Markus Witte Cosmos and Creation in Job 38 (Septuagint) Abstract: This article describes the cosmology in the Greek version of Job 38 in comparison with the Masoretic text. It interprets the special anthropological and cosmological profile of the Greek text in the contexts of the whole Greek book of Job and of selected early Jewish scriptures (Ben Sira; Wisdom of Solomon; Testament of Job). It thereby demonstrates how the Greek translators of Job transfer elements of Near Eastern cosmologies into the Greek world, and how Job 38 in its Greek form participates in the cosmological discourse of Hellenistic philosophy (Plato, Timaeus; Aratus, Phaenomena). Keywords: anthropology, cosmology, creation, meteorology, mythology 1 Introduction The book of Job is not deuterocanonical in either its Hebrew form or its Greek versions. Nevertheless, in terms of literary and religious history, it is to be viewed within the context of deuterocanonical literature; this is especially true of the Greek translations. This definition is based on two observations. Firstly, the book of Job, at least in respect of its motif and tradition history and, in some cases also from a direct literary historical perspective, is an essential hypo-text for particular deuterocanonical writings. The prime example is the Testament of Job, which originates in the 1st or 2nd century CE and is indebted to one of the Greek translations. But other older Jewish literature, outside the Hebrew Bible, such as the book Ben Sira (composed in the first third of the 2nd century BCE), or individual songs from Qumran and those collected in the Hodayot (dating from the 2nd or 1st century BCE), either explicitly sets itself apart from the book of Job (as is the case with Ben Sira) or makes use of central theological motifs from it (as is the case with the lowliness doxologies in 1QHodayot and in the final hymn of 1QSerek).¹ I warmly thank Josephine Draper for her translation of this article from German into English and Michael Duggan for proposing a number of clarifications.  Cf. Witte, Leiden, 194– 205; Reiterer, “Verhältnis,” 345 – 75; Egger-Wenzel, “Gebrauch,” 203 – 38; Szpek, “Influence,” 357– 70. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110677041-007 56 Markus Witte Secondly, in terms of its genesis and intellectual history, the book of Job, in its Greek form, belongs within the same temporal setting as large portions of deuterocanonical literature. For example, the original Old Greek translation of the book of Job came into existence toward the end of the 2nd century BCE, possibly in Alexandria. The original Greek book of Job therefore stands in close proximity to the Greek translation of Ben Sira and to the Wisdom of Solomon, only three generations younger. Theodotion’s Greek translation, which Origen used to backfill the Old Greek text in those passages for which he found no equivalent to the presumed Hebrew original, stands chronologically in line with later deuterocanonical writings and with the early writings of the New Testament.² The Greek translators of the book of Job were familiar with Homer and the tragic poets, the Alexandrian school of poetry and Stoic philosophy, as were Ben Sira and the author of the Wisdom of Solomon. Ultimately, in its Greek translation, the book of Job displays the kind of exegetic patterns that are emblematic of the interpretation and use of scripture in deuterocanonical literature. This might justify a discussion of the Greek book of Job, despite its proto-canonical status, at a conference dedicated to deuterocanonical literature. In terms of subject matter, at any rate, a presentation on Job 38 under the theme of “Cosmos and Creation” is not controversial. God’s first speech in the book of Job—alongside Gen 1– 2, particular creation psalms,³ and Sir 42:15 – 43:33—exhibits an elaborate biblical cosmology. It combines typical ancient Near Eastern cosmological formulae and motifs⁴ with genuine Israelite-Jewish concepts and ideas that are intrinsic to the book of Job. I take cosmology to mean a systematic reflection on the configuration, alteration and causal relation of events in the universe.⁵ Thoughts on the creation of the world, including humankind, and on its preservation, constitute just as central a part of cosmology as do reflections on time and the constellation of stars together with their influence on life. Cosmology is not bound to any definite literary genre; it can appear in the form of a hymn, a mythical narrative, a philosophical dialogue, an essay on natural history, an aphorism, omens, or a didactic or epic poem. What connects these different cosmological genres in a linguistic regard is their use of defining terms.⁶ Pragmatically speaking, these genres all aim to mediate knowledge and provide orientation in an ambivalent world.      On this, see Gentry, Materials. Cf. Pss 8; 104; 147; 148. Cf. Krüger, “Himmel,” 65 – 83. Cf. Grasshoff, “Kosmologie.” Cf. ἀριθμός, καιρός, μέτρον, ὅριον, τάξις, τόπος, τρόπος, ὥρα. Cosmos and Creation in Job 38 (Septuagint) 57 The Greek translation of the book of Job is primarily directed at Jewish readers unfamiliar with Hebrew. As such, it is to be read as a Greek work and understood on its own terms. Nevertheless, the exposition of the Greek translation of Job 38—like the exposition of every other text in the Septuagint that is demonstrably based upon a Hebrew (or Aramaic) translation—must also take into account the presumed Vorlage. Certain peculiarities of language and motif can only be explained against a background where the Greek text is the translation of a Hebrew text, deeply anchored in the ancient Near East. What is more, the profile of the Greek text becomes starkly evident when one compares it with the Hebrew text. For reasons of pragmatism and transmission history, only the MT is qualified for such a comparison, even if the original Greek book of Job is based on a Hebrew Vorlage that was a cognate of, but not identical to, the Vorlage of the MT. These display micro-textual and compositional differences that cannot be explained through translation techniques, textual criticism or by assuming a deliberate addition or excision. In many cases, they have parallels in the Targum from Qumran (11QtgJob), which probably dates to the 2nd century BCE. 2 An exposition of Job 38 in its Greek form 2.1 The cosmological profile of Job 38 LXX The headline in Job 38:1 characterizes the description of the creation, governance, and ministration of the cosmos as a revelatory speech from God. By using the phrase “but after Elihu had finished speaking,” and by indicating that the speech came “through the clouds” (νέφη), this revelatory speech is contextually more closely connected to Elihu’s previous monologue than is the case in the MT (cf. Job 35:5; 37:21– 22).