Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades or loose Orion’s belt?
Can you bring out the signs of the zodiac in their season
or guide Aldebaran and its satellite stars?

The text above is from the REB (similarly the NEB) and appears to be a minority rendering based on comparisons to more mainstream translations. The table below compares this textual choice with that of the TNIV and the ESV, as well as the KJV:

31a: The Pleiades (cf. Job 9.9, Amos 5.8)

There seems to be little disagreement in translation about v.31 referring to the constellations of Pleiades or Orion. According to John C. L. Gibson’s commentary, for the phrase “the sweet influences of Pleiades”, the KJV translators likely “had in mind the genial onset of spring associated with the appearance of the Pleiades preceding sunrise in the east.”

According to JewishEncyclopedia.com, the expression “Can you bind” is a transposition of the following phrase, “the chains”. There doesn’t appear to be any other wordplay in the original, so we might as well just approach this verse straight on, as most translations do. Though I do admit that the consonantal connection of “chains” (or “cluster”) and “cords” in the NRSV (similarly NASB) is a welcome touch. “Binding the Pleiades” certainly seems to anticipate modern astronomy’s observations of the gravitational attractions within this group of stars.

31b: Orion’s belt (cf. Job 9.9, Amos 5.8, Isaiah 13.10)

In Keightley’s Mythology of Ancient Greece and Italy, he notes that “the ancient Hebrews seem also to have regarded [Orion] as a huge giant bound with chains in the sky [...]” So the question is whether it is the belt of Orion, the band of three bright stars across the constellation’s midsection, or the chains of a fettered giant that are being loosened. Gesenius’ Lexicon refers specifically to the state of being bound with respect to the Heb. mowshĕkah (translated above as “belt”, “cords”, “bands”).

Is this an example of one traditional description (“Orion’s belt”, as used by the TNIV and REB) obscuring a different cultural image or reference?

Given that both the Pleiades and Orion are bound in some sense, the point of the verse (other than the obvious questioning of Job’s capabilities) seems to be the celestial contrast between the Heb. qashar (tn. “bind”) and the Heb. pathach (tn. “loose”).

32a: Mazzaroth (cf. Job 9.9, 2 Kings 23.5)

The NET Bible has the following note:

The word מַזָּרוֹת (mazzarot) is taken by some to refer to the constellations, and by others as connected to the word for “crown,” and so “corona.”

The “crown” connection noted by the NET is championed by Ewald, who claims that the reference is to the Northern and Southern Crown constellations, corresponding to the “chambers of the South” in Job 9.9.

Transliterated Hebrew words rarely communicate much meaning in general English, so using “the constellations” (TNIV, also NASB) or “the signs of the zodiac” (REB) is to be preferred, with the understanding that meaning of the underlying Hebrew is uncertain. The REB underscores an astrological connection between the individual constellations and the zodiac by translating the Hebrew as “the signs” rather than “the constellations”. The related Heb. mazzalah in 2 Kings 23:5 is noted as perhaps being derived from a word related to rain – as in a season of rain ushered in by a zodiac sign in the heavens.

It is interesting to note that the Heb. mazzarah (constellations) and the Heb. ‘eth (season) are feminine nouns and the former is plural is a plural feminine noun – thus, the KJV’s use of the pronoun “his” to describe “seasons” (Heb. ‘eth) here seems doubly misplaced, while “their season” used by the other translations is generically appropriate.

32b: The Bear (cf. Job 9.9)

The NET Bible has the following note for Job 9:9, which also lists the same constellations by name:

The Hebrew [in 9:9] has עָשׁ (’ash), although in 38:32 it is עַיִשׁ (’ayish). This has been suggested to be Aldebaran, a star in the constellation Taurus, but there have been many other suggestions put forward by the commentaries.

Arabic has a similar word, na’sh, which means “bear” and an expression where the three stars of the Big Dipper’s handle in the constellation Ursa Major (Big Bear) are referred to as “daughters of the bear”. Thus, a translation reading “the bear with its children” (cf. TNIV, NRSV) would be using Ursa Major as the referent, with perhaps the bowl of the Dipper and the handle being depicted. Also, Ursa Minor (Little Bear) could also be in view here.

The KJV’s reference to Arcturus recalls a common way of finding stars in the night sky: “Arc to Arcturus then speed to Spica.” That is, if you follow the arc formed by the three stars that make up handle of the Big Dipper (away from the bowl itself), you will come to the star Arcturus and then Spica. “Arcturus with his sons” would most likely refer to the star, Arcturus, and the three stars of the Big Dipper’s handle. However, most commentaries seem to dismiss Arcturus as a probable translation.

Aldebaran surrounded by the Hyades is in the middle left. The Pleiades are in the lower right.

The NEB/REB’s decision to translate ‘ayish as Aldebaran is evidently based on a Syriac witness as well as that star’s visual proximity to the Hyades star cluster (“its satellite stars”), which lies between Orion and the Pleiades mentioned in v.31.

Of final note: Aldebaran, the Hyades and the Pleiades are all in the constellation Taurus, which is in astrological battle with Orion. The link between these two constellations is historic and it would be consistent for the Biblical astronomers to focus on some of the brightest and most prominent features of these two constellations.

