Jewish cosmology

Jewish cosmology refers to a cluster of cosmological views held in Jewish systems of thought and theology in premodern times. This includes literature from the period of Second Temple Judaism (516 BCE – 70 CE), rabbinic literature, para-rabbinic literature (notably including Pirkei De-Rabbi Eliezer), and more.

Jewish cosmology may be treated separately from biblical cosmology which refers to the views concerning the origins (cosmogony) and structure (cosmography) of the cosmos in the Hebrew Bible.

Key texts

Book of Enoch

Early Jewish apocalyptic literature represents the beginning of a systematic or scientific curiosity about the origins and structure of the cosmos.^[1] The earliest Jewish writings to discuss cosmology outside of the Bible is the Astronomical Book (earlier) and the Book of the Watchers, both of which have been compiled into the Book of Enoch. The Astronomical Book focuses on the Earth in its 77th chapter, where it has a fourfold division into the north, south, east, and west. It also offers another threefold division, corresponding to the region inhabited by humans, the region inhabited by other creatures (the sea, forests, and so on), and the "garden of righteousness" (gannata ṣedq). At the edge of the earth lies seven great mountains, rivers, and islands, all of which are bigger than any of their counterparts within Earth's circumscribed area.^[2] The Book of Watchers focuses on the cyclic elements of the cosmos experienced by humans, especially the paths of the sun, moon, stars, the shifts of the season, the movements of seas and rivers, and so on. For this book, however, man has made corrupted use of what should be a righteous for of contemplating the cosmos, by instead turning its elements into weapons and performing divination on the astral bodies. In response, the text focuses on the voices coming from the gates of heaven, archangels, to whom pleas can be made such that they petition God to intervene for the sake of meting out punishment and purification.^[3] The Book of Watchers also records the ascent of Enoch into heaven, where clouds, shooting stars, and other natural forces help him up to a three-tiered palace in the heavenly abode, one which resembles the Temple in Jerusalem. Here, Enoch sees the 'storehouses of all the winds': these windows are forces which support the earth and firmament, move the astral bodies in their paths, and expand the skies.^[4] During Enoch's ascent, he reaches the largest (and throne-like) of the seven mountains where God himself is said to take seat. Later in the tour, he finds a mountain at the 'center of the earth' (26:1).^[5]

3 Baruch

3 Baruch has a bipartite involving heaven and earth without mention of an underworld. Aside from Jerusalemite topography and a list of rivers, no geographic description of earth is offered. The water circle that integrates the heavenly and earthly waters is, however, an important concern for this text. An uncrossable river, Oceanus, separates heaven and earth and is filled by the earths rivers from one side while bring drunk from by beasts on the others. Terrestrial rivers, in turn, are supplied by heavenly waterfall (like rain and dew). The "foundation of heaven", the firmament, is heavens lowermost support. The lowermost bounds also makes contact with the uppermost ends of the earth, similar to 1 Enoch's reference that Enoch saw "the ends of earth whereon heaven rests, and the portals of the heaven open" (31:1-2). In later rabbinic literature, this is described as heaven and earth coming to "kiss each other". In 3 Baruch, they meet at the Oceanus, due to the vaulted or hemispherical nature of the firmament: the lower ends of heaven meet the earth. There are 365 gates or celestial windows at the firmament through which the sun passes when it rises and sets.^[6] According to later rabbinic cosmography, there were 182 gates in the east, 182 in the west, and one in the center through which the sun passed right after the creation period. The need for one gate for the sun to pass through per day emerges from the revolution of heaven in relation to earth.^[7] Such gates may be contextualized into those mentioned in the writings of Homer and other texts from early Greek cosmology and ancient near eastern cosmology.^[8] Unique to the uranology of 3 Baruch is that the final stage of the ascent to heaven terminates at the fifth heaven, with no others mentioned as existing beyond.^[9]

Rabbinic literature

Rabbinic cosmology represents a synthesis of ancient near eastern cosmology, early Greek cosmology, and biblical cosmology, framed into the sensibilities of contemporary Jewish thought and morality. These include statements describing Oceanus encircling the earth, statements of the earth being like a plate with the heaven (firmament) as a cover, and that the earth sits upon a cosmic body of water. The firmament is held up by pillars, and furthermore, the sky represents a series of layered firmaments. Distances between each of the heavens, measured by the number of years that could be traversed during human journey, were speculated.^[10]

