The Book of Job

1
The Book of Job

• Tomorrow, if all literature was to be destroyed
  and it was left to me to retain one work only, I
  should save Job.
• Victor Hugo

2
Structure of Job

• Didactic poem set in a prose framing device
• Jobs revelation of God comes at the denouement.

3
Placement of Job

• Old Testament in the Christian Bible
• One of five of The Books of Poetry, also known
  as Wisdom Literature
• Job How to Suffer
• Psalms How to Pray
• Proverbs How to Act
• Ecclesiastes How to Enjoy
• Song of Solomon How to Love

4
Author and Date

• All that can be said with certainty is that the
  author was a loyal Hebrew who was not strictly
  bound by the popular creed that assumed suffering
  was always the direct result of sin (Jamieson,
  Fausset, and Brown).

5
Author and Date

• Scholars disagree about the date
• Some say before Moses (pre 1500 B.C.)
• Some say at the time of Solomon (ca. 900 B.C.)
• Some say as late as the Babylonian Exile (post
  600 B.C.)
• Jobs actions and the allusions to historical
  events suggest that he lived or that the story
  originated in the Patriarchal period (between
  Noah and Moses).

6
Author and Date

• Possible Sumerian Source
• Assyriologist and Sumerologist Samuel Noah Kramer
  wrote History Begins at Sumer Thirty-Nine
  Firsts in Recorded History in 1959.
• He provides a translation of a Sumerian text
  which he postulates parallels Job.

7
Author and Date

• Later additions
• Some scholars argue that the speeches of Elihu
  were added later because
• Elihu is not mentioned anywhere before and is not
  addressed by God in the end
• Elihus comments contradict those of the three
  comforters
• The younger may be symbolic of later author.
• Elihu could be a literary tool to further refute
  the heresy of the comforters and to provide a
  more full counter argument than that provided in
  Gods ambiguous and unspecific response to Job.

8
Summary

• Job has great prosperity and offers sacrifices
  for his sons to aid in their salvation
• Satan solicits permission to first take away all
  worldly possessions and second to harm his
  person.
• God answers, Behold he is in your hand, but
  dont touch his life.
• Jobs wife tells him to Curse God and die, but
  Job says, Shall we receive good at the hand of
  God, and shall we not receive evil?

9
Speeches of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar

• Do not waver from their beliefs that
• God is right
• God punishes wrong-doers and rewards righteousness

10
Speeches of Job

• Job remains convinced of his innocence.
• However, he refuses to curse Gods name.

11
Speech of Elihu

• Name means My God is He
• Condemns the approach taken by Jobs three
  friends
• Argues that Job is misrepresenting Gods
  righteousness and discrediting his loving
  character.
• Argues for Gods power, redemptive salvation and
  absolute rightness in all his conduct.

12
Speech of Elihu

• Along with the comforters, Elihu believes that
  Job needs to repent, but for a very different
  reason believes that Job needs to renounce any
  moral authority or cosmological perspective,
  because that is Gods alone.
• Underscores the arrogance in Jobs desire to
  plead his case before God which presupposes that
  Job possesses a superior moral standing.

13
Gods Response

• Emphasizes his sovereignty in creating and
  maintaining the world
• Postulates that he is not subject to questions
  from his creatures, including men
• Condemns Jobs friends for their insistence on
  speaking wrongly of the Lords motives and methods

14
Exegesis

• Common to suggest that it answers the question,
  Why does God allow the righteous to suffer?
  because that is the question that Job asks. But
  he is never given an answer to that question.
  Only the reader knows of the discussion between
  God and Satan.
• More likely then, that the purpose is to answer
  the question, How should the righteous suffer?

15
Exegesis

• The book defends the absolute glory and
  perfection of god. It sets the theme that God is
  deserving of praise simply on the basis of who He
  is, apart from any bestowed blessings.
• Addresses the issues of suffering
• Man is unable to subject the painful experiences
  of human existence to a meaningful analysis.
  Gods workings are beyond mans ability to
  fathom.
• Suffering is not always the result of personal
  sin. Jobs friend erroneously conclude that Jobs
  suffering is a result of his sin.

