Michael V. Fox

Job the pious

Abstract The book of Job communicates its teachings on two levels: God to Job and author to reader. The present essay examines the teachings on both levels with regard to divine power, wisdom, justice, and demands. Job learns to accept his fate and humble himself before God’s mysterious will. The reader, however, learns that God cares more about human fidelity, rigorously defined, than the perfection of his own justice. This divine value-scale gives humans a role of cosmic importance and thereby imbues life, even in suffering, with meaningfulness. The book of Job is in the end not skeptical but pietistic. Das Buch Hiob kommuniziert seine Lehren auf zwei Ebenen: Gott – Hiob und Autor – Leser. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht diese Lehren auf beiden Ebenen im Hinblick auf die göttliche Macht, auf Weisheit, auf Gerechtigkeit und die jeweiligen Forderungen. Hiob lernt sein Schicksal zu akzeptieren und sich vor Gottes geheimnisvollem Willen zu demütigen. Der Leser lernt jedenfalls, dass Gott sich mehr um menschliche Treue in rigorosem Sinne kümmert als um die Durchsetzung seiner eigenen Gerechtigkeit. Diese göttliche Werte-Skala gibt den Menschen eine Rolle von kosmischer Bedeutung und erfüllt dadurch Leben – selbst im Leiden – mit Sinnhaftigkeit. Das Buch Hiob ist letztlich nicht skeptisch, sondern pietistisch. Le livre de Job transmet deux enseignements sur deux niveaux: de Dieu à Job, et de l’auteur au lecteur. La présente étude examine ces enseignements sur ces deux niveaux, en ce qui concerne le pouvoir divin, la sagesse, la justice et les suppliques. Job apprend à accepter son destin et à se plier à la volonté mystérieuse de Dieu. Le lecteur apprend en tout cas que Dieu se préoccupe davantage de fidélité humaine, au sens strict, que de la perfection de sa propre justice. Cette échelle des valeurs divine accorde aux hommes un rôle de dimension cosmique et remplit ainsi la vie de sens, même dans la douleur. Le livre de Job n’est finalement pas sceptique, mais piétiste.

WISDOM IN THE JOSEPH STORY

G. von Rads thesis that the Joseph story is a didactic text intended to exemplify and inculcate the ideals of Wisdom literature requires a fresh assessment, one that proceeds from a more nuanced understanding of the meaning of wisdom and revelation in the texts being compared. The Joseph story is found to reflect significantly diverent attitudes and assumptions from those characteristic of didactic wisdom. The concept of wisdom in the Joseph story is ayliated with the pietistic and inspired wisdom of Daniel rather than with the ethical and practical wisdom of Wisdom literature.

The Identification of Quotations in Biblical Literature

Quotations are frequent in literature of all times and genres. Usually they are unmistakably marked and their function is clear. In ancient literature, however, they often lack explicit identifying marks, so that the reader must recognize them by other means. Identifying certain words äs a quotation may have considerable significance for the understanding of a passage; it may at times even reverse our understanding of the authors intention. I would like to approach the problem of the nature and identification of quotations by means of a critique of two pioneering siJLidies of this question, both by R. Gordis: Quotations in Wisdom Literature, JQR30 (1939/40), 123-147 (= QWL). Quotations äs a Literary Usage in Biblical, Oriental and Rabbinic Literature, HUCA22 (1949), 157-219 (= QOL).

Ethics and Wisdom in the Book of Proverbs

Socratic ethics is a useful heuristic model for understanding the ethical presuppositions behind the variegated advice and observations in the book of Proverbs. The ethics of both rest on three principles: (1) virtue is knowledge; (2) no one does wrong willingly; and (3) all virtues are one. Socrates states these principles; Proverbs assumes them. Underlying these principles is the primary axiom of sapiential ethics, namely that the exercise of the human mind is the necessary and sufficient condition of right and successful behavior.

Aging and Death in Qohelet 12

Qoh. 12.1-8 is the most difficult passage in a difficult book. Continuing the carpe diem theme begun in 11.7,1 Qohelet urges the reader to enjoy life before it is too late. The nature of 12.2-5 in particular has been debated at length. These verses have almost always been read as an allegory representing the physical deterioration of aging, an interpretation in part valid but in general inadequate. Even if this poem is an allegory entirely or in part, it communicates in other ways as well, and these have been largely ignored. This study will explore the interplay among literal, symbolic, and figurative dimensions of the poem’s meaning, seeking to bring out scenes, connotations and implications that are accessible to the reader independently of the poem’s possible allegorical significance.