In rabbinic literature, the idea of seven heavens constituting the cosmos became the norm, although occasionally even greater numbers are found, such as in the ten heavens of 2 Enoch.^[11]^[12]

Peter Schafer has called b. Hagiga 12b–13a the locus classicus of rabbinic cosmology; this passage offers law on what constitutes prohibited sexual relationships, the works of creation (maʿase bereshit), and discusses the "chariot" of Ezekiel 1. It is in the maʿase bereshit where cosmological commentary becomes important. The passage outlines what constitutes acceptable inquiry regarding cosmology, discusses the size of the first man, describes ten things created on the first day (heaven and earth, tohu and bohu, light and darkness, wind and water, and the measure of day and of night). In part, this lists responds to the notion that some of these elements (like darkness) were uncreated and primordial already when God began creating. Then, ten of God's attributes during creation are listed (one being rebuke, because God would for example expand the cosmos until he "rebuked" or "shouted" at it). Discussion moves onto the Earth with the exposition of Genesis 1:2, where the detail about pillars of the Earth is assimilated from Job 9:6.^[13] The seven heavens are discussed and their names are stated ("(1) Welon, (2) Raqia‘, (3) Shehaqim, (4) Zevul, (5) Ma‘on, (6) Makhon, (7) ‘Aravot") and each is described. For example, the second heaven contains the stars and constellation, along with the sun and the moon. The sixth heaven, Makhon, contains only unpleasant things like rain and storms. The seventh and highest heaven contains only that which is good. The description of the heavens is mid-way interrupted by dicta from two rabbis about the rewards of studying the Torah. The closest parallel to the structure of the cosmos outlined in this passage is found later, in the Seder Rabba di-Bereshit and in Re’uyot Yehezqel.^[14]

Strikingly, a place for the punishment of the wicked is almost left out in the Talmud, as it is primarily taken for granted, although the Seder Rabba di-Bereshit provides a much more elaborate description of this region.^[15]

Key structures

Firmament

A distinctive collection of ideas about the cosmos were drawn up and recorded in the rabbinic literature, though the conception is rooted deeply in the tradition of near eastern cosmology recorded in Hebrew, Akkadian, and Sumerian sources, combined with some additional influences in the newer Greek ideas about the structure of the cosmos and the heavens in particular.^[16] The rabbis viewed the heavens to be a solid object spread over the Earth, which was described with the biblical Hebrew word for the firmament, raki’a. Two images were used to describe it: either as a dome, or as a tent; the latter inspired from biblical references, though the latter is without an evident precedent.^[17] As for its composition, just as in cuneiform literature the rabbinic texts describe that the firmament was made out of a solid form of water, not just the conventional liquid water known on the Earth. A different tradition makes an analogy between the creation of the firmament and the curdling of milk into cheese. Another tradition is that a combination of fire and water makes up the heavens. This is somewhat similar to a view attributed to Anaximander, whereby the firmament is made of a mixture of hot and cold (or fire and moisture).^[18] Yet another dispute concerned how thick the firmament was. A view attributed to R. Joshua b. R. Nehemiah was that it was extremely thin, no thicker than two or three fingers. Some rabbis compared it to a leaf. On the other hand, some rabbis viewed it as immensely thick. Estimates that it was as thick as a 50 year journey or a 500 year journey were made. Debates on the thickness of the firmament also impacted debates on the path of the sun in its journey as it passes through the firmament through passageways called the "doors" or "windows" of heaven.^[19] The number of heavens or firmaments was often given as more than one: sometimes two, but much more commonly, seven. It is unclear whether the notion of the seven heavens is related to earlier near eastern cosmology or the Greek notion of the surrounding of the Earth by seven concentric spheres: one for the sun, one for the moon, and one for each of the five other (known) planets.^[20] A range of additional discussions in rabbinic texts surrounding the firmament included those on the upper waters,^[21] the movements of the heavenly bodies and the phenomena of precipitation,^[22] and more.^[23]^[24]

