Book of Job

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The Book of Job (איוב, Standard Hebrew Iyyov, Tiberian Hebrew ʾIyyôḇ; Arabic أيّوب ʾAyyūb) is one of the books of the Hebrew Bible (or Tanakh), and one of the books of the Christian Old Testament. The name Job or Yob ("Yobe") means Hostility in Hebrew. Jobe is a didactic poem set in a prose framing device.

The Book of Job has been called the most difficult book of the Bible. The numerous Exegeses of the Book of Job are classic attempts to reconcile the co-existence of evil and God (in Greek, these justifications are known as theodicies). Job appears both as an invocation to righteousness, a cynical outlook on the idea of righteousness, and a response to the problem of evil. Scholars are divided as to what the original intent of the poem was, and a few even suggest it was meant as a satire against more puritanical upholding of religion. Some scholars consider this book to be the oldest book in the bible.

Contents

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Narrative structure

The subject is the trial of Job, its occasion, nature, endurance, and issue. It consists of

  1. An historical introduction in prose (ch. 1,2).
  2. The controversy and its solution, in poetry (ch. 3-42:6). Job's desponding lamentation (ch. 3) is the occasion of the controversy which is carried on in three courses of dialogues between Job and his three friends. The first course gives the commencement of the controversy (ch. 4-14); the second the growth of the controversy (15-21); and the third the height of the controversy (22-27). Job puts God on trial through an "Oath of Innocence" (Job 27-31). This is followed by a solution of the controversy in the speeches of Elihu and the address of Jehovah, followed by Job's humble confession (42:1-6) of his own fault and folly. Some read Elihu's speeches as a false climax since he repeats the arguments of Job's friends which God condemns (Job 42:7-8). Job's repentance is controversial and may imply only a change of course in his prosecution of God and not a moral confession of sin.
  3. The third division is the historical conclusion, in prose (42:7-15).

It is possible that the introductory and concluding sections of the book were composed by a different author than the body of the book.

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Narrative

Job was a man of great probity, virtue, and religion, and he possessed much riches in cattle and slaves, which at that time constituted the principal wealth even of princes in Arabia and Edom. He had seven sons and three daughters and was in great repute among all people, on both sides of the Euphrates.

His sons, by turns, made entertainments for each other; and when they had gone through the circle of their days of feasting, Job sent to them, purified them, and offered burn-offerings for each one in order that God might pardon any faults unintentionally committed against him during such festivities. He was wholly averse from injustice, idolatry, fraud, and adultery. He avoided evil thoughts, and dangerous looks, was compassionate to the poor, a father to the orphan, a protector to the widow, a guide to the blind, and a supporter to the lame.

God permitted Satan to put the virtue of Job to the test. At first by giving him power over his property, but forbidding him to touch his person. Satan began with taking away his oxen: a company of Sabeans slew his husbandmen and drove off all the beasts; one servant only escaping to bring the news. While he was reporting this misfortune, a second came, and informed Job that fire from heaven had consumed his sheep, and those who kept them; and that he alone had escaped. A third messenger arrived, who said "The Chaldeans have carried away the camels, have killed all your servants, and I only am escaped." </br> He had scarcely concluded, when another came, and said, "While your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking in their eldest brother's house, an impetuous wind suddenly overthrew it, and they were all crushed to death under the ruins; I alone am escaped to bring you this news."

Job rent his clothes and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground saying, "Naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave and the Lord had taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."</br> As Job endured these calamities without repining against Providence, satan solicited permission to afflict his person, and the Lord said, "Behold he is in your hand, but don’t touch his life." Satan, therefore, smote him with a dreadful disease, probably the leprosy, and Job, seated in ashes, scraped off the corruption with a potsherd. His wife incited him to "curse God, and die" but Job answered "Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?"

In meantime, three of his friends, having been informed of his misfortunes, came to visit him - Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. A fourth was Elihu the Buzite, who from chapter 32 bears a distinguished part in the dialogue. It is also interesting to note that others also may have been listening to the dialogue of Job and his three friends.</br> They continued seven days sitting on the ground by him, without speaking, but at last Job broke silence, and complained of his misery. His friends, not distinguishing between the evils with which God tries those whom he loves and the afflictions with which he punishes the wicked, accused him of having indulged some secret impiety, and urged him to return to God by repentance and humbly to submit to his justice, since he suffered only according to his demerits. </br> Job, convinced of his own innocence, maintained that his sufferings were greater than his faults and that God sometimes afflicted the righteous only to try them, to give them an opportunity of manifesting or of improving their pious dispositions, or because it was his pleasure, for reasons unknown to mankind.

Elihu takes a middle path, referring strongly to the sovereignty of God. To terminate the controversy, the Deity appears in a cloud, and decided in favour of Job, but does not approve those harsh expressions, which the extremity of his sorrow and the warmth of dispute had excited. Job humbly acknowledge his fault and asks forgiveness. The Lord condemns his friends, and enjoins them to expiate their sins with sacrifices, offered by his hands. He restores Job to health, gives him double the riches he before possessed, blesses him with a beautiful and numerous family, and crowns a holy life with a happy death.

