AHIQAR (Aramaic Ahia-Iaqar: 'The Brother Is Precious' or 'Dear'). - Assyrian sage, chancellor of Sennacherib (705-681 B.C.) then of Esarhaddon (681-669). He is mentioned by the Vulgate, under the name Achior (v.) only in Tob. 11:20 (joined with Nabath), as a kinsman of Tobit; six other times (Tob. 1:21-22; 2:10; 11:17-18; 14:10, 15) by the Greek Septuagint Bible (under the name Achiacharos, Codex Sin. Achicharos) and by the ancient Latin versions (under the name Achichar).
A narrative book is attributed to him (A. is betrayed by his beneficiary, but his innocence triumphs), into which two collections of maxims are inserted (3:1-95 and 33:96-142). Combining the various titles prefixed in the manuscripts, Nau calls the work Story and Wisdom of Ahikar the Assyrian.
Having no children, the aged A. adopts Nadan, his sister's son, to whom he communicates in 95 maxims the rules of life (chaps. 1-3); but Nadan, by means of forged letters, has him condemned to death by Esarhaddon for conspiracy (6-11). The executioner, Nabusumiskun, a friend of the condemned man, kills a slave prisoner while A. hides, and, hearing Nadan's exultation, prays to God, just and good (12-15). When the king of Egypt asks Esarhaddon for a sage who can solve riddles and build a palace in the air, A. reappears and is sent to Egypt, where he satisfies the pharaoh's demands (16-19). On his return he is celebrated and Esarhaddon hands over to him the ungrateful nephew, whom A. flogs while instructing him with a second series of maxims; then Nadan is executed (31-34).
The work was probably composed in Assyrian, not later than the 6th century B.C. The Aramaic text, which seems to be a translation from a lost original, was already widespread in the Jewish world around 450 B.C.; various fragments of it are found among the papyri discovered (1906-1908) at Elephantine (v.), which date from 450-410 B.C. The original work was subsequently transformed; it was reworked and expanded over the centuries by many translators and copyists, who added the journey to Egypt and multiplied the maxims.
A. was known as a "sage" to Greek writers (Strabo, XVI, II, 39, ed. A. Meineke, III, Leipzig 1877, p. 1063); Theophrastus composed (ca. 300 B.C.) a work on him ("Axi-ozpoc; Diogenes Laertius, Vitae philos., V, 2, 50); various maxims of his are found in Menander (342-290 B.C.); from this derives the legend of Aesop (and of Loqman, cf. Qur'an, XXXI). Maximus Planudes (1260-1310), who depends on earlier works, identifies A. with Aesop.
More than 20 sayings of Ecclesiasticus reproduce those of the book of A.; Nau, p. 60, admits a direct dependence; but they could have reached Ben Sira through oral tradition. One may admit a dependence of Tob. (written ca. 250 B.C.) on the book of A., whose redaction is earlier. The historical conditions and the customs of the milieu appear identical in the two works, and various maxims are common to them (but the book of A. is totally ignorant of Tobit).
The historicity of Tob. does not suffer from this. Although later framed in fantastic legends (such as the journey to Egypt, of which there is no trace in Tob.), A. is a historical figure (M. Hagen, s.v. Achiacharus, in Lexikon Biblicum; F. Nau, L. Pirot, R. Galdos, J. O'Carroll, against E. Cosquin, Le livre de Tobie et l'« Histoire du sage Ahikar », in Revue Biblique, 8 [1899], pp. 50-82, 521-31, and against F. Stummer, B. Meissner, and others). Of the writing attributed to him, the Greek version of Tob. used the oldest and most truthful part (office at court, condemnation, punishment of Nadan).
From the use of the divine names, F. Stummer deduces (against Nau) that the work was originally composed in a polytheistic sense, and then purged by the Jews.
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