⁷ The hendiadys διὰ λαίλαπος καὶ νεφῶν, which linguistically may be traced back to a double translation of ‫מן הסערה‬, serves to emphatically characterize Job 38 as a theophany,⁸ and to accentuate its relationship to God’s speech to Moses “out of the midst of the cloud (νεφέλη)” in Exod 24:16. In the “ecclesiastical text” compiled by Origen, Job 38 appears to express an answer from God to Job’s accusation that God buries himself “behind the clouds” (Job 22:14a θ᾽). Hence, already from this headline alone, it follows that  Within the corpus of the divine speeches in the LXX, there are terminological and compositional adaptations of the Elihu speeches too; cf. LXX Job 34:26//38:13, 15; 36:12//38:13, 15; 36:27//38:21, 37; 37:15//38:19.  Cf. Nah 1:3; Ezek 1:4; Ps 18[17]:12– 13. 58 Markus Witte talking about the creation and the universe requires guidance from God: in this sense, cosmology is essentially theology. The opening in v. 2, which is framed as a rhetorical question, portrays God as one who knows humankind atthe deepest core of its being. While the MT communicates an accusation against Job, namely, that he obfuscates God’s world plan (‫ )עצה‬with his careless words, the Greek translator offers a variation on the motif of God seeing into the human heart.⁹ God knows Job, so the latter does not need to state his uprightness, which he had articulated ever more insistently in the course of the dialogue with his friends, culminating in his great profession of innocence in chapter 31.¹⁰ The unfolding of the cosmic order that follows this opening is therefore—unlike in the MT—not so much a proof of God’s governance of the world, but rather a cosmic rationale for God’s knowledge of Job. God’s knowledge of humankind is based on his knowledge of the world. However, the intrinsic cosmological value of Job 38 is preserved within this shift of emphasis (when compared to the MT) toward the anthropological. On the one hand, the account of the creation and its divine governance offered from v. 4 onwards follows a clear cosmological pattern. On the other hand, it is based around Job’s questions concerning his relationship to God. Questions about Job’s alleged presence at God’s founding of the earth (vv. 4– 6) and about God’s exclusive control over heaven (vv. 37– 38) provide the framework. By mentioning earth and heaven, the essential cosmological cornerstones are designated. The order “earth—heaven” accords with the sequence in the editorial transition from the Priestly to the so-called Yahwistic account of creation in Gen 2:4b (in the MT)¹¹ and with Job’s questions relating to his earthly existence as raised from chapter 3 onward. In terms of tradition history, behind the question ποῦ ἦς (v. 4) stands the motif of the wisdom of prehistoric humankind (Urmensch),¹² and theologically speaking, the notion that the individual who meets God experiences a questioning of his or her existence. This question introduces the phenomenon of time at the very start of the cosmological remarks. Ultimately correlated with this is the “numbering (ἀριθμέω) of the clouds,” as a cosmological-metaphorical expression for God’s power over the meteorological periods (v. 37). Such thematization of time accords with ancient Near Eastern and classical notions of creation, wherein the establishment of time and its segmentation into days, months,  Cf. Job 34:21, 23 – 25 LXX; Pss 17[16]:3; 26[25]:2; Prov 24:12 LXX; Sir 39:19; 42:18; Jer 32[39]:19; Hebr 4:13.  Cf. Job 23:10 – 12; 31:5 – 6.  Cf. Gen 14:19, 22; Pss 50:4; 57:12 (Krüger, “Himmel,” 66).  Cf. Job 15:7– 8; Gen 3:22; Ezek 28:12– 17. Cosmos and Creation in Job 38 (Septuagint) 59 years and special astral periods represent an essential characteristic of the creation.¹³ Yet this also refers back to Job’s complaints about his suffering in time and to his futile wish to undo time, as related at the opening of the poetic section (Job 3:1– 9). Ultimately, the juxtaposition of Job’s presumed “understanding” (σύνεσις, v. 4) with God’s true “wisdom” (σοφία, v. 37) is characterized, on the one hand, by the underlying conviction, in biblical cosmologies as well as in those of classical antiquity, that the cosmic phenomena may be adequately described and comprehended only by courtesy of God’s instruction (cf. Sir 43:33; Wis 7:17). On the other hand, the contrast between Job’s limited understanding and God’s all-encompassing wisdom marks the categorical difference between God and humankind, which is reflected throughout the entire book in its treatment of the dimensions of justice and life. Unique characteristics of the Greek text in the closing frame of Job 38 are: firstly, that, with the motif of “tilting (κλίνω) heaven” (v. 37)—as compared to “tilting the waterskins of heaven” in the MT—the aspect of theophany is again introduced;¹⁴ secondly, that God’s actions are especially emphasized (v. 38b: “I have cemented”); and thirdly, that heaven is (metaphorically) compared with a cube (κύβος).¹⁵ The creation of the earth (vv. 4– 7) is described using images from construction. God appears as a wise chief builder and architect (θεμελιόω, cf. Ps 23:2 LXX; Prov 3:19 LXX).¹⁶ He personally measured¹⁷ the ground plan of the earth, which is imagined as a large house, and laid its cornerstone (λίθος γωνιαῖος),¹⁸ the exceptionally important starting block of a building (even a temple). Foundations entail property rights. God is therefore the owner of everything that fills the earth and lives upon it (cf. Ps 23:1– 2). Compared to the MT, the Greek version expressly mentions the creation of the stars (v. 7a).¹⁹ By noting the stars and touching upon the angels’ glorification of the Creator (v. 7b),  Cf. Gen 1; Sir 42:18 – 19; Plato, Tim. 37d–40c.  Cf. LXX Pss 17:10; 143:5 (Heater, Translation Technique, 125; Hartenstein, “Wolkendunkel,” 130).  On the discussion of whether the earth is a cube, see Empedocles, Fragmenta 96.8; Aristotle, Cael. 307a 8.  Cf. LXX Pss 101:26; 103:5, 8; MT Isa 48:13; 51:13; 54:11; Amos 9:6; Zech 12:1; Ps 89[88]:12; Plato, Tim. 29a (the creator, ποιητής, as τεκταινόμενος); on this, see also Hartenstein, “Wolkendunkel,” 133.  Cf. 2 Kgs 21:13; Zech 1:16; Ezek 40:3.  Cf. Is 28:16; Jer 51[28]:25 – 26; Ps 117[118]:22; Matt 21:42; 2Q23 1:6.  Philologically, this could be based on the reading ‫ בברא‬/ ‫ בהברא‬instead of ‫ברן יחד‬, cf. Beer, Text, 237; Heater, Translation Technique, 123. 60 Markus Witte God’s speech offers not only a central motif of creation theology,²⁰ but also a reference to Job’s cursing of the day he came into existence (cf. Job 3:9). Job’s, and therefore humankind’s, position within the framework of the cosmos is put into perspective since Job is made aware of his absolute inferiority to the stars and angels and is referred to the doxology for an appropriate mode of addressing God.