Prevalence of Astrology in Early Jewish Tradition, History and Culture

The Hebrew Bible and other religious sources contain many references to the Sun, Moon, planets and stars, as well as other symbolism related to astrology. Tradition holds that the earliest Jewish Patriarchs used astrology, including Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David and Solomon. Yet no hard evidence has been found to substantiate such a claim. This could be partly explained by the fact that early Jews were nomads and had no written history--only an oral tradition which was passed down through the generations. The Jewish Bible begins with the Five Books of Moses, or the Torah, which was cannonized in the fifth century B.C.E. Is it possible that common usage of astrology by the Jews dates back to Abraham’s ancestors (in ancient Babylon), or was history rewritten to reflect more current values when Jewish history was finally written down? In order to answer this question, it is necessary to examine the origin of the people now known as Jews and the role of astrology in their oral tradition, written codes of law, and culture.

Who were the ancient Jews?

There are many opinions as to the exact origin of the people known today as the Jews (or Hebrews), although it is generally agreed that they were nomadic people who left no cities from their earliest history which can be excavated and studied. Historically speaking, there are precious few records dating to the earliest days of Jewish civilization:

The precise origin of the Hebrew tribes is unknown. There are records dating from the Egyptian New Kingdom that mention a homeless nomadic people called the "Habiru" or "Hapiru." Much of the history of the Hebrew people must be pieced together from the Hebrew Scriptures, which were written between the thirteenth and third centuries B.C.E. (ca. 1200-200 B.C.E.).(1)

Most Jewish scholars agree that Abraham’s departure from his home in Babylon (possibly during the reign of Emperor Hammurabi) marks the beginning of the Jewish experience:

[W]hile the peoples in these civilizations built cities, enriched themselves with plunder, enjoyed their mistresses, wrote laws, drank wine, and dreamed of world conquest, the Jews were nonexistent. Then, about the year 2000 [B.C.E.], when a new and restless Semitic tribe, the Assyrians, lean and hungry, began to challenge the soft and rich life of the Babylonians, a man named Terah took his son Abraham, Abraham’s wife Sarah, and his grandson Lot, the nephew of Abraham, and emigrated from the cosmopolitan city of Ur in Babylon.

* * *

The wanderings of Terah and his small group took them six hundred miles northwest from Ur to the land of Harran, in the southern part of what is now Turkey. Here Terah, who had left Ur at no one’s prompting, dies. Here Abraham has a strange experience. It is here (at age 75) that he meets the Lord God "Jehovah" for the first time.(2)

During this encounter, Abraham forms a covenant with Jehovah, who promises to protect Abraham and his descendants if they will follow His commandments as the one and only God. After this spiritual experience, Abraham’s family wandered throughout the wilderness as nomads. "For four hundred years Abraham and his descendants wandered about as nomads in the land of Canaan, without a country of their own or a stable form of government."(3)

Abraham’s descendants later moved to Egypt to seek relief from a famine in Canaan. At first they were welcomed as the people of Joseph, until a change in leadership occurred and they were forced into servitude:

Historians speculate that the Hebrew people moved into Egypt during the Hyksos invasion (ca. 1700 B.C.E.). Joseph, Jacob’s son, probably served a Hyksos Pharaoh. The resurgence of the Egyptians in the New Kingdom led to the enslavement of the Hebrews (ca. 1500 B.C.E.). During the thirteenth century Moses led the twelve tribes out of Egypt and across the Red Sea into the Sinai wilderness. Around 1200 B.C.E., Joshua led the survivors across the Jordan River into the Land of Canaan (Palestine).(4)

* * *

Between 1200 and 1000 B.C.E. the Hebrew tribes waged a sporadic war against the Canaanites. During this period the Hebrews possessed no national government.(5)

* * *

Ramses III expelled the Peleset (Philistines) from Egypt sometime after 1100 B.C. The Philistines made their capital Gaza. ... The loose Hebrew confederation was governed by Judges who served as the arbiters of disputes between the tribes. Late in the eleventh century Saul emerged as King of the unified Hebrew tribes. Saul led the tribes in a revolt against their Philistine overlords. ... Saul’s death opened the possibility for his son-in-law, David of Bethlehem, to assume command of the Twelve Tribes (1000-961). David vanquished the Philistines. He established the Hebrew capital in Jerusalem. ... He was succeeded by his son Solomon. ... The Tribes broke apart after his death because of the unwillingness of some of their number to accept Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, as the next king.(6)

* * *

After 922, Palestine was divided into two Hebrew states: Israel and Judah. Ten tribes formed Israel while the remaining two tribes organized themselves into Judah. Israel was wealthier than the more agricultural and pastoral Judah. In 722, the Assyrians conquered Israel. Nothing is known of what became of the Jewish population (Lost Tribes of Israel). ... [In] 586 ... the Chaldeans (New Babylonians) occupied Palestine. King Nebuchadnezzar, the Chaldean King, ordered that several thousand Jews be transported to Babylon (Babylonian Captivity).(7)

In 612, the Assyrian empire was destroyed by the Second Babylonian Empire (or the Chaldeans)(8), and in the year 539 Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered the Chaldeans and allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem. Then, in 325 B.C.E., Alexander the Great defeated the Persians in Palestine. His successors controlled Jerusalem until 63 B.C.E., when the Romans took over. During the Hellenistic period (323-63 B.C.E.) "the Jews gained the right to create political corporations," but the Romans "restricted Jewish autonomy." In 70 C.E. (Common Epoch), the Jews in Palestine revolted against their Roman governors. The Romans quashed the revolt and ordered the dispersion of the Jews (The Diaspora),(9) permanently destroying the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. Following the Bar Kokhba revolt (132-35 B.C.E.), Jerusalem became a pagan city and "Jews were forbidden to live anywhere in Judea."(10)

