3. Star clusters and sheep herders
The verse below is one of my scientific favorites. It is also one of the most amazing statements in the Bible. It reveals scientific facts about two star clusters that would not be verified by science until almost 4,000 years after these words were penned.
Job was written somewhere around 2,000 BC. The social order described in Job is one of nomadic herdsman. Formal schooling was virtually non-existent in this society. There were no universities and the discipline of Astronomy was thousands of years away. There were no telescopes and none of these sheep and goat herders had any clue about spectral analysis. These nomadic herders lived in tents and did not understand concepts such as gravity or chemical composition.
Job 38:31 – Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, or loose the belt of Orion?
The Pleiades and Orion’s belt are examples of star clusters. We have performed sophisticated spectral analyses of these stars and know that each star has a similar chemical composition as each other star and all were created about the same point in time. The other fascinating thing about Orion’s Belt is that the stars that compose the belt are in such close physical proximity to each other that they are bound by each other’s gravity to each other. Movement of Orion’s belt and the Pleiades provide further verification that these clusters are gravitationally bound to each other star in the cluster.
Notice the wording of the second half of this verse. “Can you ….. loose the belt of Orion?" A belt is clothing used to hold something. It may hold up pants or contain a knife. The wording states that these stars are bound in some way to each other, by the allusion to a belt. The wording also asks, “Can YOU loose the belt?” Can you break the bind that holds these stars together? This verse asks it’s question in a rhetorical manner, knowing that no human has sufficient power to “loose the belt”. The rhetorical manner in which this verse is phrased suggests that there is a higher power that is fully capable of loosing the belt but that power is definitely not human.
Other ancient societies were not quite so scientific in their beliefs about the Pleiades and Orion. The supposedly enlightened Greeks believed the 7 stars of the Pleiades were 7 minor gods who were immortalized by Zeus and made into stars. Orion was called the hunter because he “chased” the Pleiades in movement over the night sky in the Mediterranean area.
The Egyptians thought Orion was the god Unas, “who became great by eating the flesh of his mortal enemies and then slaying and devouring the gods themselves. Those gods that were old and worn out were used as fuel for Unas's fire. After devouring the gods and absorbing their spirits and powers, Unas journeys through the day and night sky to become the star Sabu, or Orion.” (source: Wikipedia)
So the big question this verse raises is how did a sheep herder with no college degree, from 4000 years ago describe astronomical facts which were not fully verified by modern science until 3900 years later? And how did a person whose skill was in animal husbandry manage to get it scientifically right on the money when the 2 supposedly greatest and most learned societies of ancient times got it so terribly wrong? Did the sheepherder/author just make a lucky guess? (Maybe the tender of goats had telescopic vision and a spectral analysis meter given to him from a UFO). Or did the sheepherder/author have just a wee bit of divine inspiration from the same higher power that could actually “loose the belt”?
More to follow. Bunches more cuz the Bible is full of statements like this..
