Old and New Testaments

A. P. Lopukhina.

Didactic books

TEACHING BOOKS

The third section of the Old Testament sacred books in the Greek-Slavonic Bible consists of "didactic" books, of which five – Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs are recognized as canonical, and two – the Wisdom of Solomon and the Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach [1] – are recognized as non-canonical. In contrast to this, in the Hebrew Bible, the last two, as well as all non-canonical ones in general, do not exist at all, while the first five do not bear the name of "teaching", do not form a special department, and together with the books: Ruth, Lamentations, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, the first and second Chronicles, are numbered among the so-called "ketubim", "hagiographers" – "holy writings". The name "ketubim", which became the technical designation of the third part of the Scriptures among the Talmudic rabbis, was replaced in antiquity by others indicating the didactic nature of the works included in it. Thus, in Josephus, the modern teaching books, except for Job, are known under the name of "other books containing hymns to God and rules of life for men" (Contra Apionem, I, 4); Philo calls them "hymns and other books by which knowledge and piety are built and perfected" (On the Contemplative Life), and the author of the 2nd Book of Maccabees calls them "τα τού Δαυίδ καί επιστολάς βασιλέων περί αναθηματων" — "the books of David and the letters of the kings about offerings" (II:13-15). The name "τά τού Δαυίδ" is identical with the Gospel name of the teaching books "Psalms" ("it behooves all those who are written in the law of Moses, and the prophets and the psalms about me, to die" Luke XXIV:44), and the latter, according to the testimony of Gefernik, also took place among the rabbis. Among the Fathers and Teachers of the Church, who, according to the LXX translation, separate the teaching books into a special section, they also do not bear the modern name, but are known under the name of "poetic." They are so called by Cyril of Jerusalem (4th catechetical sermon), Gregory the Theologian (Σύνταγμα. Ράλλη, IV, p. 363), Amphilochius of Iconium (ibid., p. 365), Bethany of Cyprus, and John of Damascus (Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, IV, 17). However, already Leontius of Byzantium (6th century) calls them "didactic" — "παραινετικά" (De Sectis, actio II, Migne 86 vol., p. 1204).

In view of the didactic character of the entire Holy Scriptures, the assimilation of the name "instructive" to only some books indicates that they were written with the special purpose of teaching, instructing, and showing how one should think about a certain subject, how it should be understood. This goal, when applied to religious and moral truths, is indeed pursued by teaching books. Their view, the basic point of view on the doctrine of faith and piety, is the same as in the law; Its peculiarity lies in the desire to bring the divinely revealed truth closer to the understanding of man, to bring him, with the help of various considerations, to the realization that it should be presented in this way, and not otherwise. Thanks to this, offered in the law in the form of a commandment and prohibition, it appears in the teaching books as a living conviction of the one to whom it is given, who has thought and reflected on it, and is expressed as truth, not only because it is revealed in the law, as truth, but also because it fully agrees with the thought of man, has already become, as it were, his own property, his own thought. By bringing divinely revealed truths closer to human understanding, teaching books really "perfect consciousness and piety." And as for examples of such elucidation of them, they are primarily observed in the Book of Genesis. Job. Its main thesis, the question of the relationship between God's truth and human truth, is interpreted by the author from the point of view of its acceptability for human consciousness. Initially doubting Divine Justice, Job finds himself as a result of conversations believing in the inflexibility of divine truth. The objective proposition: "God is just" is raised to the level of personal subjective conviction. A similar character distinguishes Prince Alex. Ecclesiastes. Its purpose is to inspire man with the fear of God (XII:13), to induce him to keep the commandments of God. The means to this is, on the one hand, the explanation of the proposition that everything that distracts a person from God, leading to His oblivion – various worldly goods do not constitute true happiness for a person, and therefore one should not indulge in them, and, on the other hand, the revelation of the truth that keeping the commandments gives him real good, since it leads to the blessedness granted for a good life after death,  — to this eternally abiding good. In the same way, Prince. Proverbs contains reflections on the principles of revealed religion, law and theocracy and their influence on the formation of the intellectual, moral and civil life of Israel. The result of this reflection is the proposition that only the fear of the Lord and the knowledge of His Holiness constitute true wisdom that soothes the mind and heart. And since various rules of religious and moral activity serve as an expression of this kind of wisdom, they are based on the conviction that revealed truth agrees with the requirements of the human spirit.

