Despite Old Testament injunctions against astrology and astrolatry
(Deuteronomy 4:19;
Isaiah 47:13-15),
the Jews of the Hellenistic and Roman period were certainly familiar with the symbols and practice of astrology. This is
testified in various texts (notably in the Dead Sea Scrolls from Qumran and in the Talmud) and in archaeological finds
such as the mosaic zodiac in the synagogue at Beth Alpha.
- Mitchel, Ormsbj MacKnight, The Astronomy of the Bible (Blakeman & Mason, New York,
1863) [UMDL link].
- Karppe, S., “Quelques mots d’astrologie talmudique”, Journal asiatique, ou recueil
de mémoires, d’extraits et de notices relatifs à l’histoire, à la philosophie, aux langues et
à la littérature des peuples orientaux, sér. 9, 5 (1895), 316-339
[Gallica
link].
- Schiaparelli, Giovanni Virginio, L’astronomia nell’Antico Testamento (U. Hoepli, Milan, 1903
[= Manuali Hoepli, Ser. scientifica, nr. 332]), reprinted in: Giovanni
Schiaperelli: Scritti
sulla storia della astronomia antica. Parte prima, scritti edita. Tomo I
(Istituto italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente/Associazione Culturale
Mimesis, Rome/Milan, 1997), pp. 147-300 – German edition [translated by
W.A.F. Lüdtke]: Die Astronomie im Alten Testament (Ricker, Giessen, 1904) – English
edition: Astronomy in the Old Testament (Clarendon, Oxford, 1905).
- Bischoff, Erich, Babylonisch-astrales im Weltbilde des Thalmud und Midrasch
(???, Leipzig, 1907).
- Maunder, E. Walter, The Astronomy of the Bible (T. Sealey Clark & Co., London, 1908)
[UMDL link].
- Voigt, Heinrich G., Die Geschichte Jesu und die Astrologie: Eine religionsgeschichtliche und
chronologische Untersuchung zu der Erzählung von den Weisen aus dem Morgenlande
(J.C. Hinrichs’sche Buchhandlung, Leipzig, 1911).
- Boll, Franz, Aus der Offenbarung Johannis: Hellenistische Studien zum Weltbild der Apokalypse
(B.G. Teubner Verlag, Leipzig, 1914 [= Stoicheia: Studien zur Geschichte des antiken
Weltbildes und der griechischen Wissenschaft, nr. 1]) – reprinted in 1967 by
A.M. Hakkert (Amsterdam).
- De Witt, Norman W., “The Influence of the Saviour Sentiment upon Virgil”, Transactions and Proceedings
of the American Philological Association, 54 (1923), 39-50 [JSTOR
link].
- Mowinckel, Sigmund, Die Sternnamen im Alten Testament (Grøondahl, Oslo, 1928 [= Norsk teologisk
tidsskrift, nr. 5, pp. 5-74]).
- Lundmark, Knut, “The Messianic Ideas and their Astronomical Background”, Actes du VIIe Congrès
International d’Histoire des Sciences: Jérusalem (4-12 août 1953) (Académie Internationale
d’Histoire des Sciences, Paris, 1953 [= Collection de travaux de l’Académie Internationale
d’Histoire des Sciences, nr. 8]), pp. 436-439.
- Lundmark, Knut, Sur le problème de l’origine et de l’évolution de l’idée du Messie et de
l’éschatologie du Noveau Testament (C.W.K. Gleerup, Lund, 1954 [= Meddelande från
Lunds Astronomiska Observatorium, ser. II, nr. 131]).
- Allegro, John Marco, “An Astrological Cryptic Document from Qumran”, Journal of Semitic Studies,
9 (1964), 291-294 [Periodicals
Archive Online link].
- Goodenough, Erwin Ramsdell, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period (Princeton University Press,
Princeton, 1964), vol. 8, pp. 167-218
[“Pagan Symbols in Judaism: Astronomical Symbols”] – reprinted in E.R. Goodenough, Jewish
Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period: Abridged Edition (Princeton University Press, Princeton,
1988), chapter 4.
- Carmignac, Jean, “Les Horoscopes de Qumran“, Revue de Qumran, 5
(1965), 199-217.
- Delcor, Mathias, “Recherches sur un horoscope en langue hébraïque provenant de Qoumran”, Revue de Qumran,
5 (1965/66), 521-542 – reprinted in M. Delcor, Religion d’Israël et Proche Orient
Ancien.
Des Phéniciens aux Esséniens (???,
Leiden, 1976), pp. 298-319.
- Dupont-Sommer, André, “Deux documents horoscopiques essséniens découverts à Qoumrân, près de la mer Morte“,
Comptes rendus de l’Académie des Inscriptions et des Belles-Lettres,
??? (1966), 239-253.
- Dupont-Sommer, André, “La secte des Esséniens et les horoscopes de Qoumrân”, Archeologia,
15 (1967), 24-31.
- Lehmann, M.R., “New Light on Astrology in Qumran and the Talmud”, Revue de Qumran, 8
(1975), 599-602.
- Charlesworth, James H., “Jewish Astrology in the Talmud, Pseudepigraphia, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and
the Early Palestinian Synagogues”, Harvard Theological Review, 70 (1977),
183-200.
- Charlesworth, James H., “Rylands Syriac MS 44 and a New Addition to the Pseudepigrapha”,
Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, 60 (1978), 376-403.
- Sarfatti, Gad B., “I segni dello zodiaco nell’ iconografia ebraica”, in: R. Bonfil et al.
