egyptian onomastica and biblical wisdom
Post on 03-Jun-2018
216 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
8/12/2019 Egyptian Onomastica and Biblical Wisdom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/egyptian-onomastica-and-biblical-wisdom 1/10
Egyptian Onomastica and Biblical Wisdom
Author(s): Michael V. FoxSource: Vetus Testamentum, Vol. 36, Fasc. 3 (Jul., 1986), pp. 302-310Published by: BRILL
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1518411 .
Accessed: 26/11/2013 02:48
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
.
BRILL is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Vetus Testamentum.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 147.91.1.45 on Tue, 26 Nov 2013 02:49:00 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/12/2019 Egyptian Onomastica and Biblical Wisdom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/egyptian-onomastica-and-biblical-wisdom 2/10
VetusTestamentumXXVI, 3 (1986)
EGYPTIAN ONOMASTICA AND BIBLICAL WISDOM
by
MICHAEL V. FOXMadison, Wisconsin
There s little oubt hat sraelite idacticwisdom, nown o us
primarilyrom hebook ofProverbs, erivedn form nd contentfrom n internationalenref didacticwisdom,well attestedn
Egypt ndMesopotamia.Moredisputableswhetherther ypes f
foreigniteratureeft heirmpress n Israelitewisdom.Thisstudywill ook into thetheoryhatEgyptianword istswereone suchsourceof nfluence.
Startingfrom a recognitionf the Egyptianantecedents fIsraelitewisdom, Albrecht Alt' sought a foreignorigin for
Solomon'swisdom oncerninglants ndanimals,whichspraisedin 1 Kgs v 10-14.Alt called this ype f wisdomNaturweisheitnd
placed itsoriginnword-listsuch as are known rom gypt nd
Mesopotamia.He described he creation f suchtexts s Listen-
wissenschaft, science of lists , whose purposehe said was
encyclopedic .Altgave particularttentiono theOnomasticonof Amenope,2which constituted, e said, a Versuch einer
Enzyklopaidielles Wissens .3Alt hypothesizedhat Solomon's
3000proverbsnd 1005songs4werereformulationsf tems romencyclopedicists ofthesort oundnEgypt ndMesopotamia.Beforewe consider arallels etweenheonomasticand biblical
literature, e shouldunderstandlearlywhattheonomastica re
1 Die Weisheit Salomos . ThLZ 76 (1951), cols 139-44; E. tr. in James L.Crenshaw (ed.), Studies n AncientsraeliteWisdomNew York, 1976), pp. 102-12.
2 A. H. Gardiner, Ancient gyptianOnomasticaLondon, 1947). There are alsomore specialized lists-body parts, hieroglyphic signs, geographical lists, andmore. See the
survey byH.
Grapowand W. Westendorf n Handbuchder Orien-
talistik, I, 2: Agyptologie/LiteraturLeiden, 1970), ch. 37. For theLate Period see U.
Kaplony-Heckel, Schiiler und Schulwesen in der agyptischenSpatzeit , Studienzuraltagyptischenultur2 (1974), pp. 228-46.
3 p. 141; E. tr., p. 105.4 It should not be taken forgrantedthat the subjectsmentioned in 1 Kgs v 14
were the subjects of the songs and proverbsmentioned in v. 13. Solomon's talkabout themmightbe an additional example of his wisdom.
This content downloaded from 147.91.1.45 on Tue, 26 Nov 2013 02:49:00 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/12/2019 Egyptian Onomastica and Biblical Wisdom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/egyptian-onomastica-and-biblical-wisdom 3/10
EGYPTIAN ONOMASTICA AND BIBLICAL WISDOM
and (perhaps more importantly)what theyare not.
They are not attempts to organize natural phenomena in
systematic ncyclopedias, n which the order of the temsrepresentsa structuren reality.Gardiner's understandingof the onomasticaas the firststeps in the directionof an Encyclopaedia (p. 1) is
open to doubt. It is based first f all on the titleofOn. Am., whichGardinerhimself escribes as wordy and pretentious and bom-bastic (pp. 1 and 35). The title reads:
Beginningf he eaching or learinghemind, or nstructionfthe
ignorantnd forearningllthingshat xist;whatPtahcreated, nd
whatThoth opieddown,heavenwith ts ffairs,arth nd what s init,what hemountains elchforth, hat s watered ytheflood, ll
things ponwhichRe' has shone,all that s grown n the back ofearth, xcogitatedythe scribe f the sacredbooks n the House ofLife,Amenope, on ofAmenope Gardiner's ranslation,. 2*).
However one understands the list, the claims in the title must betakenwith more than a grainof salt. The title s certainly n exag-geration,somewhatalong the lines of a book blurb, ratherthan a
careful declaration of purpose. At any rate, the titledoes not saywhat the textteaches about things.The label sboyet,instruction ,may refer to any kind of instruction, ncluding the trainingofanimals. The otherEgyptianonomastica make no such grandioseclaims. But we can compare the similarly xaggeratedclaim in the
heading of the Rhind mathematicalpapyrus,which calls itself the
guide forentering nto knowledge of all that exists, all darkness
[and all] mysterieswhich are in things .5The breadth of the title'sassertions,although exaggerated, may
claim some justification n the Egyptian concept ofwriting.The
Egyptians invested theirwritingsystemwith great significance:signs were considered to share in the qualities and powers of the
thingstheyrepresented.The inclusion of a large number of wordsabout manydifferentypesofthingsmay help explain the claim inthe title to be a teaching about all thingsthat exist. But thisclaim would be based on the quantity of the words and their
reference o many different ealms of existence,not on the orderinto whichtheywere put.
If thepurpose ofthese istswere to reveal ordersand hierarchies
5 A. Eisenlohr,Ein mathematischesandbuch er ltenAegypterLeipzig, 1877; repr.Walluf bei Wiesbaden, 1972).
303
This content downloaded from 147.91.1.45 on Tue, 26 Nov 2013 02:49:00 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/12/2019 Egyptian Onomastica and Biblical Wisdom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/egyptian-onomastica-and-biblical-wisdom 4/10
MICHAEL V. FOX
in thenature of all phenomena, theywould have tobe judged com-
plete failures.They do group phenomena in categories,but the
cohesion of thecategories s often o questionable thatthescribe oftheGolenischeff apyrusof On. Am.] mayhave founddifficultyn
deciding upon a suitable course of action (in placing the rubrics)(Gardiner, p. 36). The rubrics are often llogicallyand erraticallyplaced. While there s some ordering n certaincategorieswhere anassociative ordering s natural (e.g., in the categories of typesof
people and the south-north rderingof Egyptian towns), most ofthecategoriesshow no internal tructure r hierarchy;nor is there
much attemptto show relations among the categories. Differentkinds ofcake are each givenas much attention s thecityMemphisor heaven itself,while some major towns and the earth itself re
missing. Other items are repeated in differentwritings. It is
unnecessarilycondescendingtowardEgyptianlearningto imaginethat this was thebestthat could be achieved in theway oforderingnatural phenomena, as ifthe grossdistinctionbetween beverageson the one hand and the towns ofEgypton the other was ofsuch
interest hatit deserved to be writtendown, copied, and taught.Far more likely,theprimarypurpose of the onomastica was the
teachingofwriting.This suppositioncan bestexplain theinclusionof orthographicvariants (e.g., On. Am. no. 18 i3dt and no. 19
3wdt)and the nclusionofthesame word in synonymous hrasesas
separateentries e.g., t3ty vizier , no. 73) and t3tymy-riwtn T3
Mry the vizier and overseer of the citiesofEgypt , no. 86). Ifthescribe were categorizing hings,he would have included Edfu only
once ratherthan treatingtwo of its names as two separate items(nos. 318, 319). And one entrywould sufficefor the s'wt-cake,which now appears three times in differentwritings in theRamesseum Onomasticon (nos. 222, 227, 236). If the onomasticawere primarily eaching-aids n the studyofwriting, t is doubtfulthat theywould have been known in Israel, where the alphabetcreated quite different edagogical needs.6
6 H. Brunner says thatthe listswere catalogues ofthings Sachverzeichnis )intended to give a overviewofthethingsof theworld,but at the same time to teachtheir names and the correctwritingof the names. He regards this last purpose,even if it was not the author's main goal, to have been the primaryone for theschools (AltdgyptischerziehungWiesbaden; 1957], pp. 93-4). If that was indeedtheirprimarypurpose for heschools, that s theonly conceptof the iststhat couldhave influenced scribes of later generations, forthe original author's intentionwould not have been known or transmitted.
304
This content downloaded from 147.91.1.45 on Tue, 26 Nov 2013 02:49:00 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/12/2019 Egyptian Onomastica and Biblical Wisdom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/egyptian-onomastica-and-biblical-wisdom 5/10
EGYPTIAN ONOMASTICA AND BIBLICAL WISDOM
It is also possible that some lists served as aids in instructionabout realia, and thattheywere accompanied byelucidation on the
teacher's part. Several later lists add briefexplanations in a waythat suggestssuch a practice; forexample:
Further:mountains-Roshat,mountain fturquoise,Hahe, mountain of gold (CAmame).Tefrore,mountain f apis-lazuli.7
The focusof nterest ere is not theorderof theitemsbut informa-
tion about them. The explanations look like glosses that earliermighthave been communicatedorally.This typeof ist s apparent-ly ate (theabove text omes from he Roman period). As is the caseformuchPtolemaic literature, his textmay show an attempt oputintowriting usage that was earlier taken forgranted.
Numerous listshave been preservedfrom he ate period,mostlyin Demotic. Many Demotic lists reveal their oncernforwriting r
grammar by their organization according to initial consonants,
determinatives,or roots . Other lists are not organized by in-disputablyorthographic r linguisticfeatures,but theytoo seem tohave been aids in theteachingofwriting.One ostraconshows twocamels and adds, these are two male camels . Another ostraconshows a man holding two dogs on leash and the legend gives the
dogs' names or breeds and adds a man, who holds them . Such
legends suggest that the students wrote down an oral glossingmeant to identifyhe signsratherthan the animals theyrepresent.
The objects picturedwere familiar nd hardlyneeded explanationin themselves.8
A hieroglyphic-hieraticign-listfrom the second centuryC.E.
brings, in three columns, hieroglyphic signs, their hieratic
equivalents, and, apparently, the signs' names. The signs are
grouped in categories: men standing, women squatting, men
falling, nimals, body parts, etc. But even here,wherewe do findsome organizationby meaning-category, hepurpose is to elucidate
the written igns rather than what they represent n the external7 W. J. Tait, The mountains of apis-lazuli , GottingerMiszellen0 (1974), pp.
49-54. Tait says that there are numerous fragments fthissort n thepapyruscol-lection at theUniversityofCopenhagen.
8 For information n the lists discussed in thisparagraph see Kaplony-Heckel,Schiiler und Schulwesen (above, n. 2). Kaplony-Heckel accepts thetheory hat
the basic idea of the Sachw6rterbiicher is contentual ordering p. 235).
305
This content downloaded from 147.91.1.45 on Tue, 26 Nov 2013 02:49:00 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/12/2019 Egyptian Onomastica and Biblical Wisdom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/egyptian-onomastica-and-biblical-wisdom 6/10
MICHAEL V. FOX
world. First of all, the list is organized by individual signs, not
words,and signsare not n themselves pecific noughto impart n-
formationabout things. Second, the third column identifies hesignsrather han giving nformation bout things n theworld; for
example: turning back , a woman carrying , mouth of ahuman being .9 In its typeoforganizationand formof glossing,this istbears similarity o the sign-list n Gardiner's Grammar.
I am not claimingthat no listsseek to teach about orders n theworldbymeans ofschemata; schematicorganization n accordancewithan externalreality s undoubtedlyessential to the educational
purpose of some lists-geographical lists, forexample.10I wouldnot, however, view this quality as the basic featureof lists anddeduce from t the existence of a science of lists .
In the wake of Alt's article, t became widelytaken forgrantedthat Israelitewisdom included a science of ists . Not long after-
wards, G. von Rad published a studythatderived the first alfofGod's answer toJob (chs xxxviii-xxxix)n partfrom his scienceof ists .11The theorypresented n thatarticlehas been influential
in the interpretationfJob in particularand wisdom literature ngeneral. This theory s still live issue and worthy f reassessment.
Von Rad soughtthe originof the spezifische Form of God's
speech first f all in Egyptianonomastica, givingparticularatten-tiontothe ongestoftheextant ists,theOnomasticon ofAmenope,which von Rad too considered to be ein wissenschaftlichnzyklo-padisches Werk (p. 293). He claimed that, although thisonomasticon does not correspond exactlytoJob xxxviii,there s a
close resemblance n the enumerationofmeteorological henomena(snow, hail, wind) and the stars. He granted that we cannot
suppose direct dependence of Job xxxviii upon thisonomasticon-- trotzdem muss doch wohl eine Beziehungzwischen beiden Texten bestehen (p. 294). Such listsmay havefound theirway to Israel, where theywere reworked nto poeticcompositions.Such lists,he said, also underlie the enumerationof
phenomena in Ben Sira xliii,Ps. cxxxviii nd Dan. iii 52-90 LXX.
9 F. LI. Griffith, The Sign Payrus , in Griffithnd W. M. F. Petrie, TwoHieroglyphicapyri romTanis (London, 1899); discussed in Kaplony-Heckel (n. 2,above), p. 235.
10e.g., The Geographical Papyrus in Griffith nd Petrie.
11 Hiob xxxviii und die altagyptischeWeisheit , SVT 3 (1955), pp. 293-301,E. tr. n The Problemf heHexateuchnd Otherssays Edinburgh and London, 1966),pp. 281-91, and Crenshaw (n. 1 above), pp. 267-77.
306
This content downloaded from 147.91.1.45 on Tue, 26 Nov 2013 02:49:00 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/12/2019 Egyptian Onomastica and Biblical Wisdom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/egyptian-onomastica-and-biblical-wisdom 7/10
EGYPTIAN ONOMASTICA AND BIBLICAL WISDOM
In particular,Ps. cxlviiifollowswhat he calls dem herk6mmlichenwissenschaftlichenchema (p. 296) by proceedingfrom he stars
to meteorologial phenomena to the earth.In summary,von Rad says,
Wirsahen,dass ob xxxviii . hinsichtlicherAbfolge erkosmologi-schen nd naturkundlichenhanomene inemvorgegebenenchema
entlang eht,das letztlich eragyptischen issenschaftntstammt,wie sie in den Onomastiken niedergelegt st.12
The strongest argument against connecting Job xxxviii-xxxix
withthe onomastica is the ist von Rad himself uppliesas evidence12 p. 300. In that rticle on Rad also arguedfor n Egyptian arallel o the
eigentiimliche(n)tilform f God's speech,which s composedmostly frhetoricaluestions.Von Rad found parallel n PapyrusAnastasi , known sA Satirical etter .Accordingo vonRad, in one section f he ext18,9-28,1)
thescribeHori (accordingo vonRad) sarcasticallysks hisopponent series frhetoricaluestionsmeant oprove he atter'sgnorancefAsiatic eography.utthissuggested aralleltoo is irrelevant. irstofall, the misnamed) SatiricalLetter s notcomposed lmost ntirelyfrhetoricaluestions.See Gardiner'sremarksnEgyptianieratic exts,eries. Literaryextsf heNewKingdom[Leip-
zig,1911],p. 20*,n. 11.)Von Rad was edastray erebyErman'smistranslationofcertain entences, hichmakesmanyofthenegativendicative entencesntoquestionsA. Erman,Die Literaturer gypterLeipzig,1923],pp. 286-7;E. tr. TheLiteraturef heAncientgyptiansLondon, 1927],p. 228, reprinteds TheAncientEgyptians:Sourcebookf heirWritingsNewYork,1966],p. 228). Sentences rmantranslates s rhetoricaluestions, .g. Bist du nicht umChattiland egangenund hast du das landUpi nichtgesehen? ,wouldrequire ffirmativenswers,whilethespeaker s assertingheopposite-theopponent's gnorance nd inex-perience.There is no grammaticalndicationof the interrogativen thesestatements.heyare to be translated,You havenotgoneto the andofKhatti,andyouhave not seenthe and ofUpe . In fact,most fthe ectionnquestionconsists f indicative ssertions f theaddressee's gnorance. here are severalquestions hat hallenge nowlege, utthey o notpredominate.ince we do nothaveanythingike a catechismnP. Anastasi , it s hardlyustifiableouse thiswork s evidencefor heexistence fschoolcatechismsn Egypt-and thentoderive the form-categoryf God's speeches in Job xxxviii-xxxixrom thishypotheticalenre.
