03_Samet_375_375_390 30/10/15 13:05 Pagina 384 384 NILI SAMET 384 The themes and phraseology of this passage are reminiscent of Qohelet 28. It is not only the common theme of brevity of life and the shallowness of human achievements that are found in both texts, but also the use of two Akkadian phrases that parallel with two essen- tial idioms in Qohelet: šāru, “wind” and itti šamšim, “with the sun”. The “wind” as an expression of vanity may be correlated with xwr and lbh in Qohelet, and “with the sun” may perhaps be associated with vmvh txt, under the sun, another common phrase in Qohelet. The latter expression is used by Qohelet to describe the world of living human beings, and in this sense it may be contrasted with the realm that is “with the sun” which belongs to divine beings 29. Unlike the three parallels presented above, this parallel does not point to a specific passage in Qohelet where the Akkadian text echoes 30, and therefore it cannot stand, when taken alone, as evidence for a literary dependence. However, when considered against the background of the other, stronger parallels, it may suggest that the author of Qohelet, when creating the key concepts of lbh, “vanity”, and vmvh txt, “under the sun”, could have been inspired by this passage in Gilgamesh 31. II. Analysis of Data: Which Version of Gilgamesh was Known to Qohelet’s Author? At first glance it would appear that the above data presents a fairly clear picture. Three different examples seem to point out that the author of Qohelet was familiar, by some means, with the Gil- gamesh epic, and that he integrated selected materials and ideas of 28 See e.g. LORETZ, Qohelet, 120-121; JONES, “From Gilgamesh to Qoheleth”, 366-367; SEOW, Ecclesiastes, 64; VAN DER TOORN, “Echoes”, 504. 29 See e.g. SEOW, Ecclesiastes, 113. 30 Some scholars sought to connect it to Qoh 5,1, but this parallel is vague. 31 Note that the accumulated parallels between Qohelet and Gilgamesh led also to a much less convincing theory regarding a genre resemblance be- tween them. See: SEOW, Ecclesiastes, 65; JONES, “From Gilgamesh to Qo- heleth”, 350-351. This theory will not be discussed here in detail. Suffice it to say that the alleged generic analogies appear only between the SB version of Gilgamesh and Qohelet, while verbal and thematic parallels appear mostly between OB tablets of Gilgamesh and Qohelet. See the discussion below, and further, VAN DER TOORN, “Echoes”, 505-507, 511.