The Book of Job

What is the Book of Job about?

a moral drama that examines the mystery of why innocent people suffer *questions the justice of a God who, though expected to offer protection an prosperity in return for loyalty and obedience, lets someone endure episodes of suffering with no apparent cause

Theodicy

an attempt to answer the question of why an omnipotent and omnibenevolent God would allow for evil and suffering to exist in the world that He created

Who wrote the Book of Job? When?

authorship is unknown, as is date of composition (though estimates fall between the 7th and 4th centuries BC)

Why does Elihu appear?

because his wrath has been kindled 'against Job... because he justified himself rather than God.' (i.e. Job had been thinking of reasons as to why he didn't deserve to suffer, rather than trying to determine why God was making him suffer)

How is Elihu introduced?

in a prose break from the verse cycles of Job and his comforters (ch. 32) - structurally, this section of prose stands out and so can be seen to signify his importance/significance to the text

Theophany

the appearance of God to man, for example who God appears to Job in a whirlwind so that he can answer the questions of his 'servant'

Elihu on God's love for His creation/mankind

'God is mighty, and despiseth not any'

Richard J. Clifford comments that wisdom literature is...

'personal, reflective, and didactic... about personal rather than national affairs'

Presentation of satan in the Book of Job:

- the cause of Job's trials ('So went Satan forth from the presence of God') - guided by God? - 'And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.' - sees God to permit Satan to do as he wishes with Job - he is in conversation with God in the prose section - implies that he isn't the evil figure that literature/the rest of the Bible presents him to be

What might imply that God is the cause of Job's suffering?

'And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life' *implies that He has given permission for Satan to do as he pleases with Job - and note that he fails to intervene after the first round of suffering, and then permits Satan to inflict suffering upon Job for a second time

Where does the theophany take place?

'Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind' *can be seen to bring himself to Job on Earth, but holds himself in a storm

Herbert Marks on Wisdom literature

'aims to explore the issues of righteousness and justice from a universal perspective'

Evidence of Job's faith in God in chapters 1-2:

'in all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly' and '[Job's] grief was very great... [but] in all this did not Job sin with his lips.'

God's rebuke of Job's comforters

'my wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.'

Who does Elihu descend from?

'of the kindred of Ram', who descends from David

Clifford on reading as a narrative

'perhaps the most important assumption for the proper interpretation of the Job is that the book is a narrative, a drama with a beginning, middle, and end, with characters, tensions, and resolutions'

Etymology of 'theodicy'

'theos' - god 'dikē' - 'the way God is'

What does God say about Job?

'there is none like him in the earth'

Image of Creation as depicted by God himself

- 'Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding' - 'who shut up the sea with doors...' - 'I made the cloud'

Characterisation of Job

- 'perfect and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed evil' - 'the greatest of all men in the east' - had thousands of sheep and camels, and hundreds of oxen and asses -- wealthy, successful - had 7 sons and 3 daughters - refuses to accept or admit that his suffering is justified

Can the ending be considered satisfying? Do Job's rewards compensate for his sufferings?

- 'the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning' -- we see Job rewarded with 'twice' the amount that he had lost (though only 10 children) - Job lived 140 years longer 'being old and full of days' - saw 4 generations of his family - it seems that the emotional consequences of losing his children wasn't considered by God; he simply replaced them with new children. is this moral or ethical? - doesn't satisfactorily present an answer to the question of why Job, a 'perfect and upright' servant of God, was chosen to suffer

Characterisation of God:

- 'the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away' -- the supreme power - the cause of Job's suffering? - rewards Job for his faith: 'the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.'

How does the Book of Job present Creation? (Elihu's words)

- Elihu comments: 'the Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.' **God as Creator, from the words of a young follower

What does Job determine over the course of the verse section (and with the influence of his comforters)?

- God is torturing him and imposing extreme suffering upon him without a cause - knows that he hasn't done anything to provoke such suffering *observe that there is dramatic irony in the book, for we know that it was the Adversary who is physically inflicting the suffering, not God

The Book of Job as Classical tragedy

- Job is presented as a man of 'high repute' who then experiences an extreme reversal in fortune (peripeteia) - loses his children and livelihood, 'smote' with boils head to toe

Tensions in the Book of Job

- Job questions, 'why hast thou set me a mark against thee, so that I am a burden to myself?' -- driven to a state of self-hate by the suffering that he believes God has inflicted upon him: a tension between the 'upright and perfect' servant of God and God himself - tensions between Job and his comforters: refuses to accept that he has done anything untoward that would warrant his suffering - resolution of tensions by the end of the text

Characterisation of the Adversary:

- a member of the heavenly assembly (not Satan the devil of later times) - to blame for Job's suffering? - 'So went Satan from the presence of the Lord' - alone when he inflicts the suffering so not influenced by anyone else - used to create a sense of distance between God and the infliction of Job's suffering?

