Suffering, as per the book of job the god papers ou torah. No biblical book takes up theodicys challenge with greater power than the moving and enigmatic story of job. It could only deny the reality of the experienced anomaly and add to the pain and inner turmoil of the sufferer. In the wisdom literature of the old testament, we find the story of jobthe classic story on pain and suffering. The book of job is often upheld as an example of godly patience while suffering. This summary of the book of job provides information about the title, authors, date of writing, chronology, theme, theology, outline, a brief overview, and the chapters of the book of job. It teaches humility as god reminds job who is really in control, steadfastness as job refuses to curse god despite his circumstances, and joy and reward when the latter part of jobs life is more blessed than the former. The book of job, in the old testament, opens with words both majestic and onceuponatimeish. Jobs three friends had taken the position that the severity of jobs suffering must be the sign of some grievous sin in his life. The book of job begins with a prologue job 12, which describes a wager between satan and god, in which satan the adversary bets god that joba particularly pious man. Even many people unfamiliar with the bible know the basics of jobs story, how everything was taken from him and how he remained devoted to god. When bad things happened to a good person jewish encounters series. When bad things happened to a good person jewish encounters series kindle edition by kushner, harold s download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets.
The book of job, while well known as a book in the bible, is not at all an easy book to unravel, and rabbi kushner gives us an excellent reading of the book, which untangles a great many difficulties, making it both understandable and relevant. The author of the book of job incorporated the folk book into his work in a manner still showing traces of the component parts. A major difficulty in understanding the meaning of the book is, what insight leads job to submit so humbly to god at the end. It teaches humility as god reminds job who is really in control, steadfastness as job refuses to curse god despite his circumstances, and joy and reward when the latter part of job s life is more blessed than the former. It should be kept in mind that job is not the author. Addressing the problem of theodicy the vindication of the justice of god in the light of humanitys suffering it is a rich theological work setting out a variety of perspectives. The book of job, in my view, is widely misunderstood it is the classic book of the hebrew bible that seemingly is orthodox correct belief and theological in nature in dealing with the. Its author is unknown yet it is possible that job himself wrote it. But job silences these three by showing that is no correlation in this world between righteousness and prosperity or between wickedness and suffering. When howard dean recently made the gaffe of claiming job as his favorite new testament book of the bible, it was only the latest in a long series of injustices and indignities done to both the. Waters written by an unknown author, possibly the most an cient literary account in the bible,l the book of job is a mixture of divine and human wisdom that addresses a major life issue. It has also been suggested that the focus of the book is not general, universal human suffering, but the specific suffering of the jewish people. The result is a work which overturns, in many respects, the conventional biblical view that suffering is the result of sin. This expression is used repeatedly to refer to inspired scripture.
The book of job and the paradox of suffering my jewish learning. These stories focus on jobs trials at the hands of god and how he deals with them. In kabbalistic doctrine the existence of the world and man as distinct from god by definition entails the pain of separation from god. Job certainly did suffer, but there is more to his story than just his suffering. How the book of job confronts the problem of suffering. J ust about everyone has heard of the suffering of job in the old testament. Jobs three friends, however, were certain that god was punishing job for some secret sin, something job could hide from everyone but god. These characters are all about asking questions to get their listeners thinkingthey dont really want an answer. The book of job and the paradox of suffering my jewish. The hebrew book of job is part of ketuvim writings of the jewish bible. The book of job is a book of the christian old testament that tells a story about job, who in jewish tradition is the son of uz, who was the son of nahor, the brother of abraham. In their simplest form, the twentyfour books of the jewish bible the tanach present a history of the first 3500 years from creation until the building of the second temple in jerusalem. There is nothing holy or anything for spiritual advancement or the betterment of humanity in the bible. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading the book of job.
In the book of job, however, the lords display of the wonders of creation is presented in order to enable job to come to terms with his intense suffering by realizing that the. Biblical and rabbinic responses to suffering my jewish. My introduction to the book of job iyov in hebrew was not a. The book of job is directed explicitly to the rejection of the idea that suffering can be easily explained on the grounds of reward and punishment. God praises job before satan, and satan is unimpressed, claiming that he is only righteous because his life is so comfortable. Study these 16 quotes from the book of job famous bible scriptures to learn more about the nature of god and how. Its subject matter is the allimportant question, why, in a world over which yahweh has jurisdiction, should innocent persons have to suffer when at the same time the wicked escape suffering and are permitted to have comfort and security. Elihu is identified only as the son of barakel the buzite, of the family of ram job 32. Key personalities of this book include job, eliphaz the temanite, bildad the shuhite, zophar the naamathite, and elihu the buzite. Elihu, also spelled eliu, in the hebrew bible, a comforter of job, the biblical prototype of undeserved suffering. Its incredibly complex and obscure hebrew allowing for multiple translations and meanings. The bibles wisdom literature is characterized by tension between an ordered universe guided by god and the reality of lifes injustices.
Job is a book that ranks as one of the most difficult books in thetanach bible, for two reasons. The book of job explores the morality of divine justice through the experience of human suffering, primarily the suffering of job himself. Job explores the difficult question of gods relationship to human suffering, and invites us to trust gods wisdom and character. I recently began studying the book of job and several things strike me as strange right from the start.
