4 The Bible and the Pleiades

THE BIBLE AND THE PLEIADES

Gerardus D. Bouw, Ph.D.

Introduction: the science of the Bible versus the science of man

As a geocentrist, I come in contact with a great many skeptics.

That should surprise no one. Some of them, when I explain the
rationale for my stance, come to believe with me. Others loose a lot of
their skepticism and hostility yet cannot quite bring themselves to
believe in the geocentric model; and very many refuse to listen or
consider the issues. To them, science has proven once and for all that
the earth moves.
Now throughout history there have been many things that science
has “proven once and for all,” at least in the mind of those who know a
little science. As related in the book Geocentricity, the Right Reverend
John Wilkins (1614-1672) argued that the Bible should not be taken
literally in its scientific pronouncements because Psalm 19:6 says that
the sun is hot. According to that Anglican Bishop, science has proven
that the sun is not hot, that it was merely a mirror, reflecting the light
from the lake of fire. Likewise, from before the days of Wilkins,
through the time of the mathematician Leonhard Euler (1707-1783), it
was widely argued in Europe that the Bible should not be believed
because it makes of the earth a special place. Although Euler himself
did not believe it, back in those days popular science had “proven” that
the sun, moon, planets, and stars were inhabited; so God had no reason
to make of the earth a special place. Today Mormonism and
Adventism still believe that.
In the above examples, people placed their faith in the pronounce-
ments of “modern science” instead of in the words of the Scriptures;
and in each case “modern science” was proven wrong. The “modern
science” of yesteryear is today’s superstition (Acts 17:22). We have no
reason to doubt that today’s “modern” science will look just as silly to
the practitioners of “modern” science in A.D. 2200, should the Lord
tarry. Those who place their faith in science when it contradicts the
Bible, place their trust in a proven loser.
So it is that we take up the nature of stars as presented in the Holy
Bible, the nature of the Pleiades star cluster in particular. The Bible has
much to say about stars, and it sounds strange to our ears to hear that
men once believed that the stars, and most particularly the sun, are
Biblical Astronomer, number 87 5

inhabited. Had we questioned them as to why they seriously thought

such we would have received reasons which on the surface seem
reasonable. For example, some may have told us that prophets such as
Emmanuel Swedenborg had talked with the inhabitants of these other
worlds. Indeed, it was during one such séance with the inhabitants of
the moon and Mars that Swedenborg was told how the solar system
was created. That “revelation” is still the standard theory for the
formation of the solar system. Back in those days LaPlace put the
“revelation” in a pseudo-mathematical form and it came to be known as
the Nebular Hypothesis. Asking the faithful of that ancient belief for a
second reason, we might be told that the ancients believed the same. Is
that any different than the von Daniken “ancient visitors from space”
speculations?
Likewise, if we had asked Kepler how he could know so certainly
that the earth rotates instead of the cosmos rotating about the earth once
per day, he may have invoked the inhabitants of the moon to tell us. In
an early science fiction story he wrote, Kepler proposed that the
inhabitants of the moon could prove it by taking people to the moon
along the shadow of an eclipse and could show them, from the moon,
that the earth rotates. In recent history the same argument (but using
astronauts instead of moon people) has been popularized by anti-
geocentric Creationists. The argument, of course, is equivalent to
saying that because you can see all sides of the engine at the center of a
carousel “rotating” as you ride on the carousel, that this proves that the
engine rotates and the horses on the carousel stand still.
Now this notion that the sun, moon, and stars are inhabited is not
at all new. Consider for a moment what Adamantius Origen wrote
about the stars.

Origen’s view of the nature of the stars

Although condemned as a heretic shortly after his death, and

regarded as such for over a thousand years since, in the last couple of
hundred years Origen has been reincarnated as the darling father of the
critical bible. It is interesting to see how this man, who devoted his
entire life to reconciling the unholy philosophies of Plato with the
“philosophies” of God’s Holy Bible, viewed the stars.

