{"id":542,"date":"2016-01-25T17:28:28","date_gmt":"2016-01-26T00:28:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drbarrick.org\/?p=542"},"modified":"2018-09-06T22:41:42","modified_gmt":"2018-09-07T05:41:42","slug":"elihu-and-moses-the-book-of-job-and-genesis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drbarrick.org\/?p=542","title":{"rendered":"Elihu and Moses (the Book of Job and Genesis)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Starting in Job 33, Elihu, the youngest of Job&#8217;s friends, addresses Job, Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad regarding their erroneous views about\u00a0God&#8217;s character and Job&#8217;s problems. As he makes his case, Elihu expresses himself with words and phrases, concepts and imagery that appear to echo the early chapters of Genesis. If the Book of Job was written close to the time of the events it depicts, it comes from the era of the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob),\u00a02100-1800 B.C. That placement means that the Book of Job predates Moses&#8217; writing of Genesis (1445-1400 B.C.). Elihu&#8217;s\u00a0echoes of the early chapters of Genesis might\u00a0testify to a pre-Mosaic oral tradition or perhaps the existence in the patriarchal period of a written text of at least the creation narrative, if not all of Genesis 1-11. Moses might have used that document to compile his book, in much the same way that Luke used extant written and oral sources to compile his gospel.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s look at some of the parallels between Elihu and Genesis in order to examine the nature of these echoes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Job 33:4<\/strong> (\u201cthe breath of the Almighty gives me life\u201d NASU) and <strong>Genesis 2:7<\/strong> (\u201cbreathed into his nostrils the breath of life\u201d) \u2014 Both speak of the \u201cbreath\u201d (\u05e0\u05e9\u05de\u05d4, <em>n\u015bmh<\/em>) of God producing life for a human being.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Job 33:6<\/strong> (\u201cI too have been formed [\u05e7\u05e8\u05e5, <em>qr\u1e63<\/em>] out of the clay [\u05d7\u05de\u05e8, <em>\u1e25mr<\/em>]\u201d) and <strong>Genesis 2:7<\/strong> (\u201cThen the Lord God formed [\u05d9\u05e9\u05e8, <em>y\u1e63r<\/em>] man of dust [\u05e2\u05e4\u05e8, <em>\u02bdpr<\/em>] of the ground\u201d) \u2014 Different vocabulary, but identical imagery.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Job 34:13<\/strong> (\u201cthe whole world\u201d) and <strong>Genesis 1:1<\/strong> \u2014 Psalm 19:4[Heb. 5] uses the same word for \u201cworld\u201d (\u05ea\u05d1\u05dc, <em>tbl<\/em>) and the same verb \u201cplaced\u201d (\u05e9\u05d9\u05dd, <em>\u015bym<\/em>) for placing the sun in the created order of the universe. We might also compare the vocabulary and imagery of Proverbs 8:26.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Job 34:14\u201315<\/strong> and <strong>Genesis 2:7 and 3:19<\/strong>\u2014Again, the topic is God\u2019s \u201cbreath\u201d (\u05e0\u05e9\u05de\u05d4,\u00a0<em>n\u015bmh<\/em>) and the creation of human life. This time, however, the phraseology is very striking in a seemingly direct allusion to Genesis 3:19:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Job 34:15 \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cAnd man would return to dust\u201d\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u05d5\u05d0\u05d3\u05dd\u00a0\u05e2\u05dc\u00af\u05e2\u05e4\u05e8\u00a0\u05d9\u05e9\u05d5\u05d1\u00a0<em>&#8211;<\/em>\u00a0<em>w\u2019dm \u2018l-\u2018pr y\u0161wb<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Gen 3:19 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cAnd to dust you shall return\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0&#8211; \u00a0\u05d5\u05d0\u05dc\u00af\u05e2\u05e4\u05e8\u00a0\u05e9\u05d5\u05d1\u05ea \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0&#8211;\u00a0<em>w\u2019l-\u2018pr \u0161wbt<\/em><\/p>\n<p>These\u00a0types of parallels or echoes occur outside Elihu&#8217;s speech in other Joban texts&#8211;especially in the speech of God reporting His appearance (theophany) in chapters 38-41. Such echoes demonstrate:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>The unity of biblical revelation regarding creation.<\/li>\n<li>The biblical writers&#8217; and speakers&#8217; literal interpretation of Genesis 1-3.<\/li>\n<li>The ancientness of the revelation concerning creation&#8211;most likely predating Moses&#8217; penning of Genesis.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Starting in Job 33, Elihu, the youngest of Job&#8217;s friends, addresses Job, Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad regarding their erroneous views about\u00a0God&#8217;s character and Job&#8217;s problems. As he makes his case, Elihu expresses himself with words and phrases, concepts and imagery that appear to echo the early chapters of Genesis. If the Book of Job was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,1],"tags":[230,49,644,239,997,361,52,261,1399,1694,410],"class_list":["post-542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-genesis","category-uncategorized","tag-creation","tag-elihu","tag-genesis","tag-genesis-1","tag-genesis-1-11","tag-genesis-3","tag-job","tag-luke","tag-moses","tag-patriarchs","tag-revelation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbarrick.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbarrick.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbarrick.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbarrick.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbarrick.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=542"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/drbarrick.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":543,"href":"https:\/\/drbarrick.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542\/revisions\/543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbarrick.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbarrick.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbarrick.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}