Biblical Hebrew Forum

["JP vd Giessen" <jpvdgiessen AT freeler.nl>]

Before the 5th century BCE (in Babylonia) there was no astrology in the sense
of what later became known as such. Astrologers practices are more like
propitiatory rituals (namburbis) to different gods (such as Ba‘al), so that
may be called “pre”-Astrology.

See the article from Meir Bar-Ilan "Astronomy and Astrology Among the Jews in
Antiquity" (http://faculty.biu.ac.il/~testsm/astronomy%20and%20astrology.html)
for more details about this subject.

Jan Pieter van de Giessen
Aantekeningen bij de Bijbel www.jpvdgiessen.freeler.nl

On Sat, 20 Aug 2005 19:36:01 +0000, Yitzhak Sapir wrote
> On 8/19/05, Ben Crick wrote:
> > [quoting me]
> > > ...  At the time, astrology was inseparable from astronomy,
> > > and calendar computations depended on astronomical sightings.  Are
> > > you sure that Isaiah 8:19 includes astrology?  This would really make
> > > no sense if Isaiah is an astrologer, as Isaiah 38:8 might suggest (but
> > > not necessarily although I think it definitely raises the issue).
> > > Perhaps only certain forms of occultism were not allowed.
> > 
> >  Astrology in the occult sense would imply casting horoscopes or going 
> > into
> >  trances, which was presumably the stock-in-trade of the 'oBoWT and the
> >  YiDD:`oNiYM with their familiar spirits. Micah 3:11 talks of professional
> >  soothsayers who divine for reward, root QSM. This would include practices
> >  such as hepatoscopy, mentioned in Ezekiel 21:21. Deuteronomy 18:9-12 
> > gives
> >  a list of the abominations of the nations.
>