READING THE BOOK OF JOB

PART XIII

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Job 38:1-42:9

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Careful reading of the text reveals many interesting details.  For example, God contradicts Eliphaz the Temanite in 38:26-27.  In Job 5:10, Eliphaz claims that God sends rain where people can use it:

He sends down rain to the earth,

pours down water on the fields.

—The Jerusalem Bible (1966)

Yet God, in chapter 38, asks Job:

Who carves a channel for the downpour,

and hacks a way for the rolling thunder,

so that rain may fall on lands where no one lives,

and the deserts void of human dwelling,

giving drink to the lonely wastes

and making grass spring where everything was dry?

–Job 38:28f, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)

The more I read God’s two speeches to Job, the more I dislike them.  They, taken together, constitute a non-answer.  They are not an apology.  Neither do they explain the cause of Job’s suffering.  Job deserves both an explanation and an apology.  He also deserves to hear directly from God what God tells Eliphaz the Temanite:

My wrath has flared against you and your two companions because you have not spoken rightly of Me as did My servant Job.

–Job 42:7, Robert Alter

Job may have spoken presumptuously, but he also spoke honestly, based on his observations of reality.  Job, unlike his alleged friends, had maintained his integrity.  So, Job became a priestly figure who interceded, formally, on behalf of his alleged friends.

Human reconciliation remained possible.

Bernhard Anderson argued that both Job and his alleged friends had committed the same error; they had presumed to know how God does or should work.  That analysis fits 38:2 (“speaking without knowledge”).  It does not fit 42:7-9, however.  Thus, we encounter an interpretive difficulty born of multiple authors.

I still stand with Job.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

DECEMBER 4, 2022 COMMON ERA

THE SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT, YEAR A

THE FEAST OF SAINTS JOHN OF DAMASCUS AND COSMAS OF MAIUMA, THEOLOGIANS AND HYMNODISTS

THE FEAST OF SAINT ALEXANDER HOTOVITZKY, RUSSIAN ORTHODOX PRIEST AND MARTYR, 1937

THE FEAST OF SAINT BERNARD OF PARMA, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF PARMA

THE FEAST OF JOSEPH MOHR, AUSTRIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST; AND FRANZ GRUBER, AUSTRIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC TEACHER, MUSICIAN, AND COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF SAINT MARUTHAS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF MAYPHERKAT, AND MISSIONARY TO PERSIA

THE FEAST OF SAINT OSMUND OF SALISBURY, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF SALISBURY

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Advertisement

READING THE BOOK OF JOB

PART XII

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Job 32:1-37:24; 28:1-28

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

We read that Elihu was livid.  We read that:

He fumed with rage against Job for thinking that he was right and God was wrong; and he was equally angry with the three friends for giving up the argument and thus admitting God had to be unjust.

–Job 32:2b-3, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)

Chapters of pneumatic platitudes ensue.  If one was paying attention during the speeches of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, one will recognize the themes.  For example, Job must have sinned, for why else would he be suffering?  God is just, so Job needs to confess his sins and reconcile with God.  This whole terrible situation is Job’s fault.  Or so says Elihu.

Chapter 28, sometimes regarded as being of independent origin and inserted into the book, shares vocabulary with chapter 37, which also refers to the sky.  So, chapter 28 is, according to The Jewish Study Bible, the conclusion of Elihu’s speeches.

Ironically, the last verse describes Job, not Elihu:

And [God] said to man,

“Wisdom?  It is fear of the Lord.

Understanding?–avoidance of evil.

–Job 28:28, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)

We never read of Elihu again in the Book of Job.  Good riddance!

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

DECEMBER 3, 2022 COMMON ERA

THE SEVENTH DAY OF ADVENT, YEAR A

THE FEAST OF SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER, ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONARY TO THE FAR EAST

THE FEAST OF AMILIE JULIANE, COUNTESS OF SCHWARZBURG-RUDOLSTADT, GERMAN LUTHERAN HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL TAIT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY

THE FEAST OF SAINT JAN FRANCISZEK MACHA, POLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR, 1942

THE FEAST OF M. WOOLSEY STRYKER, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER, EDUCATOR, AUTHOR, HYMNAL EDITOR, HYMN WRITER, AND HYMN TRANSLATOR

THE FEAST OF SOPHIE KOULOMZIN, RUSSIAN-AMERICAN CHRISTIAN EDUCATOR

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

READING THE BOOK OF JOB

PART XI

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Job 27:8-23; 29:1-31:40

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Zophar concludes by accusing Job of being wicked.  We know from the prologue that this is a false allegation.

