EXPLANATION OF THE TABLES.
p. 1.
THE apparent places and movements of the sun, moon, and planets have always been described by their relation to the fixed stars. From time immemorial these fixed stars have been distinguished into constellations, called by the names of various earthly objects. Few of these constellations appear to the eye as distinct groups, and still fewer have any similitude in form to the things after which they are named. Twelve of these, through which the sun, moon, and planets appear to move, have every where and always been named after the same, or nearly the same, objects. These names have varied according to the dialects of the nations, but are to be traced to the same ideas. Those transmitted by the Hebrews 1 may be taken as the most ancient. From these the Arabic and Syriac little differ. The Coptic 2 have been thought to preserve the ancient Egyptian; the Greek 3, to have been translated from the Egyptian; the Latin 4, to have been derived from the Etruscans. The arts and sciences of Etruria being supposed to have come from Assyria, will account for Semitic roots being found in the Latin names.
The other thirty-six constellations, called decans, apparently of equal antiquity, comprise the rest of the stars known to the north temperate zone. These have varied more in their names and figures: but Semitic roots appear in the names; and the figures, like those of the signs, will be found used as types by the Hebrew prophets.
The previously unknown stars of the southern hemisphere have been observed since the passage to India by the Cape. Tradition had said that the south pole constellation was in the shape of a cross 5. So it had been seen in the early ages, and so it was called by those who again beheld it. By the precession of the equinoxes it had ...
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1 See Hyde, Relig. Vet. Pers.; Gaffarelli, Curio. Litr., &c.
2 Montucla, Astro. Ancien.; Ulugh Beigh, &c.
3 Plato in Cratylus.
4 Modern writers on Etruris, Humboldt (Cosmos).
5 Buxt. Rab. Lex.; Com. on Deut.; Aben Ears, &c.
p. 2.
disappeared from sight in the north temperate zone about the time of the Christian era 1; but the memory of it survived among the nations. Subsequently an English astronomer, cotemporary with Newton, but not consulting him, applied to stars, whose relations to the ancient constellations was not recognized, names and figures utterly incongruous with those already existing. With these modern interpolations this examination of the ancient astronomical records has no connexion.
The annexed tables are intended to show that the meanings attributed to the ancient names of the signs, constellations, and stars, are really to be found in them, the proof being sought in the use of these words or their roots in the Hebrew Scriptures, and other Oriental dialects.
The Hebraist will find the roots in the margin of the right-hand column, and in the texts referred to, with occasional allowance for differences in the divisions of the English version. The English reader will find the meanings here assigned to the names in the corresponding texts to which references are given.
In the left-hand column some of the Scripture prophecies are pointed out with which the names and emblems, as here explained, correspond 2. The prophesies frequently containing the very words transmitted as the names, an asterisk indicates where they do so.
The tables are also intended to show the marks of design in the arrangement and correspondence of the names and figures, and the adaptation of the decans to the signs, as developing the leading ideas of those signs which they accompany. Those ideas are here shown to be expressed in various prophecies of the Holy Scriptures.
By Plato we are informed that Solon made an investigation, apparently on scientific and theological subjects, into the power of names, and found that the Egyptians, from whom the Greeks derived them, had transferred them from "barbarian" dialects into their own language. According to ancient authorities, the Egyptians had learnt their astronomy from the Chaldeans. The meaning of the names of astronomy transmitted by the Greeks should therefore he sought in the dialect of those from whom the Egyptians received the science. In the Chaldee contained in the Hebrew Scriptures it may be seen that every Chaldee word is explicable by the cognate Hebrew root, to which, therefore, those names are here referred. The early Arabic is thus equally intelligible. The refinements of modern Arabic have scarcely at all affected the names of ancient astronomy. Its descriptive epithets used as synonymes, and its melodious profusion of inserted vowels, ornament and may a little obscure the original idea, but do not alter the sense.
The writers of the Scriptural annunciations of the prophecies had the same divine truths communicated to them as had been revealed to Adam, Abel, Seth, and Enoch. They have delivered them, speaking as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Those who invented the emblems seem to have desired to perpetuate symbolically the unwritten revelation made to that earliest race. The agreement of the results of the two modes of transmission, the written and the emblematic, will here be seen. In some instances it may appear intentional, in others incidental to the unity of the subject. That subject, the great theme of prophecy in all ages, was in both the seed of the woman who should bruise the serpent's head, the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world, and returning in glory to triumph and to reign.
The prophecies were given of God: the words in which the prophets expressed them ...
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1 Cosmos.
2 The names in use in Arab astronomy may have belonged to the primitive language, as it is said that Al was originally the Hebrew article. (See Moses Stuart's Grammar.)
p. 3.
were of the Holy Spirit. The names and emblems of astronomy, intended to convey those divine truths, were of man, the efforts of human intellect to aid in extending and perpetuating the knowledge of those prophecies at first orally communicated.
