Monday 8 June 2015

Job's daughters

The 'Old Greek' of Job (42: 14) names the sufferer's second set of daughters as Ἡμέρα (for Jemimah, 'Dove'), Κασία (for Keziah, 'cassia') and Ἀλμαθείας κέρας Horn of Almatheia, a 'Horn of Plenty', (for Karen-Happuch, 'Horn of adornment'; cf. Jeremiah 4:30). As the LGPN stats show, none of these was ever particularly common and the first two are only known from Roman imperial times onwards. See Joosten 2014: 35.

For 'Dove', cf. Πέλεια, Περιστερά, Στρούθη, Στρούθιον, and Στρουθίς, all Hellenistic, some Classical.

By contrast, Eve (Εὕα 2 Cor. 11: 3, 1 Tim. 2: 13), who appears in LXX Genesis as Ζώη (3:20, but Ευα at 4:1 and in Tobit 8:6 BA+S), has a name that has more attestations, but all are still Roman imperial or later.

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