Job’s concluding argument (to continue the metaphor of a hearing or a trial) is plaintive.  It reminds me of experiences some great saints have reported when feeling distant from God.  I do not need to imagine what the main three gas bags in the Book of Job would say to St. John of the Cross, the author of Dark Night of the Soul; I can reread their speeches in the Book of Job.

Originally, God’s answer to Job followed 31:40 immediately.  Yet, at a later time, someone interjected another pneumatic pain, Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite.

We will turn to those speeches next.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

DECEMBER 2, 2022 COMMON ERA

THE SIXTH DAY OF ADVENT, YEAR A

THE FEAST OF SAINT HORMISDAS, BISHOP OF ROME; AND HIS SON, SILVERIUS, BISHOP OF ROME, AND MARTYR, 537

THE FEAST OF CHANNING MOORE WILLIAMS, EPISCOPAL MISSIONARY BISHOP IN CHINA AND JAPAN

THE FEAST OF GERARD THOMAS NOEL, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER; HIS BROTHER, BAPTIST WRIOTHESLEY NOEL, ANGLICAN PRIEST, ENGLISH BAPTIST EVANGELIST, AND HYMN WRITER; AND HIS NIECE, CAROLINE MARIA NOEL, ANGLICAN HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF JUSTIN HEINRICH KNECHT, GERMAN LUTHERAN ORGANIST, MUSIC TEACHER, AND COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF MAURA CLARKE AND HER COMPANIONS, U.S. ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYRS IN EL SALVADOR, DECEMBER 2, 1980

THE FEAST OF SAINT RAFAL CHYLINSKI, POLISH FRANCISCAN ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

READING THE BOOK OF JOB

PART X

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Job 25:1-27:7

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Bildad’s extolling of the omnipotence of God would be fine in another context.  But he is supposed to console a friend, not lecture or berate that friend.  Job’s sarcastic reply is appropriate:

To one so weak, what a help you are,

for the arm that is powerless, what a rescuer!

What excellent advice you give the unlearned,

never at a loss for a helpful suggestion!

But who are they aimed at, these speeches of yours,

and what spirit is this that comes out of you?

–Job 26:1-4, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)

Job is correct to continue to assert his innocence and to accuse the alleged friends of spewing “empty words.”

When I ponder Bildad, Eliphaz, and Zophar, I understand the psychology of these literary characters.  I can name contemporaries like them.  They–and Elihu, too–typify the doubling down on demonstrably false beliefs and statements because admitting the truth would endanger their egos.  Rather than admit to being wrong, they see what they want to see.  They cherry-pick their facts.  They even assemble “alternative facts.”  Reality, however, does not brook “alternative facts.”

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

DECEMBER 1, 2022 COMMON ERA

THE FIFTH DAY OF ADVENT, YEAR A

THE FEAST OF SAINT CHARLES DE FOUCAULD, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK AND MARTYR, 1916

THE FEAST OF ALBERT BARNES, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER, ABOLITIONIST, AND ALLEGED HERETIC

THE FEAST OF SAINT BRIOC, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT; AND SAINT TUDWAL, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT, AND BISHOP OF TREGUIER

THE FEAST OF DOUGLAS LETELL RIGHTS, U.S. MORAVIAN MINISTER, SCHOLAR, AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF EDWARD TIMOTHY MICKEY, JR., U.S. MORAVIAN BISHOP AND LITURGIST

THE FEAST OF GEORGE HUGH BOURNE, ANGLICAN PRIEST, HYMN WRITER, AND HYMN TRANSLATOR

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

READING THE BOOK OF JOB

PART IX

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Job 22:1-24:25

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar are repetitive.  They even repeat themselves.  They even make the same points more than once.  They even keep saying the same things in different ways again and again.  They are more repetitive that Mojo Jojo from The Powerpuff Girls.  However, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar do add new elements on occasion.  For example, Zophar, in his third speech, accuses Job of having a sinful disposition after Job’s denial of their simplistic moral order in which divine retribution is neat and tidy.

