662 JASTROW— HEPATOSCOPY AND ASTROLOGY [December 4, 



fact that the gods as represented by the planets and stars act in 

 concert. The phenomena of the heavens suggest united action in 

 place of individual caprice, and the general regularity of the move- 

 ments of heavenly bodies must soon have suggested to the priests 

 the view that divine government of the universe rests at least to a 

 large extent upon law and order. We may properly assume that this 

 aspect of astrology by which, through constant observation, the 

 permanent impression of awe and reverence for the grandeur of 

 heavenly phenomena was deepened, was an important factor in 

 maintaining the faith in the stars as manifestations of the divine 

 will and of the intentions of the gods towards mankind. The 

 Babylonian Z^flrf^-priest could reecho the sentiment of the Psalmist 

 (19, 1-2) who, carried away by the sight that greeted him in the 

 heavens, exclaimed, " The heavens declare the glory of God and 

 the firmanent sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth 

 speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge." To the bdril- 

 priest the heavens spoke by day and night, and it was his privilege 

 to interpret to others the knowledge revealed to him. 



Attention has already been directed^*' to the fact that in the case 

 of both hepatoscopy and astrology the interpretations of the omens 

 have reference exclusively to the public welfare, to the condition 

 of the crops, to pestilence, to war or victory and that the introduction 

 of the king likewise falls within this category. More than this, the 

 interpretations in both systems are substantially the same, so that a 

 dependence of one system upon the other becomes at least a probable 

 hypothesis. A detailed study of the two systems leads indeed to a 

 confirmation of this thesis and since hepatoscopy, as has been shown, 

 is an outcome of popular conceptions and exists in full force in the 

 earliest period of Babylonian history, it is reasonable to suppose that 

 it was the first to be developed and that the astrological system repre- 

 sents an adaptation of the principles underlying the interpretation of 

 signs on the liver to signs noted in the heavenly bodies. The " scien- 

 tific " view of the universe that is closely bound up in the astrological 

 system represents, as is obvious, a later stage in cultural development 

 than the " popular " conception upon which hepatoscopy rests. In 



^ Sec above, p. 649. 



