myBibleHistory

Journey of a Passage

Job 14:14

"If a man die, shall he live again?"

The Hebrew is a question. The library's Greek turns it into a statement of hope: "when a man has died, and has completed the days of his life, he will live; I will wait until I am born again" (Giguet). The Vulgate and KJV keep the question.

Same letters, different readings: the consonants agree, but ancient readers vocalized or interpreted them differently

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. Original JobPoem often dated 6th–4th century BC (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Job
Aramaic
    Greek and its daughters
    1. Greek Job, filled-out text (library: Giguet's French)Printed Septuagint; translated 1872Translated from the Greek text as filled out after Origen
    Latin
    1. Jerome's Vulgatec. AD 390s, from HebrewTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day
    English
    1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    Every witness, in order

    1. Poem often dated 6th–4th century BC (debated)

      Original Job

      – No copy survives

      No original survives. Small Hebrew fragments of Job are known from Qumran (2Q15, 4Q99–101).

    2. c. AD 390s, from Hebrew

      Jerome's Vulgate

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

      Putasne mortuus homo rursum vivat? cunctis diebus quibus nunc milito, expecto donec veniat immutatio mea.

    3. AD 1008

      Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

      ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Job

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

      אִם־יָמ֥וּת גֶּ֗בֶר הֲיִ֫חְיֶ֥ה כָּל־יְמֵ֣י צְבָאִ֣י אֲיַחֵ֑ל עַד־בּ֝֗וֹא חֲלִיפָתִֽי׃

    4. 1611

      King James Bible

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

      If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.

    5. Printed Septuagint; translated 1872

      Greek Job, filled-out text (library: Giguet's French)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Greek text as filled out after Origen

      How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

      Car lorsque l’homme est mort, et lorsqu’il a rempli les jours de sa vie, il vivra; j’attendrai jusqu’à ce que je renaisse.

      Greek via Giguet's French (filled-out printed text); not checked against Ziegler's critical edition.

    What changed, and why

    Whether 14:14 hopes for life after death or only voices longing is debated. The Greek translator's rendering reflects a more hopeful reading that matches its addition at 42:17a ("he will rise again").

    What the evidence shows

    • Independently documentedThe Hebrew of 14:14 is a question.
    • Strongly supportedThe Greek tradition reads the verse more hopefully. Via Giguet; check Ziegler.

    Sources

      Related lessons

      • If a Man Die, Shall He Live Again? →"Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble." He flees like a shadow. A cut tree may sprout again from its stump at the scent of water, but a man dies and does not rise until the heavens are no more. Job imagines God hiding him in Sheol until his anger passes, then calling, and Job answering: "If a man die, shall he live again?" But the hope fades: as water wears away stones, God destroys the hope of man.