The Zodiac and The Apostles

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One of my friends recently shared a video on Facebook which is an excerpt from the notorious movie Zeitgeist. The narrator in the opening frames rather nicely summarizes its main argument:

“Now, probably the most obvious of all the astrological symbolism around Jesus regards the 12 disciples. They are simply the 12 constellations of the Zodiac, which Jesus, being the Sun, travels about with. In fact, the number 12 is replete throughout the Bible:

12 Tribes of Israel
12 Brothers of Joseph
12 Judges of Israel
12 Great Patriarchs
12 Old Testament Prophets
12 Princes of Israel
Jesus in Temple at 12

This text (the Bible) has more to do with astrology than anything else”

Like most things in the Zeitgeist movie, the claims can initially appear convincing until you do a little bit of thinking and a smidgen of research.

Factual Mistakes

As usual, Zeitgeist contains more than a few inaccuracies:

Factual Mistake #1: Joseph had eleven brothers, not twelve. That entry should really read “12 Sons of Jacob”.

Factual Mistake #2: There were not 12 kings of Israel.

Factual Mistake #3: There were far more than twelve Old Testament prophets. If I had to guess, I’d say that the author of the movie is assuming that there were twelve because there is a collection of twelve books in the Bible of the minor prophets. The trouble with this is that it excludes the major ones (Isaiah, Jeremiah, …) as well as the others which are mentioned but who go unnamed.

This does’t exactly fill one with confidence in their scholarly ability.

The Chain of Twelves

The first important factor to note is that the twelves which appear in the Bible can be traced back to one important twelve. The Patriarch Jacob (who is later renamed “Israel”) has twelve sons. These sons produce families, giving rise to twelve tribes, which make up the nation of Israel. Virtually all of the other instances of twelves flow from this.

For example, twelve princes are assembled to administer the affairs, one per tribe. Moses sends twelve spies into Canaan, one representative from each tribe. It is because there were twelve tribes that Jesus chose twelve Apostles to mystically represent Israel.

Jacob arrived first

There is, however, one other very important fact which undermines this entire argument. The birth of Jacob’s twelve sons predate the establishment of the twelve-sign zodiac in c. 500 BC! Since the real Biblical significance of the number twelve can be logically traced back to Jacob, it makes no sense to argue that the Bible stole from an astrological system which hadn’t yet come into existence!

5 comments

  • …you do know that Babylonians, Egyptians, Sumerians, Assyrians, and more ancient peoples had their own astrologies thousands of years before Christ, right? The ‘wise men’ were likely Chaldean astrologers who were uncannily notorious for their predictions and warnings coming true. Astrology was very real and present during before, during, and after Jesus’ existence on earth.
    Oh yeah, and Lucifer? He isn’t mentioned in Genesis. At all. It’s Latin for ‘bringer of light’ and could very likely refer to Venus, which is visible in the east before daybreak.
    If you want to have an endless loop of positive reinforcement that”astrology copied Jesus, BAM!”…you should probably not venture online lest you lose any respectable reputation you may find outside of your religious bubble. I found several very interesting articles detailing the accomplishments mankind reached throughout the ages–Jesus was the beginning of the age of Pisces, and we will be entering the age of Aquarius in the next century or so. You should Google it, I think you’d find it interesting.

    • Hey Ophiuchus, welcome to Restless Pilgrim!

      …you do know that Babylonians, Egyptians, Sumerians, Assyrians, and more ancient peoples had their own astrologies thousands of years before Christ, right?

      Of course, but it’s not the Zodiac mentioned by Zeitgeist.

      The ‘wise men’ were likely Chaldean astrologers who were uncannily notorious for their predictions and warnings coming true.

      Can you give some examples of these predictions and your primary sources?

      Astrology was very real and present during before, during, and after Jesus’ existence on earth.

      That is not in question.

      Oh yeah, and Lucifer? He isn’t mentioned in Genesis. At all. It’s Latin for ‘bringer of light’ and could very likely refer to Venus, which is visible in the east before daybreak.

      Lucifer isn’t mentioned in this article, so why are you bringing it up?

      If you want to have an endless loop of positive reinforcement that”astrology copied Jesus, BAM!”

      I didn’t make that claim anywhere in this article.

  • So in your view the world should be in the hands of the Zionists the only Chosen people of God, and the Gentiles should submit to the Rothschilds or die?

    Instead of seeing the actual truth that the 12 tribes are the twelve celestial tribes of God the Zodiac and that everyone is invited?

    Seems like we don’t have the same understanding of God, yours is the Zionist interpretation and mine is the Universal God that loves and understands all signs, everyone.

    • So in your view the world should be in the hands of the Zionists the only Chosen people of God, and the Gentiles should submit to the Rothschilds or die?

      Where did I say anything close to that?

      Instead of seeing the actual truth that the 12 tribes are the twelve celestial tribes of God the Zodiac and that everyone is invited?

      It’s historical fact that the Twelve Tribes of Israel predate the twelve-symbol zodiac.

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