Genesis 5 Part 12: Adam, Seth and Enosh
In my last post we saw how the Genesis 5 genealogy maps onto a wheel, when we use the sidereal orbits of the planets.
We are now going to look at how each patriarch lines up with a particular celestial sphere.
Adam, the First Generation
In Genesis 2, we see God created Adam. He becomes the first born man in Creation, so it is fittings he is the first celestial sphere.
This sphere extends from the orbit of Saturn to the edge of the Universe.
Theologically, it is the place where God has His temple and throne. This is not where God is, as God is not part of Creation. He is the Creator and therefore He doesn’t appear in the model.
The First Heaven also contains a zodiac. This is a group of constellations which the planets, Sun and Moon appear to travel through. Different cultures vary in the number of constellations. I have decided to adopt 12 as this is the number of the Sons of Israel. The blessings given to these children by Jacob in Genesis 49 is a zodiac. I will post about this another time.
I mentioned in my previous post that we have to divided Adam’s age of 930 years by 30. There could be several reason why:
There are ten patriarchs with three ages each which totals 30 numbers.
It is the time it takes Saturn to travel through the zodiac in solar years (actually it is 29.5, but I have assumed the writer of Genesis is not that precise).
Just as we split Saturn’s circle into 12, as the age at which Seth dies is 912. So too we split Adam’s 930 into 30.
Seth, the Second Generation
He was Adam’s third son. Seth’s name means compensation. He was compensation from God after the murder of Abel. The root word of Seth is the word ‘set’ or ‘foundation’. In terms of the astronomical map, Seth is the foundation.
I have spoken more about Seth in my last post and how he is the foundation of the astronomical wheel.
So in theory, if we know where Saturn is in the Hebrew zodiac, we can work out where the other planets are in their planetary cycles.
I would like to know how accurate this planetary model is. I suspect it is good enough to mark time and give a rough prediction of a planet’s position. Though I think it would be lacking in terms of accuracy.
Enosh, the Third Generation
In Jewish astronomy, Mercury is called Kokhav and means ‘the planet’. Similarly, Enosh in the Bible means ‘man’. Both these meanings are simple and straightforward. This gives the impression this celestial sphere is a template for the others. It is the celestial sphere which most divides the Saturnian periods and can be used to map out the other spheres.
If we take the sidereal orbit of Mercury (88 days) and divide it by the age of Enosh at his death, we get roughly 1/10. This means that for every 1/12 of the circle (or Zodiac sign), Mercury would orbit the Sun 10 times.
Strangely, Mercury has been counted as the third celestial sphere. The common understanding is that Jupiter should reside here. However, when I started to build this Map of the Second Heaven, I realised that having a segmented circle using tenths was very useful, when mapping out the rest of the clock. I can see why the text would do this.
The next post will look at the celestial spheres, Kenen, Mahalalel and Jared.