Pochodzenie biblijnego Hioba – w związku z artykułem ks. Antoniego Troniny

Abstract

In the recent article rev. professor Antoni Tronina (SBO 3 [2011]) suggested a possible link between the name of the biblical figure of Job and one name attested in the Amarna archive. In the article some methodological obstacles for such identification were pointed out. Furthermore, an alternative hypothesis regarding the origin of the name of Job was presented. The conviction that there are Eastern (Babylonian) origins from the sapiential traditions attested in the book of Job is well rooted in biblical scholarship; less obvious are the origins of the very name of biblical figure of Job. Every analysis rests on the importance of the most distinguishable feature of the Job story; the constant calamity of the hero, starting with the loss of his children. The same literary theme is to be found in the Greek myth about Niobe – the mother losing her children. This literary motif in both traditions is underlined by the closeness of the names of the two figures: Job – [N]iobe. These features make similarities in the two stories and their protagonists no accident. As the Niobe-myth is attested already in Homer, the origins of the story of Job within Greek tradition is advocated by the author. If the biblical figure of Job is to be seen as the reinterpretation of the Niobe myth the question of the date of this cultural transfer must be posed. Despite the now common recent scholarly habit of dating many biblical traditions to the Hellenistic period, the author advocates the Persian Period, as the possible date for this literary borrowing. He advances the idea that the literati of the Persian Period, using Aramaic as their language of literary expression, might have helped in transferring the motif or narrative character of such a suffering figure as Niobe/Job from Greek culture to the East.