The other god in Job : the pragmatic role of Shadday

Abstract

The one name in the Hebrew Bible (HB) almost as meticulously studied as the tetragrammaton and the name Elohim is most likely the meaning-potential of the name Shadday (שַׁדַׁי ). Most reputable translations continue to translate Shadday as “the Almighty”, this inadequate translation stems from the Septuagint (LXX) Pantocrator (παντοκράτωρ) "all-powerful/ruler over all”. While this meaning potential has been revisited in etymological studies, the problem is that the lexeme Shadday has mostly been studied etymologically. The syncretistic religious belief system of the book of Job in the HB is well known but the pragmatic role of Shadday in the book of Job has not been adequately examined. Such a study is particularly applicable to the interpretation of the nature of the godhead or early pantheon in the substratum text of Job. The data used for this study was taken from the book of Job as it contains 31 of the 48 instances where Shadday appears in the HB. This dissertation hypothesises that the lexeme Shadday can be better studied against the background of a contextual-literary understanding of the ancient Near Eastern (ANE) concept of justice and divine order as represented in the Hebrew צֶדֶק (ṣed̲eq) vs. מִשְׁפָּט (mišpāṭ) distinction. The role of the deity is studied by using a philological approach to determine if and how the role of Shadday might be better understood with reference to the concept of divine order. This research question is undertaken through a semantic and pragmatic analysis. This includes applying content analysis (CA) in order to make replicable and convincing inferences from the literary text of Job to the contexts of their use. Ultimately, this research should be understood as experimenting with different possibilities which can lead to interesting findings corroborating a particular perspective on the assumption that the possible background might be correct.