Networks of Scholars
Networks of Scholars
The Transmission of Astronomical and Astrological Learning between Babylonians, Greeks and Jews
This chapter examines the transmission of astronomical and astrological learning between Babylonians, Greeks, and Jews. More specifically, it considers influences and cultural encounters between Babylonia and Jewish Palestine. It first compares the Babylonian and Jewish texts for similarities and differences in order to identify which Babylonian elements were familiar to Jewish scholars and how they appropriated, used and reworked these. It then explores some of the social and cultural aspects that may have determined the context of transmission of Babylonian elements of astral sciences in Jewish texts and goes on to discuss Jewish texts that attest to knowledge of some elements from Babylonian astronomy, including the Astronomical Book of Enoch. It also highlights evidence suggesting that Babylonian sciences such as astronomy and astrology were transmitted beyond the Mesopotamian cultural realm to the west.
Keywords: learning, Babylonians, Greeks, Jews, Babylonia, Jewish Palestine, transmission, Jewish texts, astronomy, astrology
NYU Press Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
