Biblical Hebrew Forum

[<david.kimbrough AT charter.net>]

QUESTION: Is there any evidence that Job were influenced by a pre-existing 
Sumerian or Babylonian Job-like poems?

ANSWER: Yes, there is some.  

AMPLIFICATION: Job is quite different from the rest of the OT.  God is only 
referred to as Yahweh occasionally, only in the prose portions of Job.  In 
the poetic portions he is never addressed as Yahweh or Elohim, the most 
common names in the OT.  He is, rather, mostly referred to as either El or 
Shaddai (but not El Shaddai) and occasional other names.  As was pointed out 
by George I believe, Job is not obviously an Israelite or a Yahwahist (e.g. 
there is no discussion of covenants, the patriarchs, Moses, the Law, 
liberation from slavery in Egypt, crossing Yam Suf).

Those Judeans who were in exile in Babylon certainly could have been exposed 
to the pre-existing Babylonian / Sumerian Job-like poems.  

I pointed out earlier that the similarities between Job and the Babylon 
Righteous Sufferer are not casual but they are also not identical.  They are 
both told from the first person, view the gods/God as the source of his 
suffering, are at loss to understand why they are suffering, and despair of 
ever knowing the truth.  One Babylonian poem has a happy ending, like the 
prose ending of Job.  

There are differences as well as similarities. The Righteous Sufferer takes 
the form of a monologue while Job is a series of dialogs.  The Babylonian and 
Sumerian poems are rather short (at least the surviving ones are) while Job 
is quite long.  Although Job is not obviously a Yahwahist, he is clearly 
thinking of a monotheistic god, if not God.

There is evidence for influence.  Is it *conclusive*?  No, whatever 
conclusive might here, but there is evidence.  So this is not mere 
speculation.

> 
> From: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
> Date: 2004/06/11 Fri AM 11:27:10 GMT
> To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
> Subject: [b-hebrew] Re: Job & Sumer
> 
> Dear David K.,
> 
> >I would point out that according to traditional
> >chronologies the Isrealites were in captivity in Egypt at
> >this time.  An unlikely place and population to influce
> >Sumerian poetry.
> 
> HH: Remember, I was the one who doubted that there was any 
> relationship between the two pieces of writing. I've read them both 
> and don't see that there has to be any connection at all.
> 
> >We can only go on the evidence at hand.  There is no
> >evidence of any kind for the existence of the Hebrew
> >language or Hebrew versions of Job-like poems around 1700
> >BC. If new evidence arises, it can be considered.  Without
> >evidence of some sort, it is just speculation.
> 
> HH: Well, my original point was that claiming a dependence of Job on 
> the "The Riighteous Sufferer" was speculation.
> 
>                               Yours,
>                               Harold Holmyard
> 
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David Kimbrough
San Gabriel