Many historians question the validity of the Hebrew Bible as the only source for these historical events. Some events described in the Hebrew Bible have been found to be more or less historically accurate when archaeological finds have confirmed the story:

Especially interesting is the manner in which the Biblical and the Babylonian texts confirm and clarify one another in their statements about the Babylonian treatment of King Jehoiachin and his household. ... Shortly after the beginning of the twentieth century, the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin received some three hundred cuneiform tablets which had been excavated by a German expedition near the Ishtar Gate in Babylon. These tablets lay for over three decades in the basement of the museum, uncleaned and undeciphered. Under the very thorough Nazi regime, the curator of the museum came upon the boxes of tablets and began to study them. He was astounded to discover that several of the tablets dealt precisely with the same King Jehoiachin of Judah and his family in exile in Babylon, and that these texts not only substantiated but even filled in gaps in the Biblical account. It is unusual for archaeological discoveries to confirm a Biblical account so specifically.(11)

The historical validity of other Biblical stories is questionable at best. When the Bible story is the only one of its kind, this raises questions as to why these Biblical events were not recorded in other written histories from the same period. Many explanations have been offered, including the political influences of the times:

Scholars have long been troubled by the fact that Egyptian records make no mention of Moses and the Exodus, and some have expressed the belief that a document or two may yet turn up with reference to them. Yet the modern student of ancient Egyptian history should share neither the worry nor this optimism. First, when the Egyptians lost a battle, they customarily either recorded it as a victory or else passed over it in silence. Thus the prolonged Hyksos rule was not mentioned in contemporaneous Egyptian sources until the Hyksos were expelled, and even the victory over them was apparently not officially recorded. And second, the scope of the Exodus and significance of it for the Egyptian government were so meager as not to merit any documentary mention.(12)

Although the ancient Jews did not keep many written accounts of their history, laws and culture, there is a rich oral tradition that was passed down from generation to generation from the time of Abraham until today. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to factually verify the source of this oral legacy because there is little archaeological evidence to substantiate it:

All civilizations we know about have left a record of their history in material things. We know them through tablets or ruins dug up by archaeologists. But we know of the Jews in ancient times mostly from the ideas they taught and the impact which these ideas had upon other people and other civilizations. There are few Jewish tablets to tell of battles and few Jewish ruins to tell of former splendor.(13)

Of the many ideas taught by the Jews to others, "[T]he single most important contribution of the Jews to western civilization is the concept of monotheism."(14)

Hebrew oral tradition and astrology

Whether the Hebrew Bible (and the oral tradition which preceded it) is totally accurate or not, at the present time it appears to be the only authority available for many periods of Jewish history. There is also evidence that the oldest oral traditions of the Jews were borrowed from earlier civilizations, including the stories of Creation, the Flood, and the Garden of Eden, which came from Babylon. They also absorbed some features of Mesopotamian civilization. For example, there are parallels between biblical law and the Mesopotamian legal tradition.(15) Since it is believed that the Babylonians invented astrology,(16) to what extent did early Jews also incorporate the astrological knowledge of the Babylonians into ancient Hebrew history?

The Creation Story

Some Biblical scholars have interpreted the creation story in the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Hebrew Torah, as containing astrological references:

The first astrological indication in Scripture occurs in Genesis 1:16:

And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night and the stars.

This rulership pattern is repeated in verse 18: "... to rule the day and the night ..." Notice that nowhere are the two lights identified as the Sun and the Moon. However, this is assumed not only from our knowledge of both the text and nature but also from Psalms 136:8-9:

The Sun to rule by day, for His mercy endureth forever;

The Moon and Stars to rule by night, for His mercy endureth forever.

Note that the psalmist understood the verses in Genesis as meaning that the Stars shared rulership of the night with the Moon.(17)

Other scholars, such as Karl Anderson, Professor of Chaldean, Arabian and Egyptian Astrology and author of Astrology of the Old Testament (1892) expanded this astrological interpretation to include other parts of the creation story:

It is said that Moses commanded, "He that understandeth Genesis, let him not reveal it." Gen-Isis should be revealed that we may have a true conception of the beauty of astrology, -- Gen-Isis, not "the beginning," but what Isis, the mother nature, generates or produces, -- Isis, the ruler of waters, the menstrual of all nature, which, combined with air and heat, generated all things.

Gen. i.2: "And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters" [i.e., air, wind, or air in motion].

Gen. i.3: "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light" [viz., heat, electricity, force, magnetism].

Gen. i. 9, 10: "And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear. ... And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas."

We have here a distinct account of the action of the elements, that by the air, fire, and water the earth was formed and all things generated.(18)

Another part of this first book of the Hebrew Bible (Gen. 1:14-15) is the subject of much discussion among astrologers and Jews:

God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate day from night; they shall serve as signs for the set times -- the days and the years; and they shall serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to shine upon the earth."(19)

Other versions of the Jewish Bible interpret the language as "God created lights in the heavens, and He made them for signs and for seasons."(20) In either case, this passage could be interpreted as merely astronomical in nature, rather than as being astrological.