Revealing the revealed truth from the point of view of its agreement with the understanding of man, the teaching books are indicators of the spiritual development of the Jewish people under the guidance of the law. In the person of his best representatives, he was not only a suffering being in relation to the truths he discovered, but more or less pondered over them, assimilated them, i.e., brought them into harmony with his inner convictions and beliefs. Immersing his heart and mind in the realm of revelation, he either presented the objects of his contemplation for instruction, for the development of religious knowledge and the promotion of the purity of morality required by the law, as we see in Book II. Job, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, and some Psalms (LXXVII, CIV, CV, etc.), or noted, expressed the impression that this contemplation made on his heart, in the lyrical form of religious feelings and heartfelt reflections (Psalms). The fruit of divinely enlightened reflection on the Divine revelation given to the Jewish people as a law, the teaching books are primarily subjective in nature, in contrast to the objective exposition of the truths of faith and piety in the law and the objective description of the life of the Jewish people in historical books. Another difference between teaching books is their poetic form with its characteristic feature - parallelism, defined by researchers of Jewish poetry as the relationship of one verse to another. It is a kind of rhyme of thought, a symmetry of an idea, usually expressed two or sometimes three times in different terms, sometimes synonymous, sometimes opposite. In accordance with the different relationship of poems, parallelism can be synonymous, antitic, synthetic and rhyme. The first type of parallelism occurs when parallel terms correspond to each other, expressing the same meaning in equivalent terms. Examples of such parallelism are provided by Psalm CXIII — "When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from (among the foreigners), Judah became His holiness, Israel became His possession. The sea saw it and fled, the Jordan turned back, the mountains leaped like rams, and the hills like lambs." Antitic parallelism consists in the correspondence of two terms to each other through the opposition of expressions or feelings. "Sincere are the reproaches of the lover, and false are the kisses of the hater. A well-fed soul tramples on even a honeycomb, but a hungry soul is sweet all bitterness" (Proverbs XXVII:6-7). "Some of chariots, some of horses, but we boast in the name of the Lord our God. They staggered and fell, but we arose and stand upright" (Psalm XIX:8-9). Parallelism can be synthetic, when it consists only in the similarity of construction or measure: words do not correspond to words and the members of the phrase do not correspond to the members of the phrase, as equivalent or opposite in meaning, but the turn of phrase and the form are identical; the subject corresponds to the subject, the verb to the verb, the adjective to the adjective, and the meter is the same. "The law of the Lord is perfect, it strengthens the soul; the revelation of the Lord is true, it makes the simple wise; the commandments of the Lord are righteous, they rejoice the heart; the fear of the Lord is pure, it enlightens the eyes" (Psalm XVIII). Finally, parallelism is sometimes merely apparent, and consists only in a certain analogy of construction or in the development of thought in two verses. In these cases, it is purely rhyming and lends itself to endless combinations. Each member of parallelism in Hebrew poetry constitutes a verse consisting of a combination of iambic and trochaeans, the most common verse of the Hebrews being the heptasyllabic, or seven syllables. Poems of this meter were written by book. Job (III–XLII:6), the entire book of Proverbs, and most of the Psalms. There are also verses of four, five, six and nine syllables, sometimes alternating with verses of various sizes. Each verse is, in turn, a part of a stanza, the essential property of which is that it contains a single, or main, idea, the full disclosure of which is given in the totality of its constituent verses. However, in some cases, two different thoughts are combined in one stanza, or the same thought develops and continues beyond this limit.

ABOUT THE BOOK OF JOB

Title of the book. The place and time of Job's life. The Book of Job (Hebrew??? Greek: Ίώβ) received its name from the main character in it, whose story of misfortunes served as a reason for the author to resolve the question of the causes of the suffering of the righteous man.

In the book of his name, Job appears with all the signs of a historical person: it indicates his origin, time and place of life, its duration, a description of the family life of the sufferer, social status, etc. In contrast to this, Theodore of Mopsuetia denied the existence of Job, considering the book of his name to be a collection of fables. The same view was expressed by the Jewish rabbis Resh-Lakish and Samuel bar Nachman. "Job," remarks the latter, "never existed; he was not a created man, but a parable like the one that Nathan offered to David" (Talmud. Baba. Bathra, 15a). The extremity of this view, later repeated by Salmisius, Michaelis, Augusti, and De Wette, was recognized by the rabbis themselves, of whom Chai-Gaon (1000) modified the words of Samuel bar Nachman as follows: "Job existed, but he was created to become a parable." And indeed, the denial of the existence of Job is not reconciled with the testimony of St. John. The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments: "Son of man, saith the Lord to the prophet Ezekiel, if any earth had sinned against me... and (I) would send (I) upon it famine and began to destroy men and cattle on it; and if these three men had been found in it: Noah, Daniel and Job, they would have saved only their own souls by their righteousness... neither sons nor daughters would have been saved, but they, only they, would have been saved..." (Ezekiel XIV:13-16). The mention of Job, along with the undoubtedly historical figures Noah and Daniel, does not allow any doubt about the historical character of his personality. The historical authenticity of Job's sufferings, and consequently of Job himself, is also recognized by the well-known words of Ap. James: "Behold, we bless those who have endured. You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of it from the Lord" (James V:11). It is also pointed out that the name of Job is a symbolic name – "the one who is at war"; it may have been given to him as a result of the writer's idea that he was enmity against God and friends, therefore, in accordance with his character depicted in the book, i.e., it is a fictitious name. But if the name itself is fictitious, then there is no obstacle to think that the person himself is fictitious. But, as can be seen from the Bible, many of the names of the Jews – Abraham, Israel – had a symbolic character, since they denoted certain circumstances, and therefore from the symbolism of the name it is impossible to conclude that the person is not historical. In the mouths of the people, Job could have received this name after his misfortune, thanks to the character revealed in the disasters. This, perhaps, is indicated by the postscript of the text of the LXX, noting that it was previously called Joab.