In anycase, there s a fundamentalifferenceetweenHori's questions ndGod's. Hori attempts o demonstrate is opponent's gnorance y askinghimquestionshat e cannot nswer, .g., What s theDjemerofSese ike?On whichsideof t sthe own fCher...?What s its treamike? ,etc. 18,8-19,1).Hori'squestions re difficultutnot impossible or n educatedscribe.Theyare not
essentiallyhetorical,.e., indicativetatementsn nterrogativeorm. ori'sques-tions hallenge isopponent yaskingfor nformation.od's questions,n con-trast, re (with woexceptions)ruly hetorical.heyare actually eclarationsfGod's powerncreatingndmaintainingheworld.God is not ttemptingocon-found obso much s toremind imofwhathealready nowswell-divinepowerand rule; see M. V. Fox, Job 38 and God's Rhetoric ,Semeia 9 (1981),pp. 53-61.
307
This content downloaded from 147.91.1.45 on Tue, 26 Nov 2013 02:49:00 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/12/2019 Egyptian Onomastica and Biblical Wisdom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/egyptian-onomastica-and-biblical-wisdom 8/10
MICHAEL V. FOX
fora scientific chema commonto both. Von Rad lists the first50 itemsofOn. Am. nextto the 39 items mentioned nJob xxxviii
12 (the verse he takes as the startingpoint of the comparison)through xxix26. Of these39, onlynine have some correspondencein the onomasticon, and thereis no similaritywhatsoeverin the
sequence of tems.The otherworksthat von Rad comparesto On.Am. proceed from the heaven, to the sun, moon and stars, to
meteorologicalphenomena, as does On. Am. But thisgeneralorderis so natural and predictablethat tspresencein differentomposi-tionsdoes not prove geneticconnection.
Certainly,we must hesitate to speak of a scientific schemarepresented n the onomastica. There is scarcelya schema in On.Am. itself.There is no schema common to thenumerousEgyptianlistsofvarious sorts,and there s certainlyno schema common toOn. Am. and Job xxxviii,as von Rad suggested.
Another scholar nspiredbyAltto detectthe science of ists inbiblical literature was S. Herrmann,13who suggested that theauthor of the first reationstory sed onomastica as the basis ofhis
descriptionof thecreationof the human sphereof ife,thethird osixthdays of creation. But there is nothingin common betweenthem other than the mention ofthingsthat are in the world.
On. Am. is so comprehensive hatany mentionofthingsofanysort s likely o have some items n common with t; it willcertainlyhave some categories in common with it. We could justify a
hypothesisof dependence only if we could find a fairlystrict,specificschema maintained in both, preferably ne whose order
was not quite predictable.As forMesopotamian lists such as the harra-hubbulueries, it is
significant hat von Rad explicitlyrejects a connection betweenthem and Job xxxviii (p. 301). Those lists are apparentlyevenfarther emoved from he assumed scientific chema. I expect thatsimilarargumentscould be brought against an attemptto draw aconnection between themand thepresumednature wisdom in theBible.
There is no evidence for a science of lists in ancient Israel.What is more,there s no science of ists n Egypt n any significantsense. There are only ists, istsof all sorts,withvaried contents nd