Job 38.31-33 (REB):

Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades or loose Orion’s belt?
Can you bring out the signs of the zodiac in their season
or guide Aldebaran and its satellite stars?
Did you proclaim the rules that govern the heavens
or determine the laws of nature on the earth?

The brilliant Hubble Space Telescope advent calendar marches on, now halfway to Christmas Day. Be sure to check out the latest photos, including this one from the constellation Orion.

This image, taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), represents a small section of a larger mosaic - the sharpest view ever taken of the Orion Nebula - a picture book of star formation with massive young stars that are shaping the nebula and pillars of dense gas that may be the homes of budding stars. The bright glow at left is from M43, a small region being shaped by ultraviolet light from a massive young star. Astronomers call the region a miniature Orion Nebula because only one star is sculpting the landscape. The Orion Nebula has four such stars. The Orion Nebula is 1,500 light-years away, the nearest star-forming region to Earth. (NASA, ESA, M. Robberto - STScI)

For the creation was subjected to futility – not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it – in the hope that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of corruption into the glorious freedom of God’s children. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now. (Romans 8:20-22, HCSB)

If, as some alarmists would have you believe, a planned physics experiment on Wednesday spawns the creation of one or more quantum black holes, then in approximately four years, we shall see the earth giving birth to glorious light, just before it is consumed into an eternal pit of fire. The glorious freedom of God’s children will have fulfilled the destiny of the earth’s elements to be destroyed with the heat of heaven’s fire (2 Peter 3). Wormwood, anyone?

On Wednesday, Dr Evans will fire up the Large Hadron Collider, a 17-mile-long doughnut-shaped tunnel that will smash sub-atomic particles together at nearly the speed of light.

Built by the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), the collider lies beneath the French-Swiss border, near the institution’s headquarters in Geneva, at depths ranging from 170ft to 600ft.

The aim of the £4.4billion experiment is to recreate the conditions that existed a fraction of a second after the Big Bang – the birth of the universe – and provide vital clues to the building blocks of life.

It will track the spray of particles thrown out by collisions in a search for the elusive Higgs Boson, a theoretical entity that supposedly lends weight, or mass, to the elementary particles. So important is this mysterious substance that it has been called the ‘God Particle’.

Scientists also hope to shed some light on the invisible material that exists between particles – dubbed ‘dark matter’ as no one knows what it really is – which makes up most of the universe.

But a handful of scientists believe that the experiment could create a shower of unstable black holes that could ‘eat’ the planet from within, and they are launching last-ditch efforts to halt it in the courts.

One of them, Professor Otto Rossler, a retired German chemist, said he feared the experiment may create a devastating quasar – a mass of energy fuelled by black holes – inside the Earth.

‘Nothing will happen for at least four years,’ he said. ‘Then someone will spot a light ray coming out of the Indian Ocean during the night and no one will be able to explain it.

‘A few weeks later, we will see a similar beam of particles coming out of the soil on the other side of the planet. Then we will know there is a little quasar inside the planet.’

Prof Rossler said that as the spinning-top-like quasar devoured the world from within, the two jets emanating from it would grow and catastrophes such as earthquakes and tsunamis would occur at the points they emerged from the Earth.

‘The weather will change completely, wiping out life, and very soon the whole planet will be eaten in a magnificent scenario – if you could watch it from the moon. A Biblical Armageddon. Even cloud and fire will form, as it says in the Bible.’

Full article: Meet Evans the Atom, who will end the world on Wednesday

Huge black hole catapulted through space
Black hole exiting its home galaxy spotted for first time

A colossal black hole has been spotted exiting its home galaxy, kicked out after a huge cosmic merger took place. [...] When two colliding galaxies finally merge, it is thought that the black holes at their cores may fuse together too. Astronomers have theorized that the resulting energy release could propel the new black hole from its parent galaxy out into space, but no one has found such an event.

Eventually, the black holes would fuse, and “in the final coalescence, or merger, of these two black holes, a giant burst of gravitational waves is emitted,” [Stefanie Komossa of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics] said. “Since these waves are generally emitted in one preferred direction, the black hole is then kicked in the other direction.” [...] The escaping black hole Komossa and her team observed was racing along at 5,900,000 mph.

Read the full article here.

Tyrannosaurus Rex Basically a Big Chicken
Tyrannosaurus rex just got a firm grip on the animal kingdom’s family tree, right next to chickens and ostriches.

New analyses of soft tissue from a T.rex leg bone re-confirm that birds are dinosaurs’ closest living relatives. “We determined that T. rex, in fact, grouped with birds – ostrich and chicken – better than any other organism that we studied,” said researcher John Asara of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. “We also show that it groups better with birds than [with] modern reptiles, such as alligators and green anole lizards.”

Scientists long suspected non-avian dinosaurs were most closely related to modern-day birds. This idea initially rested largely on similarities between the outward appearances of bird and dinosaur skeletons.

Evidently the recent evidence was gathered from a T.rex drumstick (seriously!). Read more…