Book of Job Research Papers (original) (raw)

This article looks at the question of sin and disease in bioethics with a spiritual-theological analysis from the book of Job. The biblical figure Job is an innocent and just man who suffered horrendously. His dialogues with others—his wife, his friends, and God—can give many valuable insights for patients who suffer and for those who interact with them. Family, friends, physicians, nurses, chaplains, and pastoral workers can learn from Job how to communicate properly with sufferers. The main question for Job was how to maintain the tension between God’s justice and God’s mercy and not yield to the temptation of cursing God but to speak well of Him in moments of difficulties.

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- Bioethics, Patient Provider Communication, Book of Job, Doctor-patient communication

In the order of the Ketuvim in Baba Bathra 14b, the book of Job is preceded by the Psalms and followed by the “Wisdom” books Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. The connections between Job and the latter books have been discussed extensively, but its affinities with the Psalms have been largely overlooked. Ambrose, however, notes a similarity between the two books in the response of their main “characters” to suffering. In The Prayers of Job and David, he writes, “Many indeed have complained over human weakness and frailty, but the holy Job and holy David have done so in a fashion superior to the rest.” Calvin similarly interprets Job through the person of David, often using the example of David to criticize the words which escape Job’s mouth “without advisement.” With the rise of higher criticism, and with it the categorization of Job as a “Wisdom” book, this emphasis on the proper faithful response to suffering was eclipsed by the more abstract concerns of theodicy and the retributive principle. However, connections between Job and the Psalms were not ignored altogether. For example, Claus Westermann argued that Job follows the structure of a psalmic lament, and Katharine Dell adumbrated Job’s consistent “misuse of forms,” many of which appear in the Psalms. An intertextual approach to the two books reveals even more connections between them, as allusions to the Psalms litter Job’s dialogue with his friends (e.g. Job 7:17–18 and Ps 8:5; Job 12:21, 24 and Ps 107:40). These intertextual connections suggest that, though reading Job as “Wisdom” has taught us much about its meaning, the personal theological resonance between Job and the Psalms recognized by Ambrose and Calvin should also inform our understanding of the book. The rabbinic tradition, which placed the Psalms before Job, reflects this reading strategy, in which the prayers of Israel become a lens through which to understand Job’s struggle to hold onto faith in the midst of suffering. Thus, Job does not merely follow the Psalms in the traditional order, the book also follows the models for relation with God the Psalms depict, pressing them to their breaking point.

- by Will Kynes
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- Intertextuality, Book of Job, Book of Psalms

The intertextual connections between Isa 40–55 and the Hebrew Bible are well documented (Willey 1997, Sommer 1998, Schultz 1999). However, none of these studies deal with the parallels between Isaiah and Job, which is surprising because the two articles to deal explicitly with the subject (Pfeiffer 1927 and Terrien 1966) both suggest that Isaiah is dependent on Job, based on parallels such as Isa 41:20 and Job 12:9, Isa 40:4 and Job 21:22, Isa 51:17, 22 and Job 21:2, and Isa 51:15 and Job 26:12. Though the current consensus on Job’s date (5th to 3rd century BCE) would put the book after Isaiah, a product of the exile, several scholars still follow Pfeiffer and Terrien and date it before Isaiah (e.g. Pope 1973, Hartley 1998). So far the discussion has hinged primarily on which book’s message is perceived to be a later development in the evolution of Israel’s religion. I propose to use the recent development of intertextuality to approach the issue from a different perspective. Acknowledging the diachronic impasse on attempts to date the book of Job definitively, I will approach the intertextual connections between the texts from a synchronic, literary perspective, asking in particular, which direction of dependence makes better sense of the text alluded to in its original context, and then what effect the allusion would have in the alluding context. I call this approach “interchronic” because it addresses the intertexts at the intersection between the diachronic and synchronic poles, which divide most intertextual studies. My hope is not merely to push beyond the current standstill on the relative dates of Job and 2 Isa, but also to better understand what the author of Job, whom I believe is the later writer, is doing hermeneutically with his allusions to 2 Isa.