The Jewish Patriarchs and Astrology

Abraham (c. 2000 B.C.E.)

Ancient Jewish tradition holds that the earliest Hebrew patriarchs used astrology. This would not have been surprising given the fact that Abraham originated in Mesopotamia (Babylon), where planetary dieties were worshipped:

Abraham was born in the city of Ur of the Kasdim -- and his name was originally not Abraham, but Abram. What do we know about his early life? Not very much. There are legends that his father Terach was a maker of idols, and that Abram rebelled against this. However, we do know one fact. In Hebrew, the word KSDYMf means "astrologers," and one ought to translate the name of Abram’s birthplace, AWR KSDYMf, "light of the astrologers." We also have some evidence that the rulers of that area of Mesopotamia during that period of history (third millennium B.C.E.) were astrologer-kings. ... There is also a Midrash (Yalkut Shimoni on Lech L’cha 21b v.60) which states that Abram’s father Terach was an astrologer.(21)

Some authors have speculated that Judaism (and the Hebrew calendar) reflect a familiarity with the planetary dieties of Abraham’s home town:

In Mesopotamian Ur, from which Abraham’s family emigrated, Sin the Moon was Queen of Heaven, and the day on which she changed her phase every seventh day was observed as a taboo day on which nothing would prosper and therefore no work was done. To this day, the old-fashioned Hassidic Jews observe the first Sabbath of the month when the New Moon can be seen at evening, and Sabbaths every seven days after that, including two consecutive Sabbaths if the New Moon does not appear on the twenty-eighth day. So the great holy day of the Hebrews continues the Moon-worship of Ur and perhaps of ancestral peoples beyond history and memory.(22)

According to some authors, the story of Abram’s relationship with God in Genesis also contains astrological references. At one point (Chapter 15) Abram questions God’s promise that he will have children, since he is already of advanced age:

How do later Rabbis handle this problem? They handle it astrologically. Let me quote from the Midrash Rabbah to Genesis:

And Abram said: Behold, to me thou hast given no seed ... (Gen. 15:3). Rabbi Samuel ben Isaac commented that Abram said: "My planetary fate oppresses me and declares ‘Abram cannot beget a child.’ Said the Holy One, Blessed Be He to him: Let it be even as thy words; Abram and Sarai cannot beget, but Abraham and Sarah can beget.’"

What a fascinating astrological attitude is here ascribed to God. God says to Abram that indeed, you have read your horoscope well. As Abram and Sarai, before I have changed your names, your horoscope is true; you will remain childless. But because of your faith in Me, you have earned a change in name, that is, from Abram to Abraham and from Sarai to Sarah. Now if you will cast a horoscope using the moment of your name-change as a new moment of birth, you will see that your planetary influences indicate that you will beget a child. The Rabbis put God squarely on the side of Astrology.

* * *

From this Midrash an interesting custom derives in orthodox Jewish life. When an orthodox person is gravely ill, his or her nearest male relative will go to the synagogue on a morning on which the Torah is publicly read. The relative will ask to be called on to say the blessings for the reading of the Torah, and then during the ceremony of the reading of Scripture, he will ask that the reader say those special prayers which will "add a name" to the Hebrew name of the sick one. This ceremony of "adding a name" stems directly from this Midrash wherein God agrees that Astrology is valid, but that the giving or taking of a new name indicates the necessity of a new natal chart for the symbolic new birth.(23)

Karl Anderson goes into further detail on the story of Abram’s name change, adding a more esoteric twist:

We are told in the Bible, that greatest of all astrological works, that Abram or Abraam (i.e., a Brahmin) came from the East, and being conversant with the languages of the different peoples, came to Egypt and taught them astrology, or the worship of the true God. Josephus is our authority that he taught astrology. Now, this Abraam, or, rather, Abram, was accompanied by Sara, his wife. You will also find that his name was altered to Abraham. This was from an insertion of the tau X cross of the Egyptians, to represent the movement of the sun north and south of the equator, or what is called its northern and southern declination or the ecliptic; thus: X , and by reversing this it gives H. So Ab, the original, Ram, or due east point, the orient, or origin of all light, or Braam of the Sanscrit, by disguising its true meaning and mystifying the multitude by inserting at the proper place this H converted Abraam into Ab-ra-ham, or Ab, the first, original, Ra, the father or sun god, and Ham the Egyptian founder; or God the father Ham. Thus also the name of Sara (or bitter waters, or salt water, or the ocean) was changed to Sarah. ...(24)

Some early sources, including the Hellenistic Jewish writer Eupolemus, credited Abraham with the invention of astrology.(25) Likewise, Abraham is said to have written The Book of Formation (the Sefer Yetzirah), which is referred to in the Jewish Talmud and is considered to be "the most primitive text of accepted Kabbalistic doctrine in Israel."(26) The Book of Formation is said to be the source for the spiritual meaning of the astrological constellations and is believed to contain "the mysteries of the creation of the universe."(27) Other early sources also draw a connection between Abraham and astrology:

For the possibility that Abram cited in the Mathesis is the Jewish patriarch Abraham, see Firmicus Mathesis (trans. Bram) 311 n. 60. Bram claims that this reference could have been an attempt by Firmicus to ascribe astrological teachings to ancient wise men. Although there is a theory that Abram was not the patriarch but an unknown astrologer, one could nevertheless argue that Firmicus’s placement of Abram among august notables such as Orpheus makes it more likely that Abram was in fact Abraham rather than an obscure astrologer.(28)

