_II. The Constellations._ The principal achievement of the
science of astronomy in the centuries during which the books of
the Old Testament were written was the arrangement and naming of
the constellations, and there can be no reasonable doubt that
the same system was known to the Hebrews as that which has been
handed down to us through the Greek astronomers. Paul certainly
knew the Greek constellations, for in his sermon on Mars' Hill
(Acts 17:28) he quoted from that poetical description of them
which Aratus the great poet of Cilicia had written about 270 BC.
But these constellations have a much greater antiquity than
this, and it is probable that they were well known to Abraham
before he left Ur of the Chaldees. It has been frequently shown
(The Astronomy of the Bible, 158; Astronomy without a Telescope,
5) that these constellations themselves supply evidence that
they were designed about 2700 BC. They thus antedated the time
of Abraham by some centuries, and since some of their most
characteristic forms a