The firmament also appears in non-rabbinic Jewish literature, such as in the cosmogonic views represented in the apocrypha. A prominent example is in the Book of Enoch composed around 300 BC. In this text, the sun rises from one of six gates from the east. It crosses the sky and sets into a window through the firmament in the west. The sun then travels behind the firmament back to the other end of the Earth, from whence it could rise again.^[25] In the Testament of Solomon, the heavens are conceived in a tripartite structure and demons are portrayed as being capable of flying up to and past the firmament in order to eavesdrop on the decisions of God.^[26] Another example of Jewish literature describing the firmament can be found in Samaritan poetry.^[27]

Astral bodies

Imaginative commentary on the sun and moon are found in multiple texts, including in the Book of Enoch and 3 Baruch, where, for example, the sun and moon are respectively personified as a man and a woman riding their own chariots drawn by angels.^[28]

Paradise

Paradise is located in one of the heavens in Jewish cosmology. Different texts may place it in different locations: for example, it is to be found on the third heaven in the Book of Enoch but in the fourth heaven in 3 Baruch.^[15]

References

Citations

^ Schafer 2005, p. 39.
^ Reed 2016, p. 74–75.
^ Reed 2016, p. 77–78.
^ Reed 2016, p. 79–81.
^ Reed 2016, p. 82–83.
^ Kulik 2019, p. 240–242.
^ Kulik 2019, p. 244.
^ Kulik 2019, p. 242–243.
^ Kulik 2019, p. 246–248.
^ Safrai 2006, p. 506–508.
^ Schafer 2005, p. 40.
^ Kulik 2019, p. 252–264.
^ Schafer 2005, p. 40–42.
^ Schafer 2005, p. 42–51.
^ ^a ^b Schafer 2005, p. 52.
^ Simon-Shoshan 2008, p. 69.
^ Simon-Shoshan 2008, p. 72.
^ Simon-Shoshan 2008, p. 72–75.
^ Simon-Shoshan 2008, p. 75–77.
^ Simon-Shoshan 2008, p. 77–80.
^ Simon-Shoshan 2008, p. 80–81.
^ Simon-Shoshan 2008, p. 81–88.
^ Simon-Shoshan 2008, p. 88–96.
^ Hannam 2023, p. 150–151.
^ Hannam 2023, p. 149.
^ Brannon 2011, p. 196.
^ Lieber 2022, p. 137–138.
^ Schafer 2005, p. 51–52.

Sources

Brannon, M. Jeff (2011). The Heavenlies in Ephesians: A Lexical, Exegetical, and Conceptual Analysis. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Hannam, James (2023). The Globe: How the Earth became Round. Reaktion Books.
Kulik, Alexander (2019). "The enigma of the five heavens and early Jewish cosmology". Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha. 28 (4): 239–266. doi:10.1177/0951820719861900.
Lieber, Laura Suzanne (2022). Classical Samaritan Poetry. Eisenbrauns.
Reed, Annette Y. (2016). Burnett, Charles; Kraye, Jill (eds.). Enoch, Eden, and the Beginnings of Jewish Cosmography. Warburg Institute Colloquia. pp. 67–94.
Safrai, Zeev (2006). "Geography and Cosmography in Talmudic Literature". In Safrai z'l, Shmuel; Safrai, Ze'ev; Schwartz, Joshua J.; Tomson, Peter (eds.). The Literature of the Jewish People in the Period of the Second Temple and the Talmud, Volume 3: The Literature of the Sages. Brill. pp. 497–508.
Schafer, Peter (2005). "From Cosmology to Theology: The Rabbinic Appropriation of Apocalyptic Cosmology". In Elior, Rachel; Schafer, Peter (eds.). Creation and Re-Creation in Jewish Thought: Festschrift in Honor of Joseph Dan on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday. Mohr Siebeck. pp. 39–58.
Simon-Shoshan, Moshe (2008). ""The Heavens Proclaim the Glory of God..." A Study in Rabbinic Cosmology" (PDF). Bekhol Derakhekha Daehu–Journal of Torah and Scholarship. 20: 67–96.