One astrological treatise ascribed to Abraham is known to have existed in the third century B.C.E., "making it one of the oldest works of Hellenistic astrology," and Vettius Valens also "lists Abraham along with Hermes and Nechepso as among the earliest astrologers."(29) Jim Tester, author of A History of Western Astrology, commented: "Some astrological writings may have been attributed to the patriarch, who was generally credited with an important role in the transmission of astrology from Seth."(30) Eupolemus (from the late third or early second century B.C.E.) "claimed that Enoch had learned astrology from the angels, and that Abraham later taught the technique to the Phoenicians and the Egyptians." Also, an Egyptian Jew named Artapanus (late third or early second century B.C.E) claimed that "Abraham taught astrology to the Egyptian priests of Heliopolis." He also believed that Hermes Trismegistus was really Moses. (31)

Jacob (c. 1900-1800 B.C.E.)

Traditionally, the twelve sons of Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, have long been associated with the twelve signs of the zodiac:

For hundreds of years before they were written down, these family stories were preserved by word of mouth. Abraham’s grandson Jacob had twelve sons who became the patriarchs of the twelve Hebrew tribes. These twelve tribes are as much astrological as historical.(32)

* * *

Both Abraham and Isaac had only one son who carried on the tradition of the father. However, Jacob, son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham, had twelve sons, thus ensuring the continuity of the nation. This was considered to be an act of Divine Intervention and approval, and was reflected in the Astrology of Judaism by having each son of Jacob (called Israel) assigned the spiritual rulership of the constellations. How was this done? By what means were the sons of Jacob assigned to the particular constellations as rulers? ... The most logical and balanced method of assigning rulerships to the constellations would be in the order of birth. That is, Jacob’s firstborn son, Reuben, should logically be assigned spiritual ruler of the Ascendant House Constellation. The secondborn son, Simon, should be assigned to the next constellation in order, the thirdborn, Levi, to the third constellation in order, and so forth. This is exactly the method used.(33)

Moses (c. 1200-1100 B.C.E.)

There are also many stories in Jewish tradition regarding Moses’ knowledge of and use of astrology. One such story is described by Don Jacobs in Astrology’s Pew in Church,:

According to the carefully preserved story, the infant Moses was adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter and raised as a full member of the royal family of Egypt, who were the Popes of the Measured Kingdom’s astrological religion. Moses’ Hebrew natural mother served as his nursemaid, and taught him the tribal traditions, while he went to royal schools culminating in the great astrological college at Annu. As Pharaoh’s adopted son, he was fully initiated into all the sacred secrets, and became, like all the Pharonic family, a professional astrologer and an astrolator-priest.(34)

* * *

Moses, as the adopted son of Pharaoh, was a professional astrologer. One of the great things he did for the Hebrews was to construct a unique lunar-solar calendar, which required tremendous skill as an astrologer-astronomer to put together. He gave the twelve tribes of Israel astrological standards to gather around, lined them up around the Tabernacle in the wilderness and marched them on their pilgrimage in the order of the Zodiac. All the Rabbinical literature and tradition insists that the signs of the Zodiac have been the symbols of the twelve tribes from Moses’ time until now.(35)

                    * * *

And, as written by E. Valentia Straiton in The Celestial Ship of the North (1927):

Moses was educated, as Manetho [third century B.C.E.] tells us, in the Temple of the Sun in the City of the Sun.(36)

Mosaic holidays, which date back to the days of Moses (13th century B.C.E.), are based on an astrologically calculated schedule:

The timing of the festivals and holidays is most revealing, astrologically. The Passover is to begin on the fifteenth day of the first month. Shavuooto is to begin seven weeks later, Sukkot (Tabernacles) is to begin on the 15th day of the 7th month, Rosh Hashanah (New Year) is to begin on the 1st day of the 7th month, Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) is to begin 10 days later. Let us look at these holidays and festivals from an astrological point of view:

Passover	Full Moon of Aries
Shavuot	7 weeks later (another numerological significance)
Rosh Hashanah	New Moon of Libra
Yom Kippur	10 days later (Note numerological significance.)
Sukkot	Full Moon of Libra(37)

Jewish astrological tradition also holds that astrology was used to rescue Moses from death following Pharaoh’s decree that every newborn Hebrew male child would be cast into the River Nile. This part of the story is addressed in the Midrash:

Why did they decree that they should cast them into the river? Because the astrologers foresaw that Israel’s savior would be smitten by water, and they thought that he would be drowned in the water: but as we know it, it was only on account of the well of water that the decree of death was pronounced upon him ... (see Numb 20:1-13 for this story). [Exodus Rabbah 1:18]

* * *

Why did they cast him (Moses) into the river? So that the astrologers might think that he had already been cast into the water, and would not search for him. (He and him refer, in general, to the expected savior of Israel; thus if they saw that he had been cast into the River Nile, they would rescind the order to destroy all Hebrew male newborns.) [Midrash](38)

It is also believed that Moses received more than the Ten Commandments from God on Mount Sinai:

Jewish tradition states that Moses not only received the Ten Commandments; he received all knowledge, both that which is universally revealed and the hidden esoteric knowledge as well. The Talmud begins with a "genealogy" of the transmission of this knowledge: MOSHE KIBSEL TORAH MI SINAI, "Moses received the Torah (all knowledge) at Sinai," and passed it on to Joshua, who transmitted it to the Elders, who passed it on to the Judges, who transmitted it to the Prophets, who passed it on to the Men of the Great Assembly. The Men of the Great Assembly were the rabbis who returned from Babylonian exile in 517 B.C.E., and who were the founders of the Sanhedrin.(39)

                    * * *

Alongside the close, literal method of Bible translation, the earliest Jewish translators were also influenced by the widely held view that, along with the Written Law (torah she-biktav), God had given Moses on Mount Sinai an Oral Law (torah she-be’al peh) as well; so that to comprehend God’s Torah fully and correctly, it was essential to make use of both.(40)

King David (reigned 1000-961 B.C.E.)

