From: Ben Crick (ben.crick@argonet.co.uk)
Date: Sat Jan 10 1998 - 18:32:22 EST
On Sat 10 Jan 98 (06:11:10), cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu wrote:
> Fascinating. On the one hand, I think that ASTERES PLANHTAI in Jude 13
> must indeed refer to the planets--this is, I think, standard
> astronomical language to distinguish the planets from the "fixed"
> stars; on the other hand, it appears by no means unlikely that there is
> at least word play and quite likely a definite conceptual linkage in
> astrological terms between
> the planets as astral powers demonically governing human affairs
> (KOSMOKRATORAS TOU SKOTOUS TOUTOU, Eph 6:12, probably also the ARCAI
> and EXOUSIAI of which there's been some mention recently, and which
> were researched in Billy McMinn's Tulane Ph.D dissertation back at the
> time I
> was learning Greek from him in the 50's). It appears to me that there's
> also at least an allusion to the cosmogonic traditions that are common
> to the ancient Near East and to Hesiod's Theogony, wherein Zeus, after
> his conquest over the rebellious Titans, imprisons them forever in
> Tartarus.
My turn to say "Fascinating". In my denomination, there is talk
occasionally of rogue bishops who have left the church for one reason or
another, but who still go about functioning as consecrated bishops, giving
encouragement to schismatic groups of malcontents here and there. They are
collectively referred to as "Episcopes Vagantes", a clear (?) reference
to Jude 13? The Vulgate gives "Sidera Errantia": not a bad rendering of
ASTERES PLANHTAI. Stray stars? Loose cannons?
Could Jude have had astrologers in mind? Casters of horoscopes? One
thinks of Simon Magus (Acts 8:9ff).
-- Revd Ben Crick, BA CF <ben.crick@argonet.co.uk> 232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK) http://www.cnetwork.co.uk/crick/htm
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