ZBORNIK - Matica srpska

Another kind of use of the same conception is to be seen in an
apocryphal book of the Old Testament and in a gospel in the New.
In the Book of Wisdom the text speaks of the potter who moulds an
idol from clay.
Perversely working he forms a vain god from the same clay, he
who was born from earth a short time ago, soon makes his way unto
the ground where it was taken from, when the debt of his soul has
been demanded.
And a little later, speaking of the idols:
Human beings made them and a lent spirit formed them. 16
The same outlook is behind the parable of the fool rich man in
Luke's Gospel (only in this one):
Though fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee; than
whose shall these things be which thou hast provided? 17
The idea of soul demanded back is the same, but the lent spirit
and the debt of soul reveal the ephemeric nature of human existence.
As from these sources appears the conception of soul/life demanded
back was rather well known especially in the eastern part
of the Empire both among Greek, Roman and Hellenized Jewish
and Christian authors. Tralleis was a city of mixed culture, there
were sanctuaries of numerous Greek, Roman and oriental gods and
goddesses, there was also a Jewish community, as we learn it from
Josephus and, if Ignatios wrote a letter the Trallians in the second
decad of the 2 nd century A. D., obviously Christians too lived in the
town. 18 Seikilos, then or whoever has written the poem, could have
been influenced from more than one quarters. At any rate this conception
too is a commonplace.
Is there the Seikilos-poem a mere further item in the catalogue
of the sources regarding the idea of life or soul demanded back or
is it perhaps more? I think so. In one respect at least it seems unparalleled.
There is no explanation, no reasoning, references to bankers,
to usufruct, etc. It establishes objectively, without any personal
16 Sap. 15, 8, 16.
17 Luc. 12, 16 (authorized version). Impersonal subject is used in rabbinic literature
in order to avoid God's name: Strack — Billerbeck II 7 1978. 190.
18 W. Ruge RE VI A (1937) 2117—2118 s. v. Tralleis; Jos. AJ 14, 242; Ign.
Ep. 3.
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