by
Damien F. Mackey
However,
apart from the seeming advantages – but also the difficulties,
e.g.
the “midway” factor – the Book of Tobit gives no indication whatsoever that
Tobias had dwelt anywhere other than Nineveh, for the duration of his long
life, except that he had headed to Ecbatana in Media after the death of his
parents,
where
he had lived out the remainder of his life (Tobit 14:12-15).
1.
Born in the land of
Naphtali
If Tobit 1
is following a strict chronological sequence, then young Tobias was born in Naphtali
shortly prior to the tribe’s captivity by Shalmaneser ‘the Great’ (who is my
Tiglath-pileser, cf. 2 Kings 15:29). Thus Tobit tells in his
Autobiography (1:9-10): “When I became a man I married Anna, a member of our
family, and by her I became the father of Tobias. Now when I was carried away
captive to Nineveh …”.
Tobias, who
is my Job, may have been too young to have recalled much of this.
2. He travels to Media
Tobias, now a
young man, and of marriageable age, will embark upon a journey to Ecbatana in
Media, in obedience to his recently blinded father, and despite his apparent
nervousness (5:2): ‘…. I don’t know how to get to Media’.
The Book of
Tobit will not only determine the geography of the prophet Job (presuming that I
am right in identifying Job as Tobias), but it also radically corrects the
conventional geography.
For Ecbatana
in Media, far from being to the east of Nineveh, as we all have thought,
is actually to be found to be westwards of Nineveh, with Charan (Haran)
said to be “in the midway” (Tobit 11:1) between Nineveh and Ecbatana.
This has
prompted me, after much trial and error, to re-locate Ecbatana in Media to
Adana (Adanya) in Cilicia, perfectly situated with Haran “midway” between Adana/
Adanya and Nineveh (see map).
And Richard
Erickson has demonstrated, quite independently of all of this, that Elam and
Media were, indeed, situated in Anatolia:
A
PROBLEM IN CHALDAEAN AND ELAMITE GEOGRAPHY
(8) A PROBLEM IN
CHALDAEAN AND ELAMITE GEOGRAPHY
3. Job’s land of Uz
A
BIG correction now needed:
I, in order, to ‘save’ the western
movement of the travelling party: from Nineveh to the Tigris River
to Haran to Ecbatana in Media, had eagerly latched on to the
Heb. Londinii version of the Book of Tobit according to which the party’s
destination was, in fact, “Bathania” in “Midian”. For a long time I was happy
with this as being the resolution to the apparent difficulty of a journey to
Media (supposedly east) of Nineveh, actually heading westwards.
This had a further seeming advantage
of enabling Tobias, as Job, eventually to dwell in Bathania (Bashan), in the
fertile Hauran region – {adjacent to the original home of Naphtali} - thought
to be Ausitis, that is, Uz, where very strong traditions locate the home
of Job.
However,
apart from the seeming advantages – but also the difficulties, e.g. geographically,
the “midway” factor – the Book of Tobit gives no indication whatsoever that
Tobias had dwelt anywhere other than Nineveh, for the duration of his long
life, except that he had headed to Ecbatana in Media after the death of his
parents, where he lived out the remainder of his life (Tobit 14:12-15, GNB):
Then Tobias and
his wife moved to Ecbatana in Media, where they lived with Raguel, Tobias'
father-in-law. Tobias took care of Edna and Raguel in their old age and
showed them great respect. When at last they died, he buried them at Ecbatana.
Tobias inherited Raguel's estate, as he had inherited the estate of his father
Tobit. At the ripe old age of 117, Tobias died, having lived long enough
to hear about the destruction of Nineveh and to see King Cyaxares of Media
take the people away as captives. Tobias praised God for the way that he had
punished the people of Nineveh and Assyria. As long as he lived he gave thanks
for what God had done to Nineveh.
{There appears to
be some confusion concerning the actual age of the prophet, Tobias,
at death, 117
years given here, with other versions of Tobit differing from that
(e.g. 127
years), and with 140 years given in the Book of Job (42:16)}.
The Tobit
narrative, in one fell swoop, renders entirely irrelevant the identification of
Bashan/Hauran (Ausitis), as Job’s “the land of Uz … of the East”, which region
has figured most prominently in previous Jobian reconstructions of mine.
It also
seems to put paid to those traditions, albeit strong (e.g. The Testament of
Job) that the prophet had ruled as a king (governor) of Egypt.
It would now
seem inevitable that Job’s “land of Uz”, his East, was much further away
from Israel (than Transjordanian Bashan), in Assyria, and that that is where
his trials must have occurred. That “Uz”, in this case, could not refer to the
traditional Uz, say, of Jeremiah (Lamentations 4:21), “… daughter of Edom, who
dwells in the land of Uz”, suggesting a possible connection or proximity to
Edom, south of Israel.
South is not
East.