²¹ At the same time, v. 7 reveals the role of the angels in the heavenly scenes of the prologue (Job 1:6, 2:1): from time immemorial it has been the angels’ duty to praise God.²² Thus, to cosmology belongs angelology. In the divine liturgies of the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice (4QShirShabb), this mythical motif is widely developed.²³ It finds its earthly counterpart in the praise of God by the congregation that gathered around the Jerusalem Temple, newly founded in 520/515 BCE (cf. Ezra 3:10 – 11). Following on from the foundation of the earth comes the demarcation of the sea (vv. 8 – 11). Various mythological motifs occur in the background of the description of how, in primeval times, the sea broke forth from the womb of the earth and was contained. One may note especially the birth of the sea in Hesiod’s Theogony, and the fight between Baal and Yammu in the Ugaritic Baal Cycle.²⁴ Here, these motifs are connected in idiosyncratic ways, at variance with Gen 1:9 – 10, where the sea appears as God’s work of creation. Just as in the mythical pictures of Job 7:12 and 26:12, the sea is personified. Despite its independence, it answers to the power of the one God alone (cf. 2 Macc 9:8). God “swaddles” (σπαργανόω, v. 9) the sea, expressing both his bond and his legal authority,²⁵ and he subdues it with words alone.²⁶ Any divineness of the sea is thereby clearly rejected. The passage underlines God’s power over chaos, even that which befell Job. The sea’s waves have a quasi-legal demarcation (ὅρια ,v. 10, cf. Ps 148:6 MT).²⁷ Thus at the end of this passage, God’s exclusive power over every cosmic and mortal majesty is stressed (v. 11).²⁸  Cf. Ps 28:1– 2 LXX. In contrast to the MT, the Greek translation of Job 38:7 underlines that the praise refers to God (με). On this motif, see also Enuma Elish 5.77– 89 (Lambert, Creation Myths, 102– 3).  Cf. Job 35:10 MT; Sir 39:14; 43:28.  Cf. LXX Pss 102:20 – 21; 148:1– 3; Dan 3:58 LXX. In the Greek book of Job, the angelology is more intense than in the MT, cf. LXX Job 1:6; 2:1; 4:18; 5:1; 20:15; 33:23; 36:14; 40:11, 19; 41:25.  Cf. 4QShirShabbf (4Q405) XIV; XIX; XX et al.  Hesiod, Theog. 131– 32; The Ba‛lu Myth / CTA 2 (COS 1.86:245 – 49); see also Job 9:8, 13; 26:12; Pss 74[73]:13 – 14; 89[88]:10 – 11; Isa 51:9.  Fuchs, Mythos, 197– 99.  Cf. Job 26:12; Jer 5:22.  Cf. LXX Pss 64:8; 88:10; Isa 48:18 MT.  Cf. LXX Job 38:15; 24:20 (σύντριβω); LXX Ps 73:13. Cosmos and Creation in Job 38 (Septuagint) 61 The third section of the first main part (vv. 12– 15) then expressly develops the theme of time, using the example of the morning light (φέγγος πρωϊνόν) and morning star (ἑωσφόρος).²⁹ Here too, ideas about the foundation of time during the creation and about the everyday maintenance of temporal order (τάξις) flow together.³⁰ God’s exclusive responsibility is stressed in the Greek text even more clearly that in the MT (v. 12). Job is again made to deny the question of whether God established the temporal order at Job’s command. Indeed, Job suffers precisely because he is not able to alter time.³¹ Closely tied to the image of the rising light, spreading over the earth,³² is the motif of the judgement of the ἀσεβεῖς (v. 13, 15). The ἀσεβεῖς need not refer to primeval agents of chaos that God, the Creator, long ago wrestled to the floor.³³ It could also mean “the ungodly”, who, as is explicitly stated in the Septuagint, as opposed to the MT, do not include Job. Rather the ἀσεβεῖς here is the Creator, who is at the same time judge, and as, such, always annihilates. In the Old Testament, morning is regarded as the constant point of origin for the redeeming and guiding intervention of God. (In terms of religious history this is a consequence of the transferral of solar motifs on to YHWH.) The rising sun brings everything to light, including the “ungodly,” whose light is extinguished and, whose hubris God crushes (συντρίβω), as he had done to the pride of the sea (vv. 10 – 11).³⁴ These verses thus also react to Job’s accusation that God put the earth into the hands of an ἀσεβής (Job 9:24), and that the ἀσεβεῖς go unpunished in the world (Job 21:7– 34; 24:1– 12). In principle, vv. 13 and 15 confirm a central thesis of the friends, to which Job also confesses at the end,³⁵ and allude to a theme of God’s second major speech (cf. Job 40:12): evil ultimately has no place in the cosmos that God created. At this point in God’s speech, the fundamental connection between cosmology and theodicy becomes explicit.  On the ἑωσφόρος, see also LXX Job 11:17; 41:10; 1 Kgdms 30:17; Isa 14:12; Ps 109:3 LXX; Homer, Il. 23.226; Hesiod, Theog. 381; Plato, Tim. 38d; Leg. 821c; Eudoxos, Astronom. Fr. 124.88.  Cf. Job 36:28 LXX; Gen 1:3 – 5; Jub. 2:2; Isa 45:7; Jer 38:36 LXX, and Ps 104[103]:19 – 20; Amos 4:13; Sir 43:6– 8, respectively; on the term τάξις in a cosmological context, see also Plato, Tim. 30a.  Cf. Job 3:3 – 9; 7:17– 19; 14:13; 29:2.  Cf. Job 37:3; Isa 24:16.  As found in Keel, Jahwes Entgegnung, 56, cf. Cornelius, “Epiphany,” 25 – 43. Compare the motif of Marduk’s capture of the gods in Enuma Elish 4.123 (Lambert, Creation Myths, 92– 93) and the motif of the fettering of the Titans in Hesiod, Theog. 719 – 21; 729 – 30; Homer, Il. 5.898.  Cf. LXX Pss 2:9; 3:8; 9:36; 36:17; 57:7.  See Job 8:22; 11:20; 15:20; 18:5; 20:5, 29 (cf. Prov 13:9), and Job 24:13 – 14a; 27:7– 10, 13 – 20, respectively. 62 Markus Witte The rhetorical question of whether Job formed (πλάσσω) a living creature from clay and placed a being capable of speech on the earth (v. 14) comes across to him like a foreign body amidst the remarks on the cosmic phenomena of light. In contrast to the MT, the verse accords the creation of humankind a prominent position. Its wording might have originated in a Hebrew Vorlage whose consonantal text did not essentially differ from that of the MT.³⁶ Tradition history and the theological function of v. 14 in the book are relevant for questions about the cosmology of Job 38. In terms of motif, the verse is based on the mythology, widely documented in the ancient Near East and classical antiquity, of the formation of humankind from earth, which ultimately paraphrases the fragility and mortality of humans.³⁷ The hapaxlegomenon λαλητός (“speaking creature”) possibly alludes to Gen 2:19 and the primordial human skill with language, thereby establishing a connection between the cosmology of the Torah and God’s first speech. Micro-textually, the idea of the judgement of the ἀσεβεῖς (vv. 13, 15) is anchored more strongly through a use of the motif of humanity’s creation. These do not then hang in the air as in the MT, but appear as creatures of God that, as it were, underlie the judgement. Macro-textually, Job is reminded of the power of the one divine Creator, but also of his abiding dialogical relatedness to this God.³⁸ So God here reveals Job’s further limitations, in the style of polemic dialectic³⁹ At the same time, he brings home that he is a God of life,⁴⁰ who gave humans the gift of language and, therefore, the ability to express themselves. In the guise of a rhetorical question, v. 14 is the primeval equivalent of the exhortation that opened God’s speech, inviting Job to answer God (v. 3). The broad suppression of humans in the Masoretic version of God’s first speech (cf. v. 26) may be understood as a conscious remediation of the anthropocentrism of the Priestly cosmology in Gen 1 and Ps 8, since according to the Greek version of Job 38, humankind belongs firmly to the fabric of the cosmos (cf. Ps 104).  Cf. Beer, Text, 238, who traces ζῶον back to ‫ חיתם‬instead of ‫“( חותם‬seal”) like in the MT (cf. Heater, Translation Technique, 124– 25, 136 – 37).  Cf. Gen 2:7– 8, 15; Job 10:8 – 9; 34:15 (LXX: πλάσσω); Ps 119[118]:73; 139[138]:5; 2 Macc 7:23; Sib. Or. 3:24; 8:260; Philo, Opif. 134; Rom 9:20. On the richness of the ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian literature see Enki and Ninmaḫ, 58 – 59 (COS 1.159:518); The Epic of Gilgamesh 1.2.33 – 34 (ANET, 74); The Babylonian Theodicy 26 (COS 1.154:495); The Poem of the Rigtheous Sufferer IV frag. C (COS 1.153:492); Amenemope 24.13 (COS 1.47:121); cf. Pettinato, Menschenbild, 39 – 42). On classical antiquity, see Aesop, Fab. 110, 111, 228, 229; Callimachus, Fragmenta incertis sedis 493.2; Philemon Comicus, Fragmenta 95.3 et al.  Cf. Job 10:8 – 12; 30:19; 33:6.  Cf. Isa 40:12– 31.  Cf. Ezek 18:23 – 32: Jonah 4:10 – 11; Wis 11:26. Cosmos and Creation in Job 38 (Septuagint) 63 Therefore in Job 38, the creation of humans must be mentioned as strongly as the description of earth, sea, heaven, stars and weather (cf. Job 34:15 LXX). From times on earth, God then leads Job—and the reader—on his imaginary journey through the cosmos to the sources of the sea, which, according to the ancient Near Eastern and classical conception of the world, are located under the earth; they are the deep (ἄβυσσος),⁴¹ and the breadths of space “under heaven” (ὑπ᾿ οὐρανόν)⁴² (vv. 16 – 18). Naturally, Job neither penetrated these dimensions, nor reached the “gates of death” (πύλαι θανάτου), or the “gatekeepers of Hades” (πυλωροὶ ᾅδου, v. 17) located in their midst.⁴³ Abyssos and Hades mark the greatest possible cosmic depths. Like heaven itself (cf. Job 22:14b), these spaces are accessible only to God, before whom Hades lies open, and who looks to the ends of the earth.⁴⁴ It was not always thus in the history of Yahwistic religion. YHWH was first also granted power over the erstwhile lord of the underworld, the god Mot, during the second half of the first millennium BCE, in the course of the movement toward monotheism.⁴⁵ By the time of the poet who translated Job, the old gods of the underworld were long disempowered.⁴⁶ Only YHWH commanded the depths⁴⁷ and Hades, so that Job, even when he considers himself on the brink of death,⁴⁸ is unable to inform God about them (Job 11:7– 8). Again, Job is shown the limitations of his knowledge of the world, and at the same time, his wish that he could hide himself from God’s grasp in Hades is a perverted notion.⁴⁹ The topography implied here, which portrays the kingdom of the dead as a subterranean palace or a subterranean city with gates (cf. Job 17:13; Isa 38:10), is generally ancient Near Eastern and has numerous parallels in classical antiquity.⁵⁰ Crucial to the cosmology of Job 38 is the fact that the underworld is here expressly addressed as its  Cf. LXX Gen 1:2; 7:11; 8:2; Prov 8:24; Sir 42:18; see also the description of the Tartaros (LXX Job 40:20; 41:24) by Hesiod, Theog. 720 – 31, 736 – 41; Homer, Il. 8.14– 16.481.  Cf. LXX Job 5:10; 9:6, 13; 28:24; 34:13; 38:24, 33; 41:3; Prov 8:26, 28 LXX; Esth 4:17c LXX.  Cf. Isa 38:10; Ps 9:14; Hesiod, Theog. 726 – 27; Homer, Il. 8.15 – 16; 8.367; 23.71– 74; Od. 11.571; Aeschylus, Ag. 1291; Apollodor, Bibl. 3.159.  Cf. Job 26:6 MT; θ’; 28:24; Ps 138:7– 12 LXX; Amos 9:2– 3.  Cf. Isa 25:8; 26:19, and on this, see Witte, “Weg,” 95 – 115.  Cf. Ps 139[138]:8; Wis 16:13.  Cf. Ps 135[134]:6; Prov 8:28.  Job 7:21; 10:20 – 22; 19:17– 20, cf. Isa 38:10; Pss 9:14; 107[106]:18; Sir 51:9; 3 Macc 5:51; Pss. Sol. 16:2; 1QHa 14.24.  Cf. Job 3:11– 19; 14:13, cf. Amos 9:2; Ps 139[138]:8.  Cf. e. g. the Akkadian poem of Ishtar’s descent to the underworld (COS 1.108:381– 84) or Hesiod, Theog. 767; Homer, Il. 5.646; 9.312; 23.71; Od. 24.203; Theognis, Eleg. 1.427; Aeschylus, Ag. 1291; Euripides, Alc. 126 et al. 64 Markus Witte own distinct space, something that is logical in terms of cosmic-topography, but also intrinsically so (in regard to Job’s mentions of the Sheol, cf. Job 7:9; 14:13; 17:13 – 16; 26:6). The subsequent questions to Job (vv. 19 – 21) make use of the mythologem of the house of light and darkness, which is well known in classical antiquity.⁵¹ The verses again bring Job’s control over the phenomena of light into question. With the aid of the term τόπος (v. 19b), they characterize cosmology as an orientation in space and time (cf. Job 28:12, 20, 23). The sequence concludes with the halfironic self-predication of God as the lord of time, who knows Job’s age precisely (v. 21). Due to the modification of the second person singular (‫ )ידעת‬into the first person (οἶδα), the motif of the wisdom of the primeval human (cf. v. 4) that is present in the MT sounds only more distant in the Greek text. In a culture in which knowledge is intrinsically related to experience, one’s level of wisdom grows with increasing age.⁵² Notwithstanding the fact that understanding always dwindles away (cf. Qoh 1:11, 16 – 17; 2:16), no human knowledge stretches back to the very beginnings. The origins are known only to God, as the lord of time and eternity (cf. Ps 90:2, 10; Sir 18:8 – 10); Job inherently knows this, though it is brought home to him again here. He must evidently learn (again), however arduous it may be in his situation, to set his time in relation to God’s time, so that at the end he can say: ἐν ταῖς χερσίν σου οἱ καιροί μου (Ps 30:16 LXX).⁵³ A three-part section on specific times, dealing with weather, follows the remarks on the basic segmentation of time according to light and darkness. Meteorological occurrences like snow, hail, hoarfrost, wind, rain, storms and ice are the subject matter in nine verses (vv. 22– 30; two of which are added from Theodotion). Snow (χιών) and hail (χάλαζα) are here conceived of as stored in treasure vaults (θησαυροί), each of which God empties at specified times (v. 22).⁵⁴ They appear not only as natural properties⁵⁵ but also as instruments of destruction in the power of the judgmental and belligerent God (v. 23).⁵⁶ In contrast to the MT, the Septuagint expressly notes that God deploys these tools for Job. At the same time, with the ἡμέρα πολέμου καὶ μάχης (v. 23), the historical aspect  Hesiod, Theog. 745 – 57.  Cf. Job 8:8 – 13; 15:9; 32:6.  Cf. Ps 90:12; Job 1:21.  Cf. Ps 33[32]:7; Sir 39:30; 43:14.  Cf. Pss 147:16 – 17; 37:6; Sir 43:17– 18; Jub. 2:2; Homer, Il. 12.278 – 86.  Cf. Exod 9:13 – 35; Josh 10:11; Ps 18:13 – 14; Sir 39:28 – 31; 43:13 – 17; Wis 16:16; Isa 28:17; 30:30; Ezek 13:13; Hag 2:17. Against the background of Exod 9:13 – 35, TgJob 38:23—like a Midrash—identifies this day of battle with the Pharaoh’s war against the Israelites (cf. TgJob 5:12– 13). Cosmos and Creation in Job 38 (Septuagint) 65 expands the prehistoric and cosmological account.⁵⁷ The phenomena of snow and hail are directly bound to those of frost (πάχνη) and wind (νότος) (v. 24).⁵⁸ A characteristic streak of the Septuagint reveals itself here: whereas the MT talks of an east wind (‫ )קדים‬that brings aridity, in conformity with the Syrian-Palestinian landscape,⁵⁹ the Septuagint mentions the stormy south-west wind (νότος) bringing moisture that is saturated with dune sand at Sirte.⁶⁰ Therefore, in the Septuagint, the description of heavy rain in v. 25 comes not as a contrasting addition (as in the MT) but rather a complimentary one. The description of the rain that follows in vv. 26 – 27 of the MT is missing in the original Greek text. Possibly, the translator felt these verses were redundant. In any case, central to the questions put to Job in the Greek text, exactly as in the MT, stands the notion that none other than God is responsible for thunderstorms and heavy downpours, as well as for frost, cold and large sheets of ice (vv. 25 – 30*).⁶¹ Motifs from the mythology of the weather god are playfully employed (v. 25, cf. Ps 29[28]:3 – 9). However, in contrast to the MT, these are not flanked by any rationalising tendency; rather, the God of Israel appears mythopoetically as the single true father of rain (v. 28). Pagan Greek poets speak in this fashion about Zeus.⁶² A section on the heavenly bodies follows upon the representation of precipitation and frost in a way that makes sense meteorologically (vv. 31– 33). From the “deep” (ἄβυσσος, v. 30),⁶³ the glance turns once more to the sky (cf. v. 7) and makes the Pleiades and Orion (v. 31) its theme.⁶⁴ V. 32, which is missing in the Old Greek, possibly because the translator was not familiar with the rare Hebrew word ‫( מזרות‬cf. 2 Kgs 23:5 LXX),⁶⁵ adds Venus (ἕσπερος).⁶⁶ These constella-  Cf. Hos 10:14; Amos 1:14; Zeph 1:15; Zech 14:3; Ps 78[77]:9, epigraphically (in relation to Baal and El) in the inscriptions from Kuntillet ‛Aǧrūd (AHI 8.023:82). On the eschatological use of these phrases, see Dan 12:1; 1QM 1:11– 12; 7:6; 13:14; 15:12.  Cf. Job 37:6; Ps 148:8; Sir 43:16 – 20.  Cf. Gen 41:6; Ezek 17:10; 19:12; Hos 13:15; Jonah 4:8.  On the translation of ‫ קדים‬as νότος, see also Exod 10:13; 14:21 and Ps 78[77]:26.  Cf. Pss 104[103]:13; 147:8, 17; Sir 43:20; Jub. 2:2.  On Zeus’s goodness as a father, see Aratus, Phaen. 15; Callimachus, Hymn. Jov. 94; Cleanthes, In Iovem 34. On Zeus as provider of the rain and dew, see e. g. Homer, Il. 12,25; 14.345 – 51; Herodot, Hist. 2.13.3. In Babylonian mythology, Marduk is the lord of the winds and rainstorms (cf. Enuma Elish, 5.50 – 52 [Lambert, Creation Myths, 100 – 101]).  The Greek manuscripts have ἀσεβοῦς (cf. La: impii), which results from an error in the transmission process (cf. Ziegler, Iob, 388).  Cf. Job 9:9; Isa 13:10 LXX; Amos 5:8 MT.  On this, see in detail Albani, “Sternbilder,” 181– 226. According to Albani, the ‫ מזרות‬are “‛Standortgestirne()’, eine bestimmte Gruppe von Sternen (…), die mit ihren heliakischen Aufgängen eine Art Jahresuhr für die Landwirtschaft und das irdische Leben darstellten und die 66 Markus Witte tions were viewed in the ancient Near East and in antiquity as bearing a close causal relation to the weather. The Pleiades and Orion were considered the cornerstones of seasonal change.⁶⁷ In Babylonian mythology, they are answerable to Marduk’s decree, in Greek mythology, to Zeus’ decree; in Job 38, it is the God of Israel alone who determines the changing of the times and knows the “turns of heaven” (τροπαὶ οὐρανοῦ).⁶⁸ Yet even as the stars provide cues for agriculture, for navigation at sea, and for setting festal cycles, and may be classified through astronomical observations,⁶⁹ human beings are ultimately no more capable of understanding these than events on earth. The passage on the weather phenomena concludes with a fresh series of questions to Job regarding his alleged power over the clouds, rain and lightning (vv. 34– 35). The poetically personified flashes of lightning (κεραυνοί, v. 35)⁷⁰ are both natural occurrences and weapons of the punitive weather God, be it YHWH or Zeus.⁷¹ They too, as a matter of course, elude Job’s grasp. God’s cosmic power once more reveals itself in the fact that, in his “wisdom” (σοφίᾳ),⁷² he is able to number the clouds and tilt the sky towards the earth (vv. 37– 38). Following on from these cosmological-meteorological questions, and in view of God’s entire first speech, the question to Job of whether he gave the weaver women wisdom and knowledge of embroidery (v. 36) is striking. This verse differs markedly from the MT, where two birds are alluded to in the words ‫ טחות‬and ‫שכוי‬. zwölf Monate des Jahres astral kennzeichneten.” (loc. cit., 199). Theodotion, from whom v. 32 in the LXX stems, only transcribes.  Cf. Job 9:9; Parmenides, Fr. 40a; Plato, Leg. 821c. Job 38:32 mentions the ‫עיש‬, Aldebaran, which is accompanied by smaller stars, the Hyades (on this, see Albani, “Sternbilder,” 204– 5).  On this, see Hesiod, Op. 382– 86, 563 – 68, 571– 72, 608 – 16, and Aratus, Phaen. 255 – 67, but also Homer, Il. 18.483 – 89; Apollonius of Rhode, Argon. 2.1099; 3.226, and Callimachus, Frag. grammatica 407.41– 42.  Cf. Gen 1:14– 19 (compare Enuma Elish, 5.1– 26 [(Lambert, Creation Myths, 98 – 99); Pss 147[146]:4; 148:6; Isa 13:10; 40:26; Jer 31:35 – 36; 33:25 – 26; Pss. Sol. 18:10 – 12. By using the term τροπή, the translator employs a meteorological and astronomical terminus technicus of Greek cosmologies, cf. Homer, Od. 15.404; Hesiod, Op. 479; Plato, Tim. 39d; Aristotle, Hist. an. 542b; Epicurus, Epistula ad Pythocles 93.3; but also Philo, Agr. 51.5.  Cf. Hesiod, Op. 382– 83, 571– 72, 608 – 10, and Homer, Od. 5.270 – 77; Apollonius of Rhode, Argon. 3.745.  Cf. Sir 43:13; Bar 3:33 – 35.  Cf. Pss 77[76]:19; 135[134]:7; Wis 19:13; Homer, Il. 8.133; Od. 12.415 – 16; 14.305; Hesiod, Theog. 141; Pindar, Nem. 9.24; Aeschylus, Prom. 667– 68; Sophocles, Oed. tyr. 202; Cleanthes, In Iovem, 10; et al.  