A Biblical Reflection on the Purpose of the Constellations

The starry heavens hold a place of wonder in the hearts of men. Since man’s creation we have looked up into the heavens and have beheld its glory. This is particularly true of the night sky. The stars, in their shinning array, light the night sky with splendor.

Thus it is no surprise that man has long been tempted to exalt the stars above their proper place in creation. As Isaiah writes (47.13–14),

You are wearied with your many counsels; let them stand forth and save you,
those who divide the heavens, who gaze at the stars,
who at the new moons make known what shall come upon you.
Behold, they are like stubble; the fire consumes them.

The astrologer is one who abuses the heavens. According to the scriptures, there are two ways one can abuse the heavenly creation. First, man has been tempted to worship the stars as gods themselves, and second he is tempted to use the stars to divine future events. Both distort the heavenly host from their creational design. The starry host poses a real problem to man; they have been a locus of sin and distraction since the Fall itself.

This has led many Christians to be suspicious of any use of the stars in the Christian life. Even more than the stars, the constellations have been a place of even greater distrust. The scripture however, is not afraid to speak of these constellations and even uses them as powerful signs and images for the people of God.

The purpose of this paper is to show that the zodiacal constellations as one cohesive unit¹ are a heavenly reminder of the church’s vocation to be both an earthly and heavenly authority under the high king Jesus.

I will accomplish this in three steps: first I will give a political reading of the stars in general, then I will give a biblical theology of the zodiac, and finally I will weave the two together to show how the zodiac points to the church’s vocation. With this in mind, let us turn to the stars.

The Meaning of the Stars

The stars symbolize the both the earthly and heavenly governance of the world. That is to say, the stars are used to depict both the angelic host and mighty earthly rulers.

First, to quickly defend my connection between the stars and the angels. There are a number of places in the scriptures where the stars symbolize angels. One example comes from the book of Job. Job, speaking of the created order, references the singing angels of heaven. Job writes (38.6–7),

On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone,
when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Job, using a classic Hebrew couplet, compares the morning stars with the sons of God. In Hebrew poetry, a couplet expands upon the subject of the first line with the second line. The idea of stars singing is further elaborated with the second line that speaks of the sons of God shouting. The singing stars are the sons of God, and the sons of God are another name for the angels.²

The stars symbolize the angelic hosts. Angels were created to assist Yahweh in his governance of the world. They serve him in his care, protection, and maintenance of the created order. The stars are a visible reminder of their constant oversight of the world. Lest you forget, look to the heavens and remember the good governors that God has set in place over you.

And second, the stars of heaven represent earthly leaders and governments. The stars are used to represent leadership all throughout the book of Genesis. This is done both explicitly and implicitly. For example, Abraham is specifically told his children will be like the stars of heaven and Joseph has a dream in which he and his entire family are represented by the sun, moon and stars.

Implicitly, the leaders of the primeval world are associated with the stars. The genealogy in Genesis 5 lists the leaders of the chosen linage. In that genealogy, the people are listed off with various bits of information about them. One of those bits of information is their age at the time of their death. The death ages for these people all line up with the synodic cycles of the planets.³ The fact that all these men die at ages that line up to the movement of the stars shows another connection between earthly leadership and the celestial bodies.

This means the stars function as symbols of earthly leadership. Think of the prophetic imagery of the Bible. Falling stars, blood moons and darkened suns are all images of earthly rulers falling and being judged. The celestial bodies represent earthly rulers.

Now that I have established a biblical theology of the stars, I will move over to develop a theology of the constellations.

A Biblical Zodiac

Before I jump into the meaning and purpose of the zodiacal constellations, I want to first define what I mean by constellations and the zodiac. First, the constellations in heaven are not merely man’s projection onto the heavens but are divinely ordained images. In two places Yahweh is said to have made the constellations; both Amos (5.8) and Job (9.8–9) speak to this truth:

He who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning.

[W]ho alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea;
who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south?

The constellations are not the blobs of psychologists, whose patients impose their own meanings, but is the mosaic of God. Yahweh has set the stars in place to make the Pleiades and Orion and all the other constellations. The constellations in the sky were discovered by man, not made by him. The constellations were made by God, which means they serve a specific purpose in his world; they point to God in some unique way.

Second, the zodiac in specific are twelve unique constellations in the sky. What makes these twelve signs different from all the other constellations in the sky is the simple fact that they are in the ecliptic. The ecliptic is the path of the sun. The sun rises in the East each day and sets in the West. Over the course of the year, the point on the horizon where the sun rises changes. During the winter the sun rises more and more northeast, while in the summer the sun travels down south and rises in the southeast. Only in autumn and spring does the sun rise closer to true east.

