Literary Depictions of the Scribal Profession in the Story of Ahiqar and Jeremiah 36

James D. Moore

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2021
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Print ISBN:
  9783110752540
• Subtopic: Biblical Reference
• eBook ISBN:
  9783110753127

In der Reihe Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (BZAW) erscheinen Arbeiten zu sämtlichen Gebieten der alttestamentlichen Wissenschaft. Im Zentrum steht die Hebräische Bibel, ihr Vor- und Nachleben im antiken Judentum sowie ihre vielfache Verzweigung in die benachbarten Kulturen der altorientalischen und hellenistisch-römischen Welt.

Die BZAW akzeptiert Manuskriptvorschläge, die einen innovativen und signifikanten Beitrag zu Erforschung des Alten Testaments und seiner Umwelt leisten, sich intensiv mit der bestehenden Forschungsliteratur auseinandersetzen, stringent aufgebaut und flüssig geschrieben sind.

1 Introduction

At first glance, the Aramaic Story of Ahiqar and the Hebrew Tale of Jeremiah and Baruch’s Scroll in MT Jer 36 (LXX Jer 43) have little in common, and this study begins with the presumption that the two are fundamentally different. The Story of Ahiqar is about the tribulations of a courtier who falls from the king’s grace, but is later rehabilitated. The Tale of Jeremiah and Baruch’s Scroll concerns a prophet of Yahweh, Jeremiah, who, with Baruch, writes prophecies on a scroll, which king Jehoiakim burns, and which Jeremiah and Baruch then rewrite. But closer examination reveals that these two ancient sources are written in narrative form and recount turbulent events in the lives of scribal characters who interact with each other in a king’s court. These two mid-first millennium BCE Northwest Semitic narratives contain detailed descriptions of the scribal craft and of the role it played in the professional lives of scribes working within a politically charged context. Unlike, Egyptian, Anatolian, Mesopotamian, or Greco-Roman scribal cultures, little is known about the social dynamics of the professional scribal experience among ancient Aramaic or Hebrew writers. The Story of Ahiqar and the Tale of Jeremiah and Baruch’s Scroll are two of the only Aramaic or Hebrew sources to survive that reflect on the scribal experience. These two tales are first and foremost literary works, that were written about scribal figures for scribal readers. It should not be assumed, however, that these works are historical. As such, this study will discuss to what degree—if at all—are the allusions to the Aramaic and Hebrew scribal professions embedded in the stories reliable reflections of the scribal ethos in the constructed historical settings of their narratives. Despite the specific differences in narrative setting, characterization, and plot, the two tales share a number of thematic similarities that will be fleshed out in chapter four of this study.

1.1 The Story of Ahiqar

The Story of Ahiqar was written in Aramaic in or before the early 5^th century BCE, and depicts a teacher-student relationship between its main characters, Ahiqar and his nephew Nadin (Nadan in Syriac).¹ The tale is set in the Assyrian court of Esarhaddon immediately after he succeeded his father Sennacherib, whom we know from historical sources was assassinated. Under the new regime of Esarhaddon, Ahiqar, the old “wise scribe” and “counselor of all of Assyria,” contemplates who might succeed him in his prestigious scribal office, and Esarhaddon later has the same concern. As his replacement, Ahiqar presents to Esarhaddon his nephew Nadin, whom he had adopted and had been training in the scribal art, and, after a short interview, Esarhaddon approves the appointment. Ahiqar, wishing to take advantage of the king’s good graces, requests in this moment that he might retire. The king grants the request, and Ahiqar returns to his country estate to spend time in his vineyards. In a new episode, Nadin shifts from a co-protagonist to the plot’s central antagonist; he defames his uncle at the Palace Gate in which he worked. Nadin brings charges against Ahiqar before the king, and Ahiqar’s purported actions are deemed treasonous. The king sends a courtier, Nabûsumiskun and two companions, to find and to kill Ahiqar as punishment for his alleged crimes. In a backstory, the reader learns that Ahiqar had banked social capital with Nabûsumiskun by saving his life from a similar fate, and thus Ahiqar convinced this courtier to hide him rather than to kill him. At this point, the oldest manuscript of the tale breaks, and later, more expansive, editions describe how the Assyrian king received an ultimatum from the Egyptian Pharaoh: the Assyrian king must help solve an architectural riddle that Pharaoh’s courtiers could not in order to receive tribute. Nabûsumiskun reveals that Ahiqar is alive and that he could solve the problem. The king jubilantly welcomes Ahiqar back and sends him to Egypt to solve the riddle. Upon Ahiqar’s return, the king hands Nadin over to him for punishment. Ahiqar kills Nadin for his insolence, apparently while lecturing to him. In most of these later manuscripts, one or more lists of maxims, which Ahiqar taught to Nadin are edited into the narrative or appended to it. Likewise, the narrative of the Elephantine manuscript is followed by a list of maxims.