Cf. Ps 104:24; Prov 3:19; Jer 10:12. Cosmos and Creation in Job 38 (Septuagint) 67 The ‫טחות‬, the ibis, as herald of the flooding of the Nile⁷³ and the ‫שכוי‬, the rooster, as signal of the breaking day,⁷⁴ fit well within the catalogue of weather phenomena and cosmic signs. They lead into the animal pictures in the second main section of God’s first speech (Job 38:41– 39:30). The Greek translator seems not to have been familiar with these two rare Hebrew words. As earlier in v. 14, he emphatically offers an anthropological motif within the cosmology: human wisdom and insight are alone a gift of God the Creator.⁷⁵ Focusing on the arts of weaving (ὕφασμα) and embroidery (ποικιλτικός) as examples of God’s gift of wisdom, points to a genuine Israelite-Jewish cult motif.⁷⁶ The word ὕφασμα predominantly appears in the Septuagint within the context of the production of priestly robes (cf. Exod 28:8, 17; 36:17[39:10], 29[39:21]).⁷⁷ The Septuagint makes use of the word ποικιλτικός only once elsewhere, in connection with the tabernacle (Exod 37:21[23]). The portrayal of women’s gift for wisdom converges closely with the description of holy garments and the tabernacle in Exod 35:25 – 26. Such a record of cult-theological elements is also found in other passages of the Greek Job.⁷⁸ It is significant for the cosmology of Job 38 that creation, cosmos and temple are thought of in close correlation; this is consistent with other passages of the Old Testament and in ancient Near Eastern texts.⁷⁹ At the end, the prototype of the earthly sanctuary is set alongside the angels’ heavenly glorification of God, mentioned at the beginning of God’s speech (v. 7). The translator accepts the fact that this record breaks from the non-Israelite setting in which the Septuagint unequivocally places Job,⁸⁰ since, after all, the questions put to Job about heaven and earth are questions for the contemporary reader of the book. One encounters frequent occurrences of such “anachronisms” in the rab-  The ibis receives insects from wet grounds and thus signals the rise of the Nile. As such, it is the symbol of the Egyptian god Thoth (Ḏḥwtj), the scribe of the court of the dead and the god of time.  Cf. 3 Macc 5:23; Mark 14:30 par. Theognis, Eleg. 1.863 – 64; Pliny, Nat. 10.46.  On the gift of wisdom from YHWH, see also Exod 31:6; 1 Kgs 5:26; Prov 2:6; Qoh 2:26; Wis 7:15; 8:21; Sir 1:10; 43:33.  Philologically, the translator combines ‫ טחות‬with ‫“( טוה‬to spin”), cf. Beer, Text, 240. The motif of divine sharing of knowledge of the art of spinning is also found in pagan mythology (cf. Hesiod, Op. 63 – 64).  Furthermore, only in Judg 16:14.  Cf. Job 1:5d LXX (cf. Lev 4:8, 13 – 14, 20); LXX Job 8:20b; 20:6.  Cf. Pss 24; 36; 93, and on this, see Janowski, “Tempel,” 214– 46; Albani, “Haus,” 37– 56; Hartenstein, “Wolkendunkel,” 125 – 79.  Cf. Job 1:1, and the Greek appendix in 42:17b: Job lived in the land Ausitis, on the borders of Idumea and Arabia. 68 Markus Witte binic Targum on the book of Job.⁸¹ Actually, they are already evident in the Hebrew Bible, e. g., in the distinctions between the pure and impure animals in the account of Noah’s flood (Gen 7:2– 3, 8; 8:20) and in the allusion to the Jerusalem high priest in Gen 14:18 – 22. 2.2 Classification of the differences between Job 38 in the Septuagint and in the MT By means of a retrospective view of Job 38 in the Septuagint and in the MT, one may identify their differences according to three categories. Firstly, micro- and macro-textual “surpluses” are evident in the Greek text, which serve to make individual poetic units more strongly attuned to one another stylistically, and individual sections of the book more closely related to each other compositionally.⁸² Secondly, one finds isolated “omissions” of particular cola or words that the translator evidently viewed as redundant (as at vv. 26 – 27) or did not understand (as at v. 32).⁸³ Thirdly, one encounters six factual distinctions in Greek Job: (a) the emphasis on the theophanic and revelatory character of God’s speech (cf. vv. 1, 34, 37); (b) the relativizing of mortal power and the concomitant enhancement of God’s omnipotence and omniscience (cf. vv. 2, 21, 38), which intensifies the relationship between God and Job;⁸⁴ (c) the stress on the divine first person as creator (cf. vv. 7, 8a, 12, 38); (d) the express mention of the creation of humankind (v. 14), which contextually anchors the complex of themes that deal with God’s actions in relation to the judgement of the wicked (vv. 13, 15), and accentuates the cosmology of Job 38 on an anthropological level; and (e) the special stress on the gift of wisdom to the weaver women in v. 36, through which runs a cult motif (in allusion to LXX Exod 28, 35 and 37) that emphasises the connection between cosmology and temple theology, which one notes elsewhere in the Old Testament and in the ancient Near East.  For instance, the Targum mentions the Torah (TgJob 3:16 – 17; 5:7; 11:8; 22:22; 24:13), the Garden of Eden (28:6; 38:18), the flood (4:8; 6:17; 22:17; 24:2) and the patriarchs (3:19; 4:7; 5:17; 14:18; 15:10; 30:19; 32:2) and alludes to the holy land or the history of Israel (3:5; 4:18; 5:10, 12; 18:17; 38:13), cf. Mangan, Targum, 15 – 16; Witte, “Hiob,” 172– 84.  Cf. Job 38:2b, 17b.  The range of “omissions” in Job 38 is below average when compared to the “omissions” over the whole book, especially in chapters 31– 42.  See the personal pronouns in vv. 2, 4b, 12, 18b, 20, 21, 23 and, compared to the MT, the strengthened contrast between the possible action of Job and the real action of God in vv. 12a, 14, 15, 20, 34a. Cosmos and Creation in Job 38 (Septuagint) 69 These differences may be ascribed variously to: (a) differences in interpretation of an unpointed Hebrew Vorlage; (b) the use of a Vorlage that differed from the MT; and (c) conscious alterations. Throughout, they have their own distinct, objective meaning. They color the profile of the cosmology of Job 38 in its Greek translation and are evidence of the progressive transmission of ancient Near Eastern traditions into the Greek-Hellenistic world.⁸⁵ 3 The Greek version of Job 38 in its literary-historical contexts Like the other books in the Septuagint, the Greek book of Job has three literary and tradition-historical contexts, alongside its anchoring in the ancient Near East and in ancient Egypt: firstly, the entire early Jewish literature, including the Septuagint itself; secondly, the early Christian writings that emerged out of this; and thirdly, the pagan Greek literature. By being translated into Greek, the Jewish texts became part of Greek literary and intellectual history. In terms of this paper on the cosmology of Job 38, one must ask about possible references to Jewish works of the Hellenistic-Roman period, to the New Testament and to pagan authors. I explore this question by using select examples. I distinguish between explicit references and possible implicit references within the corpus of the Septuagint, and then conclude with an imagined intertextual scenario. 