From Amenemope to Proverbs

Abstract: The dependence of Proverbs 22,17–23,11 on the Egyptian Instruction of Amenemope has long been recognized. The present article traces the composition- process of this unit and argues that its author-editor worked by scrolling forward and back in the source papyrus, each time picking up material of interest to him and reshaping it in accordance with his own goals. Attention to this procedure gives insight into the meaning of the Proverbs passage, its internal structure, and its message, which in the end is a religious one. Résumé: La dépendance littéraire de Prov. 22,17 – 23,11 par rapport à la Sagesse égyptienne d’Amenemopé a été reconnue de longue date. La présente étude retrace le processus de composition de cette unité, relevant notamment le fait que l’auteur-éditeur travaillait en déroulant son papyrus-source en avant et en arrière; il sélectionnait ainsi les données qui l’intéressaient et les formulait à frais nouveaux selon ses propres centres d’intérêt. Ce constat permet de mieux comprendre la signification de ce passage des Proverbes, sa structure interne et son message, qui en dernier ressort est religieux. Zusammenfassung: Dass Prov 22,17–23,11 die ägyptische Lehre des Amenemope voraussetzt, ist seit langem bekannt. Der vorliegende Beitrag verfolgt den Entstehungsprozess dieses Abschnittes und plädiert dafür, dass der Autor-Redaktor seinen Quellen-Papyrus vor- und zurückrollte und jedes Mal das ihn interessierende Material herauszog und in Übereinstimmung mit seinen eigenen Zielen neu formulierte. Die Beachtung dieses Vorgangs gibt einen Einblick in die Bedeutung des Abschnittes in Proverbien, seine innere Struktur und seine Botschaft, die letztlich eine religiöse ist.

Qohelet 1.4

G.S. Ogden recently offered a new interpretation of Qoh. 1.4 (7SOT 34 [1986], pp. 91f.). He objects (rightly, I believe) to the usual understanding of this verse, according to which the transience of humanity is highlighted by contrast with the permanence of the earth. Noting that 1.5-7 illustrates the themes of cyclical movement and permanence, he suggests that in means cycle, in accordance with the presumed ’original meaning’ of the root, and that the word refers to the cyclical movements of nature as described in 1.5-8. Ogden’s interpretation, however, suffers from two weaknesses: m, whatever its etymology, never means ’cycle’ in Hebrew (or in any other Northwest Semitic language); and it is not ’cycles’ that ’go and come’, but rather things within cycles. The key to understanding this verse is recognizing that J’&dquo;1~M here does not mean the physical earth, but humanity as a whole-‘le monde’ rather than ’la terre’ (cf. Gen. 6.11;11.1;1 1 Kgs 2.2; Ps. 33.8; etc.). There is no other way in biblical Hebrew to express the concept of humanity as a unit; DIM ~» signifies people as individuals.

A Major Contribution to Song of Songs Scholarship@@@The Song of Songs and the Ancient Egyptian Love Songs

This article welcomes M. Foxs, The Song of Songs and the Ancient Egyptian Love Songs; but it also critically reviews his initial assumptions regarding the relationship between Hebrew and Egyptian love poetry. It then proceeds to suggest alternate ways of understanding a number of cruxes in canticles. THIS VERY WELCOME ADDITION to the studies of the Song of Songs features a bonus that should attract Egyptologists as well as specialists in Near Eastern and comparative literature: an elaborate analysis of the Egyptian love lyrics, available to us mostly from the Empire period. The book divides into two major segments, the first of which philologically treats the four disparate collections of love songs from Egypt, then lightly annotates the Hebrew Song. The second segment itself divides into six chapters which discuss a date for the documents, interpret their contexts, ana

Two Decades of Research in Egyptian Wisdom Literature

painted by the same hand, that explanation of consistent style and vocabulary of artistic conventions will not suffice in view of this long continuity. In general, the style is defined by emphasis on dependent cross-hatched triangles, lattices and net patterns of all kinds, whether representational or not, posturing figures, frequent appearance of totemistic animals, and a dynamic approach to all elements within the compositions. In contrast to the essentially peaceful, pastoral mood of designs on C ware from Naqada, the pottery from the Abydos region suggests a magical or magicalreligious bias which may adumbrate the function of Abydos itself. It is possible that some historical clues are to be found in the painted wares. Was Abydos already acultic center of sorts in predynastic times?