Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Alamo-Girl
Do you find any of the other astronomical observations in Enoch curious, given its antiquity?

If he dates around the 2nd century BC, I don't find anything he said to be unique to him. Perhaps I'm missing something.

2,288 posted on 08/23/2003 1:57:38 PM PDT by PatrickHenry (Hic amor, haec patria est.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2286 | View Replies ]


To: PatrickHenry
Thank you for your post!

I don't find anything he said to be unique to him. Perhaps I'm missing something.

The book of Enoch was copied in Aramaic language in 200-150 B.C. (presumably it was previously written in Aramaic or translated from Hebrew.)

The most recent date, 150 B.C. would correspond to the first proposal of orbits by the Greeks. Much earlier, the moon is proposed to be reflecting sunlight.

The main Jewish/Greek philosopher of the earlier period was Philo. And I believe he would have either written in Hebrew or Greek.

On top of the relatively new Greek ideas of reflected light and orbits, Enoch also includes several other curious statements (from my post above):

And perhaps a reference to supernova: “And I saw another thing regarding lightening: how some stars arise and become lightening and cannot dwell with the rest.” 1 Enoch 44

And then there is a reference to the end of all that there is (and beginning) which sounds like a singularity: in chapter 18 a place with no measure and no content, a pit "where the heavens come together." He records that the angel explained [v. 14] "this is the ultimate end of heaven and earth; it is the prison house for the stars and the powers of heaven…"

It is curious to me that the very new Greek astronomy was likely written in Aramaic prior to its being copied at Qumran. There is precious little time at the 150 B.C. mark to get the orbit information from Greece to an original Aramaic manuscript to Qumran to be copied.

Of course, the first question in evaluating such a text is whether the peculiar information could have been known to the original scribe of Enoch and the next, how?

2,290 posted on 08/23/2003 2:14:45 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2288 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson