ARAM, 24 (2012) 311-331. doi: 10.2143/ARAM.24.0.

3009279

THE ZODIAC SIGN NAMES IN THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS (4Q318):

FEATURES AND QUESTIONS

Ms. HELEN R. JACOBUS

(University College London)

Abstract

The Aramaic zodiac in the Dead Sea Scrolls, contained in 4Q318 Zodiac Calendar
ar and Brontologion, found in Cave 4 at Qumran, has similarities and differences to
Babylonian and Hellenistic zodiacs. This information may help to identify the cultural
influences in the Aramaic version in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the only extant such zodiac
from an ancient primary source. This paper will show how 4Q318 Zodiac Calendar
functions both in relation to the Jewish calendar and to the Babylonian calendar. Using
data from Rochberg’s Babylonian Horoscopes, it will demonstrate empirically why the
text should be regarded not as Mesopotamian or Hellenistic, but as a Jewish zodiac
calendar.
This research is part of the presenter’s Ph.D dissertation, “4Q318 Zodiac Calendar
and Brontologion ar reconsidered and implications for the calendars in the Dead Sea
Scrolls.” (The University of Manchester, 2009).

The Dead Sea Scrolls comprise of the remains of some 900 manuscripts
mainly in Hebrew and Aramaic found in caves around Qumran and the Dead
Sea dating from possibly the late third century B.C.E. to the first half of the first
century C.E. These fascinating archives contain the earliest primary sources of
books of the Bible and the literature of different Jewish groups: documentary
texts, fiction, poetical prayers, calendars, religious laws and rules, and a small
amount of astrological material.
This paper focuses on an intriguing Aramaic calendrical and astrological
scroll from Qumran, 4Q318, Zodiology and Brontology ar, a text that consists
of a 360-day zodiac calendar followed by a zodiacal thunder omen text.1 Here,

1
I am grateful to Philippe Guillaume and Sandra Jacobs for their useful comments on an
earlier draft of this paper. Any shortcomings are, of course, my responsibility.
J.C. Greenfield and M. Sokoloff, “318. 4QZodiology and Brontology ar [Aramaic],” in
S. Pfann, and P. Alexander et al, Qumran Cave 4. 26. Cryptic Texts and Miscellanea, Part 1
(Discoveries in the Judaean Desert [hereafter DJD] 36; Oxford: Clarendon, 2000), 259, 262–274,
pls. 15, A. Yardeni, (Paleography) 259–61, pl. 16; D. Pingree “Astronomical Aspects,” 270–2,
tables 1–3, 273–4; The editio princeps of 4Q318 is a slight revision of the preliminary report by
Greenfield and Sokoloff with Pingree and Yardeni, “An Astrological Text from Qumran (4Q318)
and Reflections on Some Zodiacal Names,” RevQ 16/ 64 (1995): 507–25. The suffix “4Q”
means Qumran cave 4; ar = Aramaic.
312 THE ZODIAC SIGN NAMES IN THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS (4Q318)

I discuss the distinctive names of the zodiac signs in the scroll as these are a
rich source of chronological and cultural information about the process of the
transmission of astrology and astronomy to Judea. I will investigate the back-
ground to significant sign names in the Qumran zodiac in order to answer the
question of whether there were any distinctive elements to the zodiac of 4Q318
compared to the zodiacs in the surrounding cultures, and if so, whether these
variations were meaningful in the context of Qumran and Judean society.
4Q318 is dated to around the turn of the era, the end of the Herodian period
[37 B.C.E.–4 B.C.E].2 It contains the sole surviving calendar found at Qumran
that uses the Babylonian-Aramaic month-names combined with zodiac signs. It
is the only omen text in Dead Sea Scrolls and the only complete zodiac found in
any manuscript from Qumran. I have retitled the scroll, 4Q318, 4QZodiac Cal-
endar and Brontologion to clarify its purpose: the “zodiology” in the official title
refers to a text that gives a prognosis based on a zodiac sign in a calendar.3 The
section 4Q318 iv, vii–viii 1–6a (hereafter 4QZodiac Calendar) is a self-contained
zodiac calendar (see The Qumran zodiac calendar, below).
The omen text, 4Q318 viii 6b–9, the brontologion (hereafter 4QBrontologion),
which is also in Aramaic, consists of predictions for the king and the country,
according to the place of the moon in the zodiac when thunder occurs. Just
three and half lines of text survive, following the end of the zodiac calendar
when the moon is in Aries. These give the forecasts for when the moon is in
Taurus, or Gemini at the sound of thunder. Only the sign name, Gemini, is
extant;4 it is the same as that in 4QZodiac Calendar. The text of 4QBrontologion
is included here for the sake of completeness (see Fig.1).

Fig. 1 4QBrontologion 4Q318 6b–9

]‫ ]אם בתורא[ ירעם מסבת על‬vacat [‫דכר]א‬ 6

]‫]ו[עْמל למדינתא וחרבْ ]בד[רת מלכא ובמדינת אב‬ 7
vacat [‫[א כפן ולהוון בזזין אלן בא]לן‬ ]‫להוא ולערביא‬ 8
]‫ אם בתאוםיא ירעם דחלה וםרע מנכריא ומ‬vacat 9
6. Aries. Vacat [If in Taurus] it thunders (there will be) msbt5 against
7. [and] affliction for the province, and a sword [in the cou]rt of the king and in
the province of Ab[

2
Yardeni. A, “Palaeography,” in “318: 4QZodiology and Brontology,” DJD 36, 260.
3
B. Böck, “‘An Esoteric Babylonian Commentary’ Revisited” JAOS, 120:4 (2004), 617, 618–
19 n. 29, cites W.Gundel and H.G. Gundel, Astrologumena (SA 6; Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag,
1966), 269; Erica Reiner, “Early Zodiologia and Related Matters,” in Wisdom, Gods and Literature
(ed. A.R. George and I.L. Finkel; Eisenbrauns: Winona Lake, IN, 2000), 421–27; E. Svenberg,
Lunaria et Zodiologia Latina (SGLG 16; Göteborg: AUG, 1963), 3–12.
4
See M. Wise, Thunder in Gemini And Other Essays on the History, Language and Literature
of Second Temple Palestine (JSPSup 15. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994), 13–50.
5
The uncertain second letter is discussed above.
 H.R. JACOBUS 313

8. will be. And to the Arabs [ ], hunger, and they will plunder each oth[er vac]at
vacat If in Gemini it thunders, (there will be) fear and sickness from the foreign-
ers and m[
(Transliteration and translation by Greenfield and Sokoloff, DJD 36, 263–4
{modified})

In order to get a sense of the mixed cultural sources and the context of the
zodiac calendar at Qumran, I briefly consider the background to the month-
names, another astrological scroll from Qumran, way the calendar probably
works and its possible origins. The background to the zodiac in 4Q318 is then
be explored.