principles of organization-medical, zoological, religious, geo-
13 Die Naturlehredes Sch6pfungsberichtes , ThLZ 86 (1961), cols 413-24.
308
This content downloaded from 147.91.1.45 on Tue, 26 Nov 2013 02:49:00 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/12/2019 Egyptian Onomastica and Biblical Wisdom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/egyptian-onomastica-and-biblical-wisdom 9/10
EGYPTIAN ONOMASTICA AND BIBLICAL WISDOM
graphical,and more.14 There is nothing o suggestthatthecreationof lists was considered a single enterprise, s if geographical lists
and lists ofbodypartswere in someway intended to contribute o acommon purpose ofexpanding and organizingthebody of shared
knowledge.Alt's and von Rad's articles suggested that biblical wisdom
literature derives in part from observational sciences. Alt
hypothesized that one link in this derivation was the Egyptianonomastica. Von Rad argued thatone literary nd productof the
process was Job xxxviii-xxxix.This pictureof the developmentof
wisdom literature reinforces the common idea that it was ahumanistic,fundamentally mpirical,enterprise.This idea, whichI considerdoubtful,requiresfurther iscussion. Here, however, Iwishonlyto consider thenotion that God's answertoJob is depen-dent on the observationsof science,whetheror not these observa-tions were mediated by lists.15
There were, ofcourse, natural sciences in Egypt,so far as obser-vationsof nature wereused inmedicine,astrology,geography, nd
the like. There may well have been similar activities in Israel.Wisdom literature,however,showsno relationto any sortof scien-tific nterprise, ven understanding science in the broad, non-technical sense that Wissenschaft can have. Wisdom literatureshows no attempt to derive knowledge about human or divinebehavior from observations of the natural world. Some proverbs,such as the one about the ant (Prov. vi 6-8), mentionanimals as
examples reinforcing teaching about human behavior, but the
content of the teaching never originates n observationof animallife. Three passages in Proverbs-xxx 18-19,24-8, 29-31-do show
curiosityabout the natural world, but this curiositytoo is static
admiration, mplyingno attempt o extend therange ofknowledgeby observationof the natural world. Rather, theseproverbsseekto
14 See the surveyby Grapow and Westendorf above, n. 2).15 As Von Rad describedtheprocess,Job xxxviii-xxxixand Ben Sira xliii 1 ff.)
were not directlydependent on onomastica: yet:... dies kann immerhin
behauptetwerden, dass solche
enzyklopadischenWerke auch nach Israel gekommensind und dass man es auch in Israel ge-lernthat, die kosmischenund meteorologischenPhanomene, aber auch dieTierwelt derartwissenschaftlichufzureihen.Die Weisen, wohlbewandert naller gelehrtenLiteratur,standen dann vor der nichtallzuschwerenAufgabe,bei der HerstellungihrerLehrdichtungendiesemvon der damaligen Wissen-schaft angst sanktioniertenSchema entlang zu gehen und die niichternenReihen in Dichtungen umzusetzen (p. 296).
309
This content downloaded from 147.91.1.45 on Tue, 26 Nov 2013 02:49:00 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/12/2019 Egyptian Onomastica and Biblical Wisdom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/egyptian-onomastica-and-biblical-wisdom 10/10
MICHAEL V. FOX
arouse a sense ofwonderin thecommonplace. In general, descrip-tion ofnature in the Bible is intended either o exemplify eachings
about human natureand behavioror to testifyoGod's power andmystery.
The references o naturalphenomena inJob xxxviii-xxxix o notderive from n intellectual ctivity nalogous to science. After ll,science (and Wissenschaft ) minimally implies the under-
takingofobservations nd the extensionofknowledge beyondfactsthateverybody an readilysee and know,whereas thepointofJobxxxviii-xxxix s that God's power and providenceare immediately
manifest n the mysteries nd wonders of nature. As for the factsJob does not know-such as wherelightdwells or when the rock-
gazelle givesbirth-the messageofGod's speechassumes thattheseare hidden from ll people (and this would include natural scien-
tists ). If anything, he author assumes thathuman knowledge s,in itsfundamentals,defined n advance. There isnothing hat God
says Job knows that anyone else could not know, and there is
nothingthatGod saysJob does not know that anyone else could
know. In these chapterswe get no sense that human intellect scapable of pushing back the frontiers f knowledge throughits
powersof observation. Human intellect s sufficientocomprehendwhat is most important:divine power and providence. And it is
capable of realizing its own boundaries. True wisdom consists n
recognizing in those boundaries evidence fordivine power (Job
xxxviii).Clearly, we must be more restrained in explaining formsof
biblical literatureby presumptionofforeign nfluence.At theveryleast, our comparisonsshouldbe restricted oexemplarsofthe same
genre, xcept in the case of localized comparisonsbetween specificmotifs, concepts, or linguistic usages. The comparativemethod --undoubtedly legitimate when applied to wisdomliterature-can workeffectivelynlywhenthe termsofcomparisonare well defined. Gattungsforschungust be allowed to work two
ways, not only bringing iteraryexemplars together n order to
disclose a Gattung,ut also holdingapartworksoftypes hatare notproperlycomparable.16
16 I wish to thankProfessorsJ. L. Crenshaw and M. Tsevat forreading and
commentingon earlier drafts of this essay.
310
top related