Despite the alleged friends’ increasingly shrill and repetitive speeches, Job still wants to litigate his case with God.  And Job is confident that this will happen, and that he will win.  Job, despite his afflictions, affirms divine justice while dreading God.

Fatherless children are robbed of their lands,

and poor men have their cloaks seized as security.

From the towns come the groans of the dying

and the gasp of the wounded man crying for help.

Yet God remains deaf to their appeal.

–Job 24:9, 12, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)

Job understands the real world.

The speeches of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar prove that there is a fine line separating theodicy from idiocy.  A critical yet pious realist is preferable to an idiot engaging in theodicy.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

NOVEMBER 30, 2022 COMMON ERA

THE FOURTH DAY OF ADVENT, YEAR A

THE FEAST OF SAINT ANDREW THE APOSTLE, MARTYR

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

READING THE BOOK OF JOB

PART VIII

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Job 20:1-21:34

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Cognitive dissonance results when reality conflicts with one’s preconceived ideas.  How does one resolve this dissonance?  If one is wise, one proceeds based on reality.  If one is like Zophar the Naamathite, one falls back on preconceived ideas.

Zophar’s concept of God does not make allowances for God permitting Job to suffer unjustly.  Zophar’s theology belies reality in the Book of Job.  Zophar–along with the other so-called friends–puts God into a box.

Job is correct:

So, what sense is there in your empty consolation?

What nonsense are your answers!

–Job 21:34, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)

The world is not fair; Job understands this.  Many wicked people flourish while many pious people struggle.  Yet,

Together now they lie in the dust

with worms for covering.

–Job 21:26, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)

I reject easy answers to difficult questions, such as those in Zophar’s second speech.  These easy answers may affirm one’s imagined theological orthodoxy.  They may bolster one’s ego, too.  But these easy answers will not help one to accept reality.  They are idols, for they stand between one and God.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

NOVEMBER 29, 2022 COMMON ERA

THE THIRD DAY OF ADVENT, YEAR A

THE DAY OF INTERCESSION AND THANKSGIVING FOR THE MISSIONARY WORK OF THE CHURCH

THE FEAST OF FREDERICK COOK ATKINSON, ANGLICAN CHURCH ORGANIST AND COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF JENNETTE THRELFALL, ENGLISH HYMN WRITER

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

READING THE BOOK OF JOB

PART VII

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Job 18:1-19:29

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

As I have already written, I have no interest in analyzing the Book of Job line by line.  One can read books in which others have done that.  I own some volumes of that sort.  No, I choose to focus on the proverbial forest and to examine a few trees along the way.

My lens as I write this series of posts is intensely personal.  I know the feeling when the bottom falls out of one’s life.  I report two such periods.  I know the feeling of wishing that I were dead, for that would be easier than continuing to live.  Fortunately, I also know the presence of consoling people at such times.

So, I recoil in disgust at air bags such as Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.  They are also full of something else, which I leave to your imagination, O reader.  This is a family-rated weblog, after all.  Such pneumatic individuals should not only be slow to speak, but silent.  If they cannot say anything helpful, they ought to say nothing.

Instead, such wind bags–in this case, Bildad the Shuhite–torment Job.  They gloat.  They insult him.  They are rude to a suffering, innocent man.  They blame the victim.  And they do so in the name of God.

Job has a relationship with God, whom he correctly blames for the plight.  This complex relationship leads Job to rely on God as his Kinsman-Redeemer/Avenger/Vindicator (19:25).  This is not a prediction of the resurrection of Jesus, despite the Christian tradition of reading Job 19:25 at and near Easter.  No, this is an expectation that God will defend Job’s rights.  God is Job’s only candidate to fulfill this role because the other relatives are dead, and the alleged friends are gas bags.  And, on that day, the alleged friends will, ironically, suffer the judgment they have predicted will befall Job.

False certainty is dangerous.  It harms the falsely certain person, inflicts damage on that person’s victims, and drives people away from God.  In my culture, many people–especially young people–are rejecting organized religion.  They perceive it as an instrument of intolerance and oppression, as well as a mechanism of control.  They are partially correct; antisemitism, racism, homophobia, sexism, nativism, xenophobia and other sins find theological cover in many sectors of organized religion.  These properly morally outraged critics ought not to reject organized religion entirely.  No, they should reject only the segments of organized religion that practice these sins.

