From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Sat Jan 10 1998 - 07:11:10 EST
At 8:21 PM -0600 1/9/98, Steven Cox wrote:
>
> I'm sorry this is a Jude/Enoch comparison again.
> PLANHTHS in Jude 13 is (for NT/LXX) hapax legomena
>
> Can we be certain of the AV/NIV rendering "wandering
> stars" for ASTERES PLANHTAI ("sidera errantia" in Vulgate)
>
> Noting that two verses earlier Jude describes Balaam's PLANH,
> then looking at the context in Enoch 19:1 [defiling mankind
> and shall lead them astray into sacrificing to demons as gods"
> is it possible that PLANHTHS might actually mean "deceiving"
> (or is that what "wandering" meant in 1611 English anyway?)
>
>And I saw a deep abyss, with columns of heavenly fire, and among them I saw
>columns of fire fall, which were beyond measure alike towards 12 the height
>and towards the depth. And beyond that abyss I saw a place which had no
>firmament of the heaven above, and no firmly founded earth beneath it: there
>was no water upon it, and no 13 birds, but it was a waste and horrible
>place. I saw there seven stars like great burning mountains, 14 and to me,
>when I inquired regarding them, The angel said: 'This place is the end of
>heaven and earth: this has become a prison for the stars and the host of
>heaven. And the stars which roll over the fire are they which have
>transgressed the commandment of the Lord in the beginning of 16 their
>rising, because they did not come forth at their appointed times. And He was
>wroth with them, and bound them till the time when their guilt should be
>consummated (even) for ten thousand years.'
>
>[Chapter 19]
>
>1 And Uriel said to me: 'Here shall stand the angels who have connected
>themselves with women, and their spirits assuming many different forms are
>defiling mankind and shall lead them astray into sacrificing to demons as
>gods, (here shall they stand,) till the day of the great judgement in 2
>which they shall be judged till they are made an end of. And the women also
>of the angels who 3 went astray shall become sirens.' And I, Enoch, alone
>saw the vision, the ends of all things: and no man shall see as I have seen.
>
>
> Or does PLANHTHS have astrological significance here and no
> reference to PLANOS... or is it a word play?
Fascinating. On the one hand, I think that ASTERES PLANHTAI in Jude 13 must
indeed refer to the planets--this is, I think, standard astronomical
language to distinguish the planets from the "fixed" stars; on the other
hand, it appears by no means unlikely that there is at least word play and
quite likely a definite conceptual linkage in astrological terms between
the planets as astral powers demonically governing human affairs
(KOSMOKRATORAS TOU SKOTOUS TOUTOU, Eph 6:12, probably also the ARCAI and
EXOUSIAI of which there's been some mention recently, and which were
researched in Billy McMinn's Tulane Ph.D dissertation back at the time I
was learning Greek from him in the 50's). It appears to me that there's
also at least an allusion to the cosmogonic traditions that are common to
the ancient Near East and to Hesiod's Theogony, wherein Zeus, after his
conquest over the rebellious Titans, imprisons them forever in Tartarus.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad@yancey.main.nc.us
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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