The Great Christ Comet (81 page)

62
 My translation. It should be noted that there is a shift from the aorist tense in v. 1 to the present tense in v. 2. The choice of the present tense is no doubt for the sake of vividness.

63
 The star 80 Virginis is approximately at the level of Virgo's genitalia. This seems to be true in the Virgo of Hyginus, Pseudo-Eratosthenes, and Ptolemy, and probably also that of the Egyptians and Bab­ylo­nians.

64
 My translation. Cf. NASB. This approach treats
tekein
as a verbal infinitive of purpose.

65
 My translation. Cf. ESV (“the agony of giving birth”). This approach treats
tekein
as an epexegetical infinitive (i.e., the infinitive explains the agony).

66
 In addition to the presence of
kai
, the fact that the usual indications of the purpose infinitive are absent here suggests this.

67
 It is interesting that in the fifth century AD Hephaistio of Thebes,
Apotelesmatics
, 1.24 (Hephaistio of Thebes,
Apotelesmatics, Book I
, trans. Robert Schmidt, ed. Robert Hand [Berkeley Springs, WV: Golden Hind Press, 1994], 58–60), refers to a “comet which is called Eileithyia,” the name of the goddess of childbirth and one of the names of Virgo. It is possible that Hephaistio's assessment was based on an actual cometary apparition in Virgo, as Boll (
Offenbarung Johannis
, 105n1) proposed. This comet, according to Hephaistio, had the face of a virgin and golden hair and portended the dawn of a better era. See Hegedus, “Some Astrological Motifs,” 82.

68
 Curiously,
Sibylline Oracles
8:456–457, from the second or third century AD, states concerning the Messiah that “as a new light he rose from the womb of the Virgin Mary” (J. J. Collins, “Sibylline Oracles,” in
The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha
, ed. James H. Charlesworth, 2 vols. [New York: Doubleday, 1983], 1:428).

69
 Hyginus,
Fabulae
140. For more standard versions of the Apollo birth myth, see Robin Hard,
The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology
(London: Routledge, 2004), 188–190.

70
 Geraldine Pinch,
Egyptian Myth: A Very Short Introduction
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 76.

71
 On the popularity of Isis within the ancient world, note that the first-century BC author Diodorus Siculus (1.25) stated that “virtually the whole populated world” testified that Isis was to be honored for revealing herself in the healing of her devotees from all kinds of diseases. In that same passage Diodorus states that Horus was widely regarded as a benefactor of the human race, healing and granting oracles to those who sought his aid. Witts,
Isis in the Ancient World
, 222–254, details the history of the Roman emperors' devotion to Isis—for example, he points out that Tiberius in AD 23 is represented as sacrificing to Horus and Isis. In the Greco-Roman environment Horus was often called Harpocrates. As Sharon Kelly Heyob (
The Cult of Isis among Women in the Graeco-Roman World
[Leiden: Brill, 1975], 76) has written, “To judge by the number of representations of Isis and Harpocrates it was in her role as mother that Isis achieved the greatest popularity in the Graeco-Roman world.”

72
 Geraldine Pinch,
Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 146.

73
 For a fuller account of the Horus birth myth, see Bousset,
Offenbarung
,
354–355 (for his exegesis of Revelation 12, see pp. 335–358) and Charles,
Revelation
, 1:313. Bousset, in particular, points out the closeness between the Egyptian myth and the account in Revelation 12. As Charles (
Revelation
, 1:313) highlights, there were different variants of the story—another version has Isis giving birth at the conclusion of her flight, at Chemnis.

74
 Contra many, including Adela Yarbro Collins,
The Combat Myth in the Book of Revelation
(Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1976), 61–71; Grant R. Osborne,
Revelation
, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2002), 454; Frederick J. Murphy,
Fallen Is Babylon
(Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1998), 279–280; and Beasley-Murray,
Revelation
, 192, who find Revelation 12's narrative to be closest to the Greco-Roman form of the myth. According to Murphy (
Fallen Is Babylon
, 280), the Greco-Roman version of the myth and Revelation 12 have in common that a woman was pregnant with one who “will share in the divine rule of the universe,” that a dragon attacked her, that she was rescued, that water features in the story, and that the son goes on to defeat the dragon. However, (1) Leto bears not only Apollo but also Artemis/Diana; (2) the predominant version of the myth has Apollo born after the flight from the dragon, not before it, contrary to Revelation 12; (3) Apollo slayed the dragon within just 4 days of his birth, whereas Virgo's son in Rev. 12:5 is caught up to God and his throne and does not vanquish the dragon until he returns at the end of the age; (4) the means of rescue and the role played by water in the Greco-Roman version are very different from the Biblical story; (5) the idea of “sharing in the divine rule of the universe” is hardly the way Revelation frames Jesus's destiny.

