TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION3

Overview3

Ancient Librarians3

Modern Librarians3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW3

Perspectives on Job3

Job as Wisdom Literature3

Popularity of Wisdom Literature3

God in Wisdom Literature3

Wisdom Literature by God3

Wisdom Literature as God3

Natural Scientist3

Metaphysics3

God and Meteorology3

Weather and Climate3

God and Astronomy3

Wealth and Riches3

Poverty and Want3

God and Biology3

Nature Red in Tooth and Claw3

Problem of Evil3

The Philosopher3

Feminist Critique3

Suffering Men, Suffering Women3

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY3

Overview3

Higher Criticism3

Distinctions3

Multiperspectivalism3

Incarnation3

CHAPTER 4: DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS3

Job as God on Trial3

The Court3

The Accuser3

The Complaint3

The Jury3

Job as Man on Trial3

The Skinner Box3

The Image of God3

The Whirlpool of Stoicism3

The Rock of Rage3

The Wife3

The District Attorneys3

The Friend of the Court3

The critique of the three3

The attack on Job3

The defense of God3

The Hanging Judge3

The object3

The sarcasm3

Job as Sacrifice of Suffering3

Types of Suffering3

Physical Pain3

Emotional Distress3

Spiritual Rebellion3

Consequences of Suffering3

Firebreak for Evil3

The Benefits of Suffering3

Job as Existentialist3

Kirkegaard, Chambers and Barth3

The War3

The Negation3

The Despair3

Job as Hebrew Poetry3

Hebrew Poetry3

The Irrational3

The Explanation3

A Postscript3

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION3

Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar3

Argument3

The Defense3

Job defense3

God3

WORKSCITED/BIBLIOGRAPHY3

The Problem of Evil and Suffering in the Book of Job

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Overview

Just about any book can be better appreciated by locating it in spacetime. I always check the copyright date after reading the jacket cover and before starting the preface. Job is an exception. We are given a Hebrew manuscript, in a nondescript location in "the land of Uz", (which always reminds me of a famous fairy tale) that has no historical precedents. Then we are given no temporal help at all, no kings, no kingdoms, no other historical references.

The dialogue is reminiscent of the stories of God talking to Abram, definitely pre-Mosaic covenant, so many scholars put it in the patriarchal period. Linguistic studies of word usage suggest some influence from Edom, and place it in the south, somewhere in that millennium. It could have been written much later, say, during the monarchy, but placed in a patriarchal setting (Delitzsch, 35-39). Clues are so scarce, one might even believe that it was intentionally vague. It is as if the writer were telling us, "Forget the Mosaic Law, forget the covenant of circumcision, this could have happened to anyone, anywhere, at any time, this could have been you."



Ancient Librarians

The position of the Book of Job in the Bible reflects the difficulty that ancient scholars had when they attempted to group together similar books. Is Job a historical book, a poetic book, a prophetic book, or a wisdom book (e.g., Proverbs)? In the English Bible it is sandwiched between history and poetry using St. Jerome's order, but in previous editions it surfaced between poetry and prophets (Septuagint), or between songs and wisdom (Alexandria), or between law and history (Peshitta) (Barnes, 21-23).

Why is it so difficult to classify? Harrison writes, "The book derived its title from the Hebrew name of its principle character, and by any standard of comparison it ranks among the most significant pieces of world literature. Certainly it is unmatched in the writings of the Old Testament for its artistic character, its grandeur of language, depth of feeling, and the sensitivity with which the meaning of human suffering is explored...Pfeiffer held the book to be one ...