Phoenix, Guardian of the World

3 Baruch 6:1–16

1st–3rd Century

1And taking me, he led me where the sun goes forth. 2And he showed me a chariot drawn by four horses and fire underneath it. And upon the chariot sat a man wearing a fiery crown. The chariot was drawn by forty angels. And behold, a bird runs along before the sun, as large as nine mountains. 3And I said to the angel, “What is this bird?” And he said…

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This passage from 3 Baruch contains a remarkable description of the phoenix, a mythical bird that shields the earth from the burning rays of the sun. Apocalypses often describe cosmological marvels, and this text also offers a number of etiologies, including of cinnamon and of the crowing of roosters at dawn. The excerpt below is translated from the Greek version of the text.

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