Download or read book The Star of Bethlehem and Babylonian Astrology written by MR Dag Kihlman and published by Dag Kihlman Publish. This book was released on 2017-03-02 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Babylonian magi were famous for their ability to read the skies. They recorded and calculated the movements of the stars and planets, and thus laid the foundations for modern astronomy. However, their former capital, the city of Babylon, was slowly falling into ruin under the rule of the Parthian king, who occupied the country and endorsed the Greek culture. At around the time that Christ was born, the magi read in the night sky that the gods were planning changes: the Parthian king would die, and the dynasty would change. Their divination manual called the agent of this change the king of Amurru, and Amurru was their ancient name for the area from western modern-day Syria down to Israel and Jordan, where the dominant force at the time was the house of Herod. The skies could not tell them that a child would be born, since no such omen was known in their manual. However, the omens heralding the death of the king occurred on two different occasions; the first omen also foretold a very difficult birth, and the second omen was seen nine months later. It is likely that the magi included the birth in their interpretation, since the two omens are in full accordance with the two signs described in Revelation 12 in the Bible.
Download or read book Mesopotamian Astrology written by Ulla Susanne Koch and published by Museum Tusculanum Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is intended to serve as a general introduction to Mesopotamian astrology, both its outward phenomena and its inner structure.
Download or read book Babylonian Horoscopes written by Francesca Rochberg and published by American Philosophical Society. This book was released on 1998 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Emerging for the first time in the 5th cent. B.C., horoscopes reflect the application of the idea and practice of celestial divination to the life of the individual. Whereas an omen focuses on a single astronomical phenomenon, the horoscope takes into account the positions of the moon, sun, and five planets at the moment of a birth. As such, Babylonian horoscopes presuppose the concept of the ecliptic and a methodology for obtaining the positions of heavenly bodies when they are not observable. This is the first complete edition of the extant cuneiform horoscopes -- with transcription and philological and astronomical commentary. This study offers a systematic description of the documents as a definable class of Babylonian astronomical/astrological texts.
Download or read book The Babylonian Astrology Astronomy written by Rumen Kolev and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Hellenistic Astronomy written by Alan C. Bowen and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-02-17 with total page 783 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Hellenistic Astronomy: The Science in Its Contexts, renowned scholars address questions about what the ancient science of the heavens was and the numerous contexts in which it was pursued.
Download or read book Ancient Astronomy and Celestial Divination written by Noel M. Swerdlow and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents recent work on Babylonian celestialdivination and on the Greek inheritors of the Babyloniantradition.In the ancient world, the collection and study of celestial phenomena and the intepretation of their prophetic significance, especially as applied to kings and nations, were closely related sciences carried out by the same scholars. Both ancient sources and modern research agree that astronomy and celestial divination arose in Babylon. Only in the late nineteenth century, however, did scholars begin to identify and decipher the original Babylonian sources, and the process of understanding those sources has been long and difficult. This volume presents recent work on Babylonian celestial divination and on the Greek inheritors of the Babylonian tradition. Both philological and mathematical work are included. The essays shed new light on all of the known textual sources, including the omen series Enuma Anu Enlil, which contains omens from as far back as the early second or even third millennium, and the earliest personal horoscopes, from about 400 B.C., as well as the Astronomical Diaries, ephemerides, and other observational and mathematical texts. One essay concerns astronomical papyri that confirm the extensive transmission of Babylonian methods into Greek; a study of Ptolemy's lunar theory suggests that Ptolemy relied more on his own observations than previously thought; and an analysis of Theon's commentary on Ptolemy's Handy Tables shows that Theon explicated their meaning both conscientiously and competently.ContributorsAsger Aaboe, Alan C. Bowen, Lis Brack-Bernsen, John P. Britton, Bernard R. Goldstein, Gerd Graßhoff, Hermann Hunger, Alexander Jones, Erica Reiner, F. Rochberg, N. M. Swerdlow, Anne Tihon, C. B. F. Walker
Download or read book The Babylonian Theory of the Planets written by N. M. Swerdlow and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-07-14 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the second millennium b.c., Babylonian scribes assembled a vast collection of astrological omens, believed to be signs from the gods concerning the kingdom's political, military, and agricultural fortunes. The importance of these omens was such that from the eighth or seventh until the first century, the scribes observed the heavens nightly and recorded the dates and locations of ominous phenomena of the moon and planets in relation to stars and constellations. The observations were arranged in monthly reports along with notable events and prices of agricultural commodities, the object being to find correlations between phenomena in the heavens and conditions on earth. These collections of omens and observations form the first empirical science of antiquity and were the basis of the first mathematical science, astronomy. For it was discovered that planetary phenomena, although irregular and sometimes concealed by bad weather, recur in limited periods within cycles in which they are repeated on nearly the same dates and in nearly the same locations. N. M. Swerdlow's book is a study of the collection and observation of ominous celestial phenomena and of how intervals of time, locations by zodiacal sign, and cycles in which the phenomena recur were used to reduce them to purely arithmetical computation, thereby surmounting the greatest obstacle to observation, bad weather. The work marks a striking advance in our understanding of both the origin of scientific astronomy and the astrological divination through which the kingdoms of ancient Mesopotamia were governed. Originally published in 1998. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Download or read book Astronomy and Astrology of the Babylonians written by Rev A. H. Satye and published by Literary Licensing, LLC. This book was released on 2014-03 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Is A New Release Of The Original 1874 Edition.
