Constellations - NIDGALOT
George Athas
gathas at mail.usyd.edu.au
Tue Jan 5 17:53:04 EST 1999
Ben Crick wrote:
> > Were there constellations in ancient Hebrew culture?
> > What sorts of figures were they? Were the ancient Jews astonomers?
> > Astrologers?
>
> Dear Jane
>
> What an interesting question! [...]
> Astrology was a no-no for the children of Israel;
But that doesn't mean it didn't exist. If it had to prohibited, it implies there was
some tendency to practise it.
Interestingly, Song of Songs may preserve a word which means "constellations", but
which is traditionally translated as "banners" or "bannered host". The word is
NIDGALOT (SoS 6:4; 10). Indeed, this seems to be the best way to understand the word
in SoS 6:10 where NIDGALOT are heaped together with the sun and moon. The root DGL
seems to imply "looking up", and so would fit the context. This would also fit the
context in which DEGEL implies a division of an army. A constellation would certainly
make sense if it seen as both something you look up at, and something which is an
ordered division of the starry host.
Best regards,
GEORGE ATHAS
Dept of Semitic Studies,
University of Sydney
- Email: gathas at mail.usyd.edu.au
---------------------------------------------------
Visit the Tel Dan Inscription Website at
http://www-personal.usyd.edu.au/~gathas/teldan.htm
---------------------------------------------------
More information about the b-hebrew
mailing list