Can Uz be an
actual outlying ‘suburb’ of Nineveh, say Alquš?
UZ =
[Alq]-UŠ.
Nahum and the Alquš (Alqosh) factor
A complicating
geographical factor for me, when writing my article:
A
north and south geography for the major prophet Isaiah
(8) A north and
south geography for the major prophet Isaiah
had been the prophet Nahum’s home (Nahum 1:1): “A prophecy
concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite”.
Nahum, I had identified with Jonah, following the Book of
Tobit’s (14:4) interchanging “Nahum” (GNT) and “Jonah” (WEB). But Nahum was also
the great prophet Isaiah. This, however, was leading me into geographical
complications, e.g. with Nahum being connected to Elkosh (“the Elcesite”).
It has long been suggested that this Elkosh was, in fact,
Alqosh in Assyria.
Alqosh
Town 40
km. north of Mosul in Iraq. Seat of a
Chald. bishopric. It now numbers around 5,000 inhabitants. Many families and
individuals migrated from Alqosh to larger Iraqi cities (Mosul, Baghdad, etc.) or abroad,
especially to the USA and UK. The town’s economy is based on agriculture
(wheat, barley, chickpeas, lentils, beans, cucumbers, gourds, melons, grapes,
and figs) and animal husbandry (sheep and goats). Traditional trades included
weaving and dying cloth. Alqosh is a major spiritual center. Jews used to go on
pilgrimage to the tomb believed to be that of the prophet Nahum, who, according
to an interpretation of Nah 1.1, may have come from Alqosh.
Two
important E.-Syr. monasteries lie close to Alqosh: the Monastery of Rabban
Hormizd,
founded in the 7th cent., used to be one of
the patriarchal residences of the Ch. of E., later moved to Mosul, then
Baghdad, and the more recent Monastery of the Virgin, also known as ‘the Lower Monastery’ or ‘of Our Lady of the Seeds’. From the 16th cent. the
cultural life of the village flourished thanks to the so-called School of Alqosh. Alqosh was pillaged
several times, by Murād Bey (Bar Yak) in 1508, the Pasha of ʿAmadiyya in 1740, the
Persians in 1743. People sought refuge on the mountain, in the Monastery of
Rabban Hormizd, but there were rapes and casualties. Around the mid-16th cent.
some of the population supported Yoḥannan
Sullaqa, the first Chald. patr. elected with official approval of Rome. In
1767, around 100 of the 500 families were Catholic. Literary sources and
annotations made by European travelers record recurrent cases of pestilence and
famine, caused by draught or locusts, which devastated the region during the
19th cent. In 1832 and 1842 the village was attacked and pillaged by Kurds.
Obviously,
Nahum in his various guises (Isaiah, Jonah) could not have originated from the
Assyrian Alqosh. But he could have, as the prophet Jonah, dwelt there for a
period of time during his Nineveh campaign, perhaps writing his book there, and
thus being known for that period of time as an “Elcesite” (Alqoshite).
It would
have been fitting for Jonah to have spent some time with his beloved Israelite
people, exiled in Nineveh.
Obviously
Tobit knew of him, having made reference to Jonah/Nahum in 14:4.
And it would
not be surprising if Jonah had dwelt with, or close to, this Tobit family,
presumably in Uz/Alquš.
I had this
well in mind when I wrote towards the end of my article, “A
north and south geography for the major prophet Isaiah”:
However, in a future
article, perhaps, I may entertain the possibility that Elkosh was actually the
Alqosh in Assyria, near Nineveh, and that that is where Isaiah, as Jonah-Nahum,
would sojourn for a time during his mission to Nineveh.
There may be
a further clue.
When young
Tobias (Job) was returning with his new wife, Sarah, the angel Raphael (and the
dog), from Ecbatana (to Haran) to Nineveh, an unknown place called Kaserin
is mentioned in close proximity to Nineveh (Tobit 11:1): “As they neared
Kaserin, which is close to Nineveh …”.
This, I now
suggest, was the family’s actual place of abode at Nineveh, nearby Kaserin,
Alqoš (Kas- Qosh). It may be the much sought after Jobian “land
of Uz”.
Comparisons of Uz and Alqosh
While much
work can now be done on drawing comparisons between Assyrian Alqosh and Job’s
“land of Uz”, I can immediately see, at least, a few obvious similarities.
Firstly, no
one could doubt that it was to the east of the Holy Land.
And the
above description of the town’s economy fits well with the livelihood of Job
and his family:
The
town’s economy is based on agriculture (wheat, barley, chickpeas, lentils,
beans, cucumbers, gourds, melons, grapes, and figs) and animal husbandry (sheep
and goats).
It also
appears to have an abundance of caves, a feature, too, of the Book of Job
(30:6).
Feasts
of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
and
the Immaculate Heart of Mary
12-13thth
June, 2026