Download or read book Mesopotamian Planetary Astronomy astrology written by David Brown and published by Brill. This book was released on 2000 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pliny wrote of Babylon that "here the creator of the science of astronomy was". Excavations have shown this statement to be true. This book argues that the earliest attempts at the accurate prediction of celestial phenomena are indeed to be found in clay tablets dating to the 8th and 7th centuries BC from both Babylon and from Nineveh. The author carefully situates this astronomy within its cultural context, treating all available material from the relevant period, and also analysing the earlier astrological material and the later well-known ephemerides and related texts. A wholly new approach to cuneiform astral concerns emerges - one in which both celestial divination and the later astronomy are shown to be embedded in a prevailing philosophy dealing with the ideal nature of the early universe, and in which the dynamics of the celestial divination industry that surrounded the last Assyrian monarchs account for no less than the first recorded "scientific revolution". This work closely adheres to the original textual sources, and argues for the evolution on the basis of the needs of the ancient scholars and the internal logic of the divinatory and predictive systems employed. To this end, it offers, for the first time, a Mesopotamian contribution to the philosophy, and not only the history, of science.
Download or read book Babylonian Mathematical Astronomy Procedure Texts written by Mathieu Ossendrijver and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-04-24 with total page 636 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book contains new translations and a new analysis of the procedure texts of Babylonian mathematical astronomy, the earliest known form of mathematical astronomy of the ancient world. The translations are based on a modern approach incorporating recent insights from Assyriology and translation science. The work contains updated and expanded interpretations of the astronomical algorithms and investigations of previously ignored linguistic, mathematical and other aspects of the procedure texts. Special attention is paid to issues of mathematical representation and over 100 photos of cuneiform tablets dating from 350-50 BCE are presented. In 2-3 years, the author intends to continue his study of Babylonian mathematical astronomy with a new publication which will contain new editions and reconstructions of approx. 250 tabular texts and a new philological, astronomical and mathematical analysis of these texts. Tabular texts are end products of Babylonian math astronomy, computed with algorithms that are formulated in the present volume, Procedure Texts.
Download or read book The Heavenly Writing written by Francesca Rochberg and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-09-27 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In antiquity, the expertise of the Babylonians in matters of the heavens was legendary and the roots of both western astronomy and astrology are traceable in cuneiform tablets going back to the second and first millennia BC. The Heavenly Writing, first publsiehd in 2004, discusses the place of Babylonian celestial divination, horoscopy, and astronomy in Mesopotamian intellectual culture. Focusing chiefly on celestial divination and horoscopes, it traces the emergence of personal astrology from the tradition of celestial divination and the use of astronomical methods in horoscopes. It further takes up the historiographical and philosophical issue of the nature of these Mesopotamian 'celestial sciences' by examining elements traditionally of concern to the philosophy of science, without sacrificing the ancient methods, goals, and interests to a modern image of science. This book will be of particular interest to those concerned with the early history of science.