- by Will Kynes
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- Intertextuality, Book of Job, Book of Isaiah

Of the many puzzles that confront the reader of the book of Job, one of the most intriguing centers on the figure of Leviathan at the close of YHWH's speeches. O ut of all the things YHWH m ight say to his w ounded but faithful servant, w hy spend so much time describing the fearsome qualities of this creature? And w hat is Job supposed to conclude after hearing this speech? Interpretation of the figure of Leviathan at the end of the book of Job splits neatly into tw o groups,1 The majority opinion understands Leviathan to be a natural creature, probably a crocodile.2 On the other hand, a few commentators take Leviathan to be a prim eval, supernatural evil, on a par w ith the divine or semidivine m onsters described in ANE epic.31 w ould like to argue that the latter interpretation of Leviathan is correct on tw o grounds. First, this interpretation of Leviathan is consistent with other ANE and OT depictions of Leviathan. Second, this interpretation shows how YHWH directly and clearly answers Job's com plaint concerning YHWH's unjust treatm ent of him. Briefly, I understand YHWH, in referencing this fearsome monster, to be speaking w ithin Job's cultural context in order to communicate to him that there is a terrible evil loose in the world that YHWH prom ises to defeat—b u t that he has not defeated yet.4 Stated *Eric Ortlund is Associate Professor of Old Testament at Briercrest College and Seminary. 1For a summary of this issue with discussion of the specific view s of different commentators, see Kinnier Wilson, "Return to the Problems of Behemoth and Leviathan," VT 25 (1975): 1-14. 2Argued most eloquently by John Gammie in "Behemoth and Leviathan: On the Didactic and Theological Significance of Job 40:25-26," in Israelite Wisdom (ed. John Gammie et al.; Missoula: Scholars Press, 1978), 217— 31. Other commentators reading the passage this way w ill be discussed further below. 3For instance, André Caquot, "Le Léviathan de Job 40:25-41:26," RB 99 (1992): 40-69. Caquot focuses more on close exegesis o f the poem and less on the contribution of the poem to the meaning of the book; in this article, I w ill focus on the latter issue. 4t h e description of this monster often contains mythic elements. While the terms mythic and myth can sometimes refer to something patently false, such w ould not have been the case in ANE societies (see Bertil Albrecktson, History and the Gods: An Essay on the Idea of Historical Events as Divine Manifestations in the Ancient Near East and in Israel [ConBOT 1; Gleerup: Lund, 1967]). Rather it appears that ancient Semites used "mythic" imagery and themes to express sym bolically those archetypal relations between the divine and hum an/natural realms. Mythic texts describe how the present

- by Eric N Ortlund
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- Ancient Religion, Ancient myth and religion, Book of Job, Leviathan

What interests me in Job 19:25 is not just its obscurity or the intriguing attempts to identify Job’s gōʾēl. The verse raises the question of how Christians have read and can read the Old Testament. Through this work, I hope to present to Egyptian Christians different perspectives and interpretations of the Old Testament, in order to contribute to an Egyptian Christian environment in which the Old Testament can be understood in its own context.

- by Silvy Nassrat
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- Hebrew Bible, Book of Job, Biblical Exegesis, Old Testament Exegesis

An early undergraduate piece dealing with the extent to which theological language is metaphorical. This draws on concepts of divine transcendence and immanence, creation, the imago dei and the incarnation. Biblical materials used to illustrate the argument are the narratives of creation and the tower of Babel, Job, Ezekiel's merkabah vision and the Johannine call to brotherly love (1 John 4:7-12)

- by David Cavanagh
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- Hermeneutics, Theological Anthropology, Book of Job, Book of Genesis

The problem of evil is not only a logical problem about God’s goodness but also an existential problem about the sense of God’s presence, which the Biblical book of Job conceives as a problem of aesthetic experience. Thus, just as theism can be grounded in religious experience, atheism can be grounded in experience of evil. This phenomenon is illustrated by two contrasting literary descriptions of aesthetic experience by Jean-Paul Sartre and Annie Dillard. I illuminate both of these literary texts with a discussion of the 18th Century philosopher Lord Shaftesbury’s concept of ‘enthusiasm’.

