The Emergence of the Biblical Book of Job on the Backdrop of the so-called Job Literature

The aim of the project is a methodologically sound, complex and utterly transparent full-screen picture of the history of the Job literature, in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, as well as other relevant languages of the time. Immediate forerunners of the Job literature in the Bible and the mediate relatives in extra-biblical literature (Mesopotamia) as well as the biblical and extra-biblical traditions contemporary to all the authors of the book in the second temple period in Palestine (e.g., Proverbs, Ben Sira, wisdom in Dead Sea Scrolls) or immediately following them (e.g., Job’s translations, particularly the Old Greek version, also the Testament of Job) will be taken into account. It synthesizes the results of various methodological approaches to the book, in order to ascertain an entire literary history of the Job literature (text, form, ideas) and the methodology suitable for that purpose.

In 2020–2024, this project was supported by the Estonian Research Council grant (PRG938). However, the research work is ongoing.

The Tartu Edition of the Hebrew Book of Job presents the Hebrew text of the book of Job, aiming at reconstructing the proto-Masoretic text of approximately the second half of the second century BCE. The edited text is eclectic, i.e., it combines different ancient and medieval witnesses.

Tartu Edition of the Hebrew Job - Introduction

Tartu Edition of the Hebrew Job - chapter 29

The Hebrew Book of Job has a history of at least two hundred years of emergence in the (5th)4th–2nd century BCE. The literary history of Job has numerous layers, which have been unravelled only broadly; the following overview explains a model of the literary emergence of the Hebrew Job by Urmas Nõmmik. The material serves as a preparation for writing a commentary on Job.

Literary History of the Book of Job: A Sketch

  • Commentary on the Book of Job by Urmas Nõmmik (Historical Commentary on the Old Testament, Leuven: Peeters).
  • Article volume: Biblical Job in the Literary Network of the Ancient Near East, edited by Andreas Johandi and Urmas Nõmmik (Kasion, Münster: Zaphon).
  • Estonian translation and commentary of the Testament of Job and the Testament of Abraham by Ergo Naab (Piibel Kontekstis, Tartu: Tartu University Press).

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Urmas Nõmmik
Author: Erakogu

Urmas Nõmmik

Dr. theol. habil., Professor of Old Testament and Semitic Studies.

Project assignment: Commentary of the Book of Job (Historical Commentary on the Old Testament, Leuven: Peeters), the West-Semitic backdrop of Job.

Expertise: Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, Job, Psalms, Genesis, poetology and form history, hermeneutics, motif history, history of religion of Ancient Israel, research history in Estonia.

Profiles: ETIS / academia.edu

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Ergo Naab
Author: Urmas Nõmmik

Ergo Naab

PhD, Research Fellow in New Testament

Project assignment: Translation and commentary of the Testament of Job ("Bible in Context" series).

Expertise: New Testament, Paul, pseudepigrafic literature, formation of the early Christian ideology, social-historical and postcolonial research.

Profiles: ETIS / academia.edu

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Anu Põldsam, piiblitõlke töörühma liige
Author: Urmas Nõmmik

Anu Põldsam

PhD, Lecturer in Jewish Studies

Project assignment: Motif and reception history of the Book of Job in early Jewish literature (Talmud, midrashim, the Testament of Job)

Expertise: Hebrew language, history of Jewish ideas, hermneutics, motif history, history of Jewish Studies

Profiles: ETIS / academia.edu

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Alice Viljard
Author: Erakogu

Alice Volkonski

MA, PhD student

Project assignment: Parallels of the Book of Job and Wisdom literature to the Pre-Islamic and Early Islamic Arabic tradition, Hebrew and Arabic Poetry in Medieval Spain.

Expertise: Arabic language and literature, Pre-Islamic poetry, Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, Solomonic tradition.

Profiles: ETIS

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Kristin Klaus, piiblitõlke töörühma liige
Author: Urmas Nõmmik

Kristin Klaus

MA, PhD student

Project assignment: Significance of the style of the Old Greek Job in textual and redaction criticism.

Expertise: Old Greek Job, Septuagint, Old Testament/Hebrew Bible.

Profiles: ETIS

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Andreas Johandi
Author: Andres Tennus

Andreas Johandi

PhD

Project assignment: The study of Ancient Near Eastern parallels to the Book of Job.

Expertise: Religious history of Mesopotamia, early Mesopotamian pantheon, the god Asalluhi, Mesopotamian magic.

Profiles: ETIS / academia.edu

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Rahel Toomik, piiblitõlke töörühma liige
Author: Urmas Nõmmik

Rahel Toomik

MA, PhD student

Project assignment: The Greek patristic reception of biblical literature, Didymus the Blind

Expertise: Patristics, medieval Latin, orations of Tartu University in the Early Modern era

Profiles: ETIS

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Jaan Lahe
Author: Erakogu

Jaan Lahe

Dr. theol., Visiting Research Fellow of Comparative Religious Studies

Project assignment: Reception of Job in gnostic literature.

Expertise: Religious history of the Roman empire, so-called oriental cults in the Roman empire, cult of Mithras, gnosticism.

Profile: ETIS

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Sirli Ellermäe
Author: Erakogu

Sirli Ellermäe

MA

Project assignment: Wisdom and psalm parallels to Job in the Qumran literature

Expertise: Hodayot in Qumran

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Jonas Jakobson
Author: Erakogu

Jonas Jakobson

MA

Project assignment: Poetological parallels among the deuterocanonical wisdom literature of the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament

Expertise: Poetology and the genre-specific structure of the poetic texts of the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament and Ben Sira, wisdom literature of the Hebrew bible / Old Testament; ancient Near-East, Egypt and Greece; Ugaritology.

Profiles: ETIS

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Diana Tomingas
Author: Erakogu

Diana Tomingas

MA

Project assignment: Research on literary and form criticism in the Hebrew book of Job.

Expertise: Biblical Hebrew, poetology and literary features of the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament.

Profiles: ETIS / academia.edu

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Amir
Author: Erakogu

Amir Vasheghanifarahani

PhD

Project assignment: Hebrew and Syriac texts of the book of Job

Expertise: Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Peshitta, Syriac literature and Poetry

Doris Diana Orr

MA

Project assignment: Form in the Book of Proverbs

Expertise: Form criticism of the Hebrew Bible