The sign of the 'Twins (Castor and Pollux, AV; The Twin Brothers, RV ; Gr. At6iTKovpoi) is men- tioned as the name of a ship in Ac 28".*
The word mi;? mazzdrCth (a plural form, Job 38"), is, with common consent, regarded as signi- fying ' the signs ' of the zodiac, which come forth ' in their season,' and, as is implied, could not be led forth by a man. In 2 K 23° occurs the word m^)5 mazzaWth, translated ' planets ' in the AV and RV, with the marginal reading ' twelve signs ' of the zodiac. This word is compared by Jensen and others with the Assyr. manzalti, WAI iii. 59. 35, a comparison which is not without its difficulties, as, if correct, it would imply complete ignorance of the root of the Assyr. word on the part of the Heb. scribes, manzalti being for manzazti,i by a common law of interchange between z and I— ignorance which would not, however, be altogether inexcusable, as the Chaldee form is k;'?J5 mazzd- laya, and, though unprovided with the feminine ending, would present the same root, the individual signs being Sj?, mazzal. The Chaldee forms them- selves, however, seem rather to increase the diffi- culty of connecting nWp with the Assyr. manzalti. That expression in Job 9' which accompanies the names of the constellations, namely, \J'0 "Tii] hadrg teman, ' the chambers of the south ' (=Arab. akhadlr al-janub or m.ukhddi' nl-j'anub), is one of peculiar interest. Gesenius would render it ' the most remote southern regions'; but it seems better to regard it as meaning ' the southern con- stellations,' some of which, in all probability, re- presented pictorially ' chambers, from which heathen (divine) creatures looked out, similar to the reliefs representing the constellations on the Bab. boundary-stones. Should this explanation be correct, ' the chambers of the south ' would be in contradistinction to mazzaroth or mazzaloth ' the constellations ' (of the north), but the un- certainty of the exact signification of the two expressions makes every attempt at explanation unsatisfactory. A point to be noted is tliat an Arab, translation of Job 9' mentions ' the heart of the south,' a name of Suhel or Canopus, the |irinci- pal star in the constellation of the Ship (Delitzsch, Job, 2nd ed. p. 128 n.), which marks, by its rising,
* The Bab. names of the si^ns of the zodiac were (about B.C. 600) as follows; The Workman = the Ram; Mitlu and the Bull of Heaven = Tawni8 ; Sib-zi-anna, and the Great Twins™ Gemini ; J ;;u/= Cancer ; the Great Dog = Leo; the Ear of Com — Virpo : ZAbanit = Libra ; the Scorpion = Scorpius ; PapiUag^ Arcitenens ; the Fish-goat = Caper ; Gula= Amphora ; the Water- channel and the Tails = Pisces. Tliere were also many othet constellations, the number of which is uncertait^
t The changes would be manzalti, mamarti, manzalti, man zalti.
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the season in wliieli the fruit becomes ripe throii;;li the increase of the heat. The ' heart of the south ' would seem to go with and explain the * chambers of the south.'
Venus is apparently mentioned (Is 14") under the name ''^•■t h'lcl, 'the shining one,' with the addition T5'"I? ' son of the morning,' i.e. Lucifer, the day-star, a name of Venus as the morning star, to which the king of Babylon is, in this pa.'isaf^e, compared. This Heb. word agrees in meaning with that used for Venus in Arab., namely, zuhnrnh ' splendid (star),' and is from the same root as the A.ssyr. Hclu ' to be bright.' Strange to say, however, no Assyr. name for Venus from this root ha.s been as yet found, the word generally i|Uoted, miiitUUu, being a ghost-word, due to a faulty copy.* As the Assyrians knew, from the earliest times, that Venus aa a morning and as an evening star was the same, it is probable that the Hebrews were aware of the fact also.t
In Am S'*, where it is said, 'Yea, ye have l)ome Siccuth your king, and Chiun your images, the star of 3'our god, which ye made to yourselves ' (UV), there is hardly any doubt that Chiun ([v? k-iyijun) is the Assyr. kdatvanu (or, as read by some, AviiKvjnu), the planet Saturn, which was known to the Hab. and Assyr. under that name, preserved in Arab, under the form kuiwan, and in tlie Peshitta us kniwdna, and of which the "Ptutpiy of the LXX is supposed to be a corruption. The pointing of the Heb. form is regarded by Schrader as incorrect, und he therefore writes, u[)on the model of the Arab., etc., p,"3 kewan.X Chiun or Kewan does not properly belong to Heb. astronomy, but it probably •_'ives us the name of the planet Saturn among the Hebrews, who seem to have worshiiijjed him under the form of the star which represented him.
Mention of the sun is common, but the passages in which it is referred to are rather general than truly a.stronomical. It is used to indicate the time of the day, aa ' when the sun went down ' (Gn 1.")"), ' till the sun be hot ' (Neh 7') ; comparison, as ' clear as the sun ' (Ca 6'°), etc. etc. In the account of the Creation it is called the ' greater ' of the ' two great lights ' (Gn 1"), made ' to rule the day,' and set in the firmament of the heaven ' to ;,'ive light u[)on the earth,' and, with the lesser light, 'to divide the liglit from the darkness' (vv."'"). The sun would also be included among llie lights in the firmament of the heaven in v.'*, which were ' for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years.' It will be seen from this that the mtronomical ideas of the Hebrews with regard to the sun were strictly those of an observer on the surface of the earth, and were ba.scd ui>on the strictly practical view of its value in the matters of everyday life — in fact, they were the ideas generally held by the people of that and succeeding ages until the birth of moiiern astronomy. If we liad the Bab. account of the Creation complete, we >hould in all probaliility find therein views em- bodying those in the lirst chap, of Genesis. What may be rejrarded as a poetical astronomical Wcw of the Kun in his course is that contained in Ps I!)*-*, where the 'tabernacle of the sun' is men- tioned, and he is compared to 'a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and ' rejoicing as a strong