3.1 Two examples of explicit references The Testament of Job is a broadly conceived and free adaptation of the book of Job that is primarily designed to be a retrospect on the life of Job, who is completely above his suffering, and who is aware of the resurrection.⁸⁶ It contains two explicit quotations from God’s first speech and a single allusion to one of its motifs. T. Job 42:1 incorporates the headline of God’s first speech in the long version of the Septuagint. Over and above 38:1, God’s speech becomes expressly characterized as a theophany (ἀναφαίνω); it is also noted that Job’s friends heard God’s voice too. In T. Job 47:5, the motif that Job ought to gird himself (ζώννυμι) for the encounter with God is developed in a midrashic manner. Thus, in connection with the healing he experienced from God, Job receives  On this, see Keel, Weltbilder, 27– 63.  Cf. T. Job 4:9 – 11. 70 Markus Witte three belts that, as φυλακτέρον, protect him and bestow special knowledge, for example, about the angels (T. Job 47:11). The motif is reminiscent of Joshua’s investiture with Moses’s belt, which conferred special knowledge, according to Pseudo-Philo (LAB 20:2). Against this background, Job 38:3 appears not so much as an ironic challenge for Job to combat, but rather as a rite of wondrous transformation (T. Job 52:1). In T. Job 43:5 – 6, the motif of depriving the wicked of light (Job 38:13, 15) is applied to Elihu in particular. This man, in T. Job—in contrast to the MT and to the Septuagint—is unambiguously negative and seen as a tool of Satan, out of whom “not a man, but a wild beast” speaks (T. Job 42:2; cf. T. Job 41:5; 43:17). The “doorkeepers (θυρωροί) of the darkness” will therefore be heirs to Elihu (T. Job 43:5). Hades, which is described in Job 38:17 as merely a room in the cosmos, is in T. Job a place of punishment for the ungodly;⁸⁷ however, the souls of the just, such as Job, are accepted into heavenly splendour (cf. T. Job 52:6 – 10). The actual cosmological content of the first of God’s speeches is not discussed in T. Job. It is noted no more than summarily, in connection with Job 42:12a, that God spoke powerfully to Job and revealed to him the past and the future (τὰ γένομενα καὶ τὰ μέλλοντα) (T. Job 47:9). More clearly than in Job 38 LXX, Job thus becomes a subject of divine revelation, like Moses in the Book of Jubilees (Jub. 1:4). The revelatory character of Job 38 LXX is hereby specifically emphasised. While the biblical book of Job includes a passage on cosmology, the pseudepigraphic T. Job has an explicit soteriology, by way of the tale of the wondrous healing of a martyr. Alongside the account of the creation and its preservation now stands the wonder of the new creation. In the New Testament, there is no unambiguous reference to the first of God’s speeches. Nevertheless, Job 38:17 is echoed in Rev 1:18 (among other passages), which states that Jesus Christ holds the “keys of death and of Hades” (κλεῖς τοῦ θανάτου καὶ τοῦ ᾅδου). Here, Job 38:17 plays an important role in early Christian exegetical explanations of the dogmatic topos of Christ’s descent to Hades.⁸⁸ In the context of a christological exegesis based upon the Old and New Testaments, Jesus Christ appears as the figure who, in contrast to Job, has descended to the “gates of death” and now has the power over life and death. Just as, according to the exegesis of the early church, the suffering Job  Cf. 1 En. 63:10; 2 En. 10; 40:12– 42:2; Pss. Sol. 14:6; 15:11; Wis 2:1; 17:14; 3 Bar. 4; Philo, Somn. 1.151; Josephus, J.W. 3.375; Luke 16:23; 1 Pet 3:19. On this, see Jeremias, ᾅδης, 146 – 50.  Cf. Symbolum Apostolicum. Further references for this dogmatic topos in the New Testament are Mark 16:1– 2; 1 Cor 15:4; Rev 9:1; 20:1– 3, 14. Matt 16:18 offers the comparable phrase πύλαι ᾅδου. This phrase exists in many other early Jewish (and pagan) scriptures (cf. note 43); thus there is no clear indication of any direct recourse to Job 38:17 (cf. Isa 38:10 LXX; 3 Macc 5:51; Wis 16:13; Pss. Sol. 16:2). Cosmos and Creation in Job 38 (Septuagint) 71 may be understood as a paradigm for Christ,⁸⁹ so too the Job of God’s first speech thereby becomes a prototype for Christ, whom, in keeping with the Gospel of Nicodemus, Hades himself dreads (Gos. Nic. 20:2). In this manner a piece of Old Testament cosmology moves in the guise of Christology.⁹⁰ 3.2 Two possible examples of implicit references in the corpus of the Septuagint In terms of both material content and tendency, the nearest biblical relative to Job 38 is the hymn to God’s works of creation in Sir 42:15 – 43:33. In almost every verse one may discern parallels from Job 38. As in Job 38 in the Greek version, cosmology and anthropology are viewed in close connection (cf. Sir 42:18; 43:24, 33). In contrast to Job 38, the sun and the moon are accorded much space, whilst no theme is made of the underworld. The most important formal difference is the composition of Sir 42:15 – 43:33, a hymn-like description of the creation in which God is described in the third-person singular and the praise of the Lord is expressly invoked (Sir 43:28 – 30). In view of the systematic scheme employed in the description of cosmic and meteorological phenomena, and of formulations that unambiguously hark back to Stoic philosophy,⁹¹ Sir 42:15 – 43:33 appears more modern than Job 38. In view of its hymnic structure, it appears more traditional, and in view of its explicit comments on God’s being, more theological. The acknowledgment that it is only partially possible to understand God’s works and God’s self (Sir 42:15b; 43:27, 31– 33) reads like a commentary on the questions that God poses to Job. However, Sir 42:15 – 43:33 does not reach the theological complexity of Job: for in contrast to Sir 43:31, Job has seen God (Job 42:5). Job’s vision, which also includes a look into God’s abysses, is more than the wisdom that Ben Sira has God bestow upon the pious. Regarding the dimension of revelation (cf. Sir 42:19), Job 38 converges even more closely with Solomon’s prayer in Wis 7:15 – 22a. The text offers an extremely dense wisdom cosmology. It contains all the essential parts of a classical cosmology (creation, chronology, astronomy, meteorology, zoology and pharmacology). Its epistemological centre is the answer to God’s question to Job in chapter 38: God himself bestowed upon pseudo-Solomon infallible knowledge (γνῶσις) of being, of the structure of the cosmos, and of the effective power of the elements,  Cf. Origen, Comm. in Matt. XIII, 8 (PG 13:1113, 17– 18); Severian, In Iob (PG 56:578, 22).  