We ought first to inquire after this point, whether it is allowable

to suppose that [the stars] are living and rational beings; then, in
the next place, whether their souls came into existence at the same
time with their bodies, or seem to be anterior to them; and also
6 The Bible and the Pleiades

whether, after the end of the world, we are to understand that they
are to be released from their bodies; and whether, as we cease to
live, so they also will cease from illuminating the world. …. We
think then that they may be designated as living beings, for this
reason, that they are said to receive the commandments from God,
which is ordinarily the case only with rational beings. “I have
given a commandment to all the stars.” (Isaiah 45:121) … And
seeing that the stars move with such order and regularity, that
their movements never appear to be at any time subject to
derangement, would it not be the height of folly to say that so
orderly an observance of method and plan could be carried out or
accomplished by irrational beings? In the writings of Jeremiah,
indeed the moon is called the queen of heaven.2 Yet if the stars
are living and rational beings, there will undoubtedly appear
among them both an advance and a falling back … Job appears to
assert that not only may the stars be subject to sin, but even that
they are actually not clean from contagion of it. “The stars also
are not clean in thy sight.” (Job 25:5.3)4

So we see that Origen believed not just that the stars are inhabited,
but that the stars themselves are alive and that each has a soul. That
notion is totally foreign to the Bible, as can be seen in the footnotes.
Today, scientists may not (yet?) believe what Origen believed about the
stars, but many believe a similar thing about the earth. The notion that
the spirit of the earth, Gaia, will protect the earth is such a superstition.
1
Isaiah 45:12 “I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even
my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I
commanded.” The word “host,” which Origen says is “stars,” is never
used for stars in the Bible. Hosts means the armies or company of
heaven.
2
The queen of heaven is mentioned several times in Jeremiah and the
moon is mentioned twice (Jeremiah 8:2 and 31:35), but nowhere is
there the least hint that the moon is the queen of heaven. The moon
appears nowhere near the context of the queen of heaven there, or
anywhere else in the Bible.
3
Job 25:5 “Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars
are not pure in his sight.” Sin is not in the context.
4
Menzies, Allen, 1990. The Ante-Necene Fathers, 4, (Grand Rapids
Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publ. Co.), p. 263.
Biblical Astronomer, number 87 7

(By the way, Gaia is the name of the elephant upon whose back,
according to Hindu mythology, rests the earth.) But belief in Gaia has
not in the least helped the Hindus improve their lot in life, nor has their
faith in Gaia helped them achieve harmony with the earth, let alone
with their fellow man. Yet many “modern” scientists, politicians, and
businessmen are looking to Gaia to save them from perils real and
imagined. Is that really so different from anything Origen believed?
They are all too superstitious (Acts 17:22).
Now in all fairness, angels are called stars in the Holy Bible.
Revelation 1:20 says:

The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right

hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the
angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which
thou sawest are the seven churches.

Jesus is himself referred to as “the bright and morning star” in

Revelation 22:16. Likewise a third of the angels are referred to as “the
third part of the stars of heaven” in Revelation 12:4, but whenever an
angel appears in earth, he has the appearance of a man—without wings
(Genesis 19:1, 15; Hebrews 13:2; etc.). And John is very bold in
Revelation 21:17 and 22:8-9 to equate angels with men. Angels are
also associated with flames and spirits (Hebrews 1:7). So the teaching
of the Bible about the nature of angels is not as simple as Origen
thought it to be.
Rather than stars being living and rational beings as Origen
believed, it is more Scriptural to think of the stars as types, and perhaps
the abode of at least some of the angels. Perhaps the stars are the
chains referred to in Jude 6 where we read: “And the angels which kept
not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in
everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.”
Here “under darkness” would refer to the darkness of outer space. But
I speculate, for other interpretations are possible, too. It seems then
that though Origen built his speculation on a simplistic view of a basic
Bible truth, he carried it too far. As for me, I am not prepared to write
a treatise on the stars as found in the Holy Bible. Still, we will see
many of these stellar elements in the facts and lore of the Pleiades. But
first, a bit about that lovely jewel in the sky.

The Pleiades as a star cluster

The Pleiades is what astronomers call an open cluster or a

galactic cluster (the latter because they are confined to the plane of the
8 The Bible and the Pleiades