- by John McAteer
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- Mysticism, Shaftesbury, Wittgenstein, Jean Paul Sartre

This article argues that the use of terminology and allusions in Job to themes which are abundant in the book of Deuteronomy suggest that the work was primarily intended as a polemic against a retributive worldview or a Deuteronomistic theodicy. Abounding irony, satire and parody provide evidence that it contained comic elements which were not intended simply to entertain, but were intended to ridicule particular targets. These literary devices further suggest that the book of Job should be read as a dramatic or theatrical work. The frequent use of legal terminology suggests that it had a forensic setting and is best viewed as a courtroom drama that put the Deuteronomic views of providence on trial. The work was intended to appeal to an initial audience that was wrestling with the issues of free will and determinism against a background of exile and the prospect of extinction.

- by Stephen D Cook
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- Deuteronomistic History, Prophets, Biblical Archaeology, Book of Job

Jeffrey Boss, a retired Senior Lecturer in Physiology, has put nearly thirty years of personal research into the psychological interpretation of the book of Job, and this book is the result. In this " theological and psychological commentary, " Boss traces the narrative of the final form of the book of Job, which, he argues, describes the development of Job's perception of God. Boss is aware of the arguments for the book's textual development but claims that, as it now stands, it " follows a discernable single narrative line " (xi). Boss characterizes Job's psychological progression in this narrative line as a " return to elsewhere " (198), in which he passes through three stages, beginning in the secure world of the prologue, then climbing out of the darkness of his soul after this world is reduced to wreckage, and, finally, returning to the wholeness with which he began, now enlarged by his struggle. Along the way, Job encounters several faces of God, and Boss divides his commentary accordingly, which results in six parts, in which God is the Nurturer (1:1–5), Destroyer (1:6–2:13), Self-Concealing (3:1–26), Desired One (4:1–37:24), Holy One (38:1–42:6), and Destination (42:7–17). Two further parts follow, the first reflecting further on the epilogue and the second giving a series of conclusions. A bibliography and indices of references, authors, and subjects fill out the book. Because the narrative Boss

- by Will Kynes
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- Book of Job, Wisdom Literature, Biblical Wisdom literature

in: Davide Di Maio (Hg.), Gabriella Pelloni (Hg.), "Jude, Christ und Wüstensohn". Studien zum Werk Karl Wolfskehls, Hentrich & Hentrich, Berlin, 2020, 95-105.

Scholars have made a variety of arguments in terms of the relationship between the book of Job and Isaiah 40-55 (so-called Deutero-Isaiah), and have in general maintained that the two books have particular lexical, thematic, and theological resemblances; several key themes include wisdom or prophetic disputation, the suffering servant, creation theology, theodicy, and existential theology. By this hypothesis, they insisted that there was to some degree authorial “allusion”, “quotation”, or “echo” between the two books. However, the claim for this special relationship was not properly investigated and given logical evidence was meager. Further, determining the historical relationship of literary influence only with linguistic parallels is misleading and greatly exaggerated. Therefore, in this essay, I will examine whether detailed cases supporting the literary relationship, that former comparative studies between Job and Isaiah 40-55 usually indicate, can be upheld. If proposed resemblances imply either that the author(s) of Job knew the author of Isaiah 40-55 or that the author of Isaiah 40-55 was aware of the work of Job, how can it be proved? In order to examine the distinctive relationship between texts and to test actual resemblances, I will examine three significant thematic commonalities between the two books; theodicy, suffering servant, and creation. Finally, I will re-examine a particular common expression, לבדו נטה שׁמים (“who stretched out the heavens alone”), between Job 9:8 and Isa 44:24 and will indicate why the given parallel cannot be the proper presentation of a distinctive relationship between the two books.

