Jan Assmann
Job in Egypt? When Justice Fails
In the Ancient Near Eastern World, the search for sense or meaning — of life, history, (mis)fortune — was paramount, and meaning was equivalent to justice. Meaning or justice is what grants coherence and connectivity, in the course of events — connecting deeds and consequences — as well as in human society, connecting people to forming a community. The Biblical book of Job, as well as several Egyptian texts, deal with a severe crisis of justice, though within completely different cultural frames and suggesting completely different answers.
Jan Assmann was Professor of Egyptology at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg from 1976 to 2003; since 2005 he has been honorary professor at the University of Constance. He has been a fellow at the Institute for Advance Study in Berlin (1984/1985), a scholar at the J.P. Getty Center in Santa Monica (1994/1995), and a fellow at the Munich C. F. v. Siemens Foundation (1998/1999). He has taught in Paris (Collège de France, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, EHESS), Jerusalem (Hebrew University, Dormition Abbey), and the US (Yale University, Rice University). Recent publications: Moses der Ägypter (1998); Weisheit und Mysterium: Das Bild der Griechen von Ägypten (2000); Religion und kulturelles Gedächtnis (2000); Tod und Jenseits im Alten Ägypten (2001); Die Mosaische Unterscheidung oder der Preis des Monotheismus (2003); Die Zauberflöte: Oper und Mysterium (2005); Monotheismus und die Sprache der Gewalt (2006); Thomas Mann und Ägypten: Mythos und Monotheismus in den Josephsromanen (2006); Religio Duplex: Ägyptische Mysterien und europäische Aufklärung (2010); Steinzeit und Sternenzeit: Altägyptische Zeitkonzepte (2011). Recent English translations of his work include Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism (1998); The Mind of Egypt: History and Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs (2003); Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt (2005); Religion and Cultural Memory (2006) and Of God and Gods: Egypt, Israel, and the Rise of Monotheism (2008).