galaxy, the Milky Way). Such a cluster’s stars are grouped in random
but decreasing number outwards from the cluster center. In the case of
the Pleiades the outline of the brightest stars is that of a tiny dipper or
cup. Classically the Pleiades are said to consist of seven stars, one of
which is missing. Normal adults see six or seven stars; those with
excellent vision see about 10. Children see 12 to 14 stars. There are
about 200 stars in the core of the cluster which is about two degrees in
diameter (four times the apparent diameter of the full moon), and when
extending the area out to six degrees, one counts about 500 stars. The
cluster is about 360 light years from earth and is some 30 light years in
diameter. The entire cluster is slowly moving to the south-west. The
number of stars in a given volume in the cluster is about three times
what it is in the solar neighborhood.
Most of the brighter stars in the cluster, indeed all the brightest
ones, are hot stars, white to bluish-white in color. They are embedded
in a wispy nebulosity (clouds). This issue’s cover shows a long-
exposure photograph taken at Kitt Peak National Observatory. You can
see the dust clouds, reminiscent of cirrus clouds, about the stars as well
as between them. I’ve enhanced the contrast to make the streaking
more apparent. The mystery is why the wisps should go in all
directions, apparently at random. (The mysterious forms at the edge of
the circular photo are due to edge effects caused mostly by light
reflection off the interior of the telescope tube, and partly by contact
printing, since the exposure is not on film but on a glass plate.)
Figure 2 shows all the stars in the Pleiades region visible through
a small telescope. It also shows the official modern names of the
brightest stars of the Pleiades. The star names are not necessarily those
assigned by the ancients, though the names conform to Greek legend.
The Greek Pleiades were seven sisters named Alcyone, Sterope,
Electra, Celaeno, Maia, Merope, and Taygeta. Atlas was their father
and Pleione was their mother, but the stars bearing the parental names
on Figure 1 were not given those until about four or five hundred years
ago; Pleione by Michel Florent van Langren (Langrenus) of Antwerp,
and Atlas by the Jesuit, Ricioli. The rest of the star names may not be
all that much older.
Biblical Astronomer, number 87 9

Figure 1: The Pleiades

The seven brightest stars in the cluster are, in order from brightest
to faintest, Alcyone (magnitude 2.96), Atlas (3.80), Electra (3.81),
Maia (4.02), Merope (4.25), Taygeta (4.37), and Pleione (5.0-5.5, an
irregular variable star of the P-Cygni class). Since Pleione is hard to
see in the glare of Atlas, Celaeno (5.43) may be seen as the seventh
instead of the eighth. The ninth brightest star is Asterope (or Sterope).
It consists of two stars which are so close together that they appear as
one star of magnitude 5.85. Except for Alcyone, the names do not
appear to be too ancient.

The Pleiades in the Holy Bible

From time immemorial the Hebrews and the Christian Church

have linked the constellations to the truths of scriptures. The Hebrews,
for example, maintain that the constellation of Orion the hunter, which
they call Kesil, (meaning fool), was usurped by Nimrod (Gen. 10:8-9)
to immortalize himself in the sky. Indeed, most of the pagan accounts
of the Pleiades even have Biblical overtones. Thus many ancients
associate Taurus, the constellation in which the Pleiades is found, with
the flood of Noah, and they associate the Pleiades with the ark. Related
to that, some regard the Pleiades as doves. Of course, we know Noah
sent a single dove from the ark (Genesis 8:8), not seven, but the
connection is there nevertheless.
10 The Bible and the Pleiades

In the Bible the Pleiades, also called the “seven stars,” are
mentioned seven times. In Hebrew they are called Kimah which means
either a tablet, or a cup. A tablet is a flat ornament of precious metal
worn about a person. It may be inscribed. Strong’s Exhaustive
Concordance says “cluster” for the meaning (from his 3558), but the
root word there means “store,” so the derivation is dubious. The
Euphratean name for the Pleiades is dimmena, which means
“foundation” or “faithful.” Since the letters k and d are regarded as
interchangeable in the study of word origins, the Euphratean name’s
meaning exactly matches Strong’s number 3559 instead of 3558. The
meanings faithful, tablet, or cup can all apply to the Pleiades in the
Bible.
As far as the Greek word, Pleiades, is concerned, the derivation is
said to be uncertain and, as we shall see, several homonyms are brought
to bear on ascertaining the meaning of the name. My own research
points to a meaning of “plenty,” “many,” or “greater.”
Below are all seven references to the Pleiades or seven stars in the
Holy Bible:

Job 9:9 Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the
chambers of the south.

Job 38:31 Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or

loose the bands of Orion?

Amos 5:8 Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and
turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day
dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth
them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name

Revelation 1:16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out
of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance
was as the sun shineth in his strength.

Revelation 1:20 The mystery of the seven stars which thou

sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The
seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven
candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.

Revelation 2:1 Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write;

These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand,
who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks
Biblical Astronomer, number 87 11

Revelation 3:1 And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write;
These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the
seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou
livest, and art dead.