An Episcopal priest I know has a wonderful way of speaking to people who claim not to believe in God.  Father Dann asks them to describe the God in whom they do not believe.  Invariably, they describe a version of God in which he does not believe either.

That priest also says that if being a Christian were not an option, he would be a Jobite:  God is.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

NOVEMBER 28, 2022 COMMON ERA

THE SECOND DAY OF ADVENT, YEAR A

THE FEAST OF SAINT STEPHEN THE YOUNGER, DEFENDER OF ICONS

THE FEAST OF ALBERT GEORGE BUTZER, SR., U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND EDUCATOR

THE FEAST OF KAMEHAMEHA IV AND EMMA ROOKE, KING AND QUEEN OF HAWAI’I

THE FEAST OF JAMES MILLS THOBURN, ISABELLA THOBURN, AND CLARA SWAIN, U.S. METHODIST MISSIONARIES TO INDIA

THE FEAST OF JOSEPH HOFER AND MICHAEL HOFER, U.S. HUTTERITE CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS AND MARTYRS, 1918

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

READING THE BOOK OF JOB

PART VI

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Job 15:1-17:16

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The best-crafted lies include objectively accurate material; it lends credibility to the lies.  This generalization, adapted for honest yet inaccurate statements, applies.  Eliphaz, for example, accuses Job of flouting piety and having a guilty conscience.  Eliphaz is rude, also.  Eliphaz, not Job, is full of hot air.

Job’s retort to Zophar the Naamathite in 13:5 applies here, too, as well as elsewhere in the Book of Job:

If you would only keep quiet

It would be considered wisdom on your part.

—TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures

Does Eliphaz imagine that he is defending God?  Probably.  Yet God requires no human defense.  Any deity who does require a human defense is unworthy of human worship.

Job’s opening lines in his answer to Eliphaz summarizes my reaction to the alleged friends:

I have heard much of this sort,

wretched consolers are you all.

Is there any end to words of hot air,

or what compels you to speak up?

–16:1b-2, Robert Alter

What compels Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar to spew hot air and to call it wisdom?  What compels anyone alive to do the same?  Depending on each circumstance, the answer may vary.  In the bst-case scenarios, the answer is the delusion that one is (a) correct, and (b) helping.  In the worst-case scenarios, the answer is cynical self-interest.

Job’s anguish is evident in his reply.  He needs consolation, not lectures that could come from a hand dryer in a restroom.  His so-called friends are spiteful mockers who have shut their hearts to his plight and their minds to reason.

One need not be spiteful to make unhelpful statements to people in anguish.  Unhelpful statements may come from the desire to console, too.  When one’s life has collapsed, one needs consolation.  One needs for kind people to listen and to be present.  One needs shoulders on which to cry.

In my experience, cats have modeled the ideal response.  When needed, they have been present.  Cats have curled up and been nearby.

Job’s alleged friends should have been real friends.  They should have been like consoling cats.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

NOVEMBER 27, 2022 COMMON ERA

THE FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT, YEAR A

THE FEAST OF SAINT JAMES INTERCISUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYR, CIRCA 241

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM COOKE AND BENJAMIN WEBB, ANGLICAN PRIESTS AND TRANSLATORS OF HYMNS

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

READING THE BOOK OF JOB

PART V

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Job 11:1-14:22

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Zophar the Naamathite’s first speech overflows with irony.  He asks:

Is wordiness in man a proof of right?

–Job 11:2b, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)

That line reminds of Polonius, in Hamlet, saying that brevity is the wit of wisdom.  The line is ironic in the mouth of a motormouth.

Then Zophar babbles, just as he accuses Job of having done.  Zophar babbles pious platitudes and continues to blame a victim.  Much of what Zophar says could come from Psalms or Proverbs.  Consider one example, O reader:

Can you claim to grasp the mystery of God,

to understand the perfection of Shaddai?

–Job 11:7, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)

Yet Zophar refuses to grapple with suffering that contradicts his orthodoxy.  He vainly imagines to have grasped some of the mystery of God.

In contrast, Job admits an uncomfortable reality:

And yet, the tents of brigands are left in peace,

and these who challenge God live in safety,

and make a god of their two fists!

