שערי השמש והירח בספר המאורות

This paper combines the hermeneutic, linguistic, and philological methods of the humanities with astronomy and mathematics to propose a new description of the gates of the sun and moon as described in the Astronomical Book of Enoch. It also explains the function of the gates in light of Mesopotamian science and shows that the gates of the luminaries constituted an innovative and independent scientific theory. Though based on Babylonian astronomy, the Enochic gates system is not a mere derivation of it with minor adaptations to suit the authors’ religious beliefs, as is commonly argued. Rather, they manifest independent thinking in proposing a scientific theory that generalizes upon several observed natural phenomena. The gates made possible a more detailed mapping of the horizon than that of older Mesopotamian literature, assumed by previous scholars to be the source of the Enochic gates. This new mapping system allowed the authors of the Astronomical Book to describe the inclination of the sun and moon as they rose and set over the horizon observable in Eretz Israel.