From the above verses is clear that Biblically the Pleiades

represent the spirits of seven churches. These churches correspond first
to seven churches in Asia Minor (now Turkey; see Figure 2), which
existed at the time John wrote the Revelation at the end of the first
century.
Second, the seven churches
relate to the seven church ages
into which the history of the
Church can be divided. Ephesus,
A.D. 33-200; Smyrna, 200-325;
Pergamos, 325-500; Thyatira,
500-1000; Sardis 1000-1600;
Philadelphia, 1600-1900; and
Laodicea, 1900-present. Each of
these ages is characterized by the
spirit described for it in the
second and third chapters of the
Revelation.
Third, the seven churches
representing seven churches
which will again exist in the
future. This is suggested by the
Figure 2: The Seven Churches emphasis on works in the prophe-
cies about the seven Asian
churches. There is the offer of rewards for overcoming, for example,
but according to I John 4:4 and 5:5, all Christians are overcomers by
faith. In verses such as Revelation 2:7 eternal life is tied to
“overcoming,” but Christians already have eternal life, hidden in the
Lord Jesus Christ, and don’t need to eat from the tree of life to live
eternally. For a Christian, that which is here rewarded with eternal life
is nothing more than “reasonable service” (Romans 12:1). Thus we
look to a future fulfillment of these seven churches, probably in the
time of the great tribulation or Jacob’s trouble (Jeremiah 30:7).
The Bible itself interprets the seven stars as the seven churches,
the mysterious “sweet influences” referred to in Amos 5:8 are now
clearly identifiable as the sweet influences of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
as ministered by these seven angels. The sweet influences were
proclaimed by the prophets in the Old Testament, the believer-priests in
12 The Bible and the Pleiades

the current dispensation (I Peter 2:9), and kings in the next dispensation
(Rev. 1:5-6). Amos 5:8 is key, for it associates the Pleiades with the
resurrection (turning the shadow of death into the morning — see Mat.
28), Orion with the darkness (occultism) that darkens even the day, and
the Pleiades with the rain or start of the rainy season, a theme
associated with them around the world.
Before we look at some of the pagan perversions of this biblical
truth, we should take note of Revelation 2:5 — ”Remember therefore
from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I
will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his
place, except thou repent.” The threat is that the first of the seven,
Ephesus, may no longer shine in his place. We find that tales of a
missing Pleiad are worldwide.

The Pleiades as a constellation

Today the Pleiades are officially considered part of the

constellation of Taurus the bull. Most people view the Pleiades as
located on the shoulder of the bull, some on the neck, and others on the
back. Hyginus placed them on the hindquarter while Pliny, Columella,
Vitruvius, and Nicander placed them on the tail of the bull. Pliny is
also reported to have made them out as a separate constellation.
Eratosthenes, Homer, and Hesiod placed them above the bull and
separate from it. Eudoxus and Aratos placed them near the knees of
Perseus, a constellation to the north of them, and again separate from
Taurus. The Jews and Arabians place the Pleiades as on the rump of
Aries, the ram, which is the constellation to the east of them. The
Hindus place them on the head of the bull. The rest of the ancient
world seems to view the Pleiades as a separate constellation.

The Pleiades as virtuous maidens

In the West, the best-known tale of the Pleiades hails from

Greece. According to Greek legend, Orion met Pleione and her seven
nymph daughters in Boeotia and pursued them through the woods for
five years until Zeus translated them all, Pleione, her seven virtuous
daughters, Orion, and even his dog into the heaven as the respective
constellations (the constellation of the dog is Canis Major). Figure 4
shows the locations of the constellations Orion, Taurus the bull, and the
Pleiades. All the daughters of Pleione became ancestresses of divine or
heroic families. As for the missing Pleiad, various accounts say it is
Electra mourning for Troy, or Merope in shame for marrying the
Biblical Astronomer, number 87 13

mortal, king Sisyphus, and so settling for far less than her sisters who
all married gods.

Figure 3: Orion, Taurus, and the Pleiades.

(The horizontal scale is slightly exaggerated.)