- by JiSeong James Kwon
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- Book of Job, Book of Isaiah, Deutero-Isaiah

In this paper, I explore the book of Job in terms of the symbolic and ideological warfare waged between God and the human protagonist, Job. Specifically, I argue that the invocation of various kinds of creatures under the “monster” rubric (such as Leviathan, Rahab, Yamm, the Twisting Serpent, and Behemoth) can be illuminated through a consideration of contemporary work—in the history of religions, literary theory, and film studies—that categorizes the monstrous in terms of ecological disorientation, metaphors of the torn human body, and the boundaries of the “home.” Moreover, I draw on the work of Marie Hélène Huet in her book Monstrous Imagination to argue that some of God’s showcase animals in Job 38–41 (most prominently Behemoth and Leviathan, but also others) should be discussed as monsters with reference to their ambiguous species representation and their “false resemblance” to other known creatures. When discussed within the context of Job’s pervasive themes of geological and animal violence (e.g., Job 4:9–11; 8:8–19; 12:15–25), Joban monsters take their place among the menagerie of creatures adduced by Job’s speaking characters as rhetorical gestures of disorientation, redemption, and even the meaning of empire.

Book Review, Raymond P. Scheindlin, "The Book of Job: Translation, Introduction, and Notes"

- by Steven Bishop
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- Bible Translation, Book of Job, Literary study of the Bible, Literary translation
- by Türkü Naz Altınay
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- Religion, Theodicy, Book of Job, Max Weber (Philosophy)

The Old Greek translation of Job is evinces a fluid translation technique, whereby G (the translator) has left some autobiographical details in the course of describing Iob's life and dilemma. This paper examines individual passages where these details emerge and offers a summary of them.
This paper was read in an IOSCS session at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, in San Antonio, Nov. 19-22, 2016, specifically on the 19th. It has just now appeared in print (27.11.2023): in Marshall P.S., Meade J.D., Kiel J.M. (eds.), Like Nails Firmly Fixed (Qoh 12:11): Essays on the Text and Language of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures Presented to Peter J. Gentry on the Occasion of His Retirement, Contributions to Biblical Exegesis & Theology, 115 (Leuven: Peeters, 2023), 243–60.

- by Claude E Cox
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- Translation Studies, Septuagint, Book of Job, Hellenistic Judaism

"The First Satan" is a book every Bible believer needs to read. Satan has been misunderstood based on pagan and Jewish mythology. "Who are the Nephilim and the sons of God?" "Does Isiah and Ezekiel say Lucifer fell from heaven?" "Where... more

- by Al Garza
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- New Testament, Old Testament, Book of Job, Satan

This paper explores the definition and role of tummah in the book of Job. I maintain that tummah is Job’s foundational character trait and essential for fusing diverse and often conflicting elements of his character into a comprehensible whole. I have chosen the metaphor of a “soul anchor” as an apt descriptor of Job’s tummah since it grounds Job in the most dependable source of truth of which he is cognizant, whether traditional sources of religious knowledge or his personal experience as righteous sufferer. Throughout the book Job’s tummah is exhibited in three dimensions—righteousness, authenticity, and perseverance—each of which propels Job to a deeper knowledge of truth. As such it also serves to chart Job’s course to reconciliation with God. Job will learn the true worth of his character and achieve his full potential as intercessor when his tummah is firmly grounded in a genuine relationship with God.

- by Daniel Walter
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- Hebrew Bible, Biblical Studies, Ancient Hebrew, Book of Job
- by Jason Kalman
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- Jewish Studies, Theology, Biblical Studies, Holocaust Studies

The article offers a dynamic reading of word pairs and parallelism in
selected poems throughout the Hebrew Bible. Psalmists are concerned
with world order and with the dangers facing that order. This tension is
regularly represented by pairs of opposites or complementary natural
entities. The poets construct their parallel cola and strophes with an
eye towards these binary opposites, using deliberate ambiguous or
contrastive structure in order to draw the reader’s attention to the
constant interchange of opposites. In biblical poems, this interchange
may lead to equilibrium while it may equally lead to chaos and loss of
control. The border between these situations is fragile. This notion is
demonstrated with regard to the drama of world order in Psalm 85. A
close reading of the Amos Doxologies follows. The article concludes
with a discussion of the hymns on nature in Job chapters 5, 10, and
especially chapter 26.

