Anastasis: to rise again

I will have to take some time to wend my way through Desire of the Everlasting Hills. In the last post I showed how Cahill mixes the use of "thou" into an overall modern and idiomatic translation. In every chapter he makes original and informed translation choices. Here is another.

Cahill cites Job 19:25-26 as an example of "the evolving Jewish idea that there must be life beyond this life." Here is the NRSV for this passage. All translations in the KJV tradition translate it in a similar way.

For I know that my Redeemer^* lives,
and that at the last he will stand upon the earth;
and after my skin has been thus destroyed,
then in my flesh I shall see God,^* NRSV

However, Cahill provides the Jerusalem Bible version of this verse.

This I know: that my Avenger lives,
and that he, the Last, will take a stand on earth.
After my awakening, he will set me close to him,
and in my flesh will I see God.

This translation owes something to the Greek version.

οἶδα γὰρ ὅτι ἀέναός ἐστιν ὁ ἐκλύειν με μέλλων ἐπὶ γῆς
ἀναστήσαι τὸ δέρμα μου τὸ ἀνατλῶν ταῦτα παρὰ γὰρ κυρίου ταῦτά μοι συνετελέσθη

The second line here starts, "rise up my skin which endures these things." However, the word for "rise up" is the same word in Greek as "resurrect." The Jerusalem Bible translates this as "my awakening." Cahill has deliberately chosen a translation which will reflect the growing belief in immortality, in a resurrection. He remarks,

The translation I use was chosen not to make inferences unjustified by the original but to see this passage from Job as it was already being interpreted by Jews of the intertestamental period.

Cahill clarifies that the author of Job had no notion of a resurrection from the dead but the idea was being read into the text long before Christianity, as we can see from the Septuagint.

What I like about this book is that Cahill uses a translation which reflects a specific underlying Hebrew, Greek or Latin original, whichever was the text used in the period he is talking about. It would be blantantly ridiculous if he were to translate from one version throughout.

This point about "resurrection" or αναστασις, anastasis from ανιστημι, is important to understanding how the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew. Unfortunately the New English Translation of the Septuagint does not make clear that this word for "rise up" was also used for "rise again." Here is another example from Ps. 1 which may demonstrate how significant this feature of the Septuagint is.

οὐχ οὕτως οἱ ἀσεβεῖς οὐχ οὕτως
ἀλλ ἢ ὡς ὁ χνοῦς ὃν ἐκριπτεῖ ὁ ἄνεμος
ἀπὸ προσώπου τῆς γῆς
διὰ τοῦτο οὐκ ἀναστήσονται ἀσεβεῖς ἐν κρίσει
οὐδὲ ἁμαρτωλοὶ ἐν βουλῇ δικαίων

The impious or not so, not so,
but are like dust that the wind flings
from the face of the land.
Therefore the impious will not rise up in judgement,
nor sinners in the council of the righteous. NETS.

Here is the NRSV translation of the Hebrew.

The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
⁵Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgement,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

I would suggest that the Greek text can also have a slightly different interpretation.

The impious or not so, not so,
but are like dust that the wind flings
from the face of the earth.
Therefore the impious will not
be resurrected in the [day of] judgment,
nor sinners in the council of the righteous.

We need to see that the Greek adds somewhat to the Hebrew in the preceding line, the wicked are "like dust that the wind flings from the face of the earth" and then these wicked people will not rise again. Whether the translator meant to communicate the meaning of "resurrect" is not something we can be sure of. Possibly not. But we do know that there was a growing belief in a resurrection at this time and anastasis was the word used to communicate this. So, later readers would see "resurrection" both in this text and Job 19:25.

Few translations make this clear. I am glad that Cahill chose a translation to clarify this point.