The names are here explained on the supposition that the first language was given by the Creator to the first man, conveying ideas to the mind by sounds, as impressions of form and colour are conveyed by sight. In all languages these sounds are traceable, conveying the same ideas. In the dialects of the most ancient and earliest civilized nations they are the most recognizable: in those of the most barbarous the most obscured. This primitive language appears to have been spoken by Noah, from the names given by him to his sons. In the confusion of the lip at Babel, pronunciation, not words or roots, were altered. This may be inferred from the presence of Hebrew roots in the dialects of all nations.
The simple and consistent explanations obtained in this manner often widely differ from those derived in other ways. Plato long ago observed that all things possess some quality which is the proper reason of their appellations, and that those names which express things as they exist are the true names. The qualities from whence the things figured in the constellations were named made them suitable types of higher objects in which these qualities, though in a subordinate degree, were also to be found. So the innocence of the lamb suited with the holiness of the Savior; so the force of the lion, His all-subduing power. But these, though increasing the beauty of this type, do not express the leading ideas as contained in the original names. Taleb, the lamb, is the sent forth, as the lamb from its mother, as He who is our passover from God. Shur, the bull, from his strength; Thaumim, the twins, from their unitedness; Sartan, the crab or beetle, from its fast holding; Arieh, the lion, from rending the prey; Bethulah, the offspring, as daughter or branch; Mozanaim, the scales, encompassing as in weighing; Akrab, the scorpion, wounding him that cometh; Kesith, the archer sending forth the arrow; Gedi, the cut off, the slain victim; Deli, the pouring forth of water; Dagim, the fish, as multitudes: these are all names that meet Plato's requirement.
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1 In Cratylus.
NOTE. - The names with Al prefixed in use in Arabic astronomy are now used merely as proper names, their meaning being lost. They may be held to belong to the primitive language. Al is supposed by Stuart, &c., to have been the original Hebrew article.
Asterisks in the first column mark where the word existing as the name occurs in the Hebrew prophecy where the figure is used.
The Hebrew characters are here given without points, for the sake of clearness, as in the titles, &c. of pointed Hebrew Bibles. Two-lettered roots have been used as often as might be, partly because Rawlinson and Layard, and some Egyptologers explain their languages chiefly by them, and partly because some lexicographers prefer them where admissible. Three-lettered roots, made by [ ] inserted, add the idea of duration; by he postfixed, add the idea of existence; doubling the last radical adds that of intensity. In Arabic two-lettered roots become three-lettered by teshdid, in Hebrew two-lettered roots remain, probably belonging to the primitive language, which many now believe to have been only a less copious Hebrew.
THE apparent places and movements of the sun, moon, and planets have always been described by their relation to the fixed stars. From time immemorial these fixed stars have been distinguished into constellations, called by the names of various earthly objects. Few of these constellations appear to the eye as distinct groups, and still fewer have any similitude in form to the things after which they are named. Twelve of these, through which the sun, moon, and planets appear to move, have every where and always been named after the same, or nearly the same, objects. These names have varied according to the dialects of the nations, but are to be traced to the same ideas. Those transmitted by the Hebrews 1 may be taken as the most ancient. From these the Arabic and Syriac little differ. The Coptic 2 have been thought to preserve the ancient Egyptian; the Greek 3, to have been translated from the Egyptian; the Latin 4, to have been derived from the Etruscans. The arts and sciences of Etruria being supposed to have come from Assyria, will account for Semitic roots being found in the Latin names.
The other thirty-six constellations, called decans, apparently of equal antiquity, comprise the rest of the stars known to the north temperate zone. These have varied more in their names and figures: but Semitic roots appear in the names; and the figures, like those of the signs, will be found used as types by the Hebrew prophets.
The previously unknown stars of the southern hemisphere have been observed since the passage to India by the Cape. Tradition had said that the south pole constellation was in the shape of a cross 5. So it had been seen in the early ages, and so it was called by those who again beheld it. By the precession of the equinoxes it had ...
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
1 See Hyde, Relig. Vet. Pers.; Gaffarelli, Curio. Litr., &c.
2 Montucla, Astro. Ancien.; Ulugh Beigh, &c.
3 Plato in Cratylus.
4 Modern writers on Etruris, Humboldt (Cosmos).
5 Buxt. Rab. Lex.; Com. on Deut.; Aben Ears, &c.
p. 2.
disappeared from sight in the north temperate zone about the time of the Christian era 1; but the memory of it survived among the nations. Subsequently an English astronomer, cotemporary with Newton, but not consulting him, applied to stars, whose relations to the ancient constellations was not recognized, names and figures utterly incongruous with those already existing. With these modern interpolations this examination of the ancient astronomical records has no connexion.
The annexed tables are intended to show that the meanings attributed to the ancient names of the signs, constellations, and stars, are really to be found in them, the proof being sought in the use of these words or their roots in the Hebrew Scriptures, and other Oriental dialects.
The Hebraist will find the roots in the margin of the right-hand column, and in the texts referred to, with occasional allowance for differences in the divisions of the English version. The English reader will find the meanings here assigned to the names in the corresponding texts to which references are given.
