Category:Ahiqar (subject)

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According to Near Eastern traditions, Ahiqar / Ahikar was an Assyrian sage, whose deeds and sayings are narrated in the Story of Ahiqar.

Overview

The narrative says that Ahikar was chancellor to the Assyrian kings Sennacherib and Esarhaddon. Having no child, he adopted his nephew Nadab/Nadin, who ungratefully plotted against him. Ahiqar survived the ordeal and was rehabilitated.

Ahiqar is a well known figure in the literatures of the entire ancient Middle East (including Greece), and penetrated Jewish culture as well. A copy of the Story of Ahiqar was found in the ruins of the Jewish Temple of Elephantine. In later times, in the Book of Tobit, it became possible to imagine Ahiqar (Achiacharus) as a Jew, the nephew of Tobit, serving (like Nehemiah or Daniel) at the court of the foreign king in Mesopotamia.

Ahiqar in ancient sources

• Ahiqar (sources) -- survey of ancient sources

References

• Ahiqar / Jerome A. Lund / In: Dictionary of New Testament Background (2000 Evans & Porter), dictionary, 18-19

• Ahikar/Ahiqar / James C. VanderKam / In: The Anchor Bible Dictionary (1992 Freedman), dictionary, 1:113-115

External links

• Wikipedia -- Early Jewish Writings