The Suffering Servant of Isaiah and the Suffering of Job (original) (raw)
Related papers
Job, 2019
This is a full length thematic commentary on Job putting forward a parabolic reading developing and correcting the published approach of David Wolfers' 1994 Eerdmans commentary. It reads Job as a script for a play debating and discussing the problem of the suffering of Hezekiah and the nation during the Assyrian crisis of 701. The contribution of the commentary is that it gives an exegesis of all the book in this light and from a conservative standpoint. Wolfers' commentary gave a critical exegesis of the material that was more amenable to a parabolic reading leaving the more difficult stuff to one side. We address this deficiency. The intertextual connections with Isaiah and the Hezekiah psalms make up our argument. Job has been traditionally read on the surface in the genre of Wisdom literature but it is in fact prophetic commentary on what was recent Israelite history
An Initial Approach Towards the Development of a Biblical Theology of Job's Sufferings
Never before in the history of the Western hemisphere has it been so easy to avoid suffering as today. Advances in the medical field as well as multiple ways for distraction are increasingly alienating people from a healthy attitude towards suffering. To some extent, this also applies to Christianity. The Bible, however, testifies to suffering from cover to cover. Next to the sufferings of Christ, the book of Job is a primary example of how God works in his creation through affliction. The purpose of this work is to develop a Reformed biblical theology of Job's sufferings to affirm that Christians should not regard affliction as an alien matter. In the stories of Joseph, Naomi and the Psalms, the sufferings of Job can be recognized as a unifying yet developing theme. That also applies to the New Testament, wherein the method of typology is used to demonstrate this.
From Sorrow to Submission: Overlapping Narrative in Job's Journey from 2:8 to 2:10
This dissertation investigates the tension between the two portrayals of Job in the current form of the biblical book of Job in light of narrative literary theory (ch. 1). It supports the current consensus that the two portraits of Job are best understood as belonging to two separate accounts about Job—one written primarily in prose and serving as a literary frame and the other written primarily in poetry—and confirms that the appropriate division between the two accounts is between 2:10 and 11 and between 42:9 and 10, thereby giving each account a complete literary plot structure (ch. 2). This dissertation then advances current scholarship by examining each account in isolation in order to identify its unique characterization and plot elements and by showing how many texts that appear to conflict with each other are actually consistent within their own accounts (chs. 3, 4). A close reading of texts that appear near the seams between the two accounts highlights the thematic, verbal, and characterization links that connect 2:8 with the beginning of the poetic account and 2:10 with the end of the poetic account. This dissertation then applies the insights and terminology of the Russian Formalist school of literary criticism to the book of Job in order to propose that the most coherent reading of Job emerges when the two accounts are read non-sequentially—that is, when entire poetic account is understood to overlap with 2:8-10 in the prose account (ch. 5). The proposed, overlapping reading of Job succeeds both in accounting for conflicts between the prose account—where Job responds to his calamities with instant and extraordinary piety—and the poetic account—where Job’s eventual pious response comes only after prolonged bitterness, accusations, and discontentment—and in explaining the overarching coherence of the combined accounts, which may now be understood to provide a unified perspective on the Principle of Retribution, on the Satan, on God, and on Job. Together, the two accounts reveal all that transpired to bring about Job’s transformation from bitter sorrow in 2:8 to remarkable submission to God in 2:10.
A brief exposition on the notions of Human Suffering, Theodicy and Theocracy in the Book of Job
Pharos Journal of Theology, 2022
It is suggested that in the face of malevolence, such as that faced by Job, God’s omnipotence and also His benevolence can be upheld. This article thus explores the notions of human suffering, theodicy and theocracy and how they are understood in the book of Job from an Old Testament perspective. The exegesis of the Book of Job has vexed people for epochs and it grasps the depths of human despair, the anger of moral outrage, and the anguish of a felt desertion by God on the part of the protagonist. From one man’s agony it reaches out to the mystery of God, beyond all words and explanations. The Scriptures including the book of Job has several distinct ways of reconciling human suffering with the justice of God. In the end, it is only God as King and Ruler, Himself who brings justice, victory and joy to the life of the suffering man. And when all is said and done, the mystery remains that God stands as King and Ruler revealed in His hiddenness, an object of terror, adoration and love...