Some years ago it was my privilege to enjoy the acquaintance of Miss Frances Rolleston, of Keswick, and to carry on a correspondence with her with respect to her work, Mazzaroth: or, the Constellations . She was the first to create an interest in this important subject. Since then Dr. Seiss, of Philadelphia, has endeavoured to popularize her work on the other side of the Atlantic; and brief references have been made to the subject in such books as Moses and Geology , by Dr. Kinns, and in Primeva

In the Key to the Psalms , p. 17, it is pointed out that the terms employed in A and B are astronomical , 2 while in A and B they are literary . Thus the two parts are significantly connected and united. Ewald and others imagine that this Psalm is made up of two fragments of separate Psalms composed at different periods and brought together by a later editor! But this is disproved not only by what has been said concerning the structure of the Psalm as a whole, and the interlacing of the astronom

Here we have an introversion , in which the extremes (C and C ) are occupied with the heavens ; while the means (D, E and D ) are occupied with their testimony. The following is the full expansion of the above, with original emendations which preserve the order of the Hebrew words and thus indicate the nature of the structure:— Surely there is something more referred to here than a mere wonder excited by the works of the Creator! When we read the whole passage and mark its structure, and note th

Virgo is represented as a woman with a branch in her right hand, and some ears of corn in her left hand. Thus giving a two-fold testimony of the Coming One. The name of this sign in the Hebrew is Bethulah , which means a virgin , and in the Arabic a branch . The two words are connected, as in Latin— Virgo , which means a virgin ; and virga , which means a branch (Vulg. Isa. xi. 1). Another name is Sunbul , Arabic, an ear of corn . In Gen. iii. 15 she is presented only as a woman; but in later pr

The Sign contains 51 stars, two of which are of the 2nd magnitude, one of the 3rd, eight of the 4th, etc. The Hebrew name is Mozanaim , the Scales , weighing . Its name in Arabic is Al Zubena , purchase , or redemption . In Coptic, it is Lambadia , station of propitiation (from Lam , graciousness , and badia , branch ). The name by which it has come down to us is the Latin, Libra , which means weighing , as used in the Vulgate (Isa. xl. 12). Libra contains three bright stars whose names supply u

David uses the very word in Ps. cxliv. 1, where he blesses God for teaching his hands to war . The Coptic name is Isidis , which means the attack of the enemy , or oppression ; referring to “the wicked that oppress me, my deadly enemies who compass me about” (Ps. xvii. 9). The Arabic name is Al Akrab , which means wounding him that cometh . There are 44 stars altogether in this sign. One is of the 1st magnitude, one of the 2nd, eleven of the 3rd, eight of the 4th, etc. The brightest star, α (in

John, in his apocalyptic vision, sees the same mighty Conqueror going forth. “I saw (he says) a white horse, and He that sat on him had a bow, ... and He went forth conquering and to conquer” (Rev. vi. 2). This is precisely what is foreshadowed in the star-pictured sign now called by the modern Latin name Sagittarius , which means the Archer . The Hebrew and Syriac name of the sign is Kesith , which means the Archer (as in Gen. xxi. 20). The Arabic name is Al Kaus , the arrow . In Coptic it is P

In all the ancient Zodiacs, or Planispheres, we find a goat with a fish's tail. In the Zodiacs of Denderah and Esneh, in Egypt, it is half-goat and half-fish, and it is there called Hu-penius , which means the place of the sacrifice . In the Indian Zodiac it is a goat passant traversed by a fish. There can be no doubt as to the significance of this sign. In the Goat we have the Atoning Sacrifice, in the Fish we have the people for whom the atonement is made. When we come to the sign “ Pisces ” w

In some eastern Zodiacs the Urn alone appears. This agrees with its other names—Hebrew, Deli , the water-urn , or bucket (as in Num. xxiv. 7); the Arabic Delu is the same. There are 108 stars in this Sign, four of which are of the 3rd magnitude. Their names, as far as they have come down to us, are significant. The star α (in the right shoulder) is called Sa'ad al Melik , which means the record of the pouring forth . The star β (in the other shoulder) is called Saad al Sund , who goeth and retur

