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Rabbinic tradition in tractate Sanhedrin interprets Job 29 as referring to the mythical phoenix, the bird in Greek and Roman tradition that is reborn from its own remains. It explains this long life with a story where Noah blesses the bird to never die.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Job 29:18
Hebrew Bible
14 I put on righteousness and it clothed me; my just dealing was like a robe and a turban; 15 I was eyes for the blind and feet for the lame; 16 I was a father to the needy, and I investigated the case of the person I did not know; 17 I broke the fangs of the wicked, and made him drop his prey from his teeth. 18 “Then I thought, ‘I will die in my own home, my days as numerous as the grains of sand. 19 My roots reach the water, and the dew lies on my branches all night long. 20 My glory will always be fresh in me, and my bow ever new in my hand.’
Sanhedrin 108b
Babylonian Talmud
Rabbinic
With regard to the lion, a fever sustained it, since when it suffered from a fever, it did not need to eat; as Rav said: For no fewer than six days and no more than twelve days, fever sustains a person; he need not eat and is sustained from his own fats. Shem continued: With regard to the phoenix [avarshina], my father found it lying in its compartment on the side of the ark. He said to the bird: Do you not want food? The bird said to him: I saw that you were busy, and I said I would not trouble you by requesting food. Noah said to the bird: May it be God’s will that you shall not die, and through that bird the verse was fulfilled, as it is stated: “And I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the phoenix” (Job 29:18).
Date: 450-550 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
“... 3.1. Bird of Resurrection. Rabbinic sources clearly distinguish between the two phenomena, consistently using different names for the Gigantic Bird, on the one hand, and, on the other, for the immortal or resurrecting bird known as Hol (Gen. Rab. 19.5 referring to Job 29:18; the same must have been a tradition underlying LXX Job 29:19; Tan. Intr. 155; Midr. Sam. 12.81), Urshina (b. Sanh. 108b) or Malham/Maltam (2 Alphabet Ben Sira 27a–29b; Bet HaMidr. 6.12). [...] In distinction to Phoenix of 3 Baruch and the Gigantic Bird of Rabbinic tradition, these birds are not gargantuan at all: Father [Noah] found Urshina lying in the back of the ark. He asked it, “Do you not want any food?” It replied, “I saw that you were very busy and I did not want to burden you.” He [Noah] said, “May it be his will that you may never die, as it is written, “I thought I shall die with my nest and multiply my days as Hol [Heb חול “sand”; Job 29:18].” (b. Sanh. 108b) This accords with the Greek phoenix that is “like an eagle in shape and bigness” (Herodotus, Hist. 2.73) ...”
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