Achiqar

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Achiqar ( Aramaic אחיקר) or Aba-Enlil-dana (Assyrian) is the main character of an Aramaic story . According to a papyrus found in Elephantine , the only source for this story, he clothed himself from the fifth century BC. Under Sennacherib the office of royal sealer. Under Sennacherib's successor, Asarhaddon , he is said to have acted as royal advisor after he passed his office on to his adopted son. There are translations and adaptations of the material in numerous languages ​​of the Near and Middle East.

The framework for the story of Achiqar was created shortly after the collapse of the Assyrian Empire at the earliest and was probably published in the 6th century BC. Written in BC. The collection of sayings was subsequently inserted between the two parts of the story. Reflexes of the Achiqar figure can be found in the deutero-canonical books Judit and Tobit .

The Achiqar's collection of sayings and fables , which was written down in columns 3 to 16, is much older than the story itself and, due to the ancient Aramaic dialect, could be dated from the 8th to the 7th century BC. To be dated. Proverbs in columns 3, 4, 11, 13 and 14 have been lost. The preserved part shows, among other things, parallels to the Akkadian wisdom literature, although no Akkadian vocabulary is noticeable. The tradition consists of numerous individual sayings. An overall editorial concept does not seem to have existed, as the editor apparently used a wide variety of collections of sayings.

In addition to parallels to ancient Egyptian literature, there is a close proximity to Israelite - Jewish wisdom texts. The corresponding proportion with regard to Mesopotamian sources is much lower . The commonalities in the collection of sayings with the ancient Egyptian wisdom doctrine along with an ancient Egyptian loan word as well as noticeably strong influences from the Canaan region point to an origin from the southern Syrian - Lebanese area.

literature

  • Ingo Kottsieper : The story and sayings of the wise Achiqar . In: Otto Kaiser, Günter Burkhard: TUAT , Vol. 3, Delivery 2: Wisdom Texts II . Mohn, Gütersloh 1991, ISBN 3-579-00073-X , pp. 320–347.
  • Ingo Kottsieper: The language of the Ahiqar sayings. Supplements to the Journal for Old Testament Science 194. Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-11-012331-2
  • Bruno Meissner : The fairy tale of the wise Achiqar. The Old Orient 16.2. Leipzig 1917.
  • Herbert Niehr: Aramaic Ahiqar. JSHRZ.NF 2/2. Gütersloh 2007, ISBN 978-3-579-05244-1
  • James VanderKam : Ahiqar, Book of , in: The Anchor Bible Dictionary , Vol. 1, New York 1992, pp. 119-20.
  • Michael Weigl: The Aramaic Achikar sayings from Elephantine and the Old Testament wisdom literature . de Gruyter, Berlin 2010, ISBN 3-1102-1208-0
  • Karl-Theodor Zauzich : Demotic fragments of the Ahikar novel In: Herbert Franke : Folia rara: Wolfgang Voigt LXV. diem natalem celebranti from amicis et catalogorum codicum orientalium conscribendorum collegis dedicata . Steiner, Wiesbaden 1976, ISBN 3-515-02166-3 , pp. 180-185.

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