Today the Star of David (also known as "Mogen David") is the symbol of the State of Israel. Jewish tradition holds that this symbol actually has an astrological origin. According to Don "Moby Dick" Jacobs, a Methodist minister and Biblical Scholar:

Mogen David does not mean "wine." It means in ancient Hebrew "the shield of David." But as Rabbi Joel Dobin, professor of Jewish mysticism at Hebrew Union Seminary proves, the word Mogen or Magen also is the technical Hebrew term for "horoscope."

According to millennial rabbinic tradition the present day "Star of David" used on the flags of Israel and as a Jewish talisman alternative to the Christian cross, preserves the device on King David’s battle buckler. Shields in that time, 3000 years ago, were decorated with heraldic symbols.

David’s horoscope was so unusually fortunate that he painted it on his shield, as a warning to anyone tempted to challenge him. The device is not a six-pointed star. It is always drawn as two interlocking triangles, one pointing up and one down, representing the two superbly lucky Grand Trines in the sky at David’s birth. In blue on a white shield, the design said to any opponent, "Are you sure you want to try your luck against my two Grand Trines?"(41)

Jacobs used a computer to search the ephemeris for the estimated time of King David’s birth (1050 B.C.E.) and found no time at which six of the seven planets used by the ancients were in this extremely rare configuration. At the AFA Convention in Atlanta in 1978 he was able to confirm the date of October 28, 1062 B.C.E., when the Moon in Cancer completed the second Grand Trine in the element of Water.(42) History remembers King David as the young boy who slew a giant with a slingshot. Stories of his power are legendary. It is said that Joab refused to join Absolom’s conspiracy against his father David "because he (Joab) had seen David’s favorable horoscope." (See Sanhedrin 49a).(43)

King Solomon (reigned 961-922)

Hebrew mystical tradition finds astrological meaning in Solomon’s very name. As E. Valentia Straiton explains in The Celestial Ship of the North: "The name of the mystical Solomon signifies ‘Peace.’ Sol-Om-On represents three names of the Sun in different languages."(44) Many of the ancient writings which have been attributed to Solomon, such as Psalms, contain what appear to be astrological references. One of the most famous, as described by Don Jacobs, is from Ecclesiastes:

Solomon wrote the Book of Ecclesiastes, which contains the best definition of astrology I have found anywhere (chapter 3): "To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the sun ..." And in chapter 9: " ... Under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all." That is what astrology is, the study of time and chance.(45)

The oral traditions regarding Solomon’s knowledge of magic and mysticism found their way into written texts around the beginning the current era, several of which are described below.

Zodiacal references in the Dead
Sea Scrolls and contemporaneous materials

The most commonly known Jewish historical documents are the Dead Sea Scrolls, which date to the period from 200-100 B.C.E.(46) Found among the scrolls, in cave 4, is one containing astrological descriptions:

The first Jewish astrological document which we shall consider comes from Khirbet Qumran, one of the most famous and important of all archaeological sites. Situated in the Judean Wilderness next to the Dead Sea, it was the home of a Jewish sectarian community for several centuries during the Second Temple Period. The group that lived there probably belonged to the Essenes, one of the four broad categories into which Josephus grouped Jewish thinkers. The most important artifacts found at the site were the extensive remains of the community’s library, hidden in caves in the neighborhood, shortly before the community was destroyed by Vespasian’s troops in 67 C.E. These documents are among the very few primary documents to survive from antiquity. ... The inhabitants of Qumran were exceedingly zealous for Jewish traditions as they understood them, and were rather unfriendly to the Gentile world. Thus modern scholars were quite startled when fragments of astrological documents were found in 1952 at cave 4.

* * *

It is not possible to say when 4Q Cryptic was written, save that it must have been before 67 C.E. It is clearly not a collection of horoscopes, but rather a work of physiognomy, the practice of judging someone’s personality from their physical appearance. Only 4Q186(1)II is intact enough to preserve definite references to astrology. Such works are well known in general Hellenistic astrology. They are simple examples of "scientific" astrology, based on the principle that the human body is a miniature copy of the universe, or microcosm. If one’s appearance is the result of one’s nativity, it should be possible to use one’s appearance to extrapolate backwards and reconstruct the birthchart. The sect of Qumran took the practice one step farther, and used astrology and physiognomy to judge a person’s spiritual character. ... Thus appearance allowed the Qumran leaders to judge people in general and would-be members in particular.(47)

                    * * *

4Q186 is perhaps the closest thing to a scientific treatise that has yet emerged from the caves at Qumran. This writing combines astrology and the ancient "science" of physiognomy in an attempt to determine the character and destiny of given individuals. As the author of the third-century B.C.E pseudo-Aristotelian tractate Physiognomonica describes it, "The physiognomist takes his information from movements, shapes, colors, and traits as they appear in the face, from the hair, from the smoothness of the skin, from the voice, from the appearance of the flesh, from the limbs, and from the entire character of the body." ... By the time of the scrolls this was already an ancient form of divination. Examples many centuries older than our text are known from ancient Mesopotamia. ...

Our text uses physiognomy as an adjunct to astrology, the "royal science" and true predictor of destiny. On the basis of a person’s appearance, the reader of the text learns how to discover the person’s birth sign.(48)

The scrolls known as 4Q186 contain other specific information about the Essenes’ knowledge of astrology:

Also notable is our author’s statement about the second individual, "This is the birth sign under which a person shall be born: the haunch of Taurus." The reference to the "haunch" of the sign of Taurus implies the concept of dodecatmoria. This Greek word is a name for further subdivision of the zodiac. According to astrological doctrine, each sign occupied 30 degrees of space in the heavens (12 signs, 360 degrees). But each sign could be further subdivided into twelve parts, a sort of micro-zodiac or "zodiac of the zodiac." To say that someone was born under the haunch of Taurus meant that he was born when the sun, as observed, had nearly completed its movement through that sign. The "haunch" was the last 2.5 degrees of the sign of Taurus. Taken together with all the other elements of our text, this greater specificity indicates that our author may once have described a large number of individuals, for many unique combinations of these elements are possible. The larger part of this writing is quite likely lost; 4Q186 may have been an entire handbook on physiognomic astrology.(49)

Another example of astrology in ancient Jewish texts is the Treatise of Shem, which purports to have been written by Shem, Son of Noah. To date, it is "the oldest datable, reasonably complete, example of Jewish astrology." The original language of the text was either Hebrew or Aramaic. One scholar, Mingana, believes that "the most likely date for the Treatise of Shem is in the era of the two revolts against Roman rule. This would make the Treatise roughly contemporary with 4Q Cryptic." Charlesworth has a different opinion, and he "dates the work to the late first century B.C.E." ... "The Treatise and the astrological documents from Qumran together demonstrate that many Jews, hellenized and unhellenized alike, had adapted scientific astrology to their own tastes by the first century C.E."(50)

The Letter of Rehoboam, which was probably written during the first century CE or the early second century, is another important example of Jewish interest in both "scientific" astrology and astral religion:

It contains prayers to angels and planets, but it is also a work on favorable hours as well as a work on astrological medicine, or iatromathematics. The Letter is particularly closely related to a work ascribed, probably correctly, to a well-known physician of the first century C.E., Thessalus of Tralles. But its literary frame also links it to the legends of Solomon as great magician and master of the demons. This tradition first appears in the Wisdom of Solomon 7:17-22, where "Solomon" says that God taught him wisdom of all sorts, including astrology, "the powers of spirits" and "the varieties of plants and the virtues of herbs." ...

In all likelihood, the author of the Letter was a Jew. While a pagan magician might have known of Solomon, it is unlikely such a person would know about Rehoboam. Also, some of the technical terms are Judaic.

Like 4Q Cryptic and the Treatise of Shem, the Letter of Rehoboam represents the sort of astrology Jews would have encountered anywhere in the Hellenized world.(51)

Astrology in the Hebrew Bible

The Five Books of Moses (called the Torah) were the first parts of the Bible to be written down:

[T]he Five Books of Moses had been canonized in the year 444 B.C. During the subsequent five hundred years, under Persian, Greek, and Roman domination, the Jews wrote, revised, admitted, and canonized all the books now comprising the Jewish Old Testament. All of these Biblical books were written in Hebrew, with the exception of a few chapters in Ezra and Daniel, which are in Aramaic. During the Hasmonean dynasty, the present Hebrew names were given to the different books, and their order determined. Nothing has been changed since.(52)

At the time the Old Testament was written, astrology was in common use by the Jews, as well as by most civilizations of the Hellenized world. Many Bible verses have been interpreted by modern scholars as having astrological meaning. In some cases, the stars are referred to as messengers of God:

When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38:7)

He telleth the numbers of the stars; he calleth them all by their names. (Ps. 147:4)

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork. (Ps. 19:1)(53)

The acknowledgment of a "star" as a message regarding the birth of a Jewish Messiah is one of the most famous Bible stories. Could this story accurately reflect the Jewish attitude toward astrology in Biblical times? Michael R. Molnar, in The Star of Bethlehem, explains:

Astrology was widespread throughout the Roman world, especially in the Near East, and practitioners of astrology were highly respected. The Magi would naturally have been permitted to have an audience with a king.(54)

The Scriptures also speak of prophets and seers performing miracles of various kinds, "as Moses did before Pharaoh to convince him that the God of the Hebrews was supreme."(55) Some scholars believe these prophets were actually astrologers: "Time cycles in the Books of Genesis, Daniel and Esdras are all prophecies, and every prophecy is astrological, the prophets themselves being astrologers."(56) Still others quote specific chapter and verse to back up this claim:

In fact, the Bible itself states explicitly, in an editorial gloss at I Samuel 9:9, "Previously in Israel, when a person went to inquire of God, thus he said, ‘Come, let us go to the seer’; for he who is now called a prophet was previously called a seer."(57)

Astrology in Jewish Commentaries and Codes of Law

After the first century C.E.,

The rabbinic movement became the dominant intellectual force among Jews. ... The rabbis produced a voluminous literature, notable the famous legal commentaries on the Law of Moses, the Mishna and the two Talmuds.

These documents contain many astrological references:

In the Midrash Pesikta Rabbati, we are told that the planets and signs of the zodiac were among God’s first creations.