16
Exegesis

• Presents a picture of patience. Jobs patience
  is from the Greek word, Hupomone, which describes
  the trait of one who is able to abide under the
  weight of trials.
• Shows necessity of humility.
• Because Job saw the LORD and lived, suggests
  the that God being present in peoples lives is
  more important than Gob being just.
• Raises the possibility that God acts in
  capricious ways.

17
Analysis The Testament of Job

• In style of Jewish haggada a folk tale
• Job is a king in Egypt
• Includes legendary details about Jobs wife
• Sitis sold her hair to Satan in exchange for food
  and money.
• She cursed God and died.
• Here Satan attacks Job because Job destroyed a
  non-Jewish temple

18
Analysis Judaism

• Job is discussed in the Talmud and most Torah
  scholars agree that Job existed
• Orthodox scholars believe Job was one of three
  advisors the Pharaoh consulted about the exodus
• When Pharaoh is advised to kill all male Hebrew
  babies, Job kept silent his disagreement
• This is why God punishes him with bitter
  afflictions
• A minority of rabbinical scholars believe he
  didnt exist, but was instead a literary creation
  to convey a divine message or parable
• The Book of Job is a source of laws and customs
  regarding mourning.

19
Analysis Philosophical Approach

• Maimonides a twelfth century rabbi purports
  that each character represents a famous, distinct
  school of thought.
• Bildad portrays the standard Jewish view and the
  Islamic view that righteousness is rewarded by
  God.
• The friends are symbols for the order in society
• Job portrays the views of Aristotle that God
  destroys the innocent and the wicked together

20
Analysis Philosophical Approach

• Maimonides cont.
• Elihu portrays the correct view of providence
  that one must examine his religion.
• In the beginning Job was an un-examining, pious
  man, not a philosopher and therefore did not have
  providence. He was unwise, simply grateful and so
  God rather than singling him out for judgment,
  abandoned him to be dealt with by natural,
  unfriendly foes.

21
Analysis Philosophical Approach

• Russian existentialist philosopher Lev Shestov
  viewed Job as the embodiment of the battle
  between reason, faith and one mans desperate cry
  for him.

22
Analysis Mystical Approach

• Nachmanides purports that Job is punished because
  he is a heretic.
• Job automatically assumes that he did not sin and
  that God had no right to punish him.
• Also, if his belief is concurrent with his
  wifes, he is a heretic because he does not
  believe in an afterlife.

23
Analysis In Christianity

• The Book of Job is in the Old Testament, but
  there are also references to Job throughout the
  New Testament
• Themes include
• Gods mercy not treating sinners as they truly
  deserve.
• Gods grace treating unworthy sinners as they
  do not deserve
• Gods compassion toleration of much
  discrediting and impugning of the divine and
  alleging of unfair, unrighteous dealings with men.

24
Analysis In Christianity

• Themes Cont.
• Gods restoration where sin abounds, generosity
  also abounds
• Gods infinite love although the process was
  painful, in the end Jobs faith was increased and
  he saw God more clearly
• Gods omnipresence, omnipotence, supreme
  majesty, etc.

25
Analysis In Christianity

• Messianic Anticipation
• Christians interpret several passages to be
  prophecies for the coming messiah.
• Job wished for an arbiter to act as a go-between
• Job addressed God and desires that God would
  advocate on his behalf with God himself.

26
Analysis In Islam

• In the Quran, Job is known as Ayyub and is a
  prophet.
• Ayyub is symbolic of the virtue of patience.

27
The Book of Job

• The Book of Job taken as a mere work of literary
  genius, is one of the most wonderful productions
  of any age or of any language. Daniel Webster
• the greatest poem, whether of ancient or modern
  literature. Alfred Lord Tennyson