5 Bible Verses About Astrology

In the early church, attitudes towards astrology were much more varied than they are today. Early Gentile converts to Christianity came from astral-based pagan faith traditions, and the Jews were inundated with zodiacal symbology from the beginning; the Torah, or the Old Testament, is teeming with vivid astrological imagery. In addition, there are numerous references to religious festivals that aligned with new and full moons, and entire books, such as the Book of Daniel, detailing the experiences of prophets in astrologically literate cultures like that of the Chaldeans.

Several centuries and translations on, it is difficult for the average Christian—or astrologer—to parse the text for the threads of astrotheology that run through it, from Genesis to Revelation. It surprises many Christians to learn that many churches from the first few centuries CE are decorated with ornate zodiacal frescoes, and that the symbol of Christianity, the fish, was chosen due to its association with the sign of Pisces.

Today’s evangelical church is harshly critical of astrology for a variety of reasons: its associations with witchcraft and other forms of divination, for the most part, but also general cultural distaste towards what post-Enlightenment America has been calling pseudoscience for several hundred years.

On the other hand, early Christians possessed a serious understanding of the zodiac not only because it was prevalent in their culture at the time, but because of the philosophical and theological conundrums it forced them to reckon with. The early church, from the first century onward, attempted to rationalize the determinism of astrology with the precept of free will that had become a core pillar of the Christian faith.

Christianized Rome made several attempts to ban astrology and exile its practitioners, but it persisted, with some Christians more sympathetic to it than others. The tipping point came when St. Augustine, once an eager student of astrology, converted to Christianity. He argued heavily against astrological practice in two of his most well-known books: Confessions and The City of God.

Perhaps you were raised in the Christian tradition and are curious about what the Bible really says about astrology, or you are an astrologer curious about how this ancient practice of time-keeping intersected with, and may have influenced, the growth of a small desert mystery cult into the world’s largest religion.

Whatever your background, you are encouraged to delve deeper into the mystery of faith and to challenge your own perceptions and biases. The following is a list of some verses in the Bible that either explicitly or implicitly reference astrology, and while it is far from conclusive, it is my hope that it sheds some light on a topic that is rarely discussed in either tradition.

Genesis 1:14-15

And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.” And it was so.

In the very first chapter of Genesis the sun, moon, and constellations are mentioned, indicating just how much reverence the ancient Jews held towards the heavens. What you probably didn’t learn in Sunday school: the Hebrew word for “signs” used here is אָוָה, pronounced “avah.”

Its meaning, essentially, is “mark” or “emblem”—a tableau of profound, miraculous significance. In some translations, the signs in question are stated to designate “sacred times” or “religious festivals,” suggesting a very early correlation between planetary movement (most likely new and full moons) and specific times of importance on earth.

Psalm 19:1-4

The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.

The Psalms are inundated with references to the beauty of the stars, but this one in particular is difficult to understand unless you are willing to accept that the early Jews accepted astrology as truth.

The first two lines are regularly quoted by Christians without the context the entire passage provides, in which the heavens are assumed to do more than simply tell the glory of God and proclaim his handiwork: they speak, not through written words, but in their own kind of language, providing knowledge that is accessible to all of humanity.

Every civilization in the ancient world developed its own astrology, independently of one another, solidifying it as a kind of universal language—the one likely referred to in Genesis 11:1-9.

Isaiah 47:13-14

You are wearied with your many consultations; let those who study the heavens stand up and save you, those who gaze at the stars, and at each new moon predict what shall befall you. See, they are like stubble, the fire consumes them; they cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame.

One of the Old Testament’s clearest apparent condemnations of astrology, this verse appears as part of a larger chapter written as a warning to the people of Babylon, who were culturally immersed in many different forms of divination, including astrology, which they indisputably discovered and organized into a comprehensive system during the first dynasty between 1950 and 1651 BCE.

While Babylonians were surely engaged in a whole host of divinatory practices, in this passage astrologers are specifically referenced at length, presumably due to their perceived arrogance. It reads as a call to humility for astrologers who believe themselves more knowledgeable than God. After all, the ability to delineate meaning is not, by itself, enough to avoid natural disaster, war, plague, and other catastrophic events that the ancient people attributed to God’s vengeance.

Job 38:31-33

Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, or loose the cords of Orion? Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season, or can you guide the Bear with its children? Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you establish their rule on the earth?

For anyone remotely familiar with astrological or astronomical terminology, this verse speaks loud and clear. The entire passage is a rhetorical question posed to Job by God, seemingly reminding him to humble himself before the majesty of the heavens, as the creator alone is capable of designing them—and orchestrating its movements.

For those not in the know, this verse uses a series of references to the stars and constellations to remind Job to remain in a reverent, worshipful posture before the Lord. The Pleiades are a cluster of stars found in the constellation Taurus, while Orion is a constellation containing two of the brightest “supergiant” stars in the night sky: Rigel and Betelgeuse. The Bear in question refers to Ursa Major, the largest constellation known to astronomers.

More notably, the Mazzaroth was an early Hebrew word that most scholars translate as “zodiac.” The twelve houses, or mansions, that make up the wheel of the zodiac were well established and equally well understood by the time in Jewish history that the Book of Job was written. Modern Christians often interpret this passage not as proof of astrological truth, but simply of the decorative, awe-inspiring nature of the stars and planets. Why, then, is Job rhetorically asked if he can “establish their rule on the earth,” unless some form of astrological belief in Job’s culture was presupposed?

Luke 22:10-12

“Listen,” he said to them, “when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him into the house he enters.”

Jesus famously spoke in parables, and in the red-letter passages there appear to be layers of meaning beneath innocuous statements. This passage is one of the least understood by contemporary Christians, who often assume it is strictly literal. On the contrary, to those who are literate in ancient symbology, it quite evidently carries profound meaning. It is perhaps entirely metaphorical.

Jesus was speaking to an audience who was acquainted with the precession of the equinoxes, which occur roughly every two thousand years and usher in new epochs of religious tradition. It could be said that the way humans conceptualize God changes dramatically during each age. History certainly proves this.

The Age of Taurus coincided with bull worship amongst agrarian people and the golden calf mentioned in the Book of Exodus; the Age of Aries, with the Jewish practice of sacrificing lambs on Passover. The current age, Pisces, has been dominated by Christianity. Its origins were on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus encouraged his would-be disciples to become “fishers of men.”

Biblical historians have noted the strangeness of the imagery in this passage in Luke. The water-bearer is a man, and during Jesus’ time, the job of carrying water was associated almost exclusively with women. Thus the strangeness of the coming age is emphasized, a sharp turn of events during which the last will be first.

A time of historic revolution during which gender roles and class systems are overturned sounds remarkably familiar to the modern astrologer’s ears, as does the reference to a water-bearer: it sounds like the Age of Aquarius, due to begin in roughly 2160 CE. There is good reason to believe this might represent the true “second coming,” a time of radical inclusivity in which humanity returns to a more harmonious, communal, and generous way of living.