By His Spirit He hath garnished the heavens; His hand
hath formed the crooked serpent (RV swift. Marg. fleeing or gliding.
See Isaiah 27:1, 43:14)." This word "garnished" is peculiar. The RV puts
in the margin, beauty. In Psalm 16:6, it is rendered goodly.
"I have a goodly heritage." In Daniel 4:2, it is rendered, "I thought it
good to show," referring to "the signs and wonders" with which God had
visited Nebuchadnezzar. It appears from this that God "thought it good
to show" by these signs written in the heavens the wonders of His purposes
and counsels, and it was by His Spirit that He made it known; it was His
hand that coiled the crooked serpent among the stars of heaven.
Thus we see that the Scriptures are not
silent as to the great antiquity of the signs and constellations.
If we turn to history and tradition, we
are at once met with the fact that the Twelve Signs are the same, both
as to the meaning of their names and as to their order in all the ancient
nations of the world. The Chinese, Chaldean, and Egyptian records go
back to more than 2,000 years BC. Indeed, the Zodiacs in the Temples of
Denderah and Esneh, in Egypt, are doubtless copies of Zodiacs still more
ancient, which, from internal evidence, must be placed nearly 4,000 BC,
when the summer solstice was in Leo.
Josephus hands down to us what he gives
as the traditions of his own nation, corroborated by his reference to eight
ancient Gentile authorities, whose works are lost. He says that they all
assert that "God gave the antediluvians such long life that they might
perfect those things which they had invented in astronomy." Cassini commences
his History of Astronomy by saying "It is impossible to doubt that
astronomy was invented from the beginning of the world; history, profane
as well as sacred, testifies to this truth." Nouet, a French astronomer,
infers that the Egyptian Astronomy must have arisen 5,400 BC!
Ancient Persian and Arabian traditions
ascribe its invention to Adam, Seth, and Enoch. Josephus asserts that it
originated in the family of Seth; and he says that the children of Seth,
and especially Adam, Seth, and Enoch, that their revelation might not be
lost as to the two coming judgments of Water and Fire, made two pillars
(one of brick, the other of stone), describing the whole of the predictions
of the stars upon them, and in case the brick pillar should be destroyed
by the flood, the stone would preserve the revelation (Book 1, chapters
1-3).
This is what is doubtless meant by Genesis
11:4, "And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower whose top
may reach unto heaven." The words "may reach" are in italics.
There is nothing in the verse which relates to the height of this tower.
It merely says, and his top with the heavens, i.e. with the pictures
and the stars, just as we find them in the ancient temples of Denderah
and Esneh in Egypt. This tower, with its planisphere and pictures of the
signs and constellations, was to be erected like those temples were afterwards,
in order to preserve the revelation, "lest we be scattered abroad upon
the face of the whole earth."
This is corroborated by Lieut.-Gen. Chesney,
well known for his learned researches and excavations among the ruins of
Babylon, who, after describing his various discoveries, says, "About five
miles S.W. of Hillah, the most remarkable of all the ruins, the Birs
Nimroud of the Arabs, rises to a height of 153 feet above the plain
from a base covering a square of 400 feet, or almost four acres. It was
constructed of kiln-dried bricks in seven stages to correspond with the
planets to which they were dedicated: the lowermost black, the colour of
Saturn; the next orange, for Jupiter; the third red, for Mars; and so on.
* These stages were surmounted by a lofty tower, on the summit of which,
we are told, were the signs of the Zodiac and other astronomical figures;
thus having (as it should have been translated) a representation of
the heavens, instead of 'a top which reached unto heaven.'"
* Fragments of these
coloured glazed bricks are to be seen in the British Museum.
This Biblical evidence carries us at once
right back to the Flood, or about 2,500 years BC.
This tower or temple, or both, was also
called "The Seven Spheres," according to some; and "The Seven Lights,"
according to others. It is thus clear that the popular idea of its height
and purpose must be abandoned, and its astronomical reference to revelation
must be admitted. The tower was an attempt to preserve and hand down the
antediluvian traditions; their sin was in keeping together instead of scattering
themselves over the earth.
Another important statement is made by
Dr. Budge, of the British Museum (Babylonian Life and History, p.
36). He says, "It must never be forgotten that the Babylonians were a nation
of stargazers, and that they kept a body of men to do nothing else but
report eclipses, appearances of the moon, sunspots, etc., etc."