–Job 12:6, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)

Job is an honest monotheist; he knows that there no other deities to blame for anything.  Job understands that God us ultimately responsible, for nobody else can be ultimately responsible.  This theological honesty exceeds the grasp of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.

I wish someone would teach you to be quiet

–the only wisdom that becomes you!

–Job 13:5, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)

“You” is plural.  (I even checked five French translations.)  Job is correct; the alleged friends are not helping him.

A friend is one who behaves like a friend.  A friend does not make the already miserable life of someone more miserable.  No, a friend acts in that person’s best interest.

In the context of the story, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar may think that they are being good friends.  They may imagine that they are staging a spiritual intervention, much as one confronts a drug addict for the addict’s own good.

This point may condemn some of us.  We may be oblivious to when we are being insensitive jerks yet imagine that we are being good friends.  There is much wisdom in not speaking when one should be quiet.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

NOVEMBER 26, 2022 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT SIRICIUS, BISHOP OF ROME

THE FEAST OF H. BAXTER LIEBLER, EPISCOPAL PRIEST AND MISSIONARY TO THE NAVAJO NATION

THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN BERCHMANS, ROMAN CATHOLIC SEMINARIAN

THE FEAST OF SOJOURNER TRUTH, U.S. ABOLITIONIST, MYSTIC, AND FEMINIST

THE FEAST OF THEODORE P. FERRIS, EPISCOPAL PRIEST AND AUTHOR

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

READING THE BOOK OF JOB

PART I

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Job 1 and 2

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

PRELIMINARY STATEMENTS

The introduction to the Book of Job in The Jewish Study Bible, Second Edition (2014), describes this ancient text as a

complex and composite work.

That is an understatement.  For example, the flow of the story at the end of chapter 31 leads directly into chapter 38, but someone interjected chapters 32-37.  Furthermore, chapter 28 seems to belong to the Elihu material, also.  Even if chapter 28 does not belong to the Elihu cycle, it still comes out of left field relative to what surrounds it.

The Book of Job, which most likely dates to after the Babylonian Exile, fits into the regional literary motif of the pious sufferer.  More than one ancient text reflecting this motif exists.  So, once more, the Bible contains literature similar to writings from neighboring cultures.  This should surprise nobody; cultures influence each other, especially when they are near other.

I have no interest in dissecting the Book of Job line by line; rather, I stand back and look at the big picture.  I choose to focus on the forest and to zoom in on some trees.  Besides, this project is not the first time I have blogged regarding the Book of Job.  One hundred-nineteen lectionary-based posts at this weblog contain tags that link them to the Book of Job.  This project is, however, the first time I am blogging my way through the Book of Job from the first verse to the last one.

My translations and guides for this journey through the Book of Job are:

1. The Jerusalem Bible (1966).  This is my primary translation because J. R. R. Tolkien worked on the translation of this book in that version.
2. TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures (1985, 1999), as contained in The Jewish Study Bible, Second Edition (2014).
3. Robert Alter’s translation in The Hebrew Bible:  A Translation with Commentary (2019).
4. Samuel Terrien and Paul Scherer, writing in The Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 3 (1954).
5. Carol A. Newsom, writing in The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 4 (1996).

Now, without further ado, I turn to the Prologue of the Book of Job.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

GOD, HASATAN, AND JOB

The Book of Job opens with a prose prologue, just as it closes with a prose epilogue.  The prologue establishes the setting in the Transjordan, during the age of the patriarchs.  Yet the Book of Job mimics an archaic literary style and indicates familiarity with Second and Third Isaiah.

This story, told as a folktale, is not historical.  It, theological, is mostly poetic.  The Book of Job is, in the highest meaning of the word, a myth.  The Book of Job is not literally true, but it contains truth.  Part of the interpretive complexity of the book comes from nauseating gas bags (Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite) sounding like passages from the books of Psalms and Proverbs.  They are obnoxious pains in every part of human anatomy, but they do speak a truth on occasion despite themselves.

We read of the lavish lifestyle of Job and his family.  They are spectacularly wealthy.  Banquets that continue for day after day are commonplace.  The siblings live harmoniously with each other and their parents.  The story tells us that Job performs a priestly function on behalf of his offspring; he sacrifices in case any of them have sinned.  Job is a devout monotheist who cares deeply for his family.

