The Book of Job. Could this be a Greek story?
Posted on: January 8, 2007 - 1:06pm
Offline
The Book of Job. Could this be a Greek story?
I was thinking about the Book of Job, and I started wondering what the origin of the story is. To me the idea of two gods betting on a human, and using him as a play toy sounds like a very Greek story to me. Does anybody know what the origins of the story is? Is it Greek? An original story? Or something else?
- Login to post comments
Job is generally dated to the postexilistic period around the 6th or 5th century BCE (1). The Greeks would have been well established by then sure, but I do not believe this work is taken from the Greeks, it contains none of the Greek nature you so prevailently see in the words of Tatius, Herodotus, or Thucydides. This may have been an adaptation from Babylonian lore, especially picked up during exile, but I would not put much stock in this being a Greek work.
I do like the dialogues, to me this is the only part of the book which really would have the chance to be within the nature of the Greeks. It would have to resemble that of the style of Plato or Aristotle or Heraclitus, but it doesn't. To me this was the chance for the tie in but it's uniquely a combination of the book of Daniel and Jewish Lore, with some Babylonian traits.
Hope that helps.
------
(1) Eerdman's Dictionary of the Bible, Pp. 716
Atheist Books, purchases on Amazon support the Rational Response Squad server, which houses Celebrity Atheists. Books by Rook Hawkins (Thomas Verenna)
That helps a lot, thank you.