Bible Lexicons

In P Hib I. 27.41 ff. (a calendar, B.C. 301–240) χρῶντ [αι ] ταῖς κατὰ σελήνη [ν ] ἡμέραις οἱ ἀστρολό [γοι ] καὶ οἱ ἱερογραμματε [ῖς ] πρὸς τὰς δόσεις καὶ ἀ ̣[να ]τολὰς τῶν ἄστρω [ν ], ";the astronomers and sacred scribes use the lunar days for the settings and risings of the stars"; (Edd.) : cf. .50 f., οὐθὲν πα [ραλ ]λάσσοντες ἐπ᾽ ἄστρω [ι ] ἢ δύνοντι ἢ ἀνατ [έλ ]λοντι , ";without alterations owing to the setting or rising of a star"; (ib.). From the Hadrumetum tablet (Wünsch AF, no. 5.23), on which Deissmann has written in BS, pp. 271 ff., we may quote ὁρκίζω σε τὸν φωστῆρα καὶ ἄστρα ἐν οὐρανῷ ποιήσαντα διὰ φωνῆς προστάγματος . Deissmann compared Genesis 1:16 f.; since there we have ἀστέρας , the substitution of ἄστρα suggests the suspicion that the simpler 2nd decl. noun was beginning to be preferred in the vernacular. (Both, however, figure in MGr, and ἀστήρ is more often found in NT.) Add P Grenf. I. 1.6 (literary—ii/B.C.), ἄστρα φίλα καὶ συνερῶσα πότνια νύξ μοι , P Oxy IV. 731.6 (A.D. 8–9) καὶ τοῖς ἄστροις Ἥρας τρῖς , ";three days at the time of the stars of Hera"; (Edd., who note that the ";star of Hera"; was Venus, but the plural is unexplained), Syll 686.35 (early ii/A.D.) μέχρι νυκτός , ὡς ἄστρα καταλαβεῖν , διεκαρτέρησε , of a competitor in the pancration, OGIS 56.36 (B.C. 239–8), τὸ ἄστρον τὸ τῆς Ἴσιος , i.e. Sirius, the date of whose heliacal rising is defined in the succeeding lines. This last passage agrees with the NT in making ἄστρον a complete equivalent of ἀστήρ . It is MGr ἄστρο .