They occur in Job ix. 9: “Which maketh Arcturus (r.v. the Bear), Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south.” (Marg., Heb., Ash, Cesil, and Cimah.)
Job xxxviii. 31, 32: “Canst thou bind the sweet influences (r.v. cluster) of the Pleiades (marg., the [pg 008]seven stars, Heb. Cimah), or loose the bands of Orion (marg. Heb. Cesil)? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth (marg., the twelve signs. r.v., ‘the twelve signs’: and marg., the signs of the Zodiac) in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons (r.v., the Bear with her train; and marg., Heb., sons).”[12]
Isa. xiii. 10: ... “The stars of heaven and the constellations thereof.” ...
Amos v. 8: “Seek him that maketh the seven stars (r.v., the Pleiades) and Orion.”
Then we have the term “Mazzaroth,” Job xxxviii. 32, and “Mazzaloth,” 2 Kings xxiii. 5. The former in both versions is referred to the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac, while the latter is rendered “planets,” and in margin, the twelve signs or constellations.
Others are referred to by name. The sign of “Gemini,” or the Twins, is given as the name of a ship: Acts xxviii. 11, Διόσκουροι, (i.e. Castor & Pollux).
Most commentators agree that the constellation of “Draco,” or the Dragon (between the Great and Little Bear), is referred to in Job xxvi. 13: “By His Spirit He hath garnished the heavens; His hand hath formed the crooked serpent (r.v. swift. Marg. fleeing or gliding. See Is. xxvii. 1; xliii. 14).” This word “garnished” is peculiar. The r.v. puts in the margin, beauty. In Ps. xvi. 6, it is rendered goodly. “I have a goodly heritage.” In Dan. iv. 2, it is rendered, “I thought [pg 009] it good to show,” referring to “the signs and wonders” with which God had visited Nebuchadnezzar. It appears from this that God “thought it good to show” by these signs written in the heavens the wonders of His purposes and counsels, and it was by His Spirit that He made it known; it was His hand that coiled (חוּל) the crooked serpent among the stars of heaven.
Thus we see that the Scriptures are not silent as to the great antiquity of the signs and constellations.
If we turn to history and tradition, we are at once met with the fact that the Twelve Signs are the same, both as to the meaning of their names and as to their order in all the ancient nations of the world. The Chinese, Chaldean, and Egyptian records go back to more than 2,000 years b.c. Indeed, the Zodiacs in the Temples of Denderah and Esnéh, in Egypt, are doubtless copies of Zodiacs still more ancient, which, from internal evidence, must be placed nearly 4,000 b.c., when the summer solstice was in Leo.
Josephus hands down to us what he gives as the traditions of his own nation, corroborated by his reference to eight ancient Gentile authorities, whose works are lost. He says that they all assert that “God gave the antediluvians such long life that they might perfect those things which they had invented in astronomy.” Cassini commences his History of Astronomy by saying “It is impossible to doubt that astronomy was invented from the beginning of the world; history, profane as well as sacred, testifies to this truth.” Nouet, a French astronomer, infers that the Egyptian Astronomy must have arisen 5,400 b.c.!