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Authorship

A great diversity of opinion exists as to the authorship of this book. Two Talmudic traditions hold that Job either lived in the time of Abraham or of Jacob. Levi ben Laḥma held that Job lived in the time of Moses, by whom the Book of Job was written. Others argue that it was written by Job himself (see Job 19:23-24: Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!), or by Elihu, or Isaiah. From internal evidence, such as the similarity of sentiment and language to those in the Psalms and Proverbs (see Psalms 88 and 89), the prevalence of the idea of "wisdom," and the style and character of the composition, it is supposed by some to have been written in the time of King David and King Solomon. Some, however place it in around the time of the Babylonian exile. Talmudic tradition treats the story of Job as a parable. If you are consistent with Bible study it is clearly a historic book (verse 1 starts out immediately with a historical account).

In contrast, secular examinations of the text more generally conclude that, though archaic features such as the "council in heaven" survive, and though the story of Job was familiar to Ezekiel, the present form of Job was fixed in the 4th century BC. The story of Job apparently originated in the land of Edom, which has been retained as the background. Fragments of Job are found among the Dead Sea scrolls, and Job remains prominent in haggadic legends. Compare the later Greek Testament of Job among the apocrypha. Secular scholars agree that the introductory and concluding sections of the book, the framing devices, were composed to set the central poem into a prose "folk-book," as the compilers of the Jewish Encyclopedia expressed it. In the prologue and epilogue, the name of God is Yahweh, a name that even the Edomites use. Secular scholars agree that the central poem is from another source.

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Later interpolations and additions

In the edited form of Job that we have, various interpolations have been claimed to have been made in the text of the central poem. The clearest of these are of two kinds: the "parallel texts", which are parallel developments of the corresponding passages in the base text, and the speeches of Elihu (Chapters 32-37), which consist of a polemic against the ideas expressed elsewhere in the poem, and so appear to be interpretive interpolations. The speeches of Elihu (who is not mentioned in the prologue or epilogue) contradict the fundamental teachings of the central poem of Job, according to which it is impossible that the righteous should suffer, all pain being a punishment for some sin. Elihu, however, assumes that suffering may be decreed for the righteous as a protection against greater sin, and for moral betterment.

Subjects of more contention among scholars are the identity of corrections and revisions of Job's speeches, which have been made for the purpose of harmonizing them with the orthodox doctrine of retribution. A prime example of this is the translation of the last line Job speaks (42:6). Traditional translations have him say, "Therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Yet a more accurate translation (from the original Hebrew) would have Job saying, "Therefore I despise, yet repent in dust and ashes." This makes him despise not himself, but dust and ashes, which refers to the thus perceived absurdity of the universe.

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Exegesis of the Book of Job

Exegesis largely concerns the question, "Is misfortune always a divine punishment for something?" Job's three friends argued in the affirmative, stating that Job's misfortunes were proof that he had committed some sins for which he was being punished. His friends also advanced the converse position that good fortune is always a divine reward, and that if Job would renounce his supposed sins, he would immediately experience the return of good fortune.

In response, Job asserted that he was a righteous man, and that his misfortune was therefore not a punishment for anything. This raised the possibility that God acts in capricious ways, and Job's wife urged him to curse God, and die. Instead, Job responded with equanimity: "The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord." The climax of the book occurs when God responds to Job, not with an explanation for Job's suffering but rather with a question: Where was Job when God created the world?

God's response itself may be read in a variety of ways. Some see it as an attempt to humble Job. Yet Job is comforted by God's appearance, and the fact that he 'saw God and lived', suggesting that the author of the book was more concerned with whether or not God is present in people's lives, than with the question of whether or not God is just. Job chapter 28 rejects these efforts to fathom divine wisdom.

The framing story complicates the book further: in the introductory section God, during a conversation with Satan, allows Satan to inflict misery on Job and his family. The appended conclusion has God restoring Job to wealth, granting him new children, and possibly restoring his health, although this is not implied or explicitly stated. This suggests that the faith of the righteous is indeed rewarded.

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Satan in the Book of Job

The name Satan appears in the prose prologue of Job, with his usual connotation of "the adversary," as a distinct being. He is shown as one of the celestial beings or "sons of God" before the Deity, replying to the inquiry of God as to whence he had come, with the words: "from going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it" (Job 1:7). Both the question and the answer, as well as the dialogue that ensues, characterize Satan as that member of the divine council who watches over human activity, but with the evil purpose of searching out men's sins and appearing as their accuser. He is, therefore, the celestial prosecutor, who sees only iniquity; for he persists in his evil opinion of Job even after the man of Uz has passed successfully through his first trial by surrendering to the will of God, whereupon Satan demands another test through physical suffering (Job 2:3-5). Satan challenges God by saying that Job's belief is only built upon what material goods he is given, and that his faith will disappear as soon as they are taken from him. And God accepts the challenge.

But recall that this entire story about "the adversary" occurs in the (very short) framing story alone, and is never alluded to in the (very long) central poem at all. Many conjecture that the framing prose was written by a different author, and from a different theological point of view, than the central poem.

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External links

Related articles:

de:Ijob (Buch) eo:Ijob fr:Livre de Job he:ספר איוב id:Kitab Ayub nl:Job ja:ヨブ記 pl:Księga Hioba pt:Livro de Jó sr:Књига о Јову fi:Jobin kirja sv:Job zh:约伯记

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