Mazzaroth
Mazzaroth (Hebrew: מַזָּר֣וֹת, mazzārōṯ, LXX Μαζουρωθ, Mazourōth) is a Biblical Hebrew word found in the Book of Job (Script error: No such module "Bibleverse".) whose precise meaning is uncertain. Its context is that of astronomical constellations, and some judge it to mean a specific constellation, while it is often interpreted as a term for the zodiac or the constellations thereof.[1][2] The similar word mazalot (מַּזָּלוֹת) in Script error: No such module "Bibleverse". may be related.
According to 10th-century biblical exegete Saadia Gaon, it literally means "constellations," [3] while others interpret the word as naming various concrete astronomic bodies - Saturn, the seven planets, the Hyades, the Northern and Southern Crowns, the Southern Ship (Argo Navis?) or Sirius.[1]
The word itself is a hapax legomenon (i.e., a word appearing only once in a text) of the Hebrew Bible. In Yiddish, the term mazalot came to be used in the sense of "astrology" in general, surviving in the expression "mazel tov," meaning "good fortune."[4]
Biblical context
The appearance of the word in the Job 38:31-2 appears in the context of various astronomical phenomena: "31 Can you tie cords to Pleiades / Or undo the reins of Orion? 32 Can you lead out Mazzaroth in its season, / Conduct the Bear with her sons?"[5]
The related word mazzālot (Script error: No such module "Lang".) in 2 Kings 23:5 may have a different meaning, and is often translated differently, with the linkage of this word to the classical planets or the zodiac being more widely held; in Kabbalistic astrology, mazzālot was also used for astrology in general,[6] and the word may be related to Assyrian manzaltu "lunar station"[7]):
The Septuagint, however, uses the transliteration mazouroth (Template:Langx) in this same passage (4 Kingdoms 23): "Script error: No such module "Lang"."
Translation
The word is traditionally (following LXX) left untranslated (ABC, ACV, AKJ, ASV, BBE, BIB, ESV, GNV, HNV, JPS, K21, KJG, KJR, KJV, NAB, NKJ, NRS, NWT, RSV, RWB, TMB, TNK, UPD, WEB, YLT, LXE, ZIK), but some modern English Bible translations render it as "zodiac" (AMP, CJB, EMP, LEE); others have "constellations" (CJB, CSB, DBY, NET, ERV, GWN, LEE, LIT, MKJ, NAS, NAU, NIB, NIV, TNV, WEV) or "stars" (CEV, NCB, NIR, NLV, TEV).
But as the Latin Vulgate renders the word as "luciferum", there are alternative English translations as "morning star" (CVB, TRC, furthermore Luther's 1545 German translation as Morgenstern also means "morning star"; (DRA); "Venus" (MSG); "Crown season" (NJB); "sequence of seasons" (NLT); "Lucifer, 'that is, dai sterre (day star)" (Wycliffe's Bible). WES[<span title="Script error: No such module "decodeEncode".">clarification needed] gives "stars in the southern signs".
Translators' Notes given in individual translations are:
- Geneva: Certain stars so called, some think they were the twelve signs.
- KJV/KGB: {Mazzaroth: or, the twelve signs}
- NAS/NAU: perh. "a constellation"
- NET: The word מַּזָּלֹות; (mazzarot) is taken by some to refer to the constellations (see 2 Kings 23:5), and by others as connected to the word for "crown," and so "corona."
- NIB/NIV: {32 Or the morning star in its season}
The Targum renders the translation as "guards of the mazalot".[8]
Rashi clarifies mazzarot as "all the gates of the mazalot".[9]
In Gnosticism
Lofts (2010) connects Mazareus (part of the name of the Sethian figure Yesseus Mazareus Yessedekeus) with Mazzaroth.[10]Template:Rp
See also
- Biblical names of stars
- Biblical astronomy
- Christian views on astrology
- Hebrew astronomy
- Jewish astrology
- Jewish views on astrology
- Zodiac synagogue mosaic
References
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- ^ a b Jewish Encyclopedia: Constellations Script error: No such module "webarchive"., accessed 2010-02-13. Norman C. Habel, The Book of Job: A Commentary, Westminster John Knox Press, 1985, p. 523, Template:ISBN
- ^ Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job, Volume 2, T. & T. Clark, 1866, p. 324.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Saadia (1973). Yosef Qafih (ed.). Job, with a Translation and Commentary of Rabbi Saadia ben Yosef Fayyumi (in עברית). Jerusalem: Committee for the publication of Rabbi Saadia Gaon's books, in affiliation with the American Academy of Jewish Studies. p. 189. OCLC 967039286., s.v. Job 38:32
- ^ Jewish Encyclopedia: Astrology Script error: No such module "webarchive"., accessed 2010-02-13.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Job 38:31-32". www.sefaria.org.
- ^ Tamar Rudavsky, Time Matters: Time, Creation, and Cosmology in Medieval Jewish Philosophy, SUNY Press, 2000, p. 25, Template:ISBN.
- ^ James Hastings (ed), Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, Part 23, Kessinger Publishing (reprint), 2003, pp. 82–83, Template:ISBN.
- ^ Targum. Job 38:32
- ^ Rashi, Job 38:32 "Mazzarot"
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Lofts, Mark J. (2010). "Mandaeism: the sole extant tradition of Sethian Gnosticism". ARAM Periodical. 22: 31–59. doi:10.2143/ARAM.22.0.2131031.