- by Jonathan Ben-Dov
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- Book of Job, Book of Psalms, Comparative mythology, Biblical Hebrew poetry

Behemoth and Leviathan have been interpreted in numerous ways over the centuries. In this book I start with Leviathan's pre-biblical emergence in the third millennium BCE and continue, with Behemoth later entering the picture, until modern times. I treat both popular and academic interpretations, not exhaustively--an impossibility--but the major threads of interpretation, especially literary and iconographic.

- by Mark Sneed
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- Monster Theory, Book of Job, Reception History, Creation Science

Delineating main features of the language of the Job poem, with some new examples.

- by Tod Linafelt
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- Book of Job
- by Kai-Hsuan Chang
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- Book of Job, Biblical Hebrew poetry
- by Paul Hedley Jones
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- Proverbs, Book of Job, Wisdom Literature, Book of Ecclesiastes

From the Yale University Press website advertising this new translation of Job with introduction, copious notes, and select bibliography.

- by Marieke Dhont
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- Hellenistic Literature, Jewish Studies, Septuagint, Book of Job

The paper re-reads the Book of Job in the light of contemporary Jewish thought. It aims at purifying this mysterious text from its century-long misinterpretations, whose sedimentation stems from centuries of utilitarian lecture within the framework of Western philosophy, biased towards Christian misreadings. The paper attempts to give justice to the book in the Book of Job, paying attention to its textual materiality. The proposed re-reading focuses on the role of Law in the Book of Job, especially in its relation to justice. The starting point of interpretation, which builds a key distinction between Law and justice, consists in noting the fact that in this biblical text God is simultaneously a judge and a party in trial. Who or what is than tried? The paper aims to demonstrate that the Book of Job is not in fact a description of a trial over Job, but over Law itself.

Creation motifs stand out as an important link between the Pentateuch and texts that are commonly attributed to Wisdom literature. At the same time, in the Book of Job, references and allusions to divine acts of creation turn up frequently throughout the dialogue part, namely in God’s speeches (Job 38–41). Unequivocal references to Gen 1–3, however, seem to be very rare, Job’s desperate wish יהי חשך (Job 3:4) as inversion of God’s יהי אור (Gen 1:3) appearing as the most frequently mentioned case. In recent research, opinions are divided: Whereas on the one hand e.g. Beyer (2011) and Balentine (2013) emphasize the references in Job (1–)3 to Gen 1:1–2:3, Schmid (2007:244–5) and Kwon (2018:63–65) regard the connections between these texts as rather slight. In my paper, I re-evaluate the literary relation between the creation accounts in the Pentateuch and the creation motifs in the dialogue part of the Book of Job. In particular, I will focus on the motifs of “light” and “darkness” in Job’s initial lament (Job 3) and God’s first speech (Job 38–39). My aim is to show that God’s speech rhetorically functions as ironic rebuttal of Job 3, whereas Gen 1(–3) serves as essential background to which both Job’s lament and God’s answer subtly allude.

- by Tobias Häner
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- Book of Job, Irony, Intertextuality and Allusion, Theology of Creation
- by Christian Frevel
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- Anthropology, Theology, Biblical Studies, Book of Job

Drawing inspiration from the widely recognized parody of Ps 8:5 in Job 7:17–18, this study inquires whether other allusions to the Psalms might likewise contribute to the dialogue between Job, his friends, and God. An intertextual method that incorporates both “diachronic” and “synchronic” concerns is applied to the sections of Job and the Psalms in which the intertextual connections are the most pronounced, the Job dialogue and six psalms that fall into three broad categories: praise (8, 107), supplication (39, 139), and instruction (1, 73). In each case, Job’s dependence on the Psalms is determined to be the more likely explanation of the parallel, and, in most, allusions to the same psalm appear in the speeches of both Job and the friends. The contrasting uses to which they put these psalms reflect conflicting interpretive approaches and uncover latent tensions within them by capitalizing on their ambiguities. They also provide historical insight into the Psalms’ authority and developing views of retribution. The dialogue created between Job and these psalms indicates the concern the book has with the proper response to suffering and the role the interpretation of authoritative texts may play in that reaction.

