Produced by Curtis Weyant, Jeannie Howse, Lisa Reigel, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by Case Western Reserve University Preservation Department Digital Library) Transcriber's Notes: Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been left as in the original. Words italicized in the original are surrounded by _underscores_. Characters superscripted in the original are enclosed in {braces}. Some typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected. A complete list follows the text. THE ASTRONOMY OF THE BIBLE [Illustration: _From the Painting by Sir Edward Burne-Jones in the Birmingham Art Gallery._ THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM. "We have seen His star in the east, and are come to worship Him." [_Frontispiece._] THE ASTRONOMY OF THE BIBLE AN ELEMENTARY COMMENTARY ON THE ASTRONOMICAL REFERENCES OF HOLY SCRIPTURE BY E. WALTER MAUNDER, F.R.A.S. AUTHOR OF 'THE ROYAL OBSERVATORY, GREENWICH: ITS HISTORY AND WORK,' AND 'ASTRONOMY WITHOUT A TELESCOPE' _WITH THIRTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS_ NEW YORK MITCHELL KENNERLEY RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, BREAD STREET HILL, E.C., AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK. To MY WIFE My helper in this Book and in all things. PREFACE Why should an astronomer write a commentary on the Bible? Because commentators as a rule are not astronomers, and therefore either pass over the astronomical allusions of Scripture in silence, or else annotate them in a way which, from a scientific point of view, leaves much to be desired. Astronomical allusions in the Bible, direct and indirect, are not few in number, and, in order to bring out their full significance, need to be treated astronomically. Astronomy further gives us the power of placing ourselves to some degree in the position of the patriarchs and prophets of old. We know that the same sun and moon, stars and planets, shine upon us as shone upon Abraham and Moses, David and Isaiah. We can, if we will, see the unchanging heavens with their eyes, and understand their attitude towards them. It is worth while for us so to do. For the immense advances in science, made since the Canon of Holy Scripture was closed, and especially during the last three hundred years, may enable us to realize the significance of a most remarkable fact. Even in those early ages, when to all the nations surrounding Israel the heavenly bodies were objects for divination or idolatry, the attitude of the sacred writers toward them was perfect in its sanity and truth.