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Bell & Howell Information and Learning: foreign text omitted
After the end of the story of Job (42:17), LXX Job contains two additions with no equivalent in the MT, Peshitta, Qumran Targum (11QTgjob), or Rabbinic Targum of Job.1 The first augments the canonical account of Job's death (Job 42:17) with a brief affirmation that he will be resurrected (LXX Job 42:17a). This addition seems to respond to questions raised by the denial of resurrection within the book of Job (e.g., Job 7:9; 14:7-12; see b. B. Bat. 16a). Consequently, it is generally thought to be a later gloss and to be independent from the lines that follow.2
While the first addition is brief and its motivation relatively transparent, the second addition (subsequently termed "the LXX Job appendix") proves more intriguing. This addition begins by referencing an unnamed "Syrian" or Aramaic source. It then locates Job's land of origin "on the border of Idumea and Arabia" and identifies him with Jobab, the Edomite king of Gen 36:33 (LXX Job 42:17b). Subsequently, the passage combines information from Gen 36 and LXX Job in order to trace Job's heritage through Esau to Abraham (42:17c) and to locate him chronologically within a list of Edomite kings (42:17d). Lastly, his three friends are listed, along with the lands over which they reigned (42:17e). The text of the appendix reads as follows:3
This passage proves significant both as a Septuagintal addition to the book of Job and as a Hellenistic Jewish interpretation of Job. On the one hand, it represents one of several additions in LXX Job, including the speech of Job's wife in 2:9, the identification of his friends as kings in 2:11, and the assertion of his resurrection in 49:17a.4 The fact that this passage was appended to the Greek translation of Job may point to an attitude toward this text as not completely fixed in its written form.5 On the other hand, the appendix presupposes the necessity of locating the figure of Job within biblical history, consonant with the emerging conception of biblical texts as "Scripture" in Second Temple Judaism and the resultant proliferation of biblical interpretation. This harmonizing mode of exegesis assumes the unity and authority of a group of biblical texts, insofar as it uses the...