"Astronomy, mixed with astrology, occupied
a large number of tablets in the Babylonian libraries, and Isaiah 47:13
refers to this when he says to Babylon, 'Thou art wearied in the multitude
of thy counsels. Let now thy astrologers (marg. viewers of the heavens),
the star-gazers, the monthly prognosticators stand up.' The largest astrological
work of the Babylonians contained seventy tablets, and was compiled by
the command of Sargon of Agade thirty-eight hundred years before Christ!
It was called the 'Illumination of Bel.'"
"Their observations were made in towers
called 'ziggurats'" (p. 106).
"They built observatories in all the great
cities, and reports like the above [which Dr. Budge gives in full] were
regularly sent to the King" (p. 110).
"They were able to calculate eclipses,
and had long lists of them." "They found out that the sun was spotted,
and they knew of comets." "They were the inventors of the Zodiac." (?)
There are fragments of two (ancient Babylonian) planispheres in the British
Museum with figures and calculations inscribed upon them. "The months were
called after the signs of the Zodiac" (p. 109).
We may form some idea of what this "representation
of the heavens" was from the fifth "Creation Tablet," now in the British
Museum. It reads as follows:
"Anu [the Creator] made
excellent the mansions [i.e. the celestial houses] of the great
gods [twelve] in number [i.e. the twelve signs or mansions of the sun].
The stars he placed in them. The lumasi
[i.e. groups of stars or figures] he fixed.
He arranged the year according to the bounds
[i.e. the twelve signs] which he defined.
For each of the twelve months three rows
of stars [i.e. constellations] he fixed.
From the day when the year issues forth
unto the close, he marked the mansions [i.e. the Zodiacal Signs]
of the wandering stars [i.e. planets] to know their courses that
they might not err or deflect at all."
Coming down to less ancient records: Eudoxos,
an astronomer of Cnidus (403 to 350 BC), wrote a work on Astronomy which
he called Phainomena. Antigonus Gonatas, King of Macedonia (273-239
BC), requested the Poet Aratus to put the work of Eudoxus into the form
of a poem, which he did about the year 270 BC. Aratus called his work Diosemeia
(the Divine Signs). He was a native of Tarsus, and it is interesting
for us to note that his poem was known to, and, indeed, must have been
read by, the Apostle Paul, for he quotes it in his address at Athens on
Mars's Hill. He says (Acts 17:28) "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." Several translations of this poem have been made, both
by Cicero and others, into Latin, and in recent times into English by E.
Poste, J. Lamb, and others. The following is the opening from the translation
of Robert Brown, jun.:
"From Zeus we lead the strain;
he whom mankind
Ne'er leave unhymned: of Zeus all public
ways,
All haunts of men, are full; and full
the sea,
And harbours; and of Zeus all stand in
need.
We are his offspring: and he, ever
good and mild to man,
Gives favouring signs, and rouses us to
toil.
Calling to mind life's wants: when clods
are best
For plough and mattock: when the time
is ripe
For planting vines and sowing seeds, he
tells,
Since he himself hath fixed in heaven
these signs,
The stars dividing: and throughout the
year
Stars he provides to indicate to man
The seasons' course, that all things duly
grow," etc., etc.
Then Aratus proceeds to describe and explain
all the Signs and Constellations as the Greeks in his day understood, or
rather misunderstood, them, after their true meaning and testimony had
been forgotten.
Moreover, Aratus describes them, not as
they were seen in his day, but as they were seen some 4,000 years before.
The stars were not seen from Tarsus as he describes them, and he must therefore
have written from a then ancient Zodiac. For notwithstanding that we speak
of "fixed stars," there is a constant, though slow, change taking place
amongst them. There is also another change taking place owing to the slow
recession of the pole of the heavens (about 50" in the year); so that while
Alpha in the constellation of Draco was the Polar Star when
the Zodiac was first formed, the Polar Star is now Alpha in what
is called Ursa Minor. This change alone carries us back at least
5,000 years. The same movement which has changed the relative position
of these two stars has also caused the constellation of the Southern
Cross to become invisible in northern latitudes. When the constellations
were formed the Southern Cross was visible in N. latitude 40o,
and was included in their number. But, though known by tradition, it had
not been seen in that latitude for some twenty centuries, until voyages
to the Cape of Good Hope were made. Then was seen again The Southern
Cross depicted by the Patriarchs. Here is another indisputable proof
as to the antiquity of the formation of the Zodiac.
Ptolemy (150 AD) transmits them from Hipparchus
(130 BC) "as of unquestioned authority, unknown origin, and unsearchable
antiquity."
Sir William Drummond says that "the traditions
of the Chaldean Astronomy seem the fragments of a mighty system fallen
into ruins."
