Page 196 - Foundations

• Who appointed the constellations, attached figures to them, named them, and assigned
specific stars to them?
• Did the design of the constellations originate with man, with angels, or with God?

The opinions set forth in answer to these questions are manifold. More than a few trace the origin of
the zodiac back to Adam and his descendants. Frances Rolleston shares the following thoughts.

In whatever obscurity the origin of the emblems of astronomy may appear to be enveloped in the
traditions of the nations where they are preserved, no such doubts hang over that of the science itself.
It has always and every where (sic) been traced back to the earliest race of man. The Hebrews,
Chaldeans, Persians, and Arabs imputed its invention to Adam, Seth, and Enoch...

The learned Jew Josephus, who, living at the time of the destruction of the Temple by Titus, refers
for his authorities to ancient writers whose names alone remain to us. He attributes the invention of
the science to "the family of Seth the son of Adam," when, the life of man then extending to near a
thousand years, they were enabled to ascertain from actual observation the return of the heavenly
bodies to the same positions in cycles and periods, which in after ages it has required the labour of
successive generations to verify.

Adam, divinely led to give names to what he saw, must have had such for the sun and moon, and
probably for the planets whose movements would attract his notice. Those celestial splendours shone
in the far-off and inaccessible heaven, the abode or the path to the abode of his Creator and
Redeemer, whence Divine instruction and yet more Divine mercy had descended upon him. Thither
his eyes would reverently and most habitually turn: the starry world on high would be, if not the first,
the most absorbing object of his contemplation; and astronomy would naturally be, as tradition
declares, the earliest study, the first science of mankind. Seth, the son of his consolation and heir of
his promises, the traditional father of astronomy, is said to have commenced its arrangement with
that of the twelve signs...

Enoch, his descendant, with whom he was long contemporary, is said by tradition to have given
names to the stars: the further development of prophecy that appears among the constellations
annexed to the signs, above and below them, may then be referred to him. "The family of Seth" thus
devised, carried on, and completed this great work, which remains to us an unchanged memorial of
their piety, their intellect, and the revelation which they were endeavouring to perpetuate...
[Frances Rolleston, Mazzaroth]

Such are the traditions that have come down to us today. Josephus shared these opinions 2,000 years
ago, and these ideas greatly pre-dated him. Yet attributing to Adam, Seth, and their descendants the
development of primitive astronomy is not the same as proving the matter. Josephus shared many
things in his histories that were nothing more than Jewish fables. We will not find authoritative
answers to the questions we seek in the histories and writings of man. The most reputable of the
ancient historians and scribes admit that the zodiac is found in the most ancient records of man, but
there is no record of what people, or individual, originated it.

Among those who attribute primeval astronomy to Adam and his descendants, there are those who