In the left-hand column some of the Scripture prophecies are pointed out with which the names and emblems, as here explained, correspond 2. The prophesies frequently containing the very words transmitted as the names, an asterisk indicates where they do so.
The tables are also intended to show the marks of design in the arrangement and correspondence of the names and figures, and the adaptation of the decans to the signs, as developing the leading ideas of those signs which they accompany. Those ideas are here shown to be expressed in various prophecies of the Holy Scriptures.
By Plato we are informed that Solon made an investigation, apparently on scientific and theological subjects, into the power of names, and found that the Egyptians, from whom the Greeks derived them, had transferred them from "barbarian" dialects into their own language. According to ancient authorities, the Egyptians had learnt their astronomy from the Chaldeans. The meaning of the names of astronomy transmitted by the Greeks should therefore he sought in the dialect of those from whom the Egyptians received the science. In the Chaldee contained in the Hebrew Scriptures it may be seen that every Chaldee word is explicable by the cognate Hebrew root, to which, therefore, those names are here referred. The early Arabic is thus equally intelligible. The refinements of modern Arabic have scarcely at all affected the names of ancient astronomy. Its descriptive epithets used as synonymes, and its melodious profusion of inserted vowels, ornament and may a little obscure the original idea, but do not alter the sense.
The writers of the Scriptural annunciations of the prophecies had the same divine truths communicated to them as had been revealed to Adam, Abel, Seth, and Enoch. They have delivered them, speaking as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Those who invented the emblems seem to have desired to perpetuate symbolically the unwritten revelation made to that earliest race. The agreement of the results of the two modes of transmission, the written and the emblematic, will here be seen. In some instances it may appear intentional, in others incidental to the unity of the subject. That subject, the great theme of prophecy in all ages, was in both the seed of the woman who should bruise the serpent's head, the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world, and returning in glory to triumph and to reign.
The prophecies were given of God: the words in which the prophets expressed them ...
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
1 Cosmos.
2 The names in use in Arab astronomy may have belonged to the primitive language, as it is said that Al was originally the Hebrew article. (See Moses Stuart's Grammar.)
p. 3.
were of the Holy Spirit. The names and emblems of astronomy, intended to convey those divine truths, were of man, the efforts of human intellect to aid in extending and perpetuating the knowledge of those prophecies at first orally communicated.
The names are here explained on the supposition that the first language was given by the Creator to the first man, conveying ideas to the mind by sounds, as impressions of form and colour are conveyed by sight. In all languages these sounds are traceable, conveying the same ideas. In the dialects of the most ancient and earliest civilized nations they are the most recognizable: in those of the most barbarous the most obscured. This primitive language appears to have been spoken by Noah, from the names given by him to his sons. In the confusion of the lip at Babel, pronunciation, not words or roots, were altered. This may be inferred from the presence of Hebrew roots in the dialects of all nations.
The simple and consistent explanations obtained in this manner often widely differ from those derived in other ways. Plato long ago observed that all things possess some quality which is the proper reason of their appellations, and that those names which express things as they exist are the true names. The qualities from whence the things figured in the constellations were named made them suitable types of higher objects in which these qualities, though in a subordinate degree, were also to be found. So the innocence of the lamb suited with the holiness of the Savior; so the force of the lion, His all-subduing power. But these, though increasing the beauty of this type, do not express the leading ideas as contained in the original names. Taleb, the lamb, is the sent forth, as the lamb from its mother, as He who is our passover from God. Shur, the bull, from his strength; Thaumim, the twins, from their unitedness; Sartan, the crab or beetle, from its fast holding; Arieh, the lion, from rending the prey; Bethulah, the offspring, as daughter or branch; Mozanaim, the scales, encompassing as in weighing; Akrab, the scorpion, wounding him that cometh; Kesith, the archer sending forth the arrow; Gedi, the cut off, the slain victim; Deli, the pouring forth of water; Dagim, the fish, as multitudes: these are all names that meet Plato's requirement.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
1 In Cratylus.
NOTE. - The names with Al prefixed in use in Arabic astronomy are now used merely as proper names, their meaning being lost. They may be held to belong to the primitive language. Al is supposed by Stuart, &c., to have been the original Hebrew article.
Asterisks in the first column mark where the word existing as the name occurs in the Hebrew prophecy where the figure is used.
The Hebrew characters are here given without points, for the sake of clearness, as in the titles, &c. of pointed Hebrew Bibles. Two-lettered roots have been used as often as might be, partly because Rawlinson and Layard, and some Egyptologers explain their languages chiefly by them, and partly because some lexicographers prefer them where admissible. Three-lettered roots, made by [ ] inserted, add the idea of duration; by he postfixed, add the idea of existence; doubling the last radical adds that of intensity. In Arabic two-lettered roots become three-lettered by teshdid, in Hebrew two-lettered roots remain, probably belonging to the primitive language, which many now believe to have been only a less copious Hebrew.
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