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  • From: <david.kimbrough AT charter.net>
  • To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Job: Who Influenced Whom?
  • Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2004 16:34:51 +0000

It is important to re-state what the debate is about.

QUESTION: Is there any evidence that the Sumerian Job-like poems of 1700 BC
were influenced by a pre-existing Hebrew poems?

ANSWER: No there is no evidence that any such Hebrew poems existed or that
any language existed at that time that might be called Hebrew.

AMPLIFICATION: It is impossible to prove a negative. It can never
demonstrated that Job was not written in 3,000 BC or 2,000 BC or 1,000 BC.
The fact that something cannot be disproven, proves nothing. I cannot
disprove the fact that there are little green men living on the far side of
the moon. That however is no argument that they actually are there.

It can be proven that Job was not written in 1,000 AD however. This is
because is evidence, in the form of the LXX and DSS, that in fact there were
written versions of Job around 100 BC, in both Greek and Hebrew

ADDITIONAL POINTS:

1) Job is said to own 3,000 camels. It is pretty well established that
camels were not domesticated too much before 1,000 BC. Job is also presented
as being a sedentary individual, not a migratory shepherd as would be more
appropriate to a Israelite of the patriarchal era.

2) Job-like poems were an entire genre in Sumer and Babylon. One of the
earlier ones (Ludlul BĂȘl Nimeqi) was written around 1700 BC. Now according
to traditional chronologies, this is the period of Egyptian captivity for the
Israelites. Now how could the Sumerians be copying Israelite poetry when
they were enslaved in Goshen and Pi-Ramesses.

3) There is a misunderstanding about the argumentum ex silentio. For
example, Paul never mentions the virgin birth of Jesus in any of his letters.
Does this prove that Paul did not know about the virgin birth? No, it does
not. This is an example of where the argument from silence is a logical
fallacy.

4) There is a however a valid use for the *argument from silence. I ask a
man *Do you know Harry S Truman middle name?*. He says *Yes*. I ask him,
*OK, what is it?*. He says *I wont? tell you.* *Well why not?* I reply. *I
won?t tell that either* he replies. Here there is valid reason to question
whether this man does know President Truman?s middle. Here an argument from
silence would be valid. (His middle name was S BTW).

5) The fact that the historical record is ?silent? as to the existence of a
Hebrew Job around does not prove that there was not one. It does prove there
is no evidence for one.


David Kimbrough
San Gabriel





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