The legend of Ahiqar is told in the homonymous “History”. The figure of the Assyrian wise came later in the book of “Tobit” as an important partner of Tobit; to give prestige to his book, the biblical autor has exploited the fame of the “History” of Ahiqar, and has historicized its protagonist. Ahiqar also appears in some writings in demotic: in two fragments of papyrus of the first century AD, in the “Instructions of Anchsheshonqy”, and in an inscription found at Uruk-Warka, in a Babylonian tablet (165 BC) which contains a list of “ummānū”, “scholars”. Among them is Ahiqar (with an Aramaic name, “Aḫu’aqari”). This is, therefore, an apocryphal identification, a spurious historicization very similar to the one that made the author of “Tobit”.
Toloni, G., Ahiqar tra leggenda e rielaborazione letteraria. Una tradizione e i suoi riflessi, <<SEFARAD>>, 2013; 73 (1): 7-30. [doi:10.3989/sefarad.013.001] [http://hdl.handle.net/10807/47051]
Ahiqar tra leggenda e rielaborazione letteraria. Una tradizione e i suoi riflessi
Toloni, Giancarlo
2013
Abstract
The legend of Ahiqar is told in the homonymous “History”. The figure of the Assyrian wise came later in the book of “Tobit” as an important partner of Tobit; to give prestige to his book, the biblical autor has exploited the fame of the “History” of Ahiqar, and has historicized its protagonist. Ahiqar also appears in some writings in demotic: in two fragments of papyrus of the first century AD, in the “Instructions of Anchsheshonqy”, and in an inscription found at Uruk-Warka, in a Babylonian tablet (165 BC) which contains a list of “ummānū”, “scholars”. Among them is Ahiqar (with an Aramaic name, “Aḫu’aqari”). This is, therefore, an apocryphal identification, a spurious historicization very similar to the one that made the author of “Tobit”.
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