75
 However, it is important to remember that, in the general period we are considering, it was common to identify gods from different regions. In particular, Diodorus Siculus 1.25 informs us that Horus was popularly identified with Apollo in the Greco-Roman world—like Apollo, Horus was believed to benefit humanity by his oracles and healings.

76
 On identifications of Seth-Typhon in the stars, see Herman Te Velde,
Seth, God of Confusion: A Study of His Role in Egyptian Mythology and Religion
(Leiden: Brill, 1977), 86–87; Boll,
Offenbarung Johannis
, 98–124, esp. 108–109; W. Hadorn,
Die Offenbarung des Johannes
(Leipzig: Deichert, 1928), 131–132; H. Kraft,
Die Offenbarung des Johannes
(Tübingen: Mohr, 1974), 164; Jan Willem van Henten, “Dragon Myth and Imperial Ideology in Revelation 12–13,” in
The Reality of Apocalypse: Rhetoric and Politics in the Book of Revelation
, ed. D. Barr (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2006), 186–188.

77
 I have substituted “fire-colored” for the ESV's “red.” The Greek word is
purros
and most naturally connotes the color of fire. See Johannes P. Louw and Eugene A. Nida,
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament
:
Based on Semantic Domains
(New York: United Bible Societies, 1988), §79.31.

78
 My translation.

79
 The Greek word
sur
ō
most often means “drag” or “pull” (as in John 21:8; Acts 8:3; 14:19; 17:6), but here, with reference to the action of a dragon's tail, it could mean “sweep” (so most English versions).

80
 My translation.

81
 So Boll,
Offenbarung Johannis
, 101–102.

82
 White,
Babylonian Star-Lore
, 183.

83
 Charles,
Revelation
, 1:317–318. Aune,
Revelation
, 2:685, points out that some Mesopotamian cylinders portrayed divinities fighting a serpent with seven heads (James B. Pritchard,
Ancient Near East in Pictures Relating to the Old Testament with Supplement
, 2nd ed. [Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969], 221 no. 691; cf. no. 671). On Tiamat sometimes having been portrayed as having seven heads, see Eberhard Schrader,
Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament
, 3rd ed., ed. H. Zimmern and H. Winkler (Berlin: Reuther und Reichard, 1903), 504, 512; Collins,
Combat Myth
, 77.

84
 On the Canaanite seven-headed Chaos Monster, see James B. Pritchard,
Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament with Supplement
, 3rd ed. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969), 138; J. C. L. Gibson,
Canaanite Myths and Legends
, 2nd ed. (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1978), 50, 68–69 (
Ugaritic Baal Cycle
1.3.5.1–3, 27–30); and Caird,
Revelation
, 150. Walter Burkert,
Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979), 80–83, discusses evidence that Hydra was sometimes considered to have seven heads.

85
 
Ptolemy's Almagest
, trans. Toomer, 393. Aratus,
Phaenomena
443–448 (third century BC) states that Hydra's tail hangs over the Centaur, which is consistent with the tail extending to
π
(Pi) Hydrae. This is the predominant conceptualization of Hydra today: see, for example, Jim Kaler's discussion regarding
π
(Pi) Hydrae at
http://
stars
.astro
.illinois
.edu
/sow
/pihya.html
(last modified April 24, 2011).

