Sapiential Perspectives: Wisdom Literature in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls

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The Astrolabe

An ancient instrument for solving problems of location and distance, as well as time

Astrolábon órganon is the word used in Ptolemaeus Syntaxis 5.1 to describe a form of armillary sphere consisting of both fixed and rotating rings for determining the ecliptic co-ordinates of stars. Also called astrolabe were two-dimensional representations of the celestial sphere: over fixed disks with a representation of the horizon of the earth (in each case for a specific geographic latitude) and its parallels up to the zenith lies a rotating representation of the heavens (called ‘spider’ or ‘net’) with zodiac and indicators for some of the brightest stars. On the back is an indicator (‘alidade’) with visor plates for calculating the height of the stars. The astrolabe allows its user to determine the hours of day and night, the positions of stars, and the height and depth of objects on earth (mountains, buildings, wells). The oldest extant descriptions of the flat, planispheric astrolabe come from Iohannes Philoponus, 6th century AD, and (in Syrian) from Severus Sebokht, c. 660 AD. Indirect references may date back as early as Theon (4th cent.). Between the 8th and the 9th centuries the Arabs appropriated the knowledge of the astrolabe. At the end of the 10th century and again in the 12th century, they passed it on to Western Europe, where astrolabes were constructed up until the 17th cent. Today, one Byzantine astrolabe (from 1062) is extant, as are some 750 Arabic-Islamic astrolabes and approximately the same number of European astrolabes.

This information is abstracted from Brill's New Pauly, the English edition of the authoritative Der Neue Pauly, Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. The encyclopaedic coverage and high academic standard of the work, the interdisciplinary and contemporary approach and clear and accessible presentation have made the New Pauly the unrivalled modern reference work for the ancient world. For more information see www.brillsnewpauly.com or visit our website catalog: www.brill.nl/bnp
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Sapiential Perspectives: Wisdom Literature in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Proceedings of the Sixth International Symposium of The Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature, 20-22 May, 2001

Edited by John J.Collins, Gregory E. Sterling and Ruth A. Clements

Books

Available
Publication year: 2004


Series:	Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, 51
ISBN-13 (i)The ISBN (International Standard Book Number) has been changed from 10 to 13 digits on 1 January 2007:	978 90 04 13670 0
ISBN-10:	90 04 13670 3

Cover:	Cloth with dustjacket
Number of pages:	x, 214 pp.

List price:	€ 103.00 / US$ 153.00

About the author(s)

John J. Collins, is Holmes Professor of Old Testament Criticism and Interpretation at Yale University. He is currently editor of the Supplement Series to the Journal for the Study of Judaism (Brill) and of the journal Dead Sea Discoveries (Brill).
Gregory E. Sterling, is Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins and the Associate Dean of the Faculty, College of Arts and Letters, University of Notre Dame.He is the general editor of the Philo of Alexandria Commentary Series (Brill), the Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity Series (University of Notre Dame Press), and co-editor of The Studia Philonica Annual.
Ruth Clements, Th.D. (1997), Harvard Divinity School, is Chief of Publications of the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The papers in this volume were originally read at the Sixth International Orion Symposium. The primary focus of the volume is on the wisdom texts from Qumran that have been fully edited only in recent years, especially 1Q/4QMysteries and 4QInstruction.
Prior to the discovery of the Scrolls, our knowledge of wisdom literature in the Second Temple period was limited to contemporary biblical books, apocryphal works, and pseudepigraphical writings. These recently published compositions now allow for a more nuanced picture of wisdom literature and its impact on and interaction with other genres. In addition to shedding light on the world of their authors, these texts illustrate how biblical wisdom was reused in new contexts, and provide a missing link between earlier and later sapiential compositions.

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