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ASTROLOGY

Belief that the celestial bodies, especially the moon, sun, planets, and stars (in Greek collectively called “stars”), influence the sublunar world.

Astrology, properly speaking, arose in the Hellenistic sphere and period. Babylonians viewed the stars as only indicators of the will of the gods, not as in themselves the causes of events. This ancient Babylonian tradition (2nd millennium b.c.e.), which influenced Greece, Egypt, the Near East, and India, is called celestial omina (“omens”) rather than astrology. As it has survived in later astrological works, however, it is sometimes termed natural astrology.

Astrology proper can be divided into four varieties: genethlialogical (one’s horoscope at birth), catarchic (position of the stars at the beginning of an action), interrogatory (horoscope when a question is presented), and general (effects on groups, nations, or the world).

Astrology proper is too late to have influenced the ancient Hebrew tradition. The nature and degree of elements of ancient Near Eastern astral religion (esp. sun worship; cf. 2 Kgs. 17:16; 21:3-5; 23:11; Jer. 8:2; Ezek. 8:16) in Israelite religion are disputed. There is little evidence of the tradition of celestial omens (cf. Isa. 47:13-14).

Jewish materials combining omens and Hellenistic astrology are witnessed for the intertestamental period. Writings from Qumran and the Cairo Geniza are shedding new light on the extent and nature of ancient Jewish astrology (4Q186, 4Q318, Cambridge Geniza MS T-S H 11.51), to which Hellenistic Jewish communities such as the one in Alexandria surely contributed. These discoveries add further credence to ancient references to Jewish astrological treatises under names such as Seth, Abraham, Solomon, and Ezra. They also support the supposition of an originally Jewish nature for such treatises preserved in Greek, Latin, Syriac, and Arabic.

The general validity of astrology was confirmed in rabbinic tradition, though here it was debated whether the Jews themselves were under the influence of the stars (b. Šabb. 156a-b). Archaeological evidence, such as zodiacs in synagogues, points toward more widespread astrological traditions than previously supposed.

It is often thought that ancient Christianity strictly rejected astrology. Did. 3:4 does instruct not to be an interpreter of omens or an astrologer. Moral and scientific arguments against astrology developed in the Greco-Roman tradition, as well as a Jewish tradition that fallen angels taught humankind astrology, were adopted by the Christian heresiologists. Still, there is clear evidence for Christian astrology from the early period (astrological basis for sabbath observance and catarchic astrology in the book of Elchasai, 116-17 c.e.; genethlialogy in Bardaisan, beginning of 3rd century; Mani).

In the NT, Paul’s remark in Gal. 4:10 about a tendency to observe days, months, seasons, and years seems equally to condemn astrological reasonings. The group of Christian opponents combatted in Col. 2:8-23 are likely to have recognized astral powers (cf. Jude 8). Astral and astrological imagery pervades Revelation (e.g., Rev. 11:12-13; 12:1), though here the power of the stars is never recognized. Such imagery is also widely witnessed among the “Gnostics,” who variously used astrological calculations.

The value of astrology is praised by the author of the source of Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions 1.27-71 (ca. 200), who, in line with a Jewish tradition, glorifies Abraham as the pre-eminent astrologer. Also influenced by Jewish (and Hellenistic sectarian) precedent, other Christians believed that the stars have power over everyone but Christians (Clement of Alexandria Excerpts from Theodotus 74.2–78.1; Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions 9.31.1). Others, such as Origen, affirmed that the stars are indicators of divine will but that the signs are intelligible only to angels.

The star of Bethlehem (Matt. 2:1-12) was a bone of contention already in ancient Christianity. In origin the star doubtless belongs in the tradition of the omen (similar to the darkness at the death of Jesus, Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44-45), connected perhaps with an OT prophecy (Num. 24:17). The power of astrology crystallized in Christian tradition through celebration of December 25, the birthday of the sun (king of stars), as Christmas.

Bibliography. J. H. Charlesworth, “Jewish Astrology in the Talmud, Pseudepigrapha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Early Palestinian Synagogues,” HTR 70 (1977): 183-200; F. Cumont, Astrology and Religion among the Greeks and Romans (1912; repr. New York, 1960); D. Pingree, “Astrology,” Dictionary of the History of Ideas, ed. P. P. Wiener (New York, 1973), 1:118-26.

F. Stanley Jones

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

ASTROLOGY

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)