The Stars · The Symbolism of Scripture
The Stars
The ancients counted the naked-eye sky and wrote the list down — about a thousand stars. Which is what makes the command given to Abram, and the claim made in Psalm 147:4, worth reading slowly.
Counted, and Named
what a survey can do, and what it cannot
What a man could do
The naked-eye sky had been surveyed and written down. The ancient catalogues fixed the count at about a thousand: the stars bright enough to be seen and listed.
Aratus and Eudoxus, reported by John Gill
What Abram was told to do
“Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.”
Genesis 15:5What only God does
“He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.”
Psalm 147:4And the LORD took him outside and said, “Now look to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able.” Then He told him, “So shall your offspring be.”Note the staging: he is brought OUTSIDE for it. This is a task, not an image.
He determines the number of the stars; He calls them each by name.Two verbs, and the second is the one no astronomer has ever claimed.
Which no man can do exactly; see Gen 15:5; the ancient astronomers pretended to tell them, as Aratus and Eudoxus (o), and fixed their number at a thousand and some odd; but then these were only such as were of some magnitude and influence, and such as commonly appeared; but since the use of telescopes many are seen which were not before; and especially those clusters of them in the Milky Way cannot be distinctly discerned and told; but the Lord that made them can tell their exact number.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament, 1763Particular Baptist
Psalm 147:4
Gill is doing history, not devotion, and it is the most useful paragraph on the page. The stars a man can see had been counted, listed and published, and the number was about a thousand. That is what makes the promise to Abram sharper than it first reads: he was not being shown something obviously infinite. He was being set a task with a known answer — and told his descendants would break it.
He counts them all. God only can do this. The stars are so numerous that no astronomer can count them; they lie so far in the depths of space, and are so remote from each other, that no man can be so presumptuous as to suppose that he has even seen any considerable part of them, even by the aid of the most powerful telescopes. He calleth them all by their names - As if each one had a name, and God could call them forth one by one by their names, like the muster-roll of an army.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1851Presbyterian
Psalm 147:4
None but he can count the mighty host, but as he made them and sustains them he can number them. To Jehovah stars are as mere coins, which the merchant tells as he puts them into his bag. He calleth them all by their names. He has an intimate acquaintance with each separate orb, so as to know its name or character. Indeed, he gives to each its appropriate title, because he knows its constitution and nature.
Charles Spurgeon· The Treasury of David, on Psalm 147, 1885Baptist
Psalm 147:4
Barnes reaches for the right comparison for the second half of the verse: the muster-roll of an army — the list where every man answers to a name rather than a number. And Cyril of Jerusalem uses the same verse as a dare, in the fourth century: “You see the stars, but their Maker you do not see; first, number the stars, which are seen, and then set forth him who is not seen; "He tells the number of the stars; he calls each by name."”
Lift up your eyes on high: Who created all these? He leads forth the starry host by number; He calls each one by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.The same two claims again: by number, and by names, with a third added: not one is missing.
John Wesley states the plain force of the Genesis promise without overreaching it: “Abram feared he should have no child at all, but God tells him his descendents should be so many as not to be numbered.”
Four Names Nobody Can Be Sure Of
Job 38, and a commentator refusing to guess
Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loosen the belt of Orion?Two named groups of stars, put to a man as a challenge, which means Job could find them.
Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear and her cubs?And two more names, of which one: Mazzaroth, has never been securely identified at all.
The Pleiades are a constellation in the sign Taurus. They consist of six stars visible to the naked eye; to a good eye, in a clear night, seven are discernible; but with a telescope ten times the number may be readily counted. They make their appearance in the spring.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Wesleyan
Job 38:31
Six to the ordinary eye, seven to a good one on a clear night, and many more through a glass, which is the whole page in miniature. Then Clarke does the thing that makes him worth quoting on this subject at all:
I have already expressed my mind on these supposed constellations, and must refer to my notes on Job 9:9, etc., and to the learned notes of Doctor Hales and Mr. Mason Good on these texts. They appear certain, where I am obliged to doubt; and, from their view of the subject, make very useful and important deductions. I find reluctance in departing from the ancient versions. In this case, these learned men follow them; I cannot, because I do not see the evidence of the groundwork; and I dare not draw conclusions from premises which seem to me precarious, or which I do not understand. I wish, therefore, the reader to examine and judge for himself.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Wesleyan
Job 38:31
“They appear certain, where I am obliged to doubt… I dare not draw conclusions from premises which seem to me precarious.” Clarke is looking at learned men who have built confident systems on these four names, and declining to join them. That posture governs this page. The names are in the text; what they attach to in the sky is not settled, and a great deal of teaching has been built on the assumption that it is.
What the two best-attested names are, and what has been said about themthe Pleiades held together, and Orion held fast
The stars Pleiades, are so called from plurality. But they were made so near to each other, and yet so distinct, that they can be near together, and yet cannot possibly be united, since they are united in nearness, but disunited as to contact.