* * *

Another Midrash, Leviticus Rabbah, tells us that the sun and moon dislike traveling across the sky each day, because then "People burn incense to us, worship us."

* * *

One of the most important passages on "scientific" astrology is in the Babylonian Talmud, tractate Shabbat. Two pages contain a number of related stories illustrating the varied attitudes toward "scientific" astrology. In the first story Rabbi Judah the Prince claims that it is the day of the week which determines one’s personality, while in the following one, R. Hanina Bar Hama says "Not the constellation of the day but that of the hour is the determining influence." ... [In] the third story ... R. Hanina Bar Hama, from Palestine, and R. Johanan Bar Nappaha, from Mesopotamia, debate whether astrology affected the Jews. ... The fourth story ... tells how God changed Abraham’s horoscope so that he might beget Isaac.

* * *

We also have evidence, from a non-Jewish source, that astrology was practiced by the rabbinic community in Palestine. Epiphanius ... tells us that "both Fate and astrology are practised zealously among them." Epiphanius was born in Eleutheropolis, near Gaza, in 315 C.E., and was bishop of Constantia in Cyprus from 367 until his death in 403.(58)

* * *

The Midrash Tanhuma (on Deuteronomy, portion Ha’azmu) associates the order of the appearance of the signs of the zodiac with the development and spiritual evolution of man, from birth to death and beyond.(59)

Zodiac Mosaics in Jewish Synagogues

Other evidence of the use of astrology by early Jews can be found in zodiac mosaics discovered in the ruins of Jewish synagogues dating from the first six centuries C.E. The first such mosaic was uncovered in 1918 at Na’aran, near Jericho, and has been dated to the fourth or fifth centuries C.E. The second, Beth Alpha, was discovered in 929 on the slopes of Mt. Gilboa. Inscriptions at the site date the mosaic to the sixth century C.E. Another, discovered in Husifa (near Haifa) in 1930, probably dates to about the same period. The Hammath-Tiberias zodiac was excavated in 1961-62 and dates to the fourth and early fifth centuries C.E. All of the zodiac mosaics are similar, containing segmented rings within squares, with figures representing the seasons in the corners, the signs in the segments, and the Sun in the center. There are no known zodiacs from synagogues outside of Israel.

The appearance of zodiacs in these synagogues demonstrates acceptance of astrology by at least some Jews of the era:

Broadly speaking, the Rabbis were hostile to determinism, but otherwise were prepared to tolerate astrological practices. Works of astrological magic, such as Sepher ha-Razim (the Book of Secrets), with its invocation of Helios, date to the era of the synagogue zodiacs.(60)

Summary

The Hebrew Bible is by far the most extensive source of Jewish history:

The Hebrew Scriptures represent Jewish written and oral tradition dating from about 1250 to 150 B.C. ... Compiled by religious devotees, not research historians, the Hebrew Scriptures understandably contain factual errors, imprecisions, and discrepancies. However, they also offer passages of reliable history, and historians find these Scriptures an indispensable source for studying the ancient Near East.(61)

Nevertheless, the huge passage of time between the period being reported on and the date the events were recorded in written form makes it impossible to pin down the source of Biblical accounts:

The final fusion of the Five Books of Moses, called the Pentateuch, occurred around 450 B.C.--in other words, not until eight to sixteen hundred years after some of the events narrated in them took place. Is it not reasonable to suppose that in that period of time, before there were any written records, many changes and alterations must have occurred as the stories and legends were handed down orally from generation to generation? Furthermore, as we have seen, priests, prophets and policy makers were also busy during these centuries editing the manuscripts.

Let us now again assume that it was Moses who first conceived the idea of a covenant with a "chosen people." Could it be that the duality referred to actually deals with two peoples, one, the Hebrews of Abraham and the other, the Israelites of Moses, each having a different God, one called "Jehovah" by the Hebrews, the other called "Elohim" by the Israelites? Could it be that these two peoples were later fused into their first unity by Moses? We must remember that all the Hebrews did not go with Joseph into Egypt. Many remained behind in the land of Canaan, where they continued to practice the Jehovah cult as it had been taught by their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When Moses brought the Israelites into the land of Canaan, the task of Judges, Kings and Prophets became, as we shall see, one of welding these two peoples into one unified nation and these two cults into one religion. If we accept this viewpoint, we can explain the story of Abraham’s encounter with Jehovah as a later addition by Biblical editors. It can further be explained as a partially successful attempt by the rulers to unify two racially related but religiously different peoples by conferring upon them the same God through the simple device of having both Abraham and Moses receive the same revelation from Jehovah and Elohim, now called Jehovah Elohim, the Lord God.(62)

Some parts of the Scripture which are attributed to the Jewish Patriarchs are known to have been composed by someone else:

David’s reputation was so great, however, that many psalms composed either before or after his reign came to be associated with his name. Indeed, the official collection of the first 72 psalms--though not the entire book of 150 psalms, as popular belief has since assumed--was attached to his name.(63)

Since Abraham, who is traditionally considered to have been the first Jew, came from Mesopotamia during a time when astrology was commonly used there, it is possible that he carried with him some of the knowledge of the planetary religion of his home town that was then passed down through the generations. It is also possible that astrology was written into later accounts of the Bible because of its popularity at the time. In view of the gaps of historical validation of Biblical and other accounts, it may never be known for certain whether the earliest Jews used astrology, and if they did, to what extent.