The word Zodiac itself is from the
Greek zoidiakos, which is not from zoe, to live, but from a primitive
root through the Hebrew Sodi, which in Sanscrit means a way.
Its etymology has no connection with living creatures, but denotes
a way, or step, and is used of the way or path
in which the sun appears to move amongst the stars in the course of the
year.
To an observer on the earth the whole firmament,
together with the sun, appears to revolve in a circle once in twenty-four
hours. But the time occupied by the stars in going round, differs from
the time occupied by the sun. This difference amounts to about one-twelfth
part of the whole circle in each month, so that when the circle of the
heavens is divided up into twelve parts, the sun appears to move each month
through one of them. This path which the sun thus makes amongst the stars
is called the Ecliptic. *
* Besides this monthly
difference, there is an annual difference; for at the end of twelve
months the sun does not come back to exactly the same point in the sign
which commenced the year, but is a little behind it. But this difference,
though it occurs every year, is so small that it will take 25,579 years
for the sun to complete this vast cycle, which is called The precession
of the Equinoxes; i.e., about one degree in every 71 years. If the
sun came back to the precise point at which it began the year, each sign
would correspond, always and regularly, exactly with a particular month;
but, owing to this constant regression, the sun (while it goes through
the whole twelve signs every year) commences the year in one sign for only
about 2,131 years. In point of fact, since the Creation the commencement
of the year has changed to the extent of nearly three of the signs. When
Virgil sings--
"The White Bull with golden
horns opens the year,"
he does not record what took
place in his own day. This is another proof of the antiquity of these signs.
The Ecliptic, or path
of the sun, if it could be viewed from immediately beneath the Polar Star,
would form a complete and perfect circle, would be concentric with the
Equator, and all the stars and the sun would appear to move in this
circle, never rising or setting. To a person north or south of the Equator
the stars therefore rise and set obliquely; while to a person on the Equator
they rise and set perpendicularly, each star being twelve hours above and
twelve below the horizon.
The points where the two
circles (the Ecliptic and the Equator) intersect each other
are called the Equinoctial points. It is the movement of these points
(which are now moving from Aries to Pisces) which gives rise to the term,
"the precession of the Equinoxes."
Each of these twelve parts (consisting each
of about 30 degrees) is distinguished, not by numbers or by letters, but
by pictures and names, and this, as we have seen, from the very earliest
times. They are preserved to the present day in our almanacs, and we are
taught their order in the familiar rhymes:--
"The Ram, the Bull, the heavenly
Twins,
And next the Crab, the Lion shines,
The Virgin and the Scales;
The Scorpion, Archer, and Sea-Goat,
The Man that carries the Water-pot,
And Fish with glittering scales."
These signs have always and everywhere been
preserved in this order, and have begun with Aries. They have been known
amongst all nations, and in all ages, thus proving their common origin
from one source.
The figures themselves are perfectly arbitrary.
There is nothing in the groups of stars to even suggest the figures. This
is the first thing which is noticed by every one who looks at the constellations.
Take for example the sign of Virgo, and look at the stars. There is nothing
whatever to suggest a human form; still less is there anything to show
whether that form is a man or a woman. And so with all the others.
The picture, therefore, is the original,
and must have been drawn around or connected with certain stars, simply
in order that it might be identified and associated with them; and that
it might thus be remembered and handed down to posterity.
There can be no doubt, as the learned Authoress
of Mazzaroth conclusively proves, that these signs were afterwards
identified with the twelve sons of Jacob. Joseph sees the sun and moon
and eleven stars bowing down to him, he himself being the twelfth (Gen
37:9). The blessing of Jacob (Gen 49) and the blessing of Moses (Deut 33)
both bear witness to the existence of these signs in their day. And it
is more than probable that each of the Twelve Tribes bore one of them on
its standard. We read in Numbers 2:2, "Every man of the children of Israel
shall pitch by his own STANDARD, with the ENSIGN of their father's house"
(RV "with the ensigns of their fathers' houses"). This "Standard" was the
Degel on which the "Sign" (oth) was depicted. Hence it was
called the "En-sign." Ancient Jewish authorities declare that each
tribe had one of the signs as its own, and it is highly probable, even
from Scripture, that four of the tribes carried its "Sign"; and that these
four were placed at the four sides of the camp.
