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247 THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

247

Jewish name for that planet; but to endeavor to connect this with the Old Testament proper names " Melchizedek " and " Adonizedek " is, to say the hazardous.

least,

The Old Testament contains no more than the pre ceding concerning Hebrew Astronomy. Of Hebrew astrology before the Babylonian exile, it contains not a word; for the passage Isa. xlvii. 13, wherein astrologers are evidently meant by "the astrologers, the star-gazers, the monthly prognosticators," is re-

garded by most scholars as post-exilic. This may perhaps indicate that the ancient Hebrews possessed no astrology; at all events, what is known of the aptrology of the later Hebrews shows Assyro-Babylonian influence, as

is illustrated

by the

fact that

Mercury, for instance, is called "the star," just as the Assyro-Babylonians designate him simply as

Astronomy

already demonstrated by the astronomical section of the Book of Enoch (about 72-80), as well as by such sayings as those of Eleazar Hisma (about 100), a profound mathematician, who could Astronomy "count the drops in the ocean " (Hor. a Re10a), and who declared that " ability to ligious compute the solstice and the calendar is Study. the dessert [auxiliaries] of wisdom " (Ab. iii. 18). Among the sciences that Johanan ben Zakkai mastered was a knowledge of the solstices and the calendar; i.e., the ability to compute the courses of the sun and the moon (Suk. Later writers declare that "to him who can 28a). compute the course of the sun and the revolution of the planets and neglects to do so, may be applied the words of the prophet (Isa. v. 12), They regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands. " To pay attention to the course of the sun and to the revolution of the planets is a religious injunction; for such is the import of the words (Deut. iv. 6), " This is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations" (Shab. 75a). Despite the general importance and religious significance attached to Astronomy in the Holy Land, no scientific discoveries were made there. Astronomical observatories and instruments are nowhere mentioned, unless among the latter are included a chart illustrating the various phases of the moon (R. H. ii. 8), and a sort of telescope for the calculation of air-line distances ("mezofot," Yer. 'Er. v. 22d; The starry heavens "shefoferet," Bab. 'Er. 43J). of Palestine interested the Jews, indeed, as creations of God, as means to determine the holidays; but for a better knowledge No Scientific of them the Jews were undoubtedly Discoveries indebted to the Babylonians and their Hellenic pupils, as evidenced by the in Palforeign term "gematria," used to desestine. ignate the computation of the calenPossibly this word represents a transposition dar. " arithmetic, mathematics " (Sachs, of ypapiwTela "Beitrage," ii. 74) "a sister science of astronomy from the earliest times, but destined as the mathematical element to obtain adequate importance only in later periods " (Pauly-Wissowa, " Realencyklopadie der Classischen Alterthumswissenschaft, " 1831, Most of the observations of a scientific nature ii.). were transmitted by Samuel (250), who attended the schools of the Babylonians, and who claimed to possess as exact a knowledge of the heavenly regions Certain as of the streets of his own city Nehardea. for the parules must nevertheless have existed triarch Rabban Gamaliel (about 100), who applied the above-mentioned lunar tablets and telescope, relied for authority upon such as had been transmitted by his paternal ancestors (Yer. R. H. ii. 58*; '

'

'

'

" the planet.

Bibliography Gunkel's recent Commentary on Gen. (Nowack Series) may be consulted tor Incidental references to

Astronomy for the Babylonian views, see Jensen, Kosmologie der Bahylonier, Strasburg, 1890, passim; Jastrow, ReUgmn of Babylonia and Assyria, xx.-xxii. Epping-Strassmaier, Astronnmisches am Babylon, Freiburg, Biblical





1889. J.

P. J.

JR.

In the Talmud

The study

of the universe as was, like all other sciences in olden times,

a whole held in closest connection with religion, and was cultivated in the interest of the latter. The starworld was to the heathen an object of worship, but not to the Jews, whether national or Hellenized. With this reverence there was connected a superstition that the stars determined the destiny of man. The computation of time also depends Ancient upon a knowledge of the heavenly Conception bodies and this again was closely connected with religion. It is obvious, of Astronomy. therefore, that the Astronomy of the Talmudists could not be an independent science any more than that of the Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, or of all other nations of antiquity or of the medieval ages: it was a department of knowledge belonging to theology. Only those data which are purely astronomical are dealt with here for the rest see Astrology, Calendar, and Idolatry. Nor can those cosmological specu-' lations which were prevalent among all nations of antiquity be discussed in this article. The facts handed down form, however, only a fraction of the astronomical knowledge of the Talmudists for in their academies they touched upon scientific problems only so far as they related to religious questions, and exercised great reserve regarding their stellar investigations, so as not to betray





the secrets of the festival calendar, an important privilege of the house of the Palestinian patriarch and of his tribunal. For these two reasons the following account will naturally give only an inadequate idea of the knowledge of Astronomy among the Jews during the first centuries of the common Furthermore, these fragments do not emanate era. from one homogeneous system, as they are the accumulations of at least four centuries, and are traceable to various authors, Palestinian and Babylonian, among whom some were inclined to mysticism.

The

high value of astronomical knowledge

is

=

—



Bab. R. H. 25a).

As in the Bible, so also in the Talmud, heaven and earth designate the two borders of the universe. The former is a hollow sphere covering the earth. It consists, according to one authority, of a strong and firm plate two or three fingers in thickness, always lustrous and never tarnishing. Another tannaitic authority estimates the diameter of this plate

as one-sixth of the sun's diurnal journey; while