86
 See Condos,
Star Myths
, 120, 122.

87
 See Hipparchus's
Commentary on the Phenomena of Aratus and Eudoxus
, in C. Manitius, ed.
Hipparchi in Arati et Endoxi Phaenomena Commentariorum Libri Tres
(Leipzig: Teubner, 1894), 219. I am grateful to Roger MacFarlane and Paul Mills for graciously giving me prepublication access to relevant parts of their forthcoming English translation (the first of its kind),
Hipparchus' Commentary on the Phaenomena of Aratus and Eudoxus
. On the influence of Babylonian astronomy on Hipparchus, see especially F. X. Kugler,
Die Babylonische Mondrechnung. Zwei Systeme der Chaldäer über den Lauf des Mondes und der Sonne
(Freiburg: Herder, 1900), 4–8, 50–53; and G. J. Toomer, “Hipparchus and Babylonian Astronomy,” in
A Scientific Humanist: Studies in Memory of Abraham Sachs
, ed. Erle Leichty, Maria Ellis, and Pamel Gerardi (Philadelphia: Occasional Publications of the Samuel Noah Kramer Fund, 1988), 353–362.

88
 This assessment is consistent with Teukros of Babylon's description of that part of the sky (see Boll,
Catalogus
, 202; for an English translation, see James H. Holden, ed. and trans.,
Rhetorius the Egyptian
[Tempe, AZ: American Federation of Astrologers, 2009], 176–178) and with Eudoxus's claim that Hydra's tail did not set until Pisces rose (in Manitius,
Hipparchi in Arati et Endoxi Phaenomena Commentariorum
, 170, 172).

89
 It is an aoristic or dramatic perfect; see Daniel Wallace,
Greek Grammar: Beyond the Basics
(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), 578.

90
 Although in theory Hydra's “standing” could refer to its actual heliacal rising, that is most unlikely, because third-magnitude stars close to the ecliptic, like
π
(Pi) Hydrae, have to be a few degrees above the horizon in order to be visible at their heliacal rising.

91
 It is unclear from Rev. 12:3–4 whether the meteor storm lasted for a short time (with Earth quickly passing through the dense section of the meteoroid stream) or endured until sunrise (or beyond!). The fact that the scene climaxes with Hydra's standing may possibly suggest that the most intense part of the meteor storm was over by the point at which
π
(Pi) Hydrae rose.

92
 My translation.

93
 Note that the same Hebrew word (
shbt
) is used in Num. 24:17 (“
scepter
”); Ps. 2:9 (“
rod
of iron”); and Isa. 11:4 (“
rod
of his mouth”). Essentially, as Murphy,
Fallen Is Babylon
, 140, comments, “The scepter is a rod symbolizing kingship, but it can also be seen as a weapon. Kingly power carries destructive potential.” Ps. 2:9 itself was probably picking up on Num. 24:17. Recall also the connection between Ps. 2:8–9 and Num. 24:17 in Rev. 2:26–28: the conquering believer's reward will be participation in the Messiah's iron-scepter reign (cf. Ps. 2:9) and reception of the “morning star” (cf. Num. 24:17). The linking of star and scepter in Rev. 2:26–28 clearly reflects Num. 24:17 (“a star shall rise . . . , a scepter . . .”). In addition, Rev. 22:16 (“I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star”) recalls Num. 24:17 when it refers to Jesus as the Star (the verse also alludes to Isa. 11:1–16 [particularly v. 4], a text that highlighted the messianic significance of the sign of the virgin's giving birth and revealed that Balaam's prophecy against Moab and Edom in Num. 24:17–19 still awaited future fulfillment in connection with the Messiah).

94
 Balaam's star and scepter are frequently linked to the Magi's Star in other early Christian literature—for example, Matt. 2:2 (“his [i.e., the Messiah's] star”);
Testament of Levi
18:3;
Testament of Judah
24:1; Justin,
Dialogue with Trypho
106:5–6 (cf. 126:1) and
First Apology
32:12–13; Ignatius,
To the Ephesians
19:2–3; Irenaeus,
Adversus Haereses
3.9.2–3, and
Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching
58; Origen,
Contra Celsum
1:60, and
Homilies on Numbers
13:7; Eusebius,
Demonstratio Evangelica
9.1; also possibly LXX Zech. 6:12 (
Anatol
ē
). For more, see Jean Daniélou,
Primitive Christian Symbols
, trans. Donald Attwater (London: Burns & Oates, 1964), 102–123.