This passage highlights one of the book of jobs best style choices. The book of job challenges the simple equation of suffering with punishment, by telling the story of one righteous mans confrontation with overwhelming misfortune. The book of job is a book in the ketuvim writings section of the hebrew bible tanakh, and. You might have heard someone say, they have the patience of job. It is generally understood by modern scholars that the central poetic section of the book, in which job is forced by his changed circumstances to reject his simplistically pious views, was ironically and intentionally set between the beginning and end of a conventionally pious story of a man called job who remained faithful to god in his suffering. The characters in the book of job consist of job, his wife, his three friends bildad, eliphaz, and zophar, a man named elihu, god, and angels one of whom is named satan. The book of job is one of the most problematic portions of the bible and has called forth a variety of interpretations. The book is essential to the overall theme of the bible. Job is a good man and yet he suffers greatly and he cannot accept the comforts of his friends that his sufferings are the result of his sins. According to biblical scholars, the book of job is the oldest book in the bible. God that job is only virtuous because he is well off. Job 1 king james version kjv 1 there was a man in the land of uz, whose name was job. Like the hebrew patriarchs, job lived more than 100 years 42. The devil tempts his own children, and draws them to sin, and afterwards torments, when he has brought them to ruin.
Job 1 kjv there was a man in the land of uz, bible gateway. However, the book of job shows that god always has a good purpose behind it and that he uses suffering and pain to bless and build up his servants. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days be faithful until death, and i will give you the crown of life. Although most of the book consists of the words of job and his friends, job himself was not the author. There was a man in the land of uz, whose name was job.
The complex and delicate nature of the subject matter. On close reading, job is almost two books in one one written in prose, and the other in poetic verse. The book of job is included among the wisdom writings precisely because it teaches man that pain and suffering are a mystery of divine wisdom. Read the full text of the book of job in hebrew and english on sefaria. Learning from the suffering of job united church of god. Rabbi breitowitz responds to these fundamental issues based on the book of job. Therefore, god allowed satan to afflict job with distress and intense illness and suffering, as god knew that job would never turn away from his lord. Job vehemently denied that such was the case, and he was right. They should have gone a bit further and looked at his cross. At the same time, it also asks the question we rarely. Some people struggle with the book of job because, when they look at the life of jesus, they cant find anything in the ministry of jesus that corresponds to jobs story. It is possible that job is the oldest of any book of the bible written approximately 21001800 b.
He seems to sit too close to the suffering to be more the sympathetic and. They decide, therefore, that they cant find jesus in the book of job. No book in the bible takes up theodicys challenge with greater power than the moving and enigmatic story of job. God then gives permission to satan to put job to the test. Job is the central figure of the book of job in the bible. The book of job, one of the wisdom books of the bible, deals with two issues crucial to every person. A book of tanach relating jobs suffering and his reaction thereto.
Moses writes the story of job to comfort his hebrew brothers as they suffer. This summary of the book of job provides information about the title, authors, date of writing. Job, possibly the strangest book in the bible, is based on legends going. The book of job covers a multitude of themes reflecting the multitude of individual states of the walk of the believer as represented by the children of israel and their history. The books also relate the history of the jewish nation from its earliest stage, through the giving of the law at mount sinai, and until the end of the first commonwealth. The friends do not waver in their belief that jobs suffering is a punishment for sin, for god causes no one to suffer innocently, and they advise. Reflections on suffering from the book of job larry j. The creation, as recounted by the poet in psalm 104, is a joyous paean to nature and its creator. Look to the numbers, the books, the scriptures, and the contents and you will see it for what it is really for. The use of this preexisting material very cleverly placed the problem outside of palestine, thereby excluding the possible objection of orthodox theology that such a casea perfectly righteous man persecuted by yhwh. However, the date when the book was written and by whom it was. The author of the book of job broke out of the tight, logical mold of the traditional orthodox theology of his day.
According to the sacred writer, the truly wise man should realize that the fear of the lord, that is wisdom. The jewish people have suffered considerably over the ages. This time, job is arguing that by the rules of that logic, god shouldnt be punishing him. The book of job explores the nature of true piety and the problem of innocent suffering. Elihu was one of jobs friendsnot one of the three who had come to comfort job at the beginning of the book, but one who arrives later and offers the last and longest single speech to job. The book of job is often referred to as one of the great classics of world literature.
The name job is the english translation of the hebrew name iyov which means persecuted, hated on the surface job is a long, boring, somewhat confusing book and one might question how it ever came to be grouped with the wisdom books as it is hard to ascertain any wisdom in this tale of woe. Set in uz, an obscure land far from israel, during an unknown time period, the book of job focuses on questions about gods justice and why good people suffer. He saw that it led to a dead end, that it had no way to cope with the suffering of godly people. Kushners insights gleaned from many jewish as well as christian sources are insightful and inviting. The book of job a widely misunderstood book jeffrey. Jack zavada is a writer who covers the bible, theology, and other christianity topics.