Despite the beclouding of the ancient Bible truth in the Greek tale,
the biblical truth is still recognizable. According to the Jews, Orion is
Nimrod, the founder of the Babylonian religious system, which for
more than four thousand years has pursued all the children of the living
God, even his Church to this very day. Their Father upholds the earth
with the word of his power (Hebrews 1:3), and their mother is
Jerusalem which is above (Galatians 4:26).
As the Church is a chaste virgin, washed by the blood of the lamb,
we are not surprised that Hesiod should refer to the Pleiades as seven
virgins. Likewise the rabbis call the Pleiades the Succoth Renoth, the
booths of the maidens. The Syrian name for the asterism also means
“booths.”
Even the queen of heaven gets into the act. The transformation of
the virgin queen into a star was rather late as far as legends are
concerned; yet, Ishtar, whose pagan holiday is Easter, reputedly
became one of the Pleiades. This is, to the Christian at least, an
obvious corruption of the figure of the church, the bride of Christ.
Insofar as Jesus is the King of kings, and king of heaven in particular,
his bride, the Church, is the “queen” of heaven. Nevertheless, the Holy
Bible never refers to the Church as the queen of heaven, and all
14 The Bible and the Pleiades

scriptural references to the queen of heaven are negative (see Jeremiah

44:17 v.f.).

The Missing Pleiad

In the Bible, there is the threat to the angel of the church at

Ephesus that his candlestick may be removed. According to the rest of
the world, the star is gone. We have already seen the Greek account of
the missing Pleiad. Tales of a missing star are found in other places in
Europe, in China, India, Japan, the Americas, Africa, and Australia.
The Pirt-Kopan-noot tribe of Australia tell a tale of a missing Pleiad.
According to their tradition, the Pleiades were a chieftess named
Gneeanggar and her six attendants. Waa, the crow (the star Canopus),
fell in love with her. One day while the women were hunting grubs,
Waa changed himself into a white grub and bored himself into a tree
trunk to await his love who was sure to find him. When she stuck her
bone hook into the hole he let her draw him out, turned into a giant, and
carried her away. Since then only the six attendants remain. The
Africans say that there are seven stars but that one, plain and not as
beautiful as her sisters, hides herself for shame. (This suggests Pleione,
the star that can be lost in Atlas’s glare.)

The Pleiades as birds

The association the Australian aborigines drew between the

Pleiades and a bird is wide-spread. Many other peoples associate the
Pleiades with birds. For example, Athenaeus, Hesiod, Pindor,
Simonides, and Sicily call them the seven doves. In the Bible, doves
are associated with spirits. The ancients associate Taurus with the
Noaic flood and Pleiades with the ark, again tying the constellation to
the dove and indirectly to the heavenly Jerusalem.
In the Coverdale Bible of 1535, the margin note to the reference
in Job reads “these vii starres, the cock henne with her chicks”
reflecting the then-common name for the Pleiades among the north-
central and Western Europeans, namely hen and chickens (a reference
to Jerusalem, Mat. 23:37). This is said to have come from Aben Razel
and other Hebrew writers, who remarked on the similarity between the
Greek word for Pleiades and the Greek word for chicken coop. The
Japanese also saw the Pleiades as a hen and her chicks.
The Samoans know the Pleiades as the bird of paradise, the first
hint of a link between the Pleiades and paradise.
Biblical Astronomer, number 87 15

The Pleiades as a grape cluster

Not nearly as many peoples associate the Pleiades with a cluster

of grapes, but there are some, and through them we are reminded of the
“new wine” mentioned in connection with the birth of the Church in
Acts 2:13. But before that, the birth of the nation of Israel is associated
with a cluster of grapes. At the time Israel was to enter the promised
land, the spies brought back a cluster of grapes (Numbers 13:20-24).
By their subsequent rebellion Israel forfeited that entry, and when they
finally did enter the land some 39 years later, it was as a figure for a
future fulfillment. This future fulfillment is the Millennial kingdom
which follows the Tribulation and, as noted earlier, there are seven
churches in Asia mentioned before the start of the Tribulation. Those
seven churches are the vehicle, the ark, that shows the way of salvation
throughout the Tribulation, the strait gate through which is reached the
sabbath kingdom promised in the Old Testament.

The Pleiades as flames

The Hindus regard the Pleiades as seven flames. Here, too,

Biblical overtones are in evidence, for we saw earlier that the flame of
fire is associated with spirits and angels. The association between
Pleiad and flame manifests itself in that the appearance of the Pleiades
in the evening sky of October-November initiates the festival of lamps
celebrated throughout the Far East at that time of year. The seven
flames also remind us of the seven lamps of the candlestick Moses
made for the tabernacle (Ex. 25:31 v.f.). The candlestick is in the Holy
of Holies and represents the Holy Ghost who indwells the Christian
believer. Its seven lights represent the seven Spirits of God which
constitute the Holy Ghost (Rev. 1:4; Isa. 11:1-2).