We read also of the “sons of God”–in this case–angels, members of the heavenly court.  This is a rewritten vestige of pagan divine councils, commonplace in that part of the world in antiquity.  In this context we meet the Adversary, hasatan (the Satan), who had yet to transform into a rogue in Jewish theology and to become the archenemy of God in apocalyptic literature.

One may recall the story of Balaam in Numbers 22-24.  The story about the talking donkey in 22:22-35 is intriguing, to say the least.  In that story, the donkey, sees the Adversary/the angel of YHWH standing in the road in 22:22-27.  Then Balaam sees the heavenly figure in 22:31. Balaam and the Adversary converse afterward.  Hasatan works for God in Numbers 22.

The Book of Job comes from a time in the history of theology when the Adversary/the Satan was a loyal servant of God.  The job of hasatan in Job 1 and 2 is to test the loyalty of the people of God, modeled here after a King of the Persian Empire, a man who employed loyalty testers throughout the realm.  The Book of Job comes from a transitional time in the doctrine of Satan; hasatan seems to derive too much satisfaction from his job.  Robert Alter points to the Satan’s

cynical mean-spiritedness.

Yet the Satan does nothing without divine permission.  He still works for God.

Hasatan continues to fulfill the role of accuser in Zechariah 3:1, also from the Persian period.  However, Zechariah 3 indicates a shift toward the Satan as rogue:

He showed me Joshua the high priest, standing before the angel of Yahweh, with Satan standing on his right to accuse him.  The angel of Yahweh said to Satan, “May Yahweh rebuke you, Satan, may Yahweh rebuke you, he who has made Jerusalem his very own.  Is not this man a brand snatched from the fire?”

–Zechariah 3:1-2, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)

During the Persian period, the Satan came to resemble Ahriman, the evil one in Zoroastrianism.  One culture influenced another one.

The history of the doctrine is objective, documented, and not subject to dispute.  The question of the truth behind the doctrine is theological.  Truth with a capital T does exist regarding this matter.  I think I know what that truth is.  Whether I agree with God is a matter for God to say.

For the record, I think that Jewish theology, under Zoroastrian influence, finally got the doctrine right.

The Book of Job tells us that YHWH allows Job to suffer and innocents to die.  The Book of Job tells us that YHWH permits all this to happen as part of a wager with hasatan, the overzealous, cynical loyalty tester.  Job 1 and 2 portray YHWH negatively.  This is anthropomorphic understanding of YHWH.

Anthropomorphizing God is unavoidable; we mere mortals have our cultural perspectives and carry assumptions.  Yet me must, if we are spiritually honest, acknowledge that God is far greater and far more than we can imagine.

The Prologue to the Book of Job raises a question germane to each of us:  Why do we revere God, if we do?  Do we practice a quid pro quo faith life?

“Yes,” Satan said, “but Job is not God-fearing for nothing, is he?”

–Job 1:9, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)

The omniscient narrative voice in the Book of Job does not ask why the righteous suffer.  No, it tells us why Job suffers.  The alleged friends think they know why Job suffers.  The titular character rejects their theory and knows who is ultimately responsible for his suffering–God.  The Book of Job does ask each of us why we are devout, assuming that one is pious, of course.  Is this faith relationship that one that mistakes God for a vending machine or a sugar daddy?  Or is this faith relationship one that survives crises and other hardships.

The ending of the prologue introduces us to three friends–Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite.  One of my favorite puns tells me that Bildad the Shuhite was the shortest man in the Bible.  (I did not make up that joke.  I do groan at it, though.)  Seriously, though, the subsequent poetic chapters reveal that a famous question applies to the Book of Job.  That query is,

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

I invite you, O reader, to remain beside me on this journey through the Book of Job.  We will hear from Job–the man himself–in the next installment.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

NOVEMBER 22, 2022 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF ROBERT SEAGRAVE, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF SAINT ANNA KOLESÁROVÁ, SLOVAK ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYR, 1944

THE FEAST OF DITLEF GEORGSON RISTAD, NORWEGIAN-AMERICAN LUTHERAN MINISTER, HYMN TRANSLATOR, LITURGIST, AND EDUCATOR

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++