On this, see in detail Gounelle, Le frémissement, 177– 214.  Cf. Sir 42:23 – 25; 43:27. 72 Markus Witte the hidden and the evident—all courtesy of σοφία (Wis 7:17, 22a). Un-mythological and strongly stamped by pagan philosophy, wisdom as τεχνῖτις (Wis 7:22a, cf. 8:6; 14:2) is here assigned almost the same cosmic role that God himself had in Job 38. It is precisely when compared to Wis 7, that Job 38, despite its mythological aspects (which are also present in the Greek translation), proves to be a strictly “monotheistic” cosmology. 3.3 An imagined intertextual scenario to close In view of its dialogical structure and its final theophany,⁹² which reminds one of Zeus’ manifestations, its mixing and alienation of diverse genres and traditions, but also the complex of themes handled within it, the book of Job, at least in its Greek form, stands alongside the classical tragedies. Particular church fathers famously noted such comparisons.⁹³ The rhetorical question put to Job, which only exists in the Greek text of Job 38, of whether he shaped a living being from clay (v. 14) may well have contributed to this assessment, set as it is against the background of the widely disseminated myth of the creation of man through Prometheus.⁹⁴ In terms of the cosmology in Job 38, with its diverse doxological, epistemological, mythical and natural-historical elements, the Greek book of Job makes an independent contribution to the diverse cosmological discourse of the pagan Hellenistic world. Until now, there has been no evidence that the book of Job was read by nonJews in its day. Yet, an erudite pagan reader, versed in the reflections of the Ionic natural philosophers and the cosmological standard text of classical antiquity, Plato’s Timaeus, could surely have comprehended the close connection between theology and cosmology in Job 38.⁹⁵ The stress on the Creator’s care for the entire cosmos that runs through Job 38 despite all the irony and polemic in the book of Job’s dramaturgy, as well as the theocentric linking of aetiology, causality and teleology in God’s first speech, correlate with the conviction of the underlying goodness and providence (πρόνοια) of Plato’s demiurge (Tim. 28c–29a; 29e–  Cf. Homer, Il. 16, 364– 365 et al.; Aeschylus, Prom., 1080 – 93.  Cf. Theodor of Mopsuestia, In Jobum (PG 66:697– 98), on this, see Witte, “Gattung,” 37.  Cf. Aesop, Fab. 229.1; Callimachus, Fr. incertae sedis 493.1– 2; Flavius Philostratus, De gymnastica 16.14– 15; Cornutus, Nat. d. 18. On modern comparisons of the book of Job and Aeschylus’ Prometheus, see Witte, “Hiob,” 188 – 89 (with note 82).  See especially the invocation of the gods at the beginning of the cosmological section (Tim. 27b–d), its recapitulation at the beginning of the second main section, which is dedicated to causality (ἀνάγκη) (Tim. 48d), and the doxology at the end of the dialogue (Tim. 92c). Cosmos and Creation in Job 38 (Septuagint) 73 30c). The relativization of human insight into cosmological connections that ensues from the very opening of God’s first speech, and from its rhetorical questions, should be just as obvious to anyone familiar with Timaeus—whose statements throughout seem a probable proposition (εἰκὼς μῦθος/εἰκότες λόγοι) (Tim. 29d; 48d)—as the integration of mythological motifs into a seemingly scientific representation of meteorological and astral phenomena and the thematization of the creation of humankind, which occupies a great deal of space in Timaeus (Tim. 41e–47e).⁹⁶ If an educated Greek of the second or first century BCE knew the Phaenomena of Aratus of Soloi (which is quite possible given the fact that this was already being used as a school text in the first half of the 2nd century BCE)⁹⁷ then he would have discovered familiar material in Job 38, especially since, conversely, there is evidence that the translator of the Greek book of Job had read Aratus. The Phaenomena demonstrates the interaction between ancient Near Eastern and pagan Hellenistic cosmologies. Coming from the perspective of Aratus’ glorification of Zeus as the philanthropic father and familiarity with the Stoic idea of a divine wisdom that pervades the entire universe,⁹⁸ the Greek translator would have understood the self-predication of Job’s God, which is concerned with the preservation of the world. The description of the weather in Job 38 would have reminded him of the second main part of the Phaenomena, the meteorology (Phaen. 733 – 1154). The brief observations of the Pleiades and Orion in Job 38:31 might have struck him as an excerpt from the detailed description of the heavenly bodies in the first main section of Aratus’ didactic poem (Phaen. 415 – 732)⁹⁹. The mythical digression concerning the retreat of the goddess Dike could have prepared him for the connection between creation and justice in Job 38 (Phaen. 96 – 136).¹⁰⁰ Perhaps lost on the pagan reader were remarks on the theogony, or on divine genealogies, as are found in Plato and Aratus¹⁰¹ (not to mention Aratus’ great role model, Hesiod). But the relativity of human insight into cosmic connections that is detailed in Job 38, as expressly formulat-  Added to this are (1) the extensive description of sensual perception, of the human soul, the body and the organs, and (2) the differentiation of the genders (Tim. 61c–68e; 69c–91d).  Cf. P.Hamb. 121 (quoted by Fantuzzi, Aratos, 960). On the special appreciation of Aratus’ work by Hellenistic and Roman authors and in early Christianity, see—apart from the quotation of Phaen. 5 in Aristobul. Frg. 4 (Eusebius, Praep. ev. 13.12.6); Act 17:28—Fantuzzi, loc. cit.  Cf. Aratus, Phaen. 1– 18, 96 – 136, 758 – 72.  Cf. Hesiod, Theog. 383 – 87; Op. 608 – 16.  For Parmenides too, Dike plays an important role in the mediation of cosmological knowledge (cf. Mansfeld, Vorsokratiker I:312– 13).  Cf. Plato, Tim. 40d–41b; Aratus, Phaen. 15 – 16, 97– 99, 179 – 80. 74 Markus Witte ed in the above-cited summation found in the creation hymn of Ben Sira (Sir 43:27, 31), will have struck him as most familiar from reading Timaeus and the Phaenomena: “[…] for not yet do we mortals know all from Zeus, but much still remains hidden […]” (Phaen. 768 – 70). Such an understanding is typical of the cosmology of antiquity, Jewish as well as non-Jewish. Its counterpart is the doxology, and this applies to the biblical psalms just as it does to Plato’s Timaeus, Aratus’ Phaenomena and the biblical Job, who at the end declares: “I know that you can do everything and that nothing is impossible for you.” (Job 42:2) Bibliography Albani, Matthias. ‟‛Wo sollte ein Haus sein, das ihr mir bauen könnt?’ (Jes 66,1). 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