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The First Jewish Astronomers: Lunar Theory and Reconstruction of a Dead Sea Scroll

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 July 2017

Eshbal Ratzon
Eshbal Ratzon*
Affiliation:
University of Haifa E-mail address: [email protected]
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Argument

The Astronomical Book of Enoch describes the passage of the moon through the gates of heaven, which stand at the edges of the earth. In doing so, the book describes the position of the rising and setting of the moon on the horizon. Otto Neugebauer, the historian of ancient science, suggested using the detailed tables found in later Ethiopic texts in order to reconstruct the path of the moon through the gates. This paper offers a new examination of earlier versions of the Astronomical Book, using a mathematical analysis of the figures and astronomical theories presented throughout the Aramaic Astronomical Book; the results fit both the data preserved in the scrolls and the mathematical approach and religious ideology of the scroll's authors better than the details found in the late Ethiopic texts. Among other new insights, this alternate theory also teaches about the process of the composition of the Astronomical Book in the first centuries of its composition.

Type
Research Article
Information
Science in Context , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , June 2017 , pp. 113 - 139
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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