Devotional Short Notes on Job 12
Koot van Wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)
Devotional
Short Notes on Job 12: The dear readers do not know that the word Satan that
appears in chapters 1 and 2 of Job was actually the reason why modern scholars
do not believe the Book to have originated from Moses. It was said that the
appearance of the word “Satan” means that the word is late and dating to the
Persian Period and thus Moses could not have written it. The Persian origin of
the word Satan is very commonly explained in modern textbooks, but it is again
the Middle Egyptian that throws light on this word: s3-t3 means “snake”. How
suitable for someone like Moses who explained that the snake was used as
instrument by Satan in Genesis 3. Hodges is quoted as saying that “the Book of
Job has suffered as much as Job from critics”. Beza, Gerhard and Mercerus
called the Book a tragedy. This book is not a tragedy when someone has so much
faith. Tragedy is for someone without faith. This is about Victory not Tragedy.
In the 18th century it was common to refer to Job as an Epic Poem.
It is definitely a classical work and epic would mean it has a story. The
content of Job attracts the mind of a human so it is said that the Mishnah
advised Job as a good Book to read to the High Priest on the night of the
Atonement to prevent him from falling asleep (Yoma i. 6, see Reichert p. xx).
Scholars took Arabic as a good language to understand rare words in Job and
this tendency is going back to the days of Jerome in 399 A.D. when he said in the
preface to the commentary to Daniel: “Job has a strong resemblance to the
Arabic language”.
Job
12:2 “and with you wisdom will die”. Scholars and Translators were at loss for
meaning so they created their own. In 130 A.D. Aquila in his Greek translation
interpreted the word tmwt as related to tmm “perfect” and translated “and with
you wisdom will be perfect”. In 150 A.D. Symmachus in his private Greek
translation also read the same. In 190 A.D. Theodotion in his private Greek
translation read instead tmwt correctly as “will die”. The Jewish tradition
Mechilta, Yithro 2 interchanged two consonants tmwt as twmt and translated: “shall
terminate” [תמות as תומת]. Adventists already provided a red card.
Rashi
Rule of Interchangeability of consonants Some
of our Hebrew and Semitic professors at universities may disagree with me here,
but I do not think that it is appropriate for Rabbi Rashi (10th
century) to argue for an interchangeability of zayin, sammech, shin, resh and
zaddi [זסשרץ] to be used in the Book of Job for rare
words and their meanings. Geographical dialects will have some
interchangeability present at times, but when one deals with a Book remote in
time from those where the geographical dialectics is applicable, like Kings and
Isaiah compared to a Book of Moses like Job nearly 750 years before, then
caution in the absolute is advised.