If one were to map the path of the sun over the course of the year, then one would see that the sun creates a wave like path across the sky. The zodiac is the set of constellations that happen to fall upon this path.

When speaking of the zodiac, it is important to know that there were more than one zodiacal set. Both the Babylonians and the Greeks recognized that there were twelve constellations that were unique because of their placement on the ecliptic. That is to say, both civilizations recognized the same twelve constellations; however, they each had their own names for the signs.⁴ For the purpose of this paper, it does not matter if the biblical zodiac matches with either of these zodiacs because, as I will soon argue, the scripture is not mirroring a Babylonian or Greek zodiac. God himself has set the zodiac in place. Thus the parallels between the biblical zodiac and other zodiacs are not important to the argument of this paper.

Now you may wonder, “Are these specific constellations actually unique to God? Yes, he has made the stars and yes he may have designed the constellations, but these twelve constellations of the zodiac must be manmade.” To this I say, even the zodiac is divinely designed. I make my argument on two points. First, the scriptures honor and recognize the path of the sun. In Psalm 19.5–6, David proclaims the glory of the sun and how its moves across the sky according to its path. David looks to the movement of the sun as a unique pointer to God’s glory. This on its own does not make much of an argument, but coupled with the fact that the scriptures have their own word for the zodiac, the points becomes more compelling.

In the books of Job and 2 Kings, the word mazzaroth is used for the twelve constellations of the zodiac. The word mazzaroth literally means a garland of crowns, but as it is used in 2 Kings 23.3–5 and Job 38.31 it is clearly being used as a technical term for the constellations. In both cases the term is used in relation to other heavenly bodies and is referred to as a set plural.

In Job, Yahweh declares that he leads the mazzaroth in its season. This further connects the mazzaroth to the zodiac because the zodiac moves from sign to sign, each in its season. In addition to further connecting these two terms, Yahweh’s words to Job show us that even the zodiacal constellations are guided and under Yahweh’s sovereign control. The scriptures identify the zodiac as being unique among the constellations, but why? The answer is in the Hebrew name given to the zodiac, the mazzaroth. As mentioned above, mazzaroth means a garland of crowns. The twelve constellations of the zodiac are described as a garland of crowns by God himself.⁵

The name mazzaroth is important to the meaning of the zodiac because the mazzaroth is a symbol of the twelve tribes. This may sound like a stretch, but I will show how the scriptures links the twelve tribes to the twelve signs of the zodiac. First, the numerical connection is important. The sons of Jacob are likened to stars in Joseph’s dream and there just happens to be twelve sons. The fact that the twelve sons of Jacob, who become the twelve tribes, are represented by stars must not be overlooked. There is a celestial link between these men and stars.

Second, in Exodus 28 Yahweh describes the breastplate of the high priest. Twelve stones are set in the ephod of the high priest, and each stone has the name of one of the tribes written on it. There is a unique stone to represent each tribe. In Revelation 21 another set of twelve stones are listed. The stones in Revelation are a call back to the twelve stones of the high priest’s breastplate. This is important because the twelve zodiac signs are also each represented by unique stone. The twelve unique stones that represent each zodiacal sign are the same stones listed in Revelation 21. Working backwards this reveals the connection the tribes have to the zodiac. The tribes are represented by the same stones that represent the signs of the zodiac.⁶

Finally, the twelve tribes are encircled around the Tabernacle, mirroring the circle of the zodiacal signs. In Numbers 2, Yahweh takes a census of the twelve tribes before arranging them around the Tabernacle.⁷ The count for the various tribes offers up numbers that follow the synodical numbers I mentioned above. The number of fighting men from each tribe points to Israel’s heavenly connection. The fact that the census is offering synodical numbers is meant to remind the reader that God promised Abraham that his children will be like the stars. Then you have these “starry” people arrange themselves around the Tabernacle in imagery that echoes that of Job’s mazzaroth. The image is hard to deny.⁸

Now that I have laid out all of my tools—that is, I have presented a political theology of stars, have given a biblical theology of the constellations, and have identified a clear connection between the zodiac and the twelves tribes—I will make my final argument by piecing it all together.

The Glory of the Zodiacal Tribes

The stars of heaven reveal the glory of God and show his authorized governance of both heaven and earth (the stars symbolize both angelic hosts and human leaders). This is true of all the stars, those that form the constellations outside and inside the ecliptic. This means the signs of the zodiac serve the general purpose of the stars.

But the zodiac does not simply represent Yahweh’s glory and governance in general, but is highlighted over the other constellations. The biblical authors call the zodiac a garland of crowns; these constellations are given greater glory than the rest. They are made unique, set apart. The twelve constellations of the zodiac are unique in that they do not simply point to God’s glory and governance in general, but specifically point to his glory and governance in his people.

The twelve tribes are the gathered people of God; they are normal people like everyone else and yet are set apart as unique in their role because of their relationship to Yahweh. Same with the signs of the zodiac, they are made up of the same stars as the rest of the heavens, but are unique because of their proximity to the sun. The twelve tribes glorify God uniquely because of their relationship to God. The zodiac highlights twelve unique bodies of glory and governance and exalts them over all the rest. These twelve signs are the crowning glory of heaven, just as the twelve tribes are the crowning glory of Israel and thus all the world.

Israel is the place where heavenly and earthly governance come together. The stars are signs of both angelic and earthly governance; in Israel these two realms become one. Israel is the earthly nation that leads by speaking at Yahweh’s divine council.⁹ Israel is meant to lead the world both on earth and in heaven. The zodiacal constellations being the crown of the heavenly rulers points to this unique role played out by Israel.

The zodiac points to Israel’s unique place in the world. Israel uniquely glorifies God in the way that she was chosen and placed as God’s kingdom of priests. But the image does not stop there, for the twelve apostles continue this image into the new covenant. The twelve apostles are meant to be a new twelve tribes of Israel. They are the new foundation of glory and governance in God’s covenant people. This is visually shown in the way Mary is crowned with twelve stars in Revelation. The church’s rule is a royal rule of glory and authority. The church is called to judge/govern both angels (as Paul points out in 1 Corinthians 6) and man. The church is the redeemed people of God who now enact God’s governance in his world. This is beautifully represented in the mazzaroth—the zodiac. The church is a garland of crowns that wraps around the glory of God. We are the glory and governance of God lived out in his creation.

Therefore, look to the heavens and see an image of God’s glory and governance. Look to the heavens and see an image of Israel’s place and purpose in history. Look to the heavens and see our own unique beautiful role in both heaven and earth today. Look to the heavens and see king Jesus ruling from his garland of crowns.

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Matthew Darby is an assisting priest at All Saints Anglican Honolulu.

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1. To clarify I will not engage the specific constellations of the zodiac but will engage the zodiac as a whole. ↩︎
2. See also Judges 5.20, Isaiah 14.13 and Revelation 12.3–4 for other connections between the angels and the stars. ↩︎
3. A synodic period is the time it takes for a planet to return to the same point in the sky. This insight comes from Gordon Wenham’s commentary on Genesis 1–15. ↩︎
4. Despite Babylon and Greece giving the constellations different names they clearly had the same idea in mind with regard to the character of the many of the signs. For example, the Babylonian name for Leo is simply The Lion and the Babylonian name for Gemini is The Twin. For more on these parallels read John Steele’s Astronomy and Culture in Late Babylonian Uruk,331–341. ↩︎
5. The term zodiac comes from the Greek word zōdiakòs kýklos which means a circle of animals. This is a reference to the many animal constellations in the zodiacal signs. ↩︎
6. The connection between the breastplate stones and the zodiac was a common interpretation in early biblical commentaries. Both Philo, in his On the Life of Moses 2.24, and Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews 3.7, understand the breastplate stones to represent the zodiacal signs. ↩︎
7. Gordon Wenham in Numbers (TOTC) goes into detail on how the census numbers mirror the synodical numbers of the planets. See pages 73–74. ↩︎
8. This image is reenforced by the descriptions of the four head tribes of each cardinal direction. In Numbers 2 the head tribe of each direction is Judah (East), Ephriam (West), Reuben (South) and Dan (North). Judah is likened to a lion in Genesis 49.9, Ephriam to a bull in Deuteronomy 33.17, Reuben to a man of moving water in Genesis 49.4 and Dan is likened to a serpentine monster in Genesis 49.17. I highlight these descriptions because the four “fixed” signs of the Greek zodiac are Leo the lion, Taurus the bull, Aquarius the water pourer, and Scorpio the scorpion/dragon. The fact that the four key tribes are likened to the four fixed signs of the zodiac at the very place where the tribes are being spread out like a garland around the Tabernacle.
   The connection is intriguing, however, I leave it only as a footnote and not in my core argument because it assumes that the Israelites identified the constellations with the same names as the Greeks. Since this has not been confirmed, I do not use it in my core argument. ↩︎
9. For more on the divine council and man’s invitation into it, see The Bible Project, “Spiritual Beings” Study Notes, https://d1bsmz3sdihplr.cloudfront.net/media/Study%20Notes/Spiritual%20Beings%20Series%20Study%20Notes.pdf. ↩︎