The Pleiades as the seat of immortality

The brightest star in the Pleiades is called Alcyone. In Greek this

word can mean the center or pivot, but another possible meaning is
contained in the variant, Halcyone, which means heavenly. In Greek
mythology, one has to cross the Alkyonic Lake in order to reach the
spirit world. The word halcyone is also found among the natives of
Mexico to refer to the bird of paradise. The name for the star Alcyone
in Arabic is Al Wasat, which also means the central one according to
16 The Bible and the Pleiades

the important Arab astronomer Ulug Begh. The Arab, Hafiz, reported
that the Pleiades were the seal or seat of immortality, that is, of
Paradise. This view was shared by the Berbers of Morocco, some of
the Moors, and the Dyaks of Borneo.
To compound the influence, the Pleiades are associated with the
feast of the dead on November 1 as celebrated by the Roman Catholic
Church in Europe, the Celtic Druids, and the natives of Peru. In
Australia, the event sparked a three-day celebration in honor of the
Pleiades.
The pervasiveness of the Pleiades as the spiritual center or seat of
the universe led Wright, in 1750, to propose that the Pleiades are at the
physical center of the universe. In 1846 this led to the suggestion by
Maedler that the whole universe revolved around Alcyone.
Now the reason behind Maedler’s speculation was that some years
before, Sir William Herschel noted that stars seemed to be streaming
past the sun away from the constellation Hercules. This he interpreted
as due to the sun’s motion towards that constellation. Today the
motion is held caused by the sun’s orbital motion about the center of
the Milky Way, but the nature of the Milky Way wasn’t known in the
nineteenth century and so Maedler suggested the the center of the orbit
lay in the opposite direction from the center of the Milky Way, around
the Pleiades. This he did with no proof whatsoever that his conjecture
was true, yet it was a popular idea in the nineteenth century and has
resurfaced from time to time in the twentieth century.

The Pleiades and geocentricity

Throughout the above accounts, those knowledgeable about the

Bible will see the many veiled references pointing to the Church. The
suggestion is that it is the Church, the true Bride of Christ, the one
described in the Holy Bible and none other, which occasions that the
earth is located at the center of the universe. It was for that Bride that
Jesus Christ, God himself, came; and he shed his blood to redeem her.
Her members, even those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, are
assured eternal life, even the resurrection from the dead. Finally, the
Lord Jesus Christ will return for her and she will be his wife for ever.
But until that day, she is the light of the world (flame), is indwelt by the
Holy Ghost (who is the seven Spirits of God), who came upon her
betrothed, the Lord Jesus Christ, in the form of a dove (Mat. 3:16). The
gospel of grace she presents to the world, that eternal life and
forgiveness of sins are the free gift of God to the sinner who will but
Biblical Astronomer, number 87 17

believe it, embodies the sweet influences spoke of by the prophet

Amos; for these influences are shed abroad by the seven Spirits of God.
When we look at the lore associated world-wide with the Pleiades
we find there threads of all the elements connected with the Church in
the Holy Bible. There can be little doubt that the original pattern,
perhaps dating back to Adam who was the first astronomer among
Jewish and early Christian writers, is at least in part preserved in the
world’s myths and tales of the Pleiades. We find then, in the Pleiades,
a strong type of the Church of God.

Bibliography

Richard Hinkley Allen, 1899. Dover Edition: Star Names: Their Lore
and Meaning, (New York: Dover Publ. Inc.), 1963.
Canon Birks, 1878. “The Bible and Modern Astronomy,” Journal of
the Transactions of the Victoria Institute, 10:402-420.
Robert Brown, 1899. Primitive Constellations, vols. 1&2, (London:
Williams and Northgate).
Ethelbert W. Bullinger, 1893. The Witness of the Stars, reprinted
(Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications), 1967.
R. G. Haliburton, 1881. “Primitive Traditions as to the Pleiades,”
Nature, 25:100-101. Also “Primitive Traditions as to the
Pleiades,” ibid., 25:317-318, 1882.
Burton F. Jones, 1970. “Internal Motions of the Pleiades,”
Astronomical Journal, 75:563-574.
William Tyler Olcott, 1907. A Field Book of the Stars, (New York &
London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons).
Joseph A. Seiss, 1882. The Gospel In the Stars, reprinted (Grand
Rapids: Kregel Publications), 1972.
Edward B. Tylor, 1881. “Australian Aborigines,” Nature, 24:529-530.
Also “Primitive Traditions as to the Pleiades”, ibid., 25:150-151.

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