The Teaching of Samuel

Chapter 1

The firmament is made like a dome, wide as a tent and long as a tabernacle, as it is written: That stretches out the heavens as a curtain and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in (Isaiah 40:22). It is exposed to the north wind and is square like a corridor, as it is written: He stretches out the north over the empty space (Job 26:7). From the south, it is closed like a room and is round as a furnace, as it is written: Who makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the chambers of the south (Job 9:9). The east and west are founded like a building upon the earth, as it is written: who built His upper chambers in the heaven, and founded His vault upon the earth (Amos 9:6). Its circumference is eighteen [unit of length unspecified], and its width six, while the distance from east to west is as the height of the heavens from the earth. The Bear, Orion, the Sphere, and the Pleiades rise from north to south. The constellations [rise] from east to west [as it is written]: Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion (Job 38:31)? [ . . . ]

The Holy One created twelve zodiacal constellations. He arranged them in the firmament: them and their legions, brigades, and armies. They are: the Ram, the Bull, the Twins, the Crab, the Lion, the Virgin, the Scales, the Scorpion, the Archer, the Goat, the Water Bearer, and the Fish. They serve the world day and night, twelve months a year.

And there are seven servants in [the world] who come and go swiftly [in attendance upon] these twelve constellations. These are the servants: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon—each one of them revolves, travels, and turns in its sphere, and all of them are subservient to Draco [the solar and lunar nodes] and the sphere [of the zodiac]. These seven servants are the two luminaries and the five planets. The light of one is unlike the light of the other; the realm of one is unlike the realm of the other; the course of one is unlike the course of the other; nor is the abode of one [as] the abode of the other; nor the boundary of one the boundary of the other; nor the height of one [as] the height of the other; nor the nadir of one the nadir of the other. The light of the sun is unlike the light of the moon, nor is the light of the moon as the light of the five planets; the light of the moon is sometimes concealed, sometimes exposed, but the light of the sun and the five planets is never concealed. The path of one is unlike the path of the other. The sun traverses [each] constellation [of the zodiac] [for] thirty days, five full hours, and a quarter [hour] such that it completes [a circuit of] the twelve constellations every 365 days and one quarter of a day, which are the twelve months of the year.

The moon traverses [each] zodiacal constellation [every] two days, three hours, and a third [of an hour], minus some, such that it completes [its circuit of] the twelve constellations every twenty-seven days, four hours, minus a sixth, from twelve to a day. Saturn traverses [each] constellation [every] two and a half years, such that it completes [its circuit of] the twelve constellations [every] thirty years. Jupiter completes [each] constellation [every] twelve months, such that it completes [its circuit of] the twelve constellations [every] twelve years. Mars traverses each constellation every forty days, such that it completes [its circuit of] the twelve constellations every 480 days. But sometimes it circuits a constellation in six months. Venus traverses each constellation every twenty-five days, such that it completes [its journey] every three hundred days—but sometimes it is late. Mercury does not distance itself from the sun but for the extent of one constellation, whether before or behind it, but some say [that it does not distance itself from the sun but for the extent of] two constellations.

The ways of the sun and moon are fixed; sometimes they speed forward, other times they reverse. Sometimes they appear to stand in one place, moving neither forward nor backward. And even though the movement of the sun and moon is fixed, yet the paths of the sun are not as the paths of the moon. The paths of the sun are fixed, but the paths of the moon are not fixed. Rather, at times it [the moon] traverses a constellation by a short [route], at others by a long [one]. How is this? Sometimes it [the moon] traverses northward, and this is the long [route]. But sometimes it traverses southward, and this is the short [route]. And even though there is no proof for this, there is a mention of it: Who appointed the moon for seasons; the sun knows his going down (Psalms 104:19). [ . . . ]

Chapter 9

Here, the order of the work of the planets will be described.

Saturn: [appointed] over poverty, misery, illness, and destruction; and over sickness, internal injuries, and grain.

Mars: appointed over blood, the sword, wickedness, and strife; over conflict, gangs, wounds, wars; and over hatred, jealousy, enmity, and struggle; over plagues, iron, fire, and water, and over catastrophe.

Jupiter: appointed over life, peace, beneficence, tranquility, and calm; over the Torah, joy and vivaciousness, over wealth, honor, and position.

Venus: appointed over grace and kindness, love and desire, affection and fertility; over the procreation of man and beast; and over the produce of the earth and the fruit of the tree.

Mercury: appointed over wisdom, sensibility, understanding, and knowledge; and over applied and theoretical science in all creative endeavors; and over writing and language.

Sun: appointed over light and darkness, to distinguish between day and night; by which to reckon days and months; in which to perform all manner of work, execute every action, and to oversee migrations [of mankind]; in which to initiate every expulsion, from city to city, from country to country.

Moon: appointed over the gatekeepers of heaven and earth. It is responsible for bringing [both] evil and good to the world. And even though they [the gatekeepers] are appointed over evil and good, they have no authority to do good or evil on their own. Rather, everything is by summons, all is by command, all by the word of the Creator of All.