Download or read book In the Path of the Moon written by Francesca Rochberg and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2010-05-11 with total page 469 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Celestial divination, in the form of omens from lunar, planetary, astral, and meteorological phenomena, was central to Mesopotamian cuneiform scholarship and science from the late second millennium BCE into the Hellenistic period. Beyond the boundaries of ancient Mesopotamia, the ideas, texts, and traditions of Babylonian celestial divination are traceable in Hellenistic sciences and philosophies. This collection of essays investigates features of Babylonian celestial divination with special focus on those aspects that influenced later Greco-Roman astronomy, astrology, and theories of signs. A multi-faceted collection of philological, historical, and philosophical investigations, In the Path of the Moon offers Assyriologists, Classicists, and historians of ancient science a wide-ranging series of studies unified around the theme of Babylonian celestial divination's legacy. "The collected essays in this volume, successive steps in an ordered path, constitute an invaluable contribution to a better understanding of Babylonian divination." Lorenzo Verderame, "Sapienza" Università di Roma "The reader interested in the multifaceted presentation of the problems related to the explanation of Babylonian celestial divination and well equipped with the knowledge of Akkadian will certainly be rewarded by the study of Rochberg’s latest publication." Henryk Drawnel, SDB
Download or read book The Astronomy and Astrology of the Babylonians written by Archibald Henry Sayce and published by . This book was released on 1874 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Rising Time Schemes in Babylonian Astronomy written by John M. Steele and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-03-20 with total page 115 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This revealing work examines an approach from ancient astronomy to what was then a particularly important question, namely that of understanding the relationship between the position in the ecliptic and the time it takes for a fixed-length of the ecliptic beginning at that point to rise above the eastern horizon. Schemes known as “rising time schemes” were used to give lengths of the celestial equator corresponding to each of the twelve zodiacal signs which make up the ecliptic. This book investigates the earliest known examples of these schemes which come from Babylonia and date to the mid to late first millennium BC. Making an important contribution to our knowledge of astronomy in the ancient world, this volume includes editions and translations of all of the known Babylonian rising time texts, including several texts that are identified for the first time. Through a close examination of the preserved texts it has been possible to reconstruct the complete Babylonian rising time scheme. This reconstruction is unprecedented in its completeness, and it is also now possible to situate the scheme within a genre of Babylonian astronomy known as schematic astronomy which presents theoretical descriptions of the astronomical phenomena. The unique discoveries and fresh explorations in this book will be of interest to historians of ancient astronomy, scholars of Babylonian history and those investigating the origins of scientific thought.
Download or read book Between Greece and Babylonia written by Kathryn Stevens and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-05-23 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on Greece and Babylonia, this book provides a new, cross-cultural approach to the intellectual history of the Hellenistic world.
Download or read book Mystery of the Magi written by Dwight Longenecker and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-11-06 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The perfect Christmas gift for anyone interested in the historical background behind the birth of Jesus of Nazareth." — Robert J. Hutchinson, author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Bible, The Dawn of Christianity, and Searching for Jesus. "Utterly refreshing and encouraging." — Eric Metaxas, New York Times bestselling author of Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy and Martin Luther "The best book I know about the Magi." — Sir Colin John Humphreys, Ph.D., author of The Mystery of the Last Supper Modern biblical scholars tend to dismiss the Christmas story of the “wise men from the East” as pious legend. Matthew’s gospel offers few details, but imaginative Christians filled out the story early on, giving us the three kings guided by a magical star who join the adoring shepherds in every Christmas crèche. For many scholars, then, there is no reason to take the gospel story seriously. But are they right? Are the wise men no more than a poetic fancy? In an astonishing feat of detective work, Dwight Longenecker makes a powerful case that the visit of the Magi to Bethlehem really happened. Piecing together the evidence from biblical studies, history, archeology, and astronomy, he goes further, uncovering where they came from, why they came, and what might have happened to them after eluding the murderous King Herod. In the process, he provides a new and fascinating view of the time and place in which Jesus Christ chose to enter the world. The evidence is clear and compelling. The mysterious Magi from the East were in all likelihood astrologers and counselors from the court of the Nabatean king at Petra, where the Hebrew messianic prophecies were well known. The “star” that inspired their journey was a particular planetary alignment—confirmed by computer models—that in the astrological lore of the time portended the birth of a Jewish king. The visitors whose arrival troubled Herod “and all Jerusalem with him” may not have been the turbaned oriental kings of the Christmas carol, but they were real, and by demonstrating that the wise men were no fairy tale, Mystery of the Magi demands a new level of respect for the historical claims of the gospel.
Download or read book Astrology and Religion Among the Greeks and Romans written by Franz Cumont and published by . This book was released on 1912 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