Endnotes

(1) Gordon M. Patterson, The Essentials of Ancient History: 4500 BC to 500 AD (Piscataway, NJ: Research & Education Association, 1998), p. 35.

(2) Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History (Signet Books, 1962), pp. 28-29.

(3) Ibid., pp. 30-31.

(4) Patterson, The Essentials of Ancient History, p. 36.

(5) Ibid.

(6) Ibid., p. 37.

(7) Ibid., p. 38.

(8) Nick Campion, Introduction to the History of Astrology, Chapter on "Mesopotamian Astrology," p. 1.

(9) Patterson, The Essentials of Ancient History , p. 38.

(10) Lester J. Ness, "Astrology and Judaism in Late Antiquity" (Oxford, OH: Miami University, Doctoral Dissertation, 1990), Chapter Four, p. 14.

(11) Harry M. Orlinsky, Ancient Israel (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1960), pp. 102-103.

(12) Ibid., p. 30.

(13) Dimont, Jews, God and History, p. 16

(14) Patterson, The Essentials of Ancient History, p. 41.

(15) Marvin Perry, Western Civilization: A Brief History (Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997), p. 27.

(16) James Herschel Holden, A History of Horoscopic Astrology (Tempe, AZ: American Federation of Astrologers, Inc., 1996), p. 1.

(17) Rabbi Joel C. Dobin, Kabbalistic Astrology: The Sacred Tradition of the Hebrew Sages (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions International, 1999), p. 81.

(18) Karl Anderson, The Astrology of the Old Testament (Boston: Karl Anderson Publisher, 1892), p. 16.

(19) The Jewish Publication Society, TANAKH: A New Translation of The Holy Scriptures According to the Traditional Hebrew Text (1985), p. 3.

(20) Don Jacobs, Astrology’s Pew in Church (The Joshua Foundation, 1979), p. 1.

(21) Dobin, Kabbalistic Astrology, pp. 151-152.

(22) Jacobs, Astrology’s Pew in Church, p. 7.

(23) Dobin, Kabbalistic Astrology, pp. 152-153.

(24) Anderson, The Astrology of the Old Testament, p. 10.

(25) G. Vermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English (Penguin Books, 1962), p. 269.

(26) David Bakan, Sigmund Freud & the Jewish Mystical Tradition (New York: Schocken Books, 1965), p. 70.

(27) Rabbi Matityahu Glazerson, Above the Zodiac: Astrology in Jewish Thought (Jerusalem: Jason Aronson Inc., 1997), p. ix.

(28) Michael R. Molnar, The Star of Bethlehem: The Legacy of the Magi (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1999), p. 157, n. 15.

(29) Ness, "Astrology and Judaism in Late Antiquity," Chapter 4, p. 5.

(30) Jim Tester, A History of Western Astrology (The Boydell Press, 1987), p. 141.

(31) Ness, "Astrology and Judaism in Late Antiquity," Chapter 4, p. 40.

(32) Jacobs, Astrology’s Pew in Church, pp. 8-9.

(33) Dobin, Kabbalistic Astrology, p. 33.

(34) Jacobs, Astrology’s Pew in Church, p. 12.

(35) Ibid., p. 1.

(36) E. Valentia Straiton, The Celestial Ship of the North (New York: Albert & Charles Boni, 1927; reprint ed., Montana: Kessinger Publishing Company, 1992), Vol. I, p. 176.

(37) Dobin, Kabbalistic Astrology, p. 121.

(38) Ibid., p. 158.

(39) Ibid., p. 254.

(40) The Jewish Publication Society, TANAKH, p. xvi.

(41) Jacobs, Astrology’s Pew in Church, p. 29.

(42) Ibid., p. 30.

(43) Dobin, Kabbalistic Astrology, p. 173.

(44) Straiton, The Celestial Ship of the North, Vol. I, p. 174.

(45) Jacobs, Astrology’s Pew in Church, p. 1.

(46) Michael Wise, Martin Abegg, Jr. & Edward Cook, The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation (San Francisco: Harper, 1999), p. 15.

(47) Ness, "Astrology and Judaism in Late Antiquity," Chapter 4, pp. 5-6.

(48) Wise, et al., The Dead Sea Scrolls, p. 243.

(49) Ibid., pp. 244-245.

(50) Ness, "Astrology and Judaism in Late Antiquity," Chapter 4, pp. 8-10.

(51) Ibid., Chapter 4, pp. 11-12.

(52) Dimont, Jews, God and History, p. 115.

(53) Molnar, Star of Bethlehem, p. 16.

(54) Ibid.

(55) Orlinsky, Ancient Israel, p. 125.

(56) Straiton, The Celestial Ship of the North, Vol. I, p. 215.

(57) Orlinsky, Ancient Israel, p. 123.

(58) Ness, "Astrology and Judaism in Late Antiquity," Chapter 4, pp. 14-16.

(59) Glazerson, Above the Zodiac, p. 4.

(60) Lester J. Ness, "Astrology and Judaism in Late Antiquity." The Ancient World, Volume XXVI, no. 2 (1995), pp. 126-130.

(61) Perry, Western Civilization, p. 29.

(62) Dimont, Jews, God and History, pp. 40-41.

(63) Orlinsky, Ancient Israel, p. 66.

Bibliography

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Bakan, David. Sigmund Freud & the Jewish Mystical Tradition. New York: Schocken Books, 1965.

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Dimont, Max I. Jews, God and History. Signet Books, 1962.

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