- by Will Kynes
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- Book of Job, Book of Psalms, Biblical Intertextuality, Hebrew Bible/Old Testament

Merold Westphal wrote the book Suspicion & Faith (1998) to explain that although modern atheists used the hermeneutics of suspicion to critique religious motives, their arguments can aid Christians in a devotional form of self-examination. Westphal claimed that the 'masters of suspicion' often utilized a deeply biblical logic that is reminiscent of the prophetic polemics against false religion. In this article, the author adds to these reflections by pointing to the Adversary from the Book of Job as one who embodies the hermeneutics of suspicion. The author contends that, like the critiques of modern atheists, the Adversary's question 'Does Job fear God for nothing?' (1:9b) can serve as a tool for self-examination and moral development. The Book of Job shows how he asks critical questions about Job's motives for religious piety by taking advantage of the logical groundwork of the prologue. This dialogue highlights the significance of Job's integrity and his commitment to virtue without the need for incentive, but at the same time, it also encourages readers to doubt his motives through a pattern of doubt that is integral to the narrative. The first section of this article examines Suspicion & Faith and discusses its approach to modern atheism. Then, in the second section, the author engages in an exegetical analysis of Job 1-2, with special attention to the prologue's logical groundwork and motif of doubt. The article concludes with a theological reflection on how the hermeneutics of suspicion can augment Christian practice.

- by Trevor B Williams
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- Atheism, Biblical Studies, Postmodernism, Book of Job

Mucho nos gusta y disgusta cuestionar a Dios. El problema, sin embargo, es que no nos damos cuenta de lo que sucede en realidad. Si conociéramos a cabalidad el Gran conflicto, más que cuestionar a Dios, lo honraríamos y amaríamos aún más.

- by Oscar S. Mendoza
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- Book of Job, Antiguo Testamento

Second Baruch is a Jewish apocalypse written in the wake of the Roman sacking of the Jerusalem temple. This essay examines how deliberately Second Baruch uses the biblical sapiential tradition and closely connects it with the apocalyptic tradition in Daniel. Particularly, Second Baruch eschatologizes the idea of elusive wisdom in Job 28 against the backdrop of the apocalyptic concept of two-group in Daniel 11-12. To deal with the theological crisis Judaism behind Second Baruch faced, Second Baruch integrates the sacred past that Scripture enshrined with the apocalyptic future that Second Baruch advocates.

- by Daewoong Kim
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- Apocalypticism, Wisdom, Second Temple Judaism, Book of Job
- by Matthew Suriano
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- Death and Burial (Archaeology), Book of Job

A Short Meditation on the Book of Job and the Problem of Evil

- by Vladimir Moss
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- Book of Job, The Problem of Evil, Orthodox Christianity, Thedicy

Comunicazione all'interno della prima giornata di studi dell'OBERT (Observatoire Européen des Récits de Travail). Si sono mostrati alcuni approcci metodologici possibili per l'analisi di testi letterari all'interno di un osservatorio... more

- by Carlo Baghetti
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- Sociology, Cultural Studies, Social Work, Sociology of Work
- by Manfred Oeming
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- Theology, Systematic Theology, Philosophical Theology, Hebrew Bible

This study, an extended earlier version of a chapter later published in Apostasy in the New Testament Communities (Vol. 3), engages apostasy and restoration in the Epistle of James and engages the book of Job in relation to the themes of... more

- by B. J. Oropeza
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- Catholic Epistles, Book of Job, Apostasy, General Epistles

הירשפלד, אריאל. ״האם ׳איוב׳ הוא טרגדיה?״ איוב במקרא, בהגות, באמנות: כנס בחוג למקרא, האוניברסיטה העברית בירושלים, כא באדר, תשנ"ג. עורכת: לאה מזור. ירושלים: מאגנס, 1995. 54-88. Hirschfeld, A. Is the book of Job a Tragedy? In: Mazor, Lea... more

- by Ariel Hirschfeld
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- Hebrew Literature, Hebrew Language, Book of Job, Hebrew Bible/Old Testament