The Sign is pictured as two large fishes bound together by a Band , the ends of which are fastened separately to their tails. One fish is represented with its head pointing upwards towards the North Polar Star, the other is shown at right angles, swimming along the line of the ecliptic, or path of the sun. The ancient Egyptian name, as shown on the Denderah Zodiac, is Pi-cot Orion , or Pisces Hori , which means the fishes of Him that cometh . The Hebrew name is Dagim , the Fishes , which is clos

This is pictured by a ram, or lamb, full of vigour and life; not falling in death as Capricornus is. In the Denderah Zodiac its name is Tametouris Ammon , which means the reign , dominion , or government of Ammon . The lamb's head is without horns, and is crowned with a circle. The Hebrew name is Taleh , the lamb . The Arabic name is Al Hamal , the sheep , gentle , merciful . This name has been mistakenly given by some to the principal star, α. The Syriac name is Amroo , as in the Syriac New Tes

The Egyptian Zodiac of Denderah already, 4,000 years ago, had forgotten the truth to which the prophecy had referred, and called him Isis , i.e. , who saves or delivers , and Apis , i.e. , the head or chief . The Bull is clearly represented, and in all the zodiacs which have come down to us is always in the act of pushing , or rushing . The name of the sign in Chaldee is תּוֹר, Tor . Hence, Arabic, Al Thaur ; Greek, Tauros ; Latin, Taurus , etc. The more common Hebrew name was שׁוּר, Shur , whic

The old Coptic name was Pi-Mahi , the united , as in brotherhood. Not necessarily united by being born at the same time, but united in one fellowship or brotherhood. The Hebrew name is Thaumim , which means united . The root is used in Exod. xxvi. 24: [pg 138] “They (the two boards) shall be coupled together beneath.” In the margin we read, “Heb. twinned ” ( r.v. double). The Arabic Al Tauman means the same. We need not trouble ourselves with the Grecian myths, even though we can see through the

According to the Greeks, Jupiter placed this Crab amongst the signs of the Zodiac. In Sir William Jones's Oriental Zodiac we meet with a crab, and an Egyptian Zodiac found at Rome bears also the crab in this sign. The more ancient Egyptians placed Hermanubis , or Hermes , with the head of an ibis or hawk, as the symbol of the sign now allotted to Cancer. The Denderah name is Klaria , or the cattle-folds , and in this name we have the key to the meaning of the sign, and to the subject of this cha

As to its antiquity there can be no doubt. Jamieson says, “the Lion does not seem to have been placed among the Zodiacal symbols, because Hercules was fabled to have slain the Nemean Lion. It would seem, on the contrary, that Hercules, who represented the Sun, was said to have slain the Nemean Lion, because Leo was already a Zodiacal sign. Hercules flourished 3,000 years ago, and consequently posterior to the period when the summer solstice accorded with Leo .” ( Celestial Atlas , p. 40). There

Religion without Christ is enmity against God! Knowledge of the Scriptures where the heart is not subject to Christ, and where Christ is not seen in them, is powerless and lifeless. It is true of the Scriptures, as it will be of the heavenly Jerusalem— “ the Lamb is the light thereof ” (Rev. xxi. 23). The Church of Rome has been used of the great enemy to rob the Lamb of God of His promised glory. Jerome , in his Latin translation of the Bible (405 a.d. ), wrote “ ipse ,” He , in Gen. iii. 15, a

Here the word “signs” is othoth (אֹתֹת, plural of אוֹת, oth , from the root אֳתֳת, to come ). Hence, a sign of something or some One to come . In Jer. x. 2 Jehovah says, “And be not dismayed at the signs (וּמֵאתוֹת) of the heavens, for the heathen are dismayed at them.” The word “seasons” does not denote merely what we call the four seasons of the year, but cycles of time. It is מוֹעֵד, appointed time (from the verb יָעַד, to point out , appoint ). It occurs three more times in Genesis, each tim

Its most ancient form was a circular altar. 88 In Figure 1 we have reproduced this, 89 and it will be at once seen that we have the original of the disc now preserved in the two circular scales which form the Sign of Libra . The next stage of the corruption is shown in the Akkadian name of Scorpio (the Scorpion)—the Sign immediately to the left of the Altar. It was called Gir-tab , which means the Seizer and Stinger , and the next Figure (2), taken from an Euphratean boundary stone, 90 shows the