If the Lion were appropriated to Judah,
then the other three would be thus fixed, and would be the same four that
equally divide the Zodiac at its four cardinal points. According to Numbers
2 the camp was thus formed:--
|
|
|
|
North |
|
|
Dan-The Scorpion (Scorpio) |
|
|
Asher (Sagittarius) |
|
|
Naphtali (Capricorn) |
|
|
|
|
West |
|
East |
Ephraim-The Bull (Taurus) |
Levi (Libra) |
Judah-The Lion (Leo) |
Manasseh-The Bull (Taurus) |
The Scales |
Issachar (Cancer) |
Benjamin (Gemini) |
|
Zebulun (Virgo) |
|
|
|
|
South |
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Reuben-The Man (Aquarius) |
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Simeon (Pisces) |
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Gad (Aries) |
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If the reader compares the above with the
blessings of Israel and Moses, and compares the meanings and descriptions
given below with those blessings, the connection will be clearly seen.
Levi, for example, had no standard, and he needed none, for he kept "the
balance of the Sanctuary," and had the charge of that brazen altar on which
the atoning blood outweighed the nation's sins.
The four great signs which thus marked
the four sides of the camp, and the four quarters of the Zodiac, are the
same four which form the Cherubim (the Eagle, the Scorpion's enemy, being
substituted for the Scorpion). The Cherubim thus form a compendious expression
of the hope of Creation, which, from the very first, has been bound up
with the Coming One, who alone should cause its groanings to cease.
But this brings us to the Signs themselves
and their interpretation.
These pictures were designed to preserve,
expound, and perpetuate the one first great promise and prophecy of Genesis
3:15, that all hope for Man, all hope for Creation, was bound up in a
coming Redeemer; One who should be born of a woman; who should first
suffer, and afterwards gloriously triumph; One who should first be wounded
by that great enemy who was the cause of all sin and sorrow and death,
but who should finally crush the head of "that Old Serpent the Devil."
These ancient star-pictures reveal this
Coming One. They set forth "the sufferings of Christ and the glory that
should follow." Altogether there are forty-eight of them, made up of twelve
SIGNS, each sign containing three CONSTELLATIONS.
These may be divided into three
great books, each book containing four chapters (or Signs); and each chapter
containing three sections (or Constellations).
Each book (like the four Gospels) sets
forth its peculiar aspect of the Coming One; beginning with the promise
of His coming, and ending with the destruction of the enemy.
But where are we to begin to read
this wondrous Heavenly Scroll? A circle has proverbially neither beginning
nor end. In what order then are we to consider these signs? In the heavens
they form a never-ending circle. Where is the beginning and where is the
end of this circle through which the sun is constantly moving? Where are
we to break into this circle? and say, This is the commencement.
It is clear that unless we can determine this original starting point we
can never read this wondrous book aright.
As I have said, the popular beginning today
is with Aries, the Ram. But comparing this Revelation with that which was
afterwards written "in the Volume of the Book," Virgo is the only point
where we can intelligently begin, and Leo is the only point where we can
logically conclude. Is not this what is spoken of as the unknown and insoluble
mystery--"The riddle of the Sphinx"? The word "Sphinx" is from to bind
closely together. It was therefore designed to show where the two ends
of the Zodiac were to be joined together, and where the great circle of
the heavens begins and ends.
The Sphinx is a figure with the head
of a woman and the body of a lion! What is this but a never-ceasing
monitor, telling us to begin with Virgo and to end with Leo! In the Zodiac
in the Temple of Esneh, in Egypt, a Sphinx is actually placed between the
Signs of Virgo and Leo...
Beginning, then, with Virgo, let us now
spread out the contents of this Heavenly Volume, so that the eye can take
them in at a glance. Of course we are greatly hindered in this, in having
to use the modern Latin names which the Constellations bear today. * Some
of these names are mistakes, others are gross perversions of the truth,
as proved by the pictures themselves, which are far more ancient, and have
come down to us from primitive times.
* It is exactly
the same with the books of the Bible. Their order and their names, as
we have them in the English Bible, are those which man has given
them, copied from the Septuagint and Vulgate, and in many cases are not
the Divine names according to the Hebrew Canon. See The Names and Order
of the Books of the Old Testament, by the same author.
After the Revelation came to be written down
in the Scriptures, there was not the same need for the preservation of
the Heavenly Volume. And after the nations had lost the original meaning
of the pictures, they invented a meaning out of the vain imagination of
the thoughts of their hearts. The Greek Mythology is an interpretation
of (only some of) the signs and constellations after their true meaning
had been forgotten. It is popularly believed that Bible truth is an evolution
from, or development of, the ancient religions of the world. But the fact
is that they themselves are a corruption and perversion of primitive
truth!
Preface | Table of Contents | Chapter 1
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