Page 150 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

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CHAPTER 8 EARTH, MOON, SUN, PLANETS
CHAPTER 8 EARTH, MOON, SUN, PLANETS 129
it as a “morning star” makes more sense than simply “dawn” (for example, refer
to Job 38:12).
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So how has shachar evolved from a “morning star” (probably Jupiter) into
tzedek (“justice” in Hebrew)? We believe that this has to do with a certain verse
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in Isaiah: “Then your light will break forth like the dawn [shachar ], and your
healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness [your tzedek] will go before
you, and the glory of the Lord will be your guard” (Isa. 58:8). Recall that mazar
evolved into mazal, possibly to signify how the influence of the planets “leak”

unto “humans.” So possibly the most “influential” star in heaven, the king of the

deities in Greek and Roman pantheons (namely, Jupiter), had come to signify that
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“justice” also is determined in heaven. Jupiter as Shachar thus rendered into the
nonbiblical name Tzedek.
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To examine this conjecture, namely, that Jupiter was originally called Shachar,
we step into so far uncharted territory, and attempt to assign meanings to names
of celestial objects that appear in the Bible, yet their true meanings are obscure.
Earlier (section 8.3.3) we related to some of these names, however we emphasized
therein that these names are traditionally interpreted as representing groups of
stars with noticeable constellations in the sky. We now discard this assumption,
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and relate to these names as those of planets. There are four such names: Kimah
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26a
(Amos 5:8; Job 9:9, 38:31), Ksil (Isa.13:10; Amos 5:8; Job 9:9, 38:31), Ash
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(occasionally also Aish 26b ) and Teman (Job 9:9). The latter means in biblical
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Hebrew also south. An additional biblical name for a celestial object is Kochav,
which, in biblical Hebrew, simply means star. We include this word to imply also
one of the planets (in Table 8.2 it stands for Mercury).
Which planets do these names possibly represent?
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Sorting the ONVs of these five names, plus Mazar and Shachar, in an

ascending order, and doing likewise for the seven planets’ equatorial diameters
(excluding Earth), Table 8.3 is obtained (corresponding to Table 8.2).
Table 8.3. Data for celestial planets with biblical names.

Equatorial
Name Hebrew name ONV diameter (km) Log-diameter
Pluto Kochav 11 48 2302 7.7415
Mercury Kimah 24 75 4879.4 8.4928
Mars Ksil 25 120 6794.0 8.8238
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Venus Mazar 247 12103.8 9.4013
Neptune Ash 26a 370 49528 10.8103
Saturn Teman 27 490 120536 11.6997
Jupiter Shachar 23 508 142984 11.8705