Gregory the Great· Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXIX, 604Latin, sixth century
Job 38:31
Canst thou loose the bonds by which the constellation Orion (represented in the East as an impious giant chained to the sky) is held fast?
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Scottish, nineteenth century
Job 38:31
Both readings depend on a picture from outside the Bible: Gregory’s on what the cluster looks like, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s on an eastern legend of a giant chained to the sky. The verse itself asks two questions about binding and loosing and does not explain either. That is worth saying plainly rather than filling in.
while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?Two halves of one Hebrew line: and what the second half is doing to the first is the question.
When the morning-stars - There can be little doubt that angelic beings are intended here, though some have thought that the stars literally are referred to, and that they seemed to unite in a chorus of praise when another world was added to their number.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1851Presbyterian
Job 38:7
The creation morn is appropriately associated with these, it being the commencement of this world's day. The stars are figuratively said to sing God's praises, as in Ps 19:1; They are symbols of the angels, bearing the same relation to our earth, as angels do to us.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Scottish, nineteenth century
Job 38:7
Barnes says there can be little doubt and then immediately reports the readers who doubt it, which is the right way round. Gregory the Great gives the reasoning behind the angelic reading — “For because the nature of rational spirits is believed to have been created first in time, the Angels are, not improperly, called 'morning stars.'” — and it is an inference from the parallel line, not a statement the verse makes.
A Declaration With No Words In It
Psalm 19, and what the sky is doing
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.The verb is loud and the subject has no mouth. The next two verses are about exactly that problem.
How then, tell me, do they declare it? Voice they have none; mouth they possess not; no tongue is theirs! how then do they declare? By means of the spectacle itself. For when thou seest the beauty, the breadth, the height, the position, the form, the stability thereof during so long a period; hearing as it were a voice, and being instructed by the spectacle, thou adorest Him who created a body so fair and strange! The heavens may be silent, but the sight of them emits a voice, that is louder than a trumpet's sound
John Chrysostom· Homilies Concerning the Statues 9:4, 407Greek, fourth century
Psalm 19:1
Chrysostom’s answer is that the heavens declare by means of the spectacle itself — instruction through the eyes rather than the ears. The sky is not saying anything. It is being something, in front of you, every clear night, and has been for as long as anyone has looked.
Where It Points
a Star that is a person, and a glory that differs
I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come forth from Jacob, and a scepter will arise from Israel. He will crush the skulls of Moab and strike down all the sons of Sheth.Read the parallel: a Star, and a Sceptre. Hebrew poetry pairs like with like, and a sceptre is not an object in the sky.
A star - A title often given to, princes and eminent persons, and particularly to the Messiah, Rev. ii, 28; xxii, 16. A scepter - That is, a scepter-bearer, a king or ruler, even that scepter mentioned Gen. xlix, 10.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765Methodist
Numbers 24:17
Wesley’s note settles the grammar. A Star, in that line, is a title. The parallel with the sceptre requires it, and Revelation uses the same title of Christ twice over. Lactantius, in the early fourth century, is already reading it that way:
Moses himself [wrote] in the book of Numbers: "There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a man shall arise out of Israel." For this cause, therefore, being God, he took upon him flesh, that, becoming a mediator between God and man, having overcome death, he might by his guidance lead man to God.
Lactantius· Epitome of the Divine Institutes 44, 325Latin, fourth century
Numbers 24:17
Although it was a gift of divine favor that the birth of the Savior should become recognizable to the nations, nevertheless, to understand the wonder of the sign, the wise men were also able to be reminded through the ancient pronouncements of Balaam, for they knew that it had at one time been spread abroad in a famous and memorable prediction: "A star will appear out of Jacob, and a man will rise up from Israel. He will rule over the nations."
Leo the Great· Sermon 34.2, 461Latin, fifth century
Numbers 24:17
Then the wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever.The image handed over: and note who gets it. Not the wise, but those who turn many.
The sun has one degree of splendor, the moon another, and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.The verse is doing work in an argument. The difference between the stars is the premise, not the scenery.
And what means he by these expressions? Wherefore from the resurrection of the body did he throw himself into the discourse of the stars and the sun? He did not throw himself out, neither did he break off from his purpose; far from it: but he still keeps to it. For whereas he had established the doctrine concerning the resurrection, he intimates in what follows that great will be then the difference of glory, though there be but one resurrection.
John Chrysostom· Homily on 1 Corinthians 41, 407Greek, fourth century
1 Corinthians 15:41
Chrysostom asks the question a reader ought to ask — why is Paul suddenly talking about astronomy in the middle of a chapter on the resurrection? — and answers it: one resurrection, and a great difference of glory within it. The sky is the evidence that sameness of kind and difference of brightness go together perfectly well.