If Job is a completely historical person, then the question of the place and time of his life arises more naturally. According to the book itself, he lived in the land of Uz, "in the land of the Ausitidians," as the LXX interpreters call it (I:1). But where exactly this area was located cannot be said with certainty. The remark at the end of the LXX reading book: "on the borders of Idumaea and Arabia" (XLII:17) is as general as the indication of the 3rd verse of chapter I, that Job was "more famous than all the sons of the East," i.e., the Arabs (see commentary on this verse); and the mention of the land of Uz in the book. Prophet Jeremiah (XXV:20) and in Book II. Lamentations (IV:21) do not clarify her situation. True, the words of the book. The lamentation, "Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, who dwelleth in the land of Uz," apparently gives us the right to think that Uz was in Edom, that it was its province. But such an assumption is refuted by 20 and 21 of Article XXV of the Book of Kings. From which it is evident that the land of Uz, mentioned separately from Idumea, was not part of it. If the prophet ascribes it to the Edomite, it is explained, according to Ewald, by the fact that the land of Uz was given to them by Nebuchadnezzar in return for the help they gave to the Chaldeans in the conquest of Judah. As for Jeremiah XXV:20, etc., some see in these verses an enumeration of the neighboring countries, and accordingly the location of Uz is indicated between Egypt and Judah, southeast of the latter and east of Idumea. The validity of such a consideration is weakened by verses 21 and 22 of this chapter, which testify that in enumerating the countries, the prophet was not guided by the beginning of contiguity.

The absence of biblical indications of the location of the land of Uz prompts exegetes to resort to all sorts of conjectures. It is assumed that the land of Uz received its name from the name of Uz, which is adopted by the Bible to three persons: the eldest son of Aram, the grandson of Shem (Genesis X:23), the eldest son of Nahor, Abraham's brother (Genesis XXII:21), and the firstborn of Dishan, the youngest son of Seir the Chorreite (Gen. XXXVI:28). Explaining the origin of the name Uz in this way, the location of this land is indicated either in Syria, the country of Aram, or in Mesopotamia, on the banks of the Euphrates, where Nahor lived, or, finally, in Idumea. As for the latter view, it cannot be recognized as fair on the above grounds. The opinion about the position of the land of Uz within the boundaries of Mesopotamia found a place in the Alexandrian redaction of the Greek postscript to the book of Job. In it, he is called living on the banks of the Euphrates, and his friend Baldad is called the son of Amnon of Hobar (Chobar is a tributary of the Euphrates). In spite of its antiquity (the postscript is already known to Origen), this view can hardly be recognized as fair. He does not reconcile himself with the remark of Article 19 of Chapter I. Job, that the wind that destroyed the house of my eldest son came "from the wilderness," or rather, "from the countries that lie beyond the wilderness," and with the words of Elihu, "the storm comes from the south" (XXXVII:9). Taken together, these two expressions make it clear that the land of Uz was near or within the northern reaches of the desert. Mesopotamia cannot be considered a desert. As for the assumption about the position of the land of Uz within Syria, it is confirmed by the testimony of ancient writers. Thus, Eusebius of Caesarea, repeating the words of Josephus Flavius that Uz, the son of Aram, was the founder of Trachonitis (the entire basalt space on the eastern side of the Jordan, bounded on the south by the Gilead Mountains, and on the north bordering on Damascus) and Damascus (Antiquities of Jude. I, ch. 6), adds: "From here came Job" (De originibus. XI, 2, 6). According to another of his works (Onomastionia), Job lived in Vatanea, ancient Bashan, in a place called "Astaroth Kamaim" in his time. The same view is held by Bl. Jerome (liber de situ ei nominis hebraeorum), noting that the Greek name of the country "Ausigida" is the same as "Usitida" and was given to it by the name of Utsa, the son of Aram, who settled with his descendants Trachonitis (commentary on chapter X of the 23rd Book of Genesis). The Arab writers Mugir ad din el Hambeli and Abulfeda and the geographer Muhammed el Makdesi also indicate the place of residence of Job: "Job," say the first two, "belonged to the Damascus province of Vataneya." A clear expression of this legend was the monastery built in the region of Damascus in honor of the long-suffering Job (Volck. Calendarium Syriacum, p. 29).