Chapter 2 | Table of Contents | Chapter 4

The Witness of the Stars
E. W. Bullinger

The First Book
The Redeemer
(His First Coming)
"The sufferings of Christ"

Chapter III
The Sign Scorpio
The Redeemer's conflict

9. Scorpio (the Scorpion)

We come now right into the heart of the conflict. The star-picture brings before us a gigantic scorpion endeavouring to sting in the heel a mighty man who is struggling with a serpent, but is crushed by the man, who has his foot placed right on the scorpion's heart.

The Hebrew name is Akrab, which is the name of a scorpion, but also means the conflict, or war. It is this that is referred to in Psalm 91:13--

"Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder.
The young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet."

David uses the very word in Psalm 144:1, where he blesses God for teaching his hands to war.

The Coptic name is Isidis, which means the attack of the enemy, or oppression: referring to "the wicked that oppress me, my deadly enemies who compass me about" (Psa 17:9).

The Arabic name is Al Akrab, which means wounding him that cometh.

There are 44 stars altogether in this sign. One is of the 1st magnitude, one of the 2nd, eleven of the 3rd, eight of the 4th, etc.

The brightest star, a (in the heart), bears the ancient Arabic name of Antares, which means the wounding. It is called by the Latins Cor Scorpii, because it marks the scorpion's heart. It shines ominously with a deep red light. The sting is called in Hebrew Lesath (Chaldee, Lesha), which means the perverse. The stars in the tail are also known as Leshaa, or Leshat. (Antares seems also to have been known as Lesath).

The scorpion is a deadly enemy (as we learn from Revelation 9), with poison in its sting, and all the names associated with the sign combine to set forth the malignant enmity which is "set" between the serpent and the woman's Seed.

That enmity is shown more fully in the written Word, where we see the attempt of the enemy (in Exodus 1) to destroy every male of the seed of Abraham, and how it was defeated.

We see his effort repeated when he used Athaliah to destroy "all the seed royal" (2 Kings 11), and how "the king's son" was rescued "from among" the slain.

We see his hand again instigating Haman, "the Jews' enemy," to compass the destruction of the whole nation, but defeated in his designs.

When the woman's Seed, the virgin's Son, was born, we are shown the same great enemy inciting Herod to slay all the babes in Bethlehem (Matt 2), but again he is defeated.

In the wilderness of Judea, and in the Garden of Gethsemane the great conflict is renewed. "This is your hour and the power of darkness," He said to His enemies.

The real wounding in the heel was received at the Cross. It was there the scorpion struck the woman's seed. He died, but was raised again from the dead "to destroy the works of the devil."

To show us this; to prevent any mistake; to set forth the fact that this conflict only apparently ended in defeat, and that it did not really so end, we have the first two constellations belonging to this sign presented in one picture! Indeed, the picture is threefold, for it includes the sign itself!

If these pictures had been separated, then the conflict would have been separated from the victory; the deadly wound of the serpent's head from the temporary wound in the Victor's heel. Hence, three pictures are required, in which the scorpion, the serpent, and the man, are all involved, in order to present at the same time the triumphant issue of the conflict.

Hence, we must present, and consider together, the first two sections of this mysterious chapter.

10. Serpens (the Serpent)
Ophiuchus (the Serpent Holder)

Here, Serpens, the serpent, is seen struggling vainly in the powerful grasp of the man who is named O-phi-u-chus. In Latin he is called Serpentarius. He is at one and the same moment shown to be seizing the serpent with his two hands, and treading on the very heart of the scorpion, marked by the deep red star Antares (wounding).

Just as we read the first constellation of the woman and child Coma, as expounding the first sign VIRGO, so we have to read this first constellation as expounding the second sign LIBRA. Hence, we have here a further picture, showing the object of this conflict on the part of the scorpion.

In Scorpio we see merely the effort to wound Ophiuchus in the heel; but here we see the effort of the serpent to seize THE CROWN, which is situated immediately over the serpent's head, and to which he is looking up and reaching forth.

The contest is for Dominion! It was the Devil, in the form of a serpent, that robbed the first man of his crown; but in vain he struggled to wrest it from the sure possession of the Second Man. Not only does he fail in the attempt, but is himself utterly defeated and trodden under foot.

There are no less than 134 stars in these two constellations. Two are of the 2nd magnitude, fourteen of the 3rd, thirteen of the 4th, etc.

The brightest star in the Serpent, a (in the neck), is named Unuk, which means encompassing. another Hebrew name is Alyah, the accursed. From this is Al Hay (Arabic), the reptile. The next brightest star is b (in the jaw), named, in Arabic, Cheleb, or Chelbalrai, the serpent enfolding. The Greek name, Ophiuchus, is itself from the Hebrew and Arabic name Afeichus, which means the serpent held. The brightest star in Ophiuchus, a (in the head), is called Ras al Hagus (Arabic), the head of him who holds.

Other Hebrew names of stars, not identified, are Triophas, treading under foot; Saiph (in the foot * of Ophiuchus), bruised; Carnebus, the wounding; Megeros, contending. ** In the Zodiac of Denderah we have a throned human figure, called Api-bau, the chief who cometh. He has a hawk's head to show that he is the enemy of the serpent, which is called Khu, and means ruled or enemy.

* In 1604 a new star appeared in the eastern foot of Ophiuchus, but disappeared again in 1605.

** There is an ancient Greek fable which calls Ophiuchus Aesculapius, the son of Apollo. Having restored Hippolytus to life, he was everywhere worshipped as the god of health, and hence the serpent entwined around him is, to this day, the symbol of the medical art! This, however, is, doubtless, another perversion of the primitive truth that the Coming One in overcoming the serpent, should become the great healer of all the sorrows of the world, and cause all its groanings to cease.