Bible Chapter 8

image of satan in Job

member of God's court and functions like a prosecuting attorney; serves in the heavenly entourage and remains subservient to God;

Job's friends

represent and argue for the notion that bad things happen to people only when they have done evil;

wisdom literature

analyzes the way things work in the world to gain understanding of God; recognizes more ambiguity than much prophetic literature

problem book raises is more severe

because Job's troubles don't come from evil entity who opposes God's will; rather God grants direct permission to God's own emissary to inflict multiple catastrophes on Job

The Purpose of Life

(Ecclesiastes) human existence does have purpose in this book; humans can't figure out all of God's judgements and deeds, but they can have a life of meaning if they seek that meaning by doing God's will

a contest

(Esther) set in Susa, the winter home of the emperor Ahasuerus, his wife publicly disobeys him, he exiles her and holds a contest to choose a new queen; a member of the court, Mordecai, is Jewish and the foster parent of Esther, whose Hebrew name is Hadassah, mordecai tells her to conceal her jewish identity while participating in the contest; she eventually wins and is made queen of persia, still no one knows she is jewish

absence of Torah observance

(esther) in this dual culture setting, the Torah;s instruction about food, sabbath, and marriage are absent; esthers jewish faith is unknown to the king and others (absense of torah is similar to judith, btu very different from Daniel)

wisdom writers

discern the word of God in a way that is rather different from the way God speaks through prophets; observe human experience and think about what it reveals about the world and our lives in it; they draw on a broad range of human experience to find knowledge of God; don't claim to speak for God, but rather to impart helpful advice as they pass on their insights about life

Tanakh

divided into three parts: the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings

Ecclesiatstes

examines whether human life has meaning

Esther

full of intrigue & irony; about Israelites in exile, and about living in the Diaspora (outside Palestine); more like a novella; never mentions God setting it apart; no mention of ancestors; seems to believe in diving providence and diving justice

proverb

gives a very narrow glimpse at reality; are true if you say them at the right moment, but not if you apply them in the wrong setting

additions to the book

greek additions insert god into the story in various places; give the story a different theological outlook; hebrew version assigns God no active place

casting of lots

haman casts lots to determine what day to schedule the massacre; casting lots wasa common form of divinnationl its something like rolling dice, with the various symbols and numbers telling something about the future

book of Proverbs

has no story line; simply a collection of proverbial sayings, maxims by which to guide one's life; contains a series of generalizations to help readers guide their lives, as long as one reads them at the right moment; sometimes recommend certain behavior, and sometimes they just report an observation; individual proverbs are not specific instructions that apply on all occasions and to all situations

Wisdom Literature

Hebrew bible only contains three books that belong here: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiates; many typical Israelite themes make no appearance in the Wisdom books: there is no mention of the promises to the ancestors or exodus; deals with daily life and gives instruction about how to have a good life; gives attention to the pattern of normal life to discern the acts of God

the name Esther

is probably derived from Ishtar, a Babylonia goddess; symbolizes the struggle of living in two cultures

no resolution

Job offers no easy answers; God restores Job's fortunes in the end; even the restoration doesn't explain how it can be right that he suffers as he does; the book offers its main character as the proper response to adversity, when the righteous suffer they must remain faithful

general revelation

knowledge of God a person can discern by observing the world

a plot (esther)

mordecai hearos of a plot to assassinate the emperor and saves him by reporting it; but makes enemy of powerful official, haman, by refusing to show him deference by bowing when haman passes by; decides to kill mordecai and all the jewish people;

Proverbs

offers insights into patterns of life

Ecclesiastes

opens by identifying its author as the "son of David, king in Jerusalem" (Solomon), but mos think book was composed after his death; old sage gives advice about how to understand life, reads like an essay or speech in parts

Purpose of Esther

provides basis for the Jewish feast of Purim (during or soon after Babylonian exile) the feast was begun as a way of helping the exiles avoid participation in the Persian pagan celebrations (3rd or early 2nd century)

theodicy

question of why bad things happen to good people

the book of Job

questions the validity of the Deuteronomic pattern; recongnizes the injustices of life and offers no easy or clear answers about why they happen, but provides an example of the proper way to respond: maintain faith in God, no matter what you endure

esther

reflects on God's providence; grouped with the wisdom writings because even though the book doesn't strictly belong to the wisdom literature, its view of the world and GOd's participation in it seem similar to that of the wisdom tradition

Job's story

satan surveys the world for God to report on the behavior of its inhabitants, God draws attention to Job's righteousness, satan says its just cuz of what god gives job; god rejects this and allows satan to test job's faithfullness by bad things happening tohim

God's justice

seems to demand that the righteous receive blessings and escape suffering, but we know that equation often breaks down

The Book of JOb/ the problem of Job

story seems to be about non-Israelites; draws on no traditions that are specific to Israelites; speaks of belief in the one God who blesses and judges; its real function is to raise the question of why bad things happen to good people (theodicy) Job is a person and bad things happen to him; teaches a lesson by telling a story about a fictional character

God's providence

such a limited role for god as an active participant in events of the world is similar to much that we have seen in the wisdom literature; the book doesn't seem to let god's providence serve as a backdrop; mordecai alludes to gods providence when convincing esther to act, saying that if she does not help, such rescue will come from another quarter; irony when haman dies on the gallows he built for mordecai; those plotting to kill jews were killed on the appointed day; without ever mentioning god this book provides its readers with ways to think about how to live in the world as people of God, trusting tha God's providence remains even when it seems inactive; gives a reason for the feast of purim that assures them of goodness in life within the ambiguity of their setting

Megillot

the Scrolls; is among the books of the Ketubim; five books; (Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther)

Diaspora life exemplified

the clearly fictional tale gives us an interesting glimpse into being Jewsih in the Diaspora in the Hellenistic era, and it makes some important points. First, it is interesting to note that the minority community of the JEws is represented and save by a woman. thus the oppressed people are represented by a member of society who was always marginal in Hellenistic society; her position exemplifies the way jews of the diaspora of the 4th through the 2nd centuries bce lived in two cultures

feast of Purim

the only Jewish festival that is not a religious celebration; held in the month of Adar on the Jewsih calendar; commemorates the escape of Jews from a pogrom in the time of the Babylonian exile; esther

God and the world

the writers of Israelite wisdom traditions believe that God is responsible for the patterns of life they see, and so trust in those patterns becomes a form of faith in God; discern God's orders to reality; they rely on general revelation

a guide for life

this collection of proverbs is not random; sometimes arranged by topic or author; tries to convince readers to adopt a particular way of living

recognition of the incongruity

wisdom wrtiers recognize that things don't always work as they should;

Vanity of Vanities

writer of Ecclesiastes has a somewhat bleak outlook on life; "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity"=life is absurd; wisdom is futile; humans must live within limits God has set; life doesn't have comic significance, but we can enjoy what God gives us

divine justice and retribution

writer of Job believes in the goodness and justice of God, but recognizes that the world does not always reflect that goodness and justice; god is beyond human comprehension; we can't always explain what happens to people by looking at whether they live as God requires;