RELATED TEXTS (1) MONTH NAMES

The Babylonian-Aramaic month-names, two of which survive in 4QZodiac

Calendar: months 11 and 12, Shevat and Adar (4Q318 cols. vii and viii),
are known from the Bible (see below) and the Hebrew calendar. The names
of the months missing in 4Q318, from month 1 to the first half of month 10,
are: Nisan, Iyyar, Sivan, Tammuz, Ab, Elul, Tishri, Marchesvan, Kislev,
Tevet.
Babylonian-Aramaic month-names appear in the late biblical Books of Ezra,
Nehemiah, Esther and Zechariah,6 and in the 5th century B.C.E. Passover Papy-
rus and other legal documents from Elephantine.7 There are a substantial num-
ber of documentary texts from the Persian period which antedate the Dead Sea
Scrolls and employ Babylonian-Aramaic month-names. The majority of early
texts in this category comprise a substantial number of mid-4th century B.C.E.
Samaria papyri from Wadi Daliyeh, mainly of slave sale documents and other
legal deeds with dates. Most of the corpus was written during the reign of
Artaxerxes III Ochus (358–337 B.C.E).8 One document dates to the reign of

6
Ezra 6:15, Neh 1.1, 2:1, Esth 2:16, 3:7, 7, 13, 8:9, 12, 9:1, 15, 17, 19, 20, Zech 1:7, 7:1;
D. Talshir and Z. Talshir, “Double Month Naming in Late Biblical Books: A New Clue for Dating
Esther?” VT 54:4 (2004): 549–54.
7
Herr, “The Calendar,” 836–7; B.Porten, Archives from Elephantine (Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1968), 128–130, 311–314, pl. 9; B. Porten and A. Yardeni (eds), Textbook
of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt, vol 1 (Jerusalem: Hebrew University, 1986) Passo-
ver Papyrus: A4.1; B.Porten, “The Calendar of Aramaic Texts from Achaemenid and Ptole-
maic Egypt,” in Irano-Judaica II (ed. S. Shaked and A. Netzer, Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute,
1990), 13–32; B. Porten, et al. The Elephantine Papryi in English. (DMOA 22. Leiden: Brill,
1996), 81–82, Passover Papyrus: B13: 125–6; Sacha Stern, “The Babylonian Calendar at Ele-
phantine,” 159–171; Stern, Calendar and Community, 28–30; VanderKam, Calendars (1998),
114.
8
D.M.Gropp, Wadi Daliyeh II: The Samaria Papyri from Wadi Daliyeh (DJD 28; Oxford:
Clarendon, 2001), 3.
314 THE ZODIAC SIGN NAMES IN THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS (4Q318)

Artaxerxes II Memnon (375–365 B.C.E)9 and another, WDSP 1, dates to the

second year of Darius III (335 B.C.E).10
The scrolls from Judea containing the Aramaic-Babylonian month names that
antedate 4Q318 include 4Q345Deed ar or Heb, possibly from NaÌal Îever11
(373–171 B.C.E, carbon-dating, but glue-contaminated).12 At Qumran, in addi-
tion to 4Q318, the Babylonian-Aramaic calendar month-names are found only
in: 4Q332 (4QHistorical Text D) (c. 25 B.C.E.) frag. 2 2: ‫( שבט‬Shevat),13 and
possibly in 4Q322a (4QHistorical Text H?) frg. 2 5: ] ‫([ למ]רח[שון‬of Ma[rhe]
shvan),14 but the latter is part-restored and uncertain.

RELATED TEXTS (2): ASTROLOGY

4Q318 is not the only scroll containing zodiac signs unearthed at Qumran.
There is one other extant zodiacal manuscript in the Dead Sea Scrolls, 4Q186
4QZodiacal Physiognomy. This consists of the remains of an astrological hand-
book, which ostensibly enables the user to assess a subject’s zodiac sign and
their character from their physical facial and bodily features.15

9
Gropp, DJD 28, 3.
10
Gropp, DJD 28, 3, 30–36. Papyri with extant dating formulae: WDSP 1.1 (20th Adar)
(Plate 1); 2.12 ([ Tebe]t ) (Plate 2); 3.11–12 (3rd Shevat) (Plate 3); 4.1 (Plate 4); 5.1 (Plate 5);
7.19 (5th Adar) (Plate 7); 8.12–13 (Plate 8); 9.15–16 (Plate 9); 10.recto 1.12 (Plate 10); 12. 10–
11 (Plate 13. only); 14.1 (Plate 16 only); 15.1 (Plate 16); 16.1 (Plate 17 only); 17.1–2, 8–9
(Plate 18. only); 18.11 (Plate 19); 19.1 (Plate 20. only); 20.1 (Plate 20. only); 22.10–11 (Plate 21.
only). See: J. Dusek, Les manuscripts araméens du Wadi Daliyeh et la Samarie vers 450–332 av.J-C
(Leiden: Brill, 2007).
11
A. Yardeni, DJD 27, 292–295, fig. 29, pl. 56. Cf: H. Eshel, “4Q348, 4Q343 and 4Q345:
Three Economic Documents from Qumran Cave 4?” JJS 52 (2001): 132–135. Eshel argues that
the documents came from Qumran.
12
A.J. Timothy Jull, et al, “Radiocarbon Dating of Scrolls and Linen Fragments from the
Judaean Desert,” Radiocarbon 37:1 (1995), 11–19 (esp. 12). 4Q345: ‫( באלול‬in Ellul) Recto,
upper version, line 1; lower version, line 10 (Yardeni, DJD 27), 292–3.
13
J. Fitzmyer, DJD 36, 281–6 (at 283–4). pl. 17; K. Atkinson, “Representation of History in
4Q331 (4QpapHistorical Text C), 4Q332 (4QHistorical Text D), 4Q333 (4QHistorical Text E),
and 4Q465e (4QHistorical Text F): An Annalistic Calendar Documenting Portentous Events?”
DSD 14.2 (2007): 125–151; Atkinson dates 4QHistorical Text D to “no earlier than 65 B.C.E”
on the grounds of the possible historical references; B.Z. Wacholder and M.G. Abegg, A Pre-
liminary Edition of the Unpublished Dead Sea Scrolls, fasc. 1 (Washington D.C.: BAS, 1991),
80–81, 84–5; G. J. Brooke, “Types of Historiography in the Dead Sea Scrolls,” in Ancient and
Modern Scriptural Historiography (ed. G. J. Brooke and T. Römer; Leuven: Leuven University
Press, 2007), 221; J. Fitzmyer, DJD 36, 275; S. Talmon and J. Ben-Dov, “Mishmarot Lists
(4Q322–324c) and ‘Historical Texts’ (4Q322a; 4Q331–4Q333) in Qumran Documents” in Birkat
Shalom (ed. C. Cohen. Vol 2. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2008), 297–242.
14
E.J.C Tigchelaar, “4Q322a Historical Text H?” in DJD 28 (ed. D.M. Gropp; Oxford:
Clarendon, 2001), upper recto, line 1, lower recto, line 10 [reconstructed]), 125–8, pl. 40.
15
J. Allegro, “186,” Qumrân Cave 4. I (4Q158–4Q186) (DJD 5; Oxford: Clarendon, 1968),
88–91, pl. 31; M. Popovic, Reading the Human Body (STDJ 67; Leiden: Brill, 2007), 104–118, the
text is dated 30 B.C.E–20 C.E, ibid, 28; Böck, “An Esoteric Babylonian Commentary Revisited,”
 H.R. JACOBUS 315

4QZodiacal Physiognomy is written in Hebrew, the words are written back

to front in reverse order from left to right, and some letters are written in paleo-
Hebrew, Aramaic square script and Greek; the secret writing leads scholars
to believe that the text is of sectarian or Essene origin.16 In contrast, 4Q318 is
regarded as non-sectarian because it is written in Aramaic and the calendar has
360-days unlike the Hebrew calendrical texts found at Qumran which describe
schematic 364-day calendars.17 (This argument is circular, although this paper
does not suggest that 4Q318 is aligned to a particular group). The only surviving
zodiac sign in 4Q186 — called a “his beast” or “his animal” (root: beÌemah,
‫ )בחמה‬in the scroll — is Ox, or Taurus (Shor, ‫( )שור‬4Q186 1 ii 9a, 9b): “In the
foot of the Ox. He will be poor and this is [the meaning of] his beast, Taurus.”18
It is possible that the determination of the person’s sign was accompanied
by a relevant reference from the Bible. In this case, one could conjecture that
Isa 32:20, which contains exactly the same phrase in Hebrew “foot of the
ox”19and begins with the blessing, ‫אשריכם‬, Happy shall you be, could have
been used. Although non-calendrical, 4QZodiacal Physiognomy is another
astrological text in the Dead Sea Scrolls and as such has implications for how
astrology was considered by its tradents. Its subject matter, however, is not
directly related to 4Q318, which is concerned with the zodiacal position of the
moon on a given date and the meaning of thunder on those dates.

THE QUMRAN ZODIAC CALENDAR

The fragments of 4QZodiac Calendar contain surviving information about the

moon’s position in the zodiac on particular days of the month throughout a 360-
day ideal year. Its 360-day year is divided into 12 months, consisting of 30 days
each, a scheme from Mesopotamia known from the third millennium B.C.E.20

615–20; Manilius, Astronomica. 2.453–65 (Goold, LCL); Albani, “Horoscopes in the Qumran
Scrolls,” 282–9, 301–15, 317–22, 324–328. J.C. VanderKam, “Mantic Wisdom in the Dead Sea
Scrolls,” DSD 43.3 (1997): 340–3; F. Schmidt, “‘Recherche son thème de géniture dans le mystère
de ce qui doit être’: astrologie and prédestination à Qumran” in Qoumran et le Judaïsme du Tou-
rant de Notre Ère (ed. A. Lemaire and S.C. Mimouni. CREJ 40; Leuven: Peeters, 2006), 51–55;
J.C. VanderKam, “Mantic Wisdom in the Dead Sea Scrolls,” DSD 4.3 (1997): 340–3.
16
Popovic, Reading the Human Body, 25–28, 237–9.
17
Greenfield and Sokoloff, “4Q318,” DJD 36, 270.
18
Transliteration, Popovic (my translation), Reading the Human Body, 29–30, 104–106; Pop-
ovic, “Physionomic Knowledge in Qumran and Babylonia: Form, Interdisciplinarity and Secrecy,”
DSD 13.2 (2006): 164–5; Popovic, “Reading the Human Body and Writing in Code: Physio-
nomic Divination and Astrology in the Dead Sea Scrolls,” in Flores Florentino (ed. A. Hilhorst et
al. SJSJ 122. Leiden: Brill, 2007) 280–3; Albani, “Horoscopes in the Qumran Scrolls,” 286–7.
19
Noted by Albani,“Horoscopes in the Qumran Scrolls,” 286 n.29.
20
R.K. Englund, “Administrative Timekeeping in Ancient Mesopotamia,” JESHO 31 (1988):
121–85; L.Brack-Bernsen, “The 360-Day Year in Mesopotamia,” in Calendars and Years (ed.
J.M.Steele), 83–100.
 316 THE ZODIAC SIGN NAMES IN THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS (4Q318)

The moon takes about 21⁄2 days to traverse one sign; in the scroll it is
assigned to two or three days per sign in a highly schematic model. Although
the 4Q318 is very fragmentary, at least one occurrence of each sign-name can
be found in 4Q318 iv, vii, viii collectively (see the shaded area of Table 1; note
that the columns in the graph do not reflect the arrangement of columns in the
scroll). The signs represent the schematic position of the moon in the zodiac
for a few days towards the end of Elul and the beginning of Tishri (4Q318 iv);
the last half of Tevet and all of Shevat (4Q318 vii); and the whole of Adar
(4Q318 viii). Hence, in 4Q318 viii, the first sign of the moon, in Adar, is Aries
on days 1 and 2 of the month; on days 3 and 4, it is in Taurus and on days 5,
6 and 7, it is in Gemini. This formula of the moon in the same sign for 2 days,
then another 2 days, then 3 days is a recurring arrangement throughout the
360-days.
When reconstructed, it may be seen that 4QZodiac Calendar is related to
similar models found in late Babylonian calendrical texts from the 5th to the
early 2nd century B.C.E. in which the months and the moon’s journey through
the zodiac are substituted by numerals instead of month names or sign names.21

Nisan Iyyar Sivan Tammuz Av Elul Tishri Heshvan Kislev Tevet Shevat Adar
1 ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏ ♐ ♑ ♒ ♓ ♈
2 ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏ ♐ ♑ ♒ ♓ ♈
3 ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏ ♐ ♑ ♒ ♓ ♈ ♉
4 ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏ ♐ ♑ ♒ ♓ ♈ ♉
5 ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏ ♐ ♑ ♒ ♓ ♈ ♉ ♊
6 ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏ ♐ ♑ ♒ ♓ ♈ ♉ ♊
7 ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏ ♐ ♑ ♒ ♓ ♈ ♉ ♊
8 ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏ ♐ ♑ ♒ ♓ ♈ ♉ ♊ ♋
9 ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏ ♐ ♑ ♒ ♓ ♈ ♉ ♊ ♋
10 ♍ ♎ ♏ ♐ ♑ ♒ ♓ ♈ ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌
11 ♍ ♎ ♏ ♐ ♑ ♒ ♓ ♈ ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌
12 ♎ ♏ ♐ ♑ ♒ ♓ ♈ ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍
13 ♎ ♏ ♐ ♑ ♒ ♓ ♈ ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍

21
L. Brack-Bernsen and J.M. Steele, “Babylonian Mathemagics: Two Astronomical-Astro-
logical Texts,” in Studies in the History of the Exact Sciences in Honour of David Pingree (C. Bur-
nett et al. eds., Leiden: Brill, 2004), 95–121; H.R Jacobus, “4Q318: A Jewish Zodiac Calendar at
Qumran?” in The Dead Sea Scrolls: Texts and Context (ed. Charlotte Hempel. STDJ 90. Leiden:
Brill, 2010), 390–4; H.R Jacobus, “Calendars and Divination in the Dead Sea Scrolls: The Case
of 4Q318 Zodiac Calendar and Brontologion,” in Cosmologies (ed. Nick Campion. Ceredigion,
Wales: Sophia Centre Press, 2010), 37–8.
 H.R. JACOBUS 317

Nisan Iyyar Sivan Tammuz Av Elul Tishri Heshvan Kislev Tevet Shevat Adar
14 ♎ ♏ ♐ ♑ ♒ ♓ ♈ ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍
15 ♏ ♐ ♑ ♒ ♓ ♈ ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎
16 ♏ ♐ ♑ ♒ ♓ ♈ ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎
17 ♐ ♑ ♒ ♓ ♈ ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏
18 ♐ ♑ ♒ ♓ ♈ ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏
19 ♑ ♒ ♓ ♈ ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏ ♐
20 ♑ ♒ ♓ ♈ ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏ ♐
21 ♑ ♒ ♓ ♈ ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏ ♐
22 ♒ ♓ ♈ ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏ ♐ ♑
23 ♒ ♓ ♈ ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏ ♐ ♑
24 ♓ ♈ ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏ ♐ ♑ ♒
25 ♓ ♈ ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏ ♐ ♑ ♒
26 ♈ ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏ ♐ ♑ ♒ ♓
27 ♈ ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏ ♐ ♑ ♒ ♓
28 ♈ ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏ ♐ ♑ ♒ ♓
29 ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏ ♐ ♑ ♒ ♓ ♈
30 ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏ ♐ ♑ ♒ ♓ ♈
Key: ♈ Aries; ♉ Taurus; ♊ Gemini; ♋ Cancer; ♌ Leo; ♍ Virgo; ♎ Libra; ♏ Scorpio;
♐ Sagittarius; ♑ Capricorn; ♒ Aquarius; ♓ Pisces

Table 1: 4QZodiac Calendar. The zodiac signs represent the position of the moon in
the zodiac in the schematic year; the extant days in the calendar are shaded

THE ZODIAC SIGN NAMES

In order to research the cultural origins of the Qumran zodiac it is useful to

review some of the variant names in Greek and Mesopotamian sources.
The zodiac signs, in the order in which they appear in 4QZodiac Calendar
(from 1 Nisan, reconstructed)22 as follows: ‫תורא‬, The Ox;23 ‫תאומיא‬, The
Twins;24 ‫ סרטנא‬The Crab;25 ‫אריא‬, The Lion;26 ‫בתולתא‬, The Maiden;27 ‫מוזניא‬,

22
See Jacobus, “A Jewish Zodiac Calendar at Qumran?” Fig.1. 373, or Jacobus, “Calendars
and Divination in the Dead Sea Scrolls,” Table 1, 39.
23
4Q318 vii 5, viii 1; this sign name is also extant in 4Q186 1 ii 8 (Popovic, Reading the
Human Body, 28–29), the only other zodiac sign in the Dead Sea Scrolls outside of 4Q318.
24
4Q318 viii 9.
25
4Q318 vii 1, 6, viii 2.
26
4Q318 vii 1, 6, viii 2.
27
4Q318 vii 2, viii 3.
318 THE ZODIAC SIGN NAMES IN THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS (4Q318)

The Balance;28 ‫עקרבא‬, The Scorpion;29 ‫קשתא‬, The Bow or The Archer;30
‫גדיא‬, The Kid-Goat;31 ‫ דולא‬The Bucket;32 ‫ניניא‬, The Fishes;33 ‫דכרא‬, The Ram.34
As Greenfield showed in his seminal study on the etymology of the sign
names, the Qumran zodiac is not entirely the same as the Greek, Akkadian,
Hebrew, or the Eastern Aramaic Mandaic and Syriac zodiacs.35 He suggested
that Aramaic played an intermediary role in the transmission of the zodiac sign
names, and he hypothesised that a Greek scholar within the Achaemenid court,
or scholarly contacts in the coastal cities of Asia Minor, enabled the dissemina-
tion process.36 This cosmopolitan theory may account for the mixture of cultural
traditions in the Qumran zodiac, but it does not entirely explain the variant sign
names, as shall be discussed.
Historically, the zodiac itself, as opposed to the zodiacal constellations,
which are older, is attested in the 5th century in astronomical diaries and horo-
scopes from Mesopotamia.37 It appeared in Greece in the zodiacal calendar of
Euctemon (fl. 432 B.C.E.), Meton (fl. 432 B.C.E.), and Eudoxus (c.390 B.C.E.–
340 B.C.E.).38 As demonstrated below, the Babylonian and classical Greek
cultures retained their own zodiac sign names, some of which overlapped while
other names reflected different symbolic motifs. Over time, some sign names
were exchanged in both directions. There may be traces of this swapping and
replacement process in the Qumran zodiac before the Hebrew and Eastern Ara-
maic zodiacs became fixed, as shall be discussed. Furthermore, the sign names
may place particular cultural interpretations on visual representations of the
signs from Greece and the ancient Near East that are not reflected in the etymol-
ogy. There is no visual imagery in the Qumran zodiac (or in any of the Dead
Sea Scrolls); in contrast, zodiacs before and contemporary with 4Q318 are rich
in iconography and literary topoi.
4QZodiac Calendar has the earliest attested variant zodiac sign-names for
Capricorn and Aquarius, which differ from both the Akkadian and Greek versions;

28
4Q318 vii 2, 7.
29
4Q318 vii 2, 7.
30
4Q318 vii 3, 8, viii 4.
31
4Q318 iv 9, 8, viii 4.
32
4Q318 vii 4, 9, viii 5.
33
4Q318 vii 4, 9, viii 5.
34
4Q318 viii 1, 6.
35
J.C. Greenfield, “The Names of the Zodiacal Signs in Aramaic and Hebrew,” in Au Car-
refour des Religions (RO 7; ed. R. Gyselen; Bures-sur-Yvette: GPECMO, 1995): 95–103.
36
Greenfield, “The Names,” 96. (It is unclear whether the scholarly contacts in Asia Minor
are those of the Greek scholar, or another hypothetical process).
37
Rochberg, Heavenly Writing, 130 n. 27, 28, 29; Sachs, “Babylonian Horoscopes,” 54–55;
B.L. van der Waerden, “History of the Zodiac,” AfO 16: 216–230.
38
A. Bowen and B. R. Goldstein,“Meton of Athens and Astronomy in the Late Fifth Cen-
tury B.C,” in A Scientific Humanist, eds. Erle Leichty et al, Philadelphia: OPSNKF 9, 1988, 39–81;
Neugebauer, HAMA, 628–9.
 H.R. JACOBUS 319

these same variants first attested at Qumran appear in later Hebrew, Syriac and
Mandaic sources. Later Syriac, Mandaic and Arabic texts also have different
sign names for Virgo, Sagittarius, Gemini and Pisces39 that are unattested in
Hebrew, or in 4Q318. Some sign-names in 4Q318 of particular interest shall
now be considered; taken together these raise particular contextual questions
about the Qumran zodiac among the other zodiacs in the ancient Near East in
the same period.
Aries is the only zodiac sign that was not directly translated from the Qum-
ran zodiac to the Hebrew zodiac in that it was represented by The Lamb. In
4QZodiac Calendar, Aries is The Ram, ‫דכרא‬,40 Dikra, as it is the Greek zodiac,
Krióv, Ram. The Hebrew Lamb, ‫טלה‬, Taleh, is attested in the Palestinian zodiac
synagogue mosaics41and in the Mandaic zodiac.42 The Mesopotamian name for
the sign is the Hired Man, HUN.GA (Akkadian: Agru).43 The image of a Ram
is found in mid 2nd century B.C.E. Mesopotamian seal stones.44 Sachs notes that
the sign mul-LU or múl-LU, or LU, “meaning ‘Aries’” [“Hired man”45] appears
in more than a dozen Seleucid texts;46 however, there are no known images of
a Hired Man, or a Lamb, on the incised seals. Van der Waerden and Wallenfels
observed that The Ram replaced the Hired Man in the late Mesopotamian tra-
dition.47 All the other signs in the Hebrew zodiac are equivalent to direct trans-
lations of the Aramaic zodiac in 4Q318.
The sign for Virgo in 4QZodiac Calendar is Bethulta, The Virgin, ‫בתולתא‬,48
a direct translation of the Hellenistic name for Parthénos, Parqénov. Greenfield

39
P. Gignoux, “Les noms des signes du Zodiaque en syriaque et leurs correspondants en
moyen-perse et mandéen,” Mélange Antoine Guillaumont (eds. R.G. Coqin, et al, Geneva: Patrick
Cramer), 1988, 200–304; I thank Dr Christa Müller-Kessler for her talk and handouts related to
the Mandaic zodiac and Mr Nicholas al-Jeloo for his paper related to the Syriac zodiac, presented
at the ARAM Society 29th international conference on, “Astrology in the Ancient Near East,”
Oriental Institute, Oxford, 8–10 July 2010; see also Roland Laffitte, “Les noms des signes du
zodiaque dans l’espace arab-turco-persan et méditerranean.” Bulletin de la Selefa 7 (2006): 1–12.
Cited July 15, 2010. Online: http:// www.selefa. Assoc.fr/files_pdf/Instit07_T8.pdf
40
4Q318 vii 5, viii 1, 6, see Greenfield and Sokoloff, DJD 36, 262–3, pl.15.
41
R. Hachili, Ancient Mosaic Pavements, 40–41 (pl. III.7a; fig. III–6); ‫ טלה‬is clear in all the
synagogue mosaics, except Huseifa, where no names are extant.
42
Greenfield ,“The Names,” 98.
43
Hunger and Pingree, MUL.APIN, 69, 138; J. Gray, A Study of Babylonian Goal-Year
Planetary Astronomy,” Ph.D thesis, Durham, 2009, 22, Table 1.5
44
Wallenfels, “Zodiacal Signs,” 282–3, see no.1, fig. 1; van der Waerden, “History of the
Zodiac,” 226.
45
Hunger and Pingree, MUL. APIN, for example, 50 (Tablet 1 iii 24); L. Bobrova and A. Mili-
tarev, “From Mesopotamia to Greece: to the Origin of Semitic and Greek Star Names,” in Die Rolle
der Astronomie in den Kulturen Mesopotamiens (ed. Hannes D. Galter. GMS 3; Graz: tm-Druck,
1993), 321.
46
A. Sachs, “Babylonian Horoscopes,” JCS 6 (1952): 71 n.51.
47
Wallenfels, “Zodiacal Signs,” 282–3; van der Waerden, “History of the Zodiac,” 226;
Greenfield, “The Names,” 98.
48
4Q318 vii 2, viii 3, see Greenfield and Sokoloff, DJD 36, 262–3, pl. 15.
320 THE ZODIAC SIGN NAMES IN THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS (4Q318)

comments that in many ways this is the “most interesting of the zodiacal
names” at Qumran, and that it is the only “concrete sign of Western influence
among the zodiacal names in the Jewish tradition.”49 Neither the Greco-Roman
tradition nor the Qumran or Hebrew zodiacs adopted the Mesopotamian name for
this sign, Barleystalk (mul AB.sín).50 The ear of corn represents Spica, the fixed
star that the Virgin appears to hold in the constellation of Virgo (a Virginis).51 If
the sign name in 4QZodiac Calendar had been subject to Babylonian influences,
we could expect the zodiacal name to be The Ear of Corn, ‫שבלתא‬, Shavalta, as
it is in a corresponding form in the Eastern tradition.52 Interestingly, the Hebrew
name for Spica is ‫שבלתא‬, Shibbolet, an Ear of Corn, as it is, correspondingly,
in other Semitic languages.53
The sign may be represented by Ishtar holding a long weapon and a bunch
of dates in a 3rd millennium B.C.E. Babylonian wax impression.54 In the astro-
logical tablet AO 6448 (Paris), from early second century B.C.E. Uruk, a young
woman, facing left, carries an ear of corn in her right hand.55 Her ankle-length
skirt is drawn in at the waist; the hem and skirt have a detailed pattern. This is
possibly the first example of iconic Greek influence for this sign in Mesopotamia,56
and may indicate a change of sign name. Van der Waerden does not agree that
this particular image stems from Greek influence, but he concurs that the Greek
name of Virgo may not have a Babylonian source and that the representation of
an ear of grain is of Mesopotamian origin.57
Similar imagery of a female figure holding an oversized spike of grain, rep-
resenting Spica, is found for a graphic representation of Virgo on a seal from
Seleucid Uruk dated to 217 B.C.E.58 The impression on the gem apparently

49
Greenfield, “The Names,” 99–100.
50
van der Waerden, “History of the Zodiac,” at 226; Hunger and Pingree, MUL.APIN
(Tablet I ii 10; iv 35): 33, 68, 138–41; Greenfield, “The Names,” 99; Bobrova and Militarev,
“From Mesopotamia to Greece,” 314; Gray, Goal-Year Planetary Astronomy, 22, Table 1.5.
51
Greenfield, “The Names,” 99–100; Aratus, Phaenomena, line 97 (lines 96–8). Translated
by D. Kidd, Aratus: Phaenomena (Cambridge, CUP, 1997), pp. 79–81, commentary, pp. 215–6;
Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos (Robbins, LCL), 51 n. 5. Manilius, Astronomica 5. 270–292 (Goold, LCL),
322–325; Laffitte, “Les noms,” 8–9. Geminos’s Introduction to the Phenomena II.6, translated
by Evans and Berggren (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006), 137–8, n. 6; Greenfield
and Sokoloff, DJD 36, 267–9 (at 268). So in Syriac and Mandaic.
52
Greenfield and Sokoloff, DJD 36, 267–9 (at 268); Greenfield, “The Names,” 99–100.
53
Bobrova and Militarev, “From Mesopotamia to Greece,” 314; Greenfield, “4Q318,” DJD 36,
268.
54
J. H. Rogers, “Origins of the Ancient Constellations: I: The Mesopotamian Traditions,”
JBAA 108.1 (1998): 9–28 (11, fig. 2, 26).
55
E. Weidner, Gestirn Darstellungen, 9–11, 29–34, pl. 10.
56
R. Caplice, review of E. Weidner, Gestirn Darstellungen, Or 38 (1969), 580–2 (at 581–2).
57
van der Waerden, “History of the Zodiac,” 226.
58
R. Wallenfels, “Zodiacal Signs among the Seal Impressions from Hellenistic Uruk,” in The
Tablet and the Scroll (ed., M.E. Cohen et al. Bethesda: CDL Press, 1993), 281–9 (285, no. 6,
fig. 8).
 H.R. JACOBUS 321

portrays a standing woman facing left, dressed in an indistinct garment, without

a headdress, holding the large ear of wheat in her right hand. The Mesopotamian
artists’ representations of the sign-name may have played a determining role
in the literary transmission, from Sheaf of Grain in the ancient Near East, to
Parthénos in Greece, and thence to Bethulatha at Qumran.59 Laffitte argues
that due to the Hellenistic influence this Qumran zodiac name should be clas-
sified as Western Aramaic.60 The pictorial representation of the Hebrew Virgo,
‫בתולה‬, Bethulah, in early Byzantine Palestinian synagogue mosaics appears as
a woman both with and without an ear of grain,61 possibly reflecting both the
Western (Hellenistic) and Eastern (Babylonian, Hebrew) traditions, although,
as stated, similar female representations exist from the 3rd millennium, pos-
sibly of Ishtar.
The sign of Libra, the Scales, or the Balance in 4QZodiac Calendar, ‫מוזניא‬,62
Moznayya, is a name of Babylonian origin that was adopted by the Greeks:63
Hugóv, Zygos, eventually replacing their name for Libra, the Claws Xjelai,
Chelai (of the Scorpion).64 The Sumerian tradition also knows The Scales,
ZI.BA.AN.NA,65 The Beam or Balance of a scale66 (Babylonian: RÍN67). The
sign name, XJELAI, the Claws of the Scorpion, is inscribed in the world’s

59
Greenfield, “The Names,” 100.
60
Laffitte, “Les noms,” 8–9.
61
At Sepphoris, only two ears of wheat and a star (all extant zodiac signs in this roundel have
stars) remain; at Hammath Tiberias Virgo is an elaborately fully-clothed woman wearing a veil
at the back of head, tunic, robe and jewellery, holding a torch in her right hand; at Na‘aran, Virgo
holds a plant; and at Beth Alpha, Virgo is a bejewelled, decoratively attired Byzantine princess
on a throne. See Hachili, Ancient Mosaic Pavements, pl. III. 8c; fig. III–7, 42.
62
4Q318 vii 2, 7, viii 3, see Greenfield and Sokoloff, DJD 36, 272–3, pl.15. It is spelt with a
vav at Qumran. In Hebrew it is spelt with an aleph: ‫מאזניא‬. At Hammath Tiberias, Sepphoris and
Na‘aran, Moznayim is spelt with a vav. At Beth Alpha it is spelt with an aleph (the sign is not
extant at Huseifa), see Hachili, Ancient Mosaic Pavements, 42.
63
Evans and Berggren, Geminos’s Introduction, 117 n.12.
64
The so-called Geminos Parapegma (dated shortly after 200 B.C.E.) uses the Balance or the
Scales Hugòv, D. Lehoux, Astronomy, Weather and Calendars in the Ancient World (Cambridge,
Cambridge University Press, 2007), 227; Geminos (fl. 150 B.C.E) refers to the Balance and
attributes the Claws to “the ancients,” Geminos’s Introduction, Evans and Berggren, 117, n. 12
(vii 25); Manilius uses both “Libra,” and “Chelae” the Balance and Claws, see use of both in
one verse: Astronomica 4.547–8 (LCL, Goold).
Zugós (hugóv) is attested in the zodiacal sundials (S.L. Gibbs, Greek and Roman Sundials,
New Haven: Yale University Press), 86; Philo uses the Balance, see Philo, Creation. 39:116
(Colson and Whitaker, LCL); Ptolemy (fl.c. 150 C.E.) uses both sign names in the Tetrabiblos
(Robbins, LCL, 51 n. 2): but in the Almagest he uses The Claws in the text, the Balance in his
headings, except once in the text (Almagest ix 7) with reference to a “Chaldean” observation,
Geminos’s Introduction, Evans and Berggren, 117, n. 12.
65
Hunger and Pingree, MUL.APIN, 138, 162; van der Waerden, states that the scorpion’s
horn is used as a synonym for the Balance in MUL.APIN, in idem, History of the Zodiac,
226.
66
Wallenfels, “Zodiacal Signs,” 285; Greenfield, “The Names,” 100.
67
Gray, Goal-Year Planetary Astronomy, 22, Table 1.5.
322 THE ZODIAC SIGN NAMES IN THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS (4Q318)

oldest known geared machine, the Greek Antikythera Mechanism,68 dated var-
iously to circa 150 B.C.E and 80 B.C.69
Kidd agrees that the Balance entered the Greek zodiac only after Hipparchus
(c.190–c.120),70 but Goold dates the adoption of Zygós and Libra, the Latin
equivalent, into Hellenistic astronomy and the Greco-Roman literary world
to no earlier than the 1st century C.E.71 If so, and The Scales in 4Q318 was
originally imported through later Hellenistic influences, it may mean that the
origin of The Balance at Qumran may be not dated before the beginning of
the 1st century C.E.
On the other hand, if the Qumran Libra came from Mesopotamia, the origin
of this sign name in the Dead Sea Scrolls could have been earlier. In all the
extant Hebrew synagogue mosaics, Libra, the Balance, Moznayim, is depicted
as a human figure holding a pair of scales. At Hammath Tiberias, the earliest
extant pictorial Hebrew zodiac mosaic, the figure is naked and holds a sceptre
as well as scales.72
Sagittarius, The Archer, or The Bow, ‫קשתא‬, Qashta, or Qeshta, respectively,
in 4Q318 is ambiguous, its meaning depending upon the consonants.73 The
name in Sumerian, likewise, may mean the Archer or Bow: PA.BIL.SAG,74
and in Babylonian, PA.75 It is the Archer in Greek (Toxótjv). The sign is
visually depicted as a centaur-archer on boundary stones and seal impressions.76

68
Price Gears from the Greeks (TAPS 64:7; Philadelphia: APS, 1974), 17–18; R. Hannah,
Time in Antiquity, London: Routledge, 2008, 48–9. ref: to Hewlett Packard site containing publically
available images: http://www. hpl.hp.com/research/ptm/antikythera_mechanism/full_resolution_
ptm.htm. (image no. AK31a). Cited 31 October 2009, or the link via the team’s website: http://
www.antikythera-mechanism.gr/
69
Price, Gears from the Greeks, 1–70; Freeth et al. “Calendars with Olympiad Display and
eclipse prediction on the Antikythera Mechanism,” Nature 454 (31 July 2008): 614–7; Freeth et
al. “Decoding the ancient Greek astronomical calculator known as the Antikythera Mechanism,”
Nature 444 (Nov 2006): 587–591; M.T. Wright, “The Antikythera Mechanism reconsidered.”
ISR 32:1 (2007), 27–43.
70
Aratus (fl. third century B.C.E) uses chelai, see Kidd, commentary on Aratus, Phaenomena,
211–13, the first appearance of the Balance may have been in Hipparchus’s commentary on Ara-
tus (3.3.4), see Kidd, 211; cf. Geminos’s Introduction to the Phenomena, Evans and Berggren,
117, n. 12: they date the Commentary to c.160 BCE and state that the Claws are used throughout,
a Balance, once (Phen. iii 1.5). They also state that Eratosthenes (Catasterisms, c.230 B.C.E.)
always refers to The Claws.
71
Goold states that Zugós and Libra are not found before 1st century B.C.E (“first in Gemi-
nos”), Manilius, Astronomica (LCL, Goold), Introduction, xxv.
72
Hachili, Ancient Mosaic Pavements, 42, pl.III.9a; fig. III-8.
73
Greenfield, “The Names,” 100.
74
Greenfield, “The Names,” 100; Hunger and Pingree, MUL. APIN, 138, 160; Wallenfels,
“Zodiacal Signs” 286, no. 9, fig. 12, seal impression dated from 230 B.C.E, Babylonian star
catalogue (BM 78161) from c. 5th–7th centuries; Rogers, “Origins. I,” 26–27; van der Waerden,
“History of the Zodiac,” 226.
75
Gray, Goal-Year Planetary Astronomy, 22, Table 1.5.
76
van der Waerden, History of the Zodiac, 226–7, fig 4; Wallenfels, “Zodiacal Signs,” 286
no. 9, fig 12, 287–288, fig 16, 17.
 H.R. JACOBUS 323

The image of the Sagittarian centaur-archer is also known in the Graeco-Roman

literary tradition and is described as such by Manilius and Ptolemy.77 Aratus
(fl. early 3rd century B.C.E.) writes of the Archer drawing his bow, without
being part animal; the Centaur being a separate constellation.78
The representation of Sagittarius in the Hebrew synagogue mosaic traditions
are mixed: Qashat is represented by a centaur-archer in the Sepphoris zodiac;79
at Huseifa and Beth Alpha, it is symbolised by a human archer; at Huseifa, he is
naked.80 The Qumran Sagittarius may be a literal translation of the name from
either the Babylonian or Greek. The visual and literary representations of the sign
as a centaur-archer may have an accompanying oral tradition and can be consid-
ered separately. Although the Babylonian and Greco-Roman imagery contravenes
Lev 19:19 prohibiting the mixing of species, there is nothing in the sign-name
itself to denote a centaur. The Mandaic translation of Sagittarius, hitia, means
“arrows,”81which may reflect the tradition of the bow, not the centaur.
The Qumran sign name of Capricorn, ‫גדיא‬, The Kid (a young goat), Gadya,
is in contrast to both the Babylonian and Hellenistic traditions in which the
sign-name is the Goat-fish: Babylonian, MÁS,82 Gk: ˆAigókerwv, ’aigokerós
(Akk: suhurmasû),83 The Aramaic dialects also know Gadya, The Kid Goat, and
Hebrew has the exact equivalent: Gedi.84 The sign is visually represented by a
goat-fish in the 4th century synagogue mosaic of Hammath Tiberias, and by a
goat in the Beit Alpha zodiac wheel.85 4QZodiac Calendar contains the first
attestation in an ancient primary source of the variant sign-name Gadya. The
possibility may be considered that the young goat is a Judaised version of the
sign-name because a pagan sea-goat, an amalgam of two separate species, would
be regarded as abominable in biblical law.86

77
Manilus, Astronomica. 1.270 (Goold, LCL); Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos. 1.27 (Robbins, LCL)
50–51 n. 3. The centaur is known from boundary stones, van der Waerden, History of the Zodiac,
226–7, fig 4.
78
Aratus, Phenomena, 300–310 (Kidd, 94-95).
79
Wadeson, “Chariots,” fig. 4b, p.29). B. Kühnel: “The Synagogue Floor Mosaic in Sep-
phoris,” in From Dura to Sepphoris. (ed., L. Levine and Z. Weiss. JRA 40: Portsmouth, RI,
2000), 31–43 (33, 36–9); Hachili, Ancient Mosaic Pavements, 42–3, fig. III–8; fig. III-3.
80
Hachili, Ancient Mosaic Pavements, 42–3, pl. III.9; fig. III-8.
81
Greenfield, “The Names,” 100; J. Greenfield and J. Naveh, “A Mandaic lead roll with four
incantations,” Eretz Israel 18 (1985), 97–106 [Hebrew], cited in handout by C. Müller-Kessler,
“Mandaic signs of the zodiac and related sources,” at the 29th ARAM conference, “Astrology in
the Ancient Near East,” Oxford, 8–10 July 2010.
82
Gray, Goal-Year Planetary Astronomy, 22, Table 1.5.
83
Greenfield, “The Names,” 100–101; Wallenfels, “Zodiacal Signs” 285, fig. 9, dated to the
first half of the 2nd century B.C.E and , 286, no. 10, fig. 13, dated to 281 B.C.E; van der Waerden,
“History of the Zodiac,” 226; Manilius, Astronomica 2.167–180 (LCL, Goold); Ptolemy, Tetra-
biblos, 53, n.1, 173, 205, (LCL, Robbins).
84
Greenfield, “The Names”, 100–101.
85
Hachili, Ancient Mosaic Pavements, 43–44 (pl. III. 10a; fig III-9).
86
Lev 19:19. The image goat-fish is found in the synagogue zodiac of Hammat Tiberias how-
ever it is not used at Beth Alpha. (Summary of images: L. Wadeson, “Chariots of Fire,” ARAM 20
324 THE ZODIAC SIGN NAMES IN THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS (4Q318)

Aquarius, ‫דולא‬, The Bucket, Dola, is also unattested in either the Babylonian
and Hellenistic zodiacal traditions. The Qumran sign name is neither an Aramaic
translation of the Greek ‘Udroxóov, Water-pourer, ‘Udrokhóos, nor the Akka-
dian GU.LA, “Great One,”87 (Babylonian, GU)88 who may have originally
represented the god, Ea.89 This name may also contravene the biblical precept
and first Commandment that there should be no other gods: Exod 20:3 and
Deut 5:7.
Similar translations to The Bucket for Aquarius are also found in Syriac and
Mandaic;90 the reception history of ‫ דולא‬is Semitic, adopted into Middle Persian,
and Hebrew, as attested in the Hebrew synagogue zodiac mosaics.91 The visual
representation of a Bucket, ‫דלי‬, Deli, in the Byzantine Hebrew synagogue mosa-
ics varies from the classical representation of a naked, Greco-Roman figure
pouring water backwards from an urn which he carries on his shoulder (Ham-
math Tiberias), to a more literal visual rendering of the sign-name (Beit Alpha,
Huseifa and possibly Sepphoris).92
The Bucket in 4Q318 removes the water pourer and focuses on a receptacle. In
Greek imagery, the Water Pourer may have one urn;93 in 2nd millennium B.C.E
Mesopotamian wax cylinder seals, Ea carries two vessels flowing with water
and has fish at his shoulders.94 In later iconography, he has two streams running
over his shoulders that terminate in two urns; the two streams emanate from a
third vessel that he holds at his chest.95 In removing the water element and the
person who pours water, The Bucket also changes the astronomical basis of the
Greek sign name, which reflects the sign’s connection with the constellation of
Pisces.96 The Qumran Bucket without its water pourer did not travel west.
I have viewed the zodiac sign names of 4Q318 from a broad etymological
perspective to draw together a picture of the cultural and chronological context

(2008): 1–41 (pl. 6, p.31). S. Fine, Art and Judaism in the Greco-Roman World (Cambridge: CUP,
2005), 196–205.
87
Hunger and Pingree, MUL.APIN, 68 (Tablet I iv 36), 12, 144.
88
Gray, Babylonian Goal-Year Planetary Astronomy, 22, Table 1.5.
89
Edith Porada, “On the Origins of Aquarius,” in Language, Literature and History (ed.
Francesca Rochberg-Halton; AOS 67. New Haven, Connecticut, 1989), 279–91, Rogers, “Ori-
gins I,” 11, 17, 19, 21, 27.
90
Greenfield, “The Names,” 101.
91
Greenfield, DJD 36, 268.
92
The Beth Alpha mosaic depicts a woman with a Roman hairstyle lowering a bucket into a
well; at Huseifa an amphora with flowing water is represented, and at Sepphoris only stylised
falling water survives, see Hachili, Ancient Synagogue Mosaics, 43–4, pl. III.10b; fig. III-9.
93
Manilius, Astronomica 1.272 (LCL, Goold). In Aratus, the number of urns is not given,
Phaenomena, (CUP, Kidd), 390.
94
Porada, “On the Origins of Aquarius,” figs 1, 3, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17; Rogers, “Origins
I,” (figs 2, 5).
95
Wallenfels, “Zodiacal signs,” 286–7, fig. 14.
96
Rogers, “Origins I,” 27; Aratus, Phaenomena 385–390, Kidd, Commentary: pp. 323–4;
Manilius, Astronomica 1.272, 1.438–442 (Goold, LCL).
 H.R. JACOBUS 325

of the zodiac at Qumran. 4QZodiac Calendar contains two previously unknown

zodiac sign names and a mixture of well-attested Mesopotamian and Hellenis-
tic names, Capricorn and Aquarius. The new name for Capricorn, The Kid,
does not contravene the biblical law, Lev.19.19, the prohibition on mixing
species, whereas in both the Babylonian and Hellenistic zodiacs, Capricorn is
represented by the goat-fish, visually, a goat with a fish-tail. Etymologically,
this symbolism may have been unacceptable within Second Temple Judean
society. The Kid is distantly related to the image of the goat-fish that it replaces
while still preserving a trace of the sign’s Babylonian and Hellenistic origins.
According to Bobrova and Militarev the Sumerian and Akkadian goat-fish was
a carp-fish that evolved through etymological processes into a goat-fish, and
hence the image of a goat with a fish-tail on boundary stones.97
The Hellenistic concept of the next sign, the Water Pourer, does not infringe
biblical law, but its Mesopotamian sign name of GU.LA may contravene the
first commandment. Moreover, it is probably too culturally specific to have
been translated into Aramaic and transplanted in the Dead Sea Scrolls. What-
ever the reason for the variant sign names at Qumran, their existence may show
that the authors of the 4Q318 zodiac were not averse to revising zodiacal
names, possibly for their own cultural reasons. This tradition may have contin-
ued, as shown by the change of the name of Aries from The Ram in 4QZodiac
Calendar, to the adoption of a Lamb, attested in the early Byzantine Hebrew
zodiac mosaics. Here again, the imagery, not the etymology, is loosely related
but distinctively different.
Aside from Virgo, the Qumran zodiac names may have had a Babylonian
origin. However, the image of a woman holding a corn spike existed in seals
from Seleucid Mesopotamia. If the name of the Virgin was adopted there, Hel-
lenistic Babylonia may be a possible locus of origin of the zodiac sign-names
in 4QZodiac Calendar. If the Qumran zodiac, as a whole, was of Hellenistic
Greek, rather than Hellenistic Mesopotamian origin, that is, Babylonia under
the Seleucids, it could not be earlier than the late second century B.C.E. when
The Balance, the Babylonian zodiac name, first appeared in the Geminos
Parapegma.
If Qumran sign names were a translation from a purely Hellenistic zodiac
that was in widespread use, 4Q318 would be more likely to date from the early
1st century C.E., when The Balance was more commonly used in Greco-Roman
writing. Hence, if the 4QZodiac Calendar originated from the Hellenistic world,
its composition would correlate approximately with the date of the scroll itself.
On the other hand, if a Seleucid Mesopotamian background were considered,
the date of the original Qumran zodiac need not be determined by the period
when the Mesopotamian Balance replaced the Hellenistic Claws. In that case,

97
Bobrova and Militarev, “From Mesopotamia to Greece,” 322.
326 THE ZODIAC SIGN NAMES IN THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS (4Q318)

the origin of the Qumran zodiac could be some 200 years earlier to the period
of the images on AO 6448, and the seal stones, if the incised representations
reflected the sign name of the Virgin (and since the female figure carries a corn
spike, this is a matter of speculative interpretation).
The Egyptian zodiacs, including two from the temple of Dendera that are
dated to 30 B.C.E., and the reign of Tiberius in the early first century C.E.,98
also depict the Balance, not the Claws.99 All the Egyptian zodiacs date from the
Ptolemaic period.100 The iconography is “undoubtedly Babylonian in origin” as
attested by the representations of the goat-fish (Capricorn), a double or single-
headed archer on a scorpion-tailed horse, usually winged (Sagittarius), and the
most common representation of woman holding an ear of corn (Virgo).101 The
Scales may also have been compatible with existing sacred and vernacular
Egyptian iconography.102 In addition to being represented by the scales or a
balance held by a figure, “‘Libra,’ the only named sign,” is also reflected by
the word for “horizon,” a sun disk, or a Horus-child baboon, related to the
word for “horizon.”103
Aquarius has many variations as a water pourer in the Egyptian zodiacs: the
figure may be standing or seated, or pouring water from one, or two, vessels. In
some instances, the sign is depicted by a papyrus plant, and no vessels or water
are shown at all. Aquarius may also be represented by the Nile god, Hapy, wear-
ing a papyrus crown.104 Although Egypt may be considered as a possible place
of transmission for the zodiac in the Dead Sea Scrolls, these graphic represen-
tations might make a direct connection with the names of the zodiac signs in
4Q318 unlikely.
In sum, by taking a comparative, diachronic approach it was found that the
Qumran zodiac contains both late Hellenistic and late Babylonian features,
reflecting a mixture of cultural influences. These could be accounted for by:
(1) a process of composition in Hellenistic Seleucid Mesopotamia, which was

98
O. Neugebauer and R.A. Parker, Egyptian Astronomical Texts III (Providence: Brown,
1969), [abbrev. EAT], Esna A, 200 B.C.E., now destroyed, 168, Dendera B, before 30 B.C.E.,
pl. 35; Shanhûr, 30 B.C–27 C.E, pl. 40; Dendera E, 20 C.E., pl. 42; Tester, A History of Western
Astrology, “ 20; N. Campion, A History of Western Astrology. Vol.1. Continuum (2008), 182–3.
99
Neugebauer and Parker, EAT III, 210, 218, fig 33-A.
100
Neugebauer and Parker, EAT III, 4.
101
Neugebauer and Parker, EAT III, 168, 203, 209–11.
102
See images from the weighing of the heart ceremony in Book of the Dead of Hunefer
(19th Dynasty, c.1280 B.C.E, Chapter 25: painted papyrus, British Museum catalogue no. EA9901,
Sheet 3), in I. Shaw and P. Nicolson, British Museum Dictionary of Ancient Egypt (London:
British Museum Press, 1995), 30; M. Gutgesell, “Economy and Trade,” in Egypt: The World of
the Pharaohs (ed. R. Schulz and M. Seidel. Cologne: Könemann, 1998), 373, pl. 74: Weighing
of gold and silver, tomb c.1380 B.C.E, 374, pl. 75, The Treasury of Pharaoh, tomb c.1250 B.C.E.
103
Neugebauer and Parker, EAT III, 132, 210, 218.
104
Neugebauer and Parker, EAT III, 211–12; van der Waerden, “History of the Zodiac,” 229,
figs. 5, 7, 9.
 H.R. JACOBUS 327

a locus of astronomical scribal activity; (2) a late Hellenistic influence in the

early 1st century (the very latest date for the scroll); or, less satisfactorily
(3) by Greenfield’s hypotheses of transmission by a Greek scholar in the Per-
sian court. By the early first century C.E. in Judea, cultural influences were
undoubtedly intertwined; if 4QZodiac Calendar were composed or translated
into Aramaic at this time rather than copied from an earlier tradition, the ques-
tion of Hellenistic influence could be considered. The third possible influence
in the mix may be Judean itself, as I shall now briefly discuss.
The Aramaic zodiac at Qumran is unique not only because the Hebrew
zodiac has an Aries Lamb, but some of the closest Eastern Aramaic zodiacs,
which share the Qumran Aries Ram, eschew the name of the Virgin, in prefer-
ence for her spike of corn. The variant Qumran zodiac sign names, the earliest
attested, do not contravene biblical law, in contrast to the equivalent sign names
in Mesopotamian and Greco-Roman traditions. Therefore, in their specific con-
text — the Dead Sea Scrolls, an archive containing biblical manuscripts and
commentaries on biblical law — the variant sign names may be more accept-
able than non-variant versions. This does not mean that the scroll would be
sectarian or Essene, since biblical law was not exclusive knowledge.
The process of etymological evolution or an expedient translation into Ara-
maic into simpler sign-names may also be considered as a reason for the name
changes. However, the fact remains that only Bucket and Kid, not Aquarius
and Capricorn, were found in the Byzantine Hebrew synagogue zodiac mosaics
and those sign-names are still extant in the Hebrew zodiac, which may support
the argument that the etymology was acceptable.
This paper indicates that the socio-cultural background of the transmission
process of the zodiac in the ancient Near East has yet to be explored. Aside
from the question of the variant Kid and Bucket in the Dead Sea Scrolls, it
would be intriguing to research why the Hellenistic, Qumran-Aramaic and
Hebrew Virgo, the Virgin, does not appear in the eastern Aramaic zodiacs, and
the Mandaic Aries, the Lamb, is the first sign of the Hebrew zodiac, rather than
the Ram of 4QZodiac Calendar.

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