Hebrew Bible: Job

The Writings

The Book of Job

11/30/2011

Religion and Its Monsters, Timothy K. Beal

God:  a Biography; "Confrontation and Fiend", Jack Miles

FINAL:  DECEMBER 15TH AT 3PM, SAME ROOM

Paper due:  December 12th by  11:59pm

Job

    a response to Wisdom literature:  do good and blessings will follow

(Qoheleth is another response)

• Job is from Uz, in the East -- NOT an Israelite
• very wealthy and big family, great reputation
• God brags about Job's devotion to the Adversary
• "He's only great because nothing bad has ever happened to him" -- hasatan
• the wager:  hasatan thinks he can break Job's devotion so that he curses God
• hasatan's infliction
• loses possessions and family -- Job does not curse God
• boils and extremely poor health
• friends come to "comfort" Job
• Job must have done something sinful
• because God is ultimately just
• friends speak and Job responds
• Job stands beside his innocence
• Job 21:1-7, 17 -- friends "mock;" Job's impatience; good things happen to the wicked
• Where is God's justice?
• God comes in a whirlwind
• God's answer:  "I am all-powerful"
• justice not addressed
• Job's response
• Job 42:1-6 -- "I cannot speak"
• God asserts that Job is right and his friends are wrong
• why?
• Job is restored to his wealth and new family

Religion and Monsters -- Beal

• Job wants to conjure up chaos 
• undoing what God has done, e.g. creating him
• suffering = undoing
• Job SUFFERS
• true suffering cannot be escaped -- Beal
• Job wants to die
• God watches Job from the panopticon -- 
• derived from the idea of a whole prison which can be seen from one point all the time\
• likewise, Job cannot escape God's gaze
• conjure
• Yam
• Leviathan
• chaos, in general
• an opposition to Genesis
• "let there be darkness"
• **chaos is the only answer to Job's intense suffering
• God's response
• He "out-monsters" Job -- Beal
• God controls the chaos monsters
• Leviathan
• a huge sea dragon
• in some cases in Scripture, God creates it
• other cases, God conquers it
• 41:9-11 -- use of pronouns
• talk of self and talk of self
• "who can take a stand before me"
• **God can out-chaos Job (or anyone else) -- Beal  
• has harpoons and fishing spears
• has animal parts, fish and human parts
• very strong
• "classificatory obfuscation" -- descriptions don't fit together!!
• cannot be understood
• "a linguistic smokescreen"
• supporting God's sovereignty and power
• according to rabbinic Judaism, when the Messiah returns, God will hold a feast of Leviathan

God:  A Biography, Miles

• focuses on Job's responses to God's speech from the whirlwind
• pg 317 -- in first response Job just gives up (Jerusalem Translation)
• Mile's translation
• "you haven't answered my question!"
• in essence, Job rests his case
• if asking why is God unjust, then God "royally changes the subject"
• no direct answer to the question of justice
• rather, God asks his own questions and asserts his power
• Job's second response
• what does it mean to repent?
• "to turn around" -- in Hebrew
• ketiv and qere
• "write" and "read"
• the Masoretes distinguish the differences between the actual text and how it ought to be read
• a more literal answer:
• "now that i see you, I shudder for mortal clay"
• no repentance
• Job terrified for humanity because he is greatly disappointed with the God he sees  -- Miles
• basically, Job is sarcastic:  so what if You're powerful?

also see A Serious Man, the movie