The Story of Ahiqar is one of the most disseminated texts in the history of literature. In the ancient world the text was internationally known. The tale spread as far West as the Greek-speaking world, as far south as the Nubian-Egyptian border (and later into Ethiopia), and potentially as far East as India.² The Story of Ahiqar is thought to have inspired Aramaic and Hebrew writers of the book of Esther, the Joseph Story in the book of Genesis, the book of Daniel, and the book of Tobit, as well as the characterization of Ezra. The Story of Ahiqar’s maxims may have influenced sections of the book of Proverbs. The tale was a source for ancient fictional (auto)biographical works, such as a scene in the Life of Aesop which appears to have directly borrowed from the Story of Ahiqar and to have simply replaced the tale’s characters.³ Sections of the book of Tobit can even be seen as ancient fan fiction that transforms the character of Ahiqar into an ancient Jew/Judean⁴ and gives him a supportive role in Tobit’s autobiographical life story. In the Common Era, the tale continued to inspire composers, even as late as the Arabic writers of Alf laylah wa-laylah (i.e. 1001 Arabian Nights) and perhaps the Quran sura 31 (Luqman). The Story of Ahiqar is one of the few original first millennium BCE Mesopotamian sources to have been continuously copied and read in the Near East since its inception.⁵

The oldest manuscript of the Story of Ahiqar is a fifth century BCE Aramaic papyrus, found on the southern Egyptian Nile island of Elephantine, where it appears to have been read and used by Aramaic speaking expatriates living there. Along with the Elephantine Aramaic manuscript, dozens of other manuscripts of the Story of Ahiqar or lists of maxims ascribed to Ahiqar are known in Syriac, Armenian, Ethiopic, Old Turkish, Greek, Slavonic, Karshuni, and Arabic.⁶ These were published in the first two decades of the twentieth century.

Today, manuscripts are also known in Turoyo, Sogdian, and Demotic Egyptian.⁷ At the turn of the twentieth century, scholars had begun to compare the manuscripts to understand how they relate, and they concluded that most stem from Syriac originals,⁸ yet an unknown Greek,⁹ which has affinities with the Syriac, must lie behind the tangled connections and variants between the Slavonic and Armenian recensions.¹⁰

As Rendel Harris admitted over a century ago, no individual scholar possesses the expertise to effectively study the Ahiqar manuscripts.¹¹ Fortunately, since it appears that the later editions derive from early Syriac core texts, the present study will limit its purview to mostly the Aramaic and Syriac manuscripts. Passing references may be made to Demotic Egyptian or the derivative editions when necessary. No study has yet been made that convincingly explains, in detail, how different Syriac manuscripts may be organized into recensions, much less has a study been made that negotiates all the variations between the Syriac and Aramaic versions.¹² The present study will not perform a comprehensive assessment of the Syriac manuscripts, but will negotiate the relationship among manuscripts for points in the tale deemed relevant.

Although this study will not consider them in detail, additionally, the Ethiopic manuscripts exhibit developments that are worth mentioning. They contain unique narrative features, such as resetting the tale in the Persian (perhaps Parthian or Sassanid) court of an unnamed king, rather than in the Assyrian court. They exhibit the appropriation of the character of Ahiqar along with his tale, rather than replacing the character with a cultural hero, as the Aesop tradition and Alf laylah wa-laylah have done. The Ethiopic manuscripts, which recast the tale in a Persian court, are the only examples of the character’s appropriation into a new cultural and historical setting other than the Judean appropriation of Ahiqar in the book of Tobit. Although the Ethiopic manuscripts are thought to derive from Arabic sources, it remains unknown if the Ethiopic is a product of a unique Egyptian reworking of the tale or a daughter of those coming from Syria-Mesopotamia or the Levant. Certainly, Late Antique Persian-isms can be found in some Syriac manuscripts,¹³ but to recast the historical setting in such a drastic way as does the Ethiopic tale exhibits the types of extreme developments one must be on guard for when discussing the historical evolution of the narrative.

While the Ethiopic Ahiqar merely reminds one to be analytically cautious, the Demotic Egyptian fragments as well as the paraphrase of the Story of Ahiqar known from the book of Tobit are directly relevant to this study. Late Demotic Egyptian fragments of the Story of Ahiqar (Pap. Ber. P. 23729, P. 23730(?), P. 23829, P. 23830, P. 23831, and Cairo National Library 3122) contain unique readings, but resemble the Syriac narrative more than the Aramaic.¹⁴ Since the Demotic predates the earliest known Syriac manuscri...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Allusions to the Aramaic Scribal Profession in the Story of Ahiqar
• 3 Allusions to the Hebrew Scribal Profession in the Tale of Jeremiah and Baruch’s Scroll
• 4 The Story of Ahiqar and the Tale of Jeremiah and Baruch’s Scroll in Comparative Perspective
• 5 Conclusion
• Appendix: Syriac Ahiqar Manuscripts Cited
• Index of Ancient Sources
• Persons
• Abbreviations