Characterisation of Bildad:

- attempts to justify Job's suffering with the suggestion that it is the consequence of the sins of his children: they 'must have sinned against [God], and he has cast them away for their transgressions'

The significance of behemoth and leviathan

- behemoth = hippopotamus - leviathan = like a crocodile **both are enigmatic animals - God uses them as examples of what he has created: He is bigger and more powerful that his creations, and so in referencing their power, He is also presenting His own - uses these creatures to convey that 'whatsoever is under the whole heaven is [his]' - more dangerous to go against God and his will than against these animals, for God has control over them

Why does Elihu appear, and what is the significance of his intervention?

- brings the idea that Job's suffering could be a form of discipline - omitted from the epilogue, and so it is evident that God doesn't rebuke his words: brings a sense of wisdom the the verse section - a prelude to God's intervention (the theophany)

Depiction of behemoth:

- can 'draw up the [river] Jordan into his mouth' - presents the massive size of the animal

Characterisation of Job's wife:

- comments, 'curse God and die!' -- questions how he can still remain faithful to someone inflicting such suffering, telling him to curse God - note that she survives the turmoil that killed their children - why? - a further source of testing for Job's faith as she encourages him to curse God? - is omitted from the epilogue - isn't named: implies that in relation to the whole book, she has little importance

What is Job's response to the episodes of suffering?

- he fell 'down upon the ground' and worshipped God - remarked, 'the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away' - 'in all this, Job sinned not'

Prose frame-narrative v. verse-content

- prose-narrative moves between Job on earth and God and the Adversary in heaven - the prose to verse shift is made in Chapter 3: seven days and nights after Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar come to comfort Job - the poetic composition takes the form of a dialogue between Job and his comforters in three cycles - the prose-narrative style returns at the closing of the book (42:7) - God's rebuke to Job's friends, the restoration of his status and provision of 'twice as much' as he had lost

Perception of God as a result of his presentation in the Book of Job (optimistic or pessimistic?)

- seems to advocate for the Adversary to intervene in Job's life and cause him suffering ('So went Satan from the presence of the Lord') - makes no effort to intervene and aid 'the greatest man in all the east' - rewards Job with 'twice' what he had lost and 'blessed the latter end of Job more than the beginning' - his 'wrath is kindled' against the comforters - creates an image of God being just and caring for those that are loyal to him

Narrative or poetry?

- the book uses a combination of prose and verse writings - prose opens and closes the book: gives a sense of elevation and importance to the form, for it is used to set the tone of the book, and then resolve it - Clifford quote: draws comparisons between the perception of a narrative and the Book of Job - verse simply a stylistic choice to determine that the words written were being spoken?

Characterisation of Eliphaz

- the first of the 3 friends to speak - responds to Job by suggesting that he must have done something wrong because no innocent man would be faced with the suffering that Job was faced with

Characterisation of Elihu

- the only character with a Hebrew name in the text - has a lineage far more impressive that that of the comforters ('of the kindred of Ram', who descends from David) - is significant that we are given both his name and details of his lineage - also note that we are denied this is the comforters so instantly Elihu is given a greater sense of importance -

What sufferings are inflicted on Job?

- the servants attending to his oxen were 'slain' - the 'fire of God... 'burned up the sheep, and the servants' - a 'great wind from the wilderness' knocked down the house in which his children were eating, 'and they are dead' **a link between this wind and the whirlwind from which God appears to Job? (warrants the blame to be given to God?) - he was 'smote' with 'sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown' *physical and emotional suffering

Characterisation of Zophar

- the third of Job's friends to talk in the cycles of dialogue - follows the same line of argument as Eliphaz and Bildad: Job must have done something to provoke God into making him suffer

How should we respond to Job's comforters?

- they attempt to explain that Job's suffering and misfortune must be a punishment for his sins (for suffering of this scale can only be the result of sin) - encourage him to repent - they are wrong: Job's suffering is not driven by his sins - should refute what they say **God's wrath is 'kindled against' the comforters 'for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.'

Is the Book of Job a protest against injustice?

- why does God allow Satan to go forth 'from the presence of God' and inflict suffering on a 'perfect and upright' servant? - protests against the 'injustice' found by arguing that God is giving Job the opportunity to prove his faith ('in all this Job sinned not') - injustices that can be observed are short-lived: 'the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than the beginning.'

Wisdom literature

A style of Hebrew literature that meditates on important truths.