(eds.), Scritti in memoria di Umberto Nahon: Saggi sull’ ebraismo italiano (Fondazioni
Sally Mayer, Jerusalem, 1978), pp. 180-195.
- Renaker, David, “The Horoscope of Christ”, in: J.D. Simmonds (ed.), Milton Studies XII
(University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, 1979), pp. 213-233.
- Philonenko, Marc, “Deux horoscopes qoumrâniens: Identification des personnages”, Revue d’histoire et
de philosophie religieuses, 65 (1985), 61-66.
- Tocci, Franco Michelini, “Note e Discussioni: Note e documenti di
letterature religiosa e parareligiosa giudaica”, Annali dell’Istituto
Orientale di Napoli, 46 (1986), 101-108.
- Charlesworth, James H., “Jewish Interest in Astrology during the Hellenistic and Roman Period”, in:
W. Haase (ed.), Aufsteig und Niedergang des Romische Weltreiches,
Serie II, Band 20, Theil 2 (Walter de Gruyter, New York,
1987), pp. 926-956.
- Foerster, Gideon, “The Zodiac in Ancient Synagogues and its Place in Jewish Thought and Literature”,
Eretz Israel, 19 (1987), 225-234.
- Greenfield, Jonas Carl & Sokoloff, Michael, “Astrological and
Related Omen Texts in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic”, Journal of Near
Eastern Studies, 48 (1989), 201-214 [JSTOR
link].
- Zatelli, Ida, “Astrology and the Worship of the Stars in the Bible”, Zeitschrift für
alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 103 (1991), 86-99.
- Shaked, Sh., “A Palestinian Jewish Aramaic Hemerologion”, Jerusalem
Studies in Arabic and Islam, 15 (1992), 28-42.
- Albani, Matthias, “Der Zodiakos in 4Q318 und die Henoch-Astronomie”, Mitteilungen und Beiträge
[der Kirchliche Hochschule Leipzig, Forschungsstelle Judentum], 7 (1993), 1-42.
- Wise, Michael Owen, Thunder in Gemini and other Essays on the History, Language and Literature of
Second Temple Palestine (JSOT Press, Sheffield, 1994 [= Journal for the Study of the
Pseudepigrapha, Supplement series, nr. 15]).
- Greenfield, Jonas Carl, Sokoloff, Michael, Pingree, David Edwin & Yardeni,
Ada, “An Astrological Text from
Qumran (4Q318) and Reflections on some Zodiacal Names”, Revue de Qumran, 16 (1995),
507-525.
- Dupont-Sommer, André, Les écrits esséniens découverts près de la mer Morte,
rev. ed. (Payot, Paris, 1996),
pp. ???-???.
- Stuckrad, Kocku von, Frömmigkeit und Wissenschaft: Astrologie in
Tanach, Qumran und frührabbinischer Literatur (Lang,
Frankfurt am Main, 1996 [= Europäische Hochschulschriften: Reihe 23
(Theologie), nr. 572]).
- Böttrich, C., “Astrologie in der Henochtradition”, Zeitschrift für
alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 109 (1997), 222-245.
- Schmidt, Francis, “Astrologie juive ancienne: Essai d’interpretation de 4Qcryptique (4Q186)”, Revue
de Qumran, 18 (1997), 125-141 – published in
English as “Ancient Jewish Astrology: An Attempt to Interpret 4QCryptic (4Q186)”, in:
M.E. Stone & E.G. Chazon (eds.), Biblical Perspectives: Early Use and Interpretation
of the Bible in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Proceedings of the First
International Symposium of the Orion Center for the Study of Dead Sea
Scrolls and Associated Literature, 12-14 May, 1996 (E.J. Brill, Leiden/Boston, 1998),
pp. 189-205.
- Molnar, Michael R., “Greek Astrology as a Source of the Messianic Portent”, The Ancient World,
29 (1998), 139-150.
- Albani, Matthias, “Horoscopes in the Qumran Scrolls”, in: P.W. Flint
& J.C. VanderKam (eds.), The Dead Sea Scrolls after Fifty Years:
A Comprehensive Assessment (E.J. Brill, Leiden/Boston/Köln, 1999),
vol. 2, pp. 279-330.
- Faracovi, Ornella Pompeo, Gli oroscopi di Cristo (Marsilio Editori, Venice, 1999) – discusses medieval
and Renaissance horoscopes for Christ drawn up by Abu Ma‘shar, Albertus
Magnus, Pseudo-Ovid, Roger Bacon, Pierre d’Ailly, Marsilio Ficino, Pico
della Mirandola, Tiberio Russiliano Sesto and Hieronymus Cardano.
- Ness, Lester J. Written in the Stars: Ancient Zodiac Mosaics (Shangri-La Publications, Warren Center
[Pa.], 1999 [= Marco Polo Monographs, nr. 1]).
- Albani, Matthias, “Horoscopes”, in: L.H. Schiffman & J.C. VanderKam
(eds.), Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Oxford University
Press, Oxford, 2000), vol. 1, pp. 370-373.
- Molnar, Michael R., “The Evidence for Aries the Ram as the Astrological Sign of Judea”, Journal for the
History of Astronomy, 34 (2003), 325-327.
- Bar-Ilan, Meir, “Astrology in Ancient Judaism/Astronomy in Ancient Judaism”, in: J. Neusner, A. Avery-Peck
& W.S. Green (eds.), The Encyclopaedia of Judaism: Vol. V, Supplement Two (Brill, Leiden/Boston, 2004),
pp. 2031-2044.