This is fascinating, but my question would be "why?"--why would a celestial calendar be coded into the geneology?
I am neither astronomer nor theologian so I could not suggest a good answer. I do recognize that the liturgy has a harmony with the seasons and the rhythm of life. Ember days, feast days, the Angelus at 3pm, etc--so the astronomical synchronicity makes sense to me. Would it be possible that these were the names of the planets before we standardized their roman names? So such a megalithic calendar, like stonehenge, would mark the seasons, feasts, and harvests of the Abrahamic peoples? When the planet "Seth" is at such and such a point in the sky, perhaps its time to plant?
This is fascinating, regardless. The megalithic structure is a surprising but fascinating connection!
That’s a question I have been puzzling about. I will post about it properly later, but my view is that writing didn’t start until around 3,000 BC. So all cultures before that were oral. They wrote nothing down and shared information, most likely, through stories which could be easily remembered.
Genealogies could be another way of remembering and relaying information too. And if you knew how to interpret the story, you could use it for the particular purpose.
What is really weird is that the rest of the Bible doesn’t mention it. Nor do the traditions of the Jews or the extra-biblical books which actually discuss astronomy.
We don’t see a verse which says, ‘oh by the way Genesis 5 has astronomical data in it’. But actually, I think we do. If we know the Israelites saw the stars and planets as spiritual beings, maybe the Genesis 5 genealogy would help the reader interpret the skies.
Thanks, my brain broke...
This is fascinating, but my question would be "why?"--why would a celestial calendar be coded into the geneology?
I am neither astronomer nor theologian so I could not suggest a good answer. I do recognize that the liturgy has a harmony with the seasons and the rhythm of life. Ember days, feast days, the Angelus at 3pm, etc--so the astronomical synchronicity makes sense to me. Would it be possible that these were the names of the planets before we standardized their roman names? So such a megalithic calendar, like stonehenge, would mark the seasons, feasts, and harvests of the Abrahamic peoples? When the planet "Seth" is at such and such a point in the sky, perhaps its time to plant?
This is fascinating, regardless. The megalithic structure is a surprising but fascinating connection!
That’s a question I have been puzzling about. I will post about it properly later, but my view is that writing didn’t start until around 3,000 BC. So all cultures before that were oral. They wrote nothing down and shared information, most likely, through stories which could be easily remembered.
Genealogies could be another way of remembering and relaying information too. And if you knew how to interpret the story, you could use it for the particular purpose.
What is really weird is that the rest of the Bible doesn’t mention it. Nor do the traditions of the Jews or the extra-biblical books which actually discuss astronomy.
We don’t see a verse which says, ‘oh by the way Genesis 5 has astronomical data in it’. But actually, I think we do. If we know the Israelites saw the stars and planets as spiritual beings, maybe the Genesis 5 genealogy would help the reader interpret the skies.