Constellations names in the Old Testament

[modestobruce]

_in Job 9:1-12 there is a passage that reads in part: He made the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and the constellations of the south. I find it odd that these constellation names would be found in the OT.

 

[PaulfromIowa]

Why would that be odd? The constellations were well known to ancient peoples.

 

[Dan_Defender]

It is not odd. The name Pleiades, for instance, comes from ancient Greece.

 

[Aulef]

Translators often adapt certain words so readers may understand the literal meaning of the Sacred Scriptures.

By the way, the Book of Job is one of the most amazing IMO because it is filled with ancient natural and supernatural knowledge. Also, I truly believe it is the oldest of the Sacred Scriptures (even though Genesis has accounts from before Job).

Edit: the constellations Job is referring to are the ones we know by these names presented in your version; this is what really matters

 

[JohnR77]

In is also helpful to make the distinction between the
science of astronomy which the

> church has always promoted along with the other sciences

as opposed to the pagan belief in astrology which the Church rejects.

 

[patrick457]

_in Job 9:1-12 there is a passage that reads in part: He made the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and the constellations of the south. I find it odd that these constellation names would be found in the OT.

They’re not necessarily odd, since constellations like Orion pretty much originated from the Babylonians (that’s where the Greeks got them from, basically)

Now if you’re referring to the names, you have to remember that these are just adaptations into English. In the original Hebrew they’re called something else: Kesil (scholars don’t actually know for sure which constellation this corresponds to - some say it’s Orion, others say it’s Ursa Major - which is why translations make a compromise between the two most likely candidates: “the Bear (and) Orion”) and Kimah.