And they that turn many to righteousness - They who, by preaching Christ crucified among their brethren, shall be the means of converting them to the Christian faith; shall be as the stars - bright luminaries in the Gospel kingdom of Jesus Christ. This also may be applied to the case of holy and useful men, particularly the faithful ministers of the Gospel, in the day of judgment. See Jas 5:20 (note), 1Co 15:41-42 (note).
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Wesleyan
Daniel 12:3
Christ is the sun, the fountain, of the lights both of grace and glory; ministers, as stars, shine in both, with a light derived from him, and a diminutive light in comparison of him; yet to those that are earthen vessels it will be a glory infinitely transcending their deserts.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710Nonconformist
Daniel 12:3
Matthew Henry keeps the proportion right — the light is derived, and diminutive beside its source. Hippolytus, in the third century, points out that Jesus used the same image about the same people: “For also the Lord in the Gospel spoke the same, "Then the righteous shall gleam as the sun shines in its glory."” And Adam Clarke, writing before the parallax measurements that would settle the distances, admits what he does not know:
As if he had said: This may be illustrated by the present appearance of the celestial bodies which belong to our system. The sun has a greater degree of splendor than the moon; the moon than the planets; and the planets than the stars. And even in the fixed stars, one has a greater degree of splendor than another, which may proceed either from their different magnitudes, or from the comparative proximity of some of them to our earth; but from which of these causes, or from what other cause unknown, we cannot tell
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Wesleyan
1 Corinthians 15:41
What Scripture says outright
- Psalm 147:4
God both numbers the stars and calls them all by their names. Two separate claims in one line, and Isaiah 40:26 makes the same pair.
- Genesis 15:5
The promise is fastened to the counting task in the verse itself: so shall thy seed be.
- Numbers 24:17
The Star is set in parallel with a Sceptre, which makes it a person by the grammar of the line rather than by interpretation.
- 1 Corinthians 15:41
The difference between one star and another is stated as the premise of an argument about the resurrection body.
What readers have heard in it
Readings and reception history, named as such.
- Job 38:32
That the constellations encode a gospel message, or that Mazzaroth is the zodiac read as prophecy. MannaFest does not teach this. The four names in these two verses cannot be securely identified, and Adam Clarke, who knew the literature, declined to build on them.
- Job 38:7
That the morning stars are angels. It is the majority reading and it is an inference from the parallel line about the sons of God, not something the verse states. Barnes reports the readers who take the stars literally.
- Numbers 24:17
That Balaam’s oracle licenses reading the sky for portents. Eusebius reports that Balaam’s successors did exactly that — “We are told that Balaam's successors moved by this (for the prediction was preserved most likely among them)4 when they noticed in the heavens a strange star besides the usual ones, fixed above the head, so to say, and vertically above Judea, hastened to arrive at Palestine, to inquire about the king announced by the star's appearance.” — which is a record of what men believed, not an endorsement of the practice.
Its Presentation Through Scripture
the stars, in the order the Bible uses them
And the LORD took him outside and said, “Now look to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able.” Then He told him, “So shall your offspring be.”
A childless man is taken outdoors at night and given a counting task he cannot finish, and the promise is attached to the failure.
while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Stars singing at the laying of the foundations, and a parallel line about the sons of God that the commentators read together with it.
Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loosen the belt of Orion?
God names actual constellations in the middle of an argument: Pleiades and Orion, by name, to a man who could see them.
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.
A declaration made with no words in it, which is the whole point of the following verses.
He determines the number of the stars; He calls them each by name.
Two claims in one line: a number, and a name for each. The second one is the impossible half.
Lift up your eyes on high: Who created all these? He leads forth the starry host by number; He calls each one by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.
The same pair again: brought out by number, called by names, and this time with an accounting: not one faileth.
I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come forth from Jacob, and a scepter will arise from Israel. He will crush the skulls of Moab and strike down all the sons of Sheth.
A Star put into the mouth of a hired diviner, and it is a person rather than an object.
Then the wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever.
And the image handed to people: not to the wise generally, but to those who turn many to righteousness.
The sun has one degree of splendor, the moon another, and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.
The last use, and it is an argument rather than a decoration: one star differs from another, and that is the point being proved.
The Voices
with the work named
John Gill supplies the fact the page is built on, and it is a historical one: the ancient catalogues, their authors, and their number. Adam Clarke does two opposite kinds of good work: counting the Pleiades by eye and by telescope, and then refusing to draw conclusions about the constellation names from premises he does not trust. Albert Barnes finds the right image for the second half of Psalm 147:4, and Spurgeon the right one for the first.
John Chrysostom asks the two best questions on the page: how a thing with no mouth declares anything, and why Paul interrupts a resurrection argument to talk about astronomy, and answers both. Cyril of Jerusalem turns Psalm 147 into a dare. John Wesley settles the grammar of Balaam’s Star in one line.
Where to Go Next
The promise they measure
The Star, and who followed it
Nearby in the index
Its neighbours in the index
The Symbolism of Scripture gathers every picture the Bible thinks in. This one sits with: