Astrology in the Bible

Interpreting the Zodiac in the Old and New Testaments

Jesus at the Center of the Zodiac, Wall painting in Svetitsjoveli Cathedral, Georgia.

Introduction

While the Bible condemns much of what we would consider modern astrology, that is, trying to use the heavenly bodies to determine our “fate” or prophesy the future (Deut 18:9-13; Isa 8:19-20; 44:24-25; 47:8-15), Scripture nonetheless affirms that constellations are an important part of God’s creation. We know this because Scripture teaches that the Lord is the one who “determines the number of the stars [and] gives to all of them their names” (Ps 147:4 cf. Isa 40:26). We’re even told some of these names:

Who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south… Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, or loose the cords of Orion? Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season, or can you guide the Bear with its children? Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you establish their rule on the earth?

Job 9:9; 38:31-33

He who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the Lord is his name.

Amos 9:8

The Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades are all names of constellations, and Scripture is clear that it wasn’t the pagans who made them up, rather God is the one who determined the arrangement of the heavens such that these starry images are discernible. Now, if it’s true that the Lord is behind “the Mazzaroth” (the Hebrew equivalent of the Zodiac), then it’s worthwhile to investigate how Scripture uses these heavenly signs, and what God is trying to teach us through them. Such is the goal of this present article, which is largely built on the work of James Jordan’s, Through New Eyes, and Peter Leithart’s, Revelation commentary.

Twelve Zodiac Signs, Twelve Tribes of Israel

To begin, our first clue that the stars are going to play an important role in the symbolic grammar of Sacred Scripture is found in the beginning: “And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs...’” (Gen 1:14). Indeed, after Genesis 1:16, the next time we see the word “stars” is in Genesis 15:5 when Abraham is told to “recount the stars if you are able to recount them… So shall your offspring be,” and again in Genesis 22:17, “I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven.” As some have noted, Abraham isn’t just being told about the quantity of his descendants, but also the quality. The children of Abraham will be like the stars of heaven, which is a theme that’s central to the story of Joseph:

“Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” But when he [Joseph] told it to his father [Jacob Israel] and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?”

Genesis 37:9-10

In his famous dream, Joseph sees the family of Israel, the offspring of Abraham, in heavenly images: Jacob is the sun, Rachel is the moon, and importantly for our purposes, the twelve sons of Israel are depicted as twelve stars (Joseph himself being the twelfth). This is worth highlighting because the idea of “twelve stars” calls to mind the twelve constellations that make up the Zodiac, which suggests that the twelve tribes of Israel, which are named after the twelve sons of Jacob, are each associated with one of the Zodiac signs. Indeed, I posit that this connection is further supported by Scripture’s detailed descriptions of the twelve tribes.

Joseph’s Dream. Illustrators of the 1890 Holman Bible.

In order to see this, let’s start by looking at how the tribes of Israel camped around the tabernacle in Numbers 2:1-31. The text highlights four tribes that were positioned directly east, south, west, and north of the tabernacle, those being Judah, Reuben, Ephraim, and Dan respectively. This is important because the biblical symbols associated with each of these four tribes correspond, in order, to the four faces of the cherub from Ezekiel’s heavenly vision (Ezek 1:4-10), which themselves seem to be based on the four “fixed signs” of the Zodiac: Leo, Taurus, Aquarius, and Scorpio.

In Ezekiel 1:10, we see that the right side of the cherub is Leo, having the face of a lion. This corresponds to tribe of Judah, famously symbolized by a lion (Gen 49:9), which was on the east (right) side of the tabernacle.

The left side of the cherub is Taurus, having the face of an ox or bull. This corresponds to the tribe of Ephraim, whom Moses describes as “the firstborn bull” of Israel (Deut 33:17), which was on the west (left) side of the tabernacle.

The bottom or south side of the cherub is Aquarius, which we know because Ezekiel’s chariot comes “out of the north” (Ezek 1:4) and the first thing he sees is the face of a man. This corresponds to the tribe of Reuben, the tribe “unstable as water” (Gen 49:4), and associated with the mandrake root, a plant that resembles a man (Gen 30:14), which camped on the south (bottom) side of the tabernacle.

Finally, the top or north side of the cherub is Aquila, a paranatellon to Scorpio (they rise at the same time), which has the face of an eagle. This corresponds to the tribe of Dan, famously associated with the serpent (Gen 49:17), which camped on the north (top) side of the tabernacle. Dan is the serpent “that bites the horse’s heels” (Gen 49:17), which is a probable allusion to the fact that the next Zodiac sign after Scorpio is Sagittarius, which is often depicted as a horse-man.

The Encampment of the Tribes of Israel, and A Tetramorph Cherub.

Thus, we can gather the following associations:

• Judah — Leo

• Ephraim —Taurus

• Reuben — Aquarius

• Dan — Scorpio (or Aquila)

With this foundation, we can attempt to work out the Zodiac signs of the rest of Israel’s tribes as well. Recall the order of the Zodiac: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. Now consider the order of the tribes’ encampment in Numbers 2:1-31: Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Reuben, Simeon, Gad, Ephraim, Mannaseh, Benjamin, Dan, Asher, Naphtali. If we picture the tribes not as a straight line, but rather as they actually were, namely, forming a square around the tabernacle, with the four fixed signs in each of the cardinal directions, then there are only two ways we can fill in the gaps.

Going forward:

• Judah — Leo

• Issachar — Virgo

• Zebulun — Libra

• Reuben — Aquarius

• Simeon — Pisces

• Gad — Aries

• Ephraim — Taurus

• Manasseh — Gemini

• Benjamin — Cancer

• Dan — Scorpio

• Asher — Sagittarius

• Naphtali — Capricorn

Going backward:

• Judah — Leo

• Issachar — Cancer

• Zebulun — Gemini

• Reuben — Aquarius

• Simeon — Capricorn

• Gad — Sagittarius

• Ephraim — Taurus

• Manasseh — Aries

• Benjamin — Pisces

• Dan — Scorpio

• Asher — Libra

• Naphtali — Virgo

Personally, I prefer the forward ordering because I think Deuteronomy 33:17 portrays Ephraim and Manasseh as the twins, but there’s certainly room for debate about which tribes correspond to which signs, outside of the four determined above. However, regardless of which ordering one chooses, the careful reader might notice that the signs of the Zodiac aren’t in the correct sequence, rather they’re broken up. The reason for this is rather straightforward. As explained above, the encampment of Israel is patterned after the four faces of the cherub from the prophet Ezekiel’s vision, which are in four specific cardinal directions, and they simply cannot follow both those specific directions and the correct order of the Zodiac.

The Zodiac in St. John’s Revelation

However, is there a deeper theological reason behind this as well? I think so. My speculation is that the discontinuity between the sequence of Israel’s tribes and the sequence of the Zodiac represents the fact that, under the old covenant, heaven and earth were “disjointed” from one another. On earth, before Christ, the starry heavens moved in such a way that they were “out of sync” with the order of God’s throne room, the heaven of heavens, and it wasn’t until the coming of Christ that the order in heaven matched the order on earth. This point is strengthened by the fact that if you draw lines between the four head tribes of the encampment in the correct order of the Zodiac, it forms a Cross, perhaps foreshadowing what was to come.

Medieval depiction of the Zodiac.

Recall the cherub’s faces in Ezekiel 1, and consider their order if we work around clockwise starting at the top: eagle (top), lion (right), man (bottom), ox (left). The reason this throws off the order of the Zodiac is because the man and the ox are out of place. It ends up as Scorpio, Leo, Aquarius, Taurus, instead of (the correct) Scorpio, Leo, Taurus, Aquarius (it’s also out of order in Ezekiel 10:14). With this in mind, consider the order of the cherub’s faces in the heavenly vision of St. John in Revelation:

And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight.

Revelation 4:6-7

Unlike Ezekiel’s vision, John doesn’t give us any broken up directional indicators, which suggests that he’s listing the faces of the cherub in a clockwise direction (or counterclockwise, but it works out the same). If this is the case, then they perfectly match the sequence of the Zodiac, though going backward: lion (Leo), ox (Taurus), man (Aquarius), eagle (Scorpio). In the context of Revelation, St. John is seeing this right before our Lord Jesus is about to ascend into heaven, and so perhaps the cherub’s faces correctly matching the sequence of the Zodiac demonstrates that, because of the work of Christ, heaven and earth are no longer going to be disjointed, but rather come together in perfect harmony. Indeed, the central thesis of Revelation is that those on earth are no longer cut off from the heavenly throne room.¹

Maybe the reader buys that, maybe he doesn’t, but consider the fact that this isn’t all Revelation has to say about the Zodiac:

And a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.

Revelation 12:1

This imagery is taken from Joseph’s dream about Israel and his sons:

Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.

Genesis 37:9

In context, the woman of St. John’s vision is the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of Him who “rules the nations” (Rev 12:5), however, she’s also the personal embodiment of the Church, the new Israel, the heavenly Jerusalem. We know this because the “twelve stars” that make up our Lady’s crown represent the twelve sons or tribes of Israel from Joseph’s dream.² And remember, the twelve tribes are symbolized by twelve stars because they represent the twelve signs of the Zodiac (as explained above). It comes as no surprise, then, that when we’re shown the new Jerusalem later in Revelation, she too is adorned with twelve shining jewels that not only represent the twelve tribes of Israel, but also the twelve apostles:

And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed—on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb… The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst.

Revelation 21:10-14, 19-20

On the gates of the new Jerusalem, the names of the twelve tribes of Israel are written, and on the city’s foundation gemstones, the names of the twelve apostles are written. The heavenly Jerusalem, Daughter Zion, is adorned with twelve jewels to match the heavenly woman, our Immaculate Mother, who’s adorned with twelve stars. This means that the twelve gemstones correspond to stars or constellations.³ The dots are fairly easy to connect from here. In what “system” are there twelve stars or constellations that have twelve corresponding gemstones? The Zodiac.

Indeed, as Peter Leithart documents, the order of the jewels given by St. John is the exact reverse order of the gemstones of the Zodiac that we find in certain Egyptian and Arabian monuments.⁴ This seems to complement Revelation 4:6-7 having the Zodiac signs of the cherubim going in reverse. Moreover, it’s worth pointing out that the new Jerusalem’s twelve jewels are patterned after the twelve jewels that were on the breastplate of the High Priest (Ex 28:15-21), and both Philo of Alexandria⁵ and Josephus⁶ believed that these jewels corresponded to the signs of the Zodiac.

Twelve Gem Stones on the High Priest’s Breastplate (and in the New Jerusalem), and Twelve Stars in the Virgin Mary’s Crown.

With this in mind, perhaps the vision of the heavenly city is telling us that the marital union of heaven and earth inverts the ancient order of the heavens, fulfilling the word of the Lord that “the last shall be first, and the first shall be last” (Matt 20:16). This could shed new light on why we’re told that the heavenly bodies will no longer be needed in the wake of heaven and earth’s marriage, because their light will be replaced by that of the Lamb’s (Rev 21:23). Indeed, Revelation 20-21 is itself the unfolding of the prophecy of Daniel 12, wherein we learn that the Saints will “shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever” (Dan 12:3), fulfilling the promise made to Abraham that his descendants will be “as the stars of heaven” (Gen 15:5). Through our Lord Jesus Christ, heaven has come down to earth, and earth has come up to heaven, thereby flipping the creation upside down, and this is symbolized by the order of the Zodiac being flipped upside down as well.

Twelve Zodiac Signs, Twelve Apostles

As hinted at above, the book of Revelation implies that the twelve tribes of Israel are replaced by the twelve apostles under the new covenant. This suggests that, through the Zodiac jewels of Revelation 21:19-20, we can associate each tribe of Israel with an apostle, and then each apostle with a sign of the Zodiac.

Of course, the most difficult part of this task is establishing an exact order of both the twelve apostles and the twelve tribes, since they each show up in various different orders throughout Scripture. This is what makes this task perhaps my most speculative exercise of “biblical astrology,” however, I still believe it’s possible to get somewhere. If we bring Matthew 10:1-4, Mark 3:13-19, and Luke 6:12-16 together, we have at least four apostles who show up in a consistent order: Peter is first, Philip is fifth, James son of Alphaeus is ninth, and Judas is twelfth. Likewise, recall that the jewels of the heavenly city are patterned after the breastplate of the High Priest on which the names of the twelve sons of Israel were written. Considering that the twelve sons were listed in order of their birth (Ex 28:10), and bearing in mind that Joseph replaced Reuben as the firstborn heir of Jacob (1 Chr 5:1-2), we can make the following associations based on Leithart’s Zodiac sign-stone chart:

• Peter — Joseph — Jasper — Pisces

• Philip — Naphtali — Sardonyx — Scorpio

• James — Issachar — Topaz — Cancer

• Judas — Benjamin — Amethyst — Aries

I’ll admit, I’m not sure what role Philip and James play in this symbolic picture. However, I’m fairly confident in what’s being said about Peter and Judas. With respect to the latter, Judas is associated with Benjamin the “ravenous wolf” (Gen 49:27) because of his infamous betrayal of our Lord. Indeed, Jesus undoubtedly had Judas in mind when warning of “false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves” (Matt 7:15). It’s also worth noting that, although Matthias directly replaces Judas in Acts 1:23-26, the Apostle Paul can also be seen as a kind of “replacement” for Judas since he’s traditionally counted among the twelve apostles. It’s therefore significant that St. Paul is from the tribe of Benjamin (Phil 3:5), perhaps fulfilling the more positive blessing that was spoken over this tribe by Moses, “Of Benjamin he said: ‘The beloved of the Lord will live safely by him; he protects him all the time, and the Lord places him on his chest’” (Deut 33:12).⁷

How Judas is connected to the Zodiac sign Aries remains speculative. Aries is governed by Mars, a planet associated with war and aggression, and so maybe Judas’ procuring of “a band of soldiers and some officers” to arrest Jesus reflects this (Jn 18:3). Likewise, if St. Paul replaces Judas, then the traditional depiction of him with a sword could explain the connection to Aries. Saul warred against the Church with the sword, but then Paul became one of her most glorious martyrs through that same sword. Of course, perhaps the reader disagrees with my specific apostle-sign connections, and so I invite others to try and perfect my research on this matter.

Icon of the Twelve Apostles Upholding the Church.

With respect to the former apostle, Peter is the first “foundation stone” of the new Jerusalem’s walls, associated with the patriarch Joseph, and the precious stone of jasper, which is the stone whose color pervades the heavenly city (Rev 21:11). This corresponds to Jesus establishing Peter as the “rock” and chief “shepherd” of the Church (Matt 16:18-19; Jn 21:16), which are two images that show up in Jacob’s blessing over Joseph in Genesis 49:24, “his strong arms stayed limber, because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel.” Indeed, as I’ve shown before,⁸ Joseph is the climactic figure of Genesis because he reverses Adam’s sin, being fully clothed (Gen 37:3) and properly discerning good from evil (Gen 50:20), and thereby prefigures our Lord Jesus.⁹ Peter corresponding to Joseph makes sense since the New Testament portrays him as “Jesus’ successor,” tasked with feeding the nations with the Eucharistic bread of heaven in the stead of Christ.¹⁰

Moreover, the connection between St. Peter and the Zodiac sign Pisces is interesting. Pisces is traditionally symbolized by the fish, and as Joe Heschmeyer observes in his book, Pope Peter, every fish miracle in the New Testament has a special relationship to the Apostle Peter. In the miraculous fish catch of Luke 5:1–11, for instance, although all of the apostles present listen to Jesus, our Lord speaks to Simon Peter alone, and calls him, in the singular, to be a “fisher of men.” Similarly, in Matthew 17:24–27 a coin miraculously appears in a fish’s mouth, and this miracle is performed only for Peter. And of course, in John 21:1–14, Peter alone acts on behalf of the other apostles to bring their final miraculous fish catch ashore. Peter being symbolized by the zodiacal fish is thus quite natural. Pisces also seems to be associated with both spiritual faith and doubt, which is highlighted well by Peter’s threefold denial of Christ in John 18, and then his threefold restoration to faith in John 21.

The Wise Men as Astrologers

For my final comments on astrology in the Bible, let’s circle back to the Revelation of St. John. In his book, The Star of Bethlehem: The Star That Astonished the World, Ernest Martin makes a fascinating point about Revelation 12. He first observes that this text is primarily concerned with the birth of Jesus. Indeed, we can even consider this chapter to be St. John’s “infancy narrative,” the same way that John 6 is his Last Supper narrative, John 21 is his Great Commission, and Revelation itself is his Olivet Discourse. Martin then invites us to take a closer look at the text: “A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet… Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon” (Rev 12:1, 3). The Apostle John describes “a woman” and “a dragon” he saw in “heaven” as “signs.” The Greek words that translate to “heaven” and “sign” in this text, οὐρανός and σημεῖον, are the exact words used in the Septuagint translation of Genesis 1:14, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens [ουρανού]… let them be for signs [σημεία] and for seasons.” This passage being alluded to in Revelation 12 suggests that the “woman” and “dragon” being described are constellations, “signs in the heavens.”

John Flamsteed, Hydra Crater Corvus Sextans Virgo.

Indeed, Martin is quite certain that St. John is describing the constellation Virgo, since this is the only constellation of a “woman” that the “sun” and “moon” directly pass through. Further supporting this is the fact that the constellation Hydra is next to Virgo, which is perhaps the heavenly “sign” of the “dragon.” Now, Martin tries to use this information to calculate the exact birth date of our Lord, and I think that’s a bit of a stretch. Something he fails to appreciate is that Revelation 12 is an entire infancy narrative, encompassing not just the birth of Jesus (Rev 12:5), but also Herod’s attempt to kill Him, and His subsequent flight into Egypt,¹¹ all of which possibly occurred over the course of several years. As such, trying to pinpoint one single event that these constellations refer to seems to be doing too much with too little. Nonetheless, there is certainly some connection between these constellations and the events surrounding the birth of Christ, since the text does use astrological signs to draw our attention to the Nativity: “And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it” (Rev 12:4).

That there was significant astronomical activity happening around the time of Jesus’ birth shouldn’t be surprising to readers of the New Testament. In the Gospel of Matthew, it’s famously recounted that “wise men from the east” used a “star” to determine both the timing and location of Jesus’ birth (Matt 2:1-12). These men were almost certainly court astrologers who used the Zodiac to predict the coming of the Jewish Messiah. Indeed, Martin points out that since the prophet Daniel had predicted that the Messiah would come about 490 years after the end of the Babylonian exile (Dan 9:21-26),¹² many Jews,¹³ and even some Gentiles,¹⁴ were expecting the Messiah to arrive around the first century AD, and the Magi were certainly among those with this expectation. Martin also draws attention to the fact that the prophet Daniel himself was the chief astrologer in Babylon centuries prior (Dan 5:11), making it possible that the Magi were likewise Babylonian astrologers.

The three wise men following the star of Bethlehem.

Although we don’t know exactly how long after Jesus’ birth the Magi saw “the star” come “to rest over the place where the child was” (Matt 1:9), it couldn’t have been more than two years. This is because, using their astrological expertise, the wise men inadvertently gave King Herod an estimate of how old Jesus was when they set out on their journey. This is how Herod knew to kill “all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under” (Matt 2:16). If Martin is correct that Revelation 12 describes heavenly signs that were concurrent with the events of Jesus’ birth, it’s possible that the constellations Virgo and Hydra played a role in the Magi’s astrological calculations. Sometime within two years of Jesus being born, there likely were interesting things happening in these constellations, and perhaps others (Martin suggests that the constellation Leo, which would have been associated with royalty in the ancient Jewish mind, factored into this as well), that caught the eye of astrologers who had messianic expectations.

Conclusion

From everything that’s been said above, hopefully the reader can see that Sacred Scripture has more to say about the signs of the Zodiac than just, “don’t use them for idolatrous purposes,” although that remains an important truth that must be emphasized. We ought to remember that God is the author of the Zodiac, and He has woven their symbolic meaning into the fabric of His Word and His creation. Indeed, since “all Scripture is profitable for doctrine” (2 Tim 3:16), we shouldn’t treat this symbolism as an otherwise meaningless “Easter egg” that God put in His Word only to intellectually stimulate those interested in finding such things. Rather, we should take seriously the idea that the Zodiac in Scripture is telling us something theologically important, which is what I’ve attempted to faithfully do throughout this article.

While the Catholic Church absolutely condemns “astrology” when it’s used as a “horoscope” to try and gain “power over time, history, and… other human beings,”¹⁵ this condemnation must not be understood as a rejection of any and all forms of zodiacal interpretation. St. Albert the Great likely wrote an entire work defending the Christian use of astrology, Speculum Astronomiae. St. Albert’s greatest student, St. Thomas Aquinas, likewise dedicated four articles of the Summa Theologiae to how astrology can be understood through a Christian lens.¹⁶ Personally, I would advise my readers not to get too sucked into astrological thinking unless they have an incredibly solid spiritual life. And of course, I would fully reiterate that divine law forbids us from using astrology to determine our “fate” in life or the lives of others, and so we should avoid consulting horoscopes or secular astrologers who claim to provide such information. However, for those who are wise and discerning, the Psalmist assures us:

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.

In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

Psalm 19:1-6

1. See Seraphim Hamilton, “A Biblical Theology of the Invocation of Saints.”

2. Also consider the fact that St. Paul refers to “the Jerusalem from above” as “our mother” in Galatians 4:26, just as St. John identifies Mary as our Mother in John 19:25-29 and Revelation 12:17.

3. Scripture also connects stars and jewels in Genesis 1-2, see Seraphim Hamilton, “An Analysis of the Creation Week in Genesis 2.”

4. See Leithart’s commentary on Revelation 12-22, p. 374. Accessible here.

5. Philo, Life of Moses, 2.24.

6. Josephus, Antiquities, 7.7.

7. This is lent further credibility when we consider St. Paul’s Jewish name, Saul. The wicked King Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin as well (1 Sam 9:21). While King Saul started off as “the beloved of the Lord” but became “the ravenous wolf,” the new Benjaminite named Saul started off as “the ravenous wolf” but became “the beloved of the Lord.”

8. See my article, “The Centrality of Joseph in Genesis.”

9. For more, see my article, “Joseph’s Resurrection,” and Seraphim Hamilton’s article, “Joseph’s Harvest in the Messianic Vision of Genesis.”

10. See my article, “What Eastern Orthodox Apologists Miss About the Papacy,” VI. The Eucharistic Meaning of St. Peter’s Primacy.

11. As Seraphim Hamilton comments on Revelation 12, “St. John has collapsed Christ’s whole life into these few verses here, but we can specifically locate a reference to Herod’s attack on the children. The Dragon waits to devour the Seed, but the Woman is saved by fleeing into the Wilderness of Egypt.” (Seraphim Hamilton, “Revelation 12”).

12. See my article, “Why was it Gabriel at the Annunciation?.”

13. “But now what did the most elevate [the Jews] in undertaking this war, was an ambiguous oracle, that was also found in their sacred writings; how ‘About that time one, from their country, should become governor of the habitable earth.’” (Josephus, War VI.313).

14. “A firm persuasion had long prevailed through all the East, that it was fated for the empire of the world, at that time, to devolve on some one who should go forth from Judaea. This prediction referred to a Roman emperor, as the event shewed; but the Jews, applying it to themselves, broke out into rebellion.” (Suetonius, Vespasian, 4).

15. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2116.

16. See FishEaters, “St. Thomas Aquinas on Astrology.”