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Understanding the Book of Job - Insights and Analysis

Detailed analysis and questions about the purpose, themes, and characters in the Book of Job, including background information and interpretations of key passages. Explore the wisdom texts and God's responses, with a focus on theological implications. Dive into the narrative structure and Job's perceptions of God.

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Understanding the Book of Job - Insights and Analysis

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  1. Be sure that your preliminary work is attached to your paper. After 5:30 pm today, I am not accepting papers! There are three venues for turning them in after class: Send an e-mail attachment Slide it under my door (308 Frost) Put it in my mailbox (second floor Frost) Exam Statistics Range of Scores: 35 to 100 Distribution: A – 44 B – 24 C – 18 D – 11 F – 22 Announcements

  2. Oseh Shalom (Job 25:2b) • O-SEH SHALOM BIMROMAV • The One Who Makes peace in His heights • HU YA’ASEH SHALOM ALENU • He will make peace for us • VE’AL KOL ISRAEL • And for all Israel • VE’IMRU IMRU AMEN • And say say Amen! • YA’ASEH SHALOM, YA’ASEH SHALOM • SHALOM ALENU VE’AL KOL ISRAEL (4 times)

  3. Review Characteristics of Biblical Wisdom Texts • Proverbs is instructional • Job and Ecclesiastes are speculative, raising questions about the difficult issues of suffering and death • Song of Songs is lyrical poetry

  4. Wisdom in the Book of Job

  5. Questions • What is the overall purpose of the book of Job? • A definition: Theodicy (“justifying God”) - defense of God’s goodness and omnipotence in the face of the existence of evil • Is Job a theodicy? • How does God deal with Evil? • What do we learn about God, the Adversary, and Job from the first two chapters? • Was Job “sinless”? • What are human motives for obedience?

  6. Further Questions • What is so inappropriate about the friends’ (Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar) statements? After all, they seem to have a good handle on basic principles of justice. • What is the essence of Job’s responses to his friends? Does he disagree with them regarding the nature of God? • What do Job’s statements about and to God indicate? • And what do we learn from the responses of God?

  7. Brief Background • From the land of Uz - which may be equivalent to Edom (Lam 4:21) • Date: Customs and institutions may imply patriarchal period for events • Authorship and date of composition unknown – but likely composed in the framework of the covenant community of Israel

  8. Sketch of the Book of Job • Narrative framework (chs 1-2, 42) • Job’s character established – his mediating role • Heavenly scenes with God and Satan • Epilogue – rebuke of friends; restoration of Job • Job’s initial outburst of grief and pain (3) – note the adumbration of Leviathan (3:8) • Three poetic cycles of dialogue, the last of which is incomplete (4-27) • Note changing character of friends’ statements • Note Job’s addresses to God; increasing pleas for audience • “Monologues” from Job and Elihu (28-37) • God’s verbal responses (38-41)

  9. Job’s Perceptions of God • God is just and sovereign over all creation • Dismay over God’s sovereign control over his life • God seems to be Job’s Adversary – and Job says so! • At the same time, Job trusts and hopes for an Advocate (ch 16) and Redeemer (ch 19) who is God

  10. God’s Responses to Job • Job has neither the knowledge nor the power of God • God as Architect, midwife, commander-in-chief • God’s sovereign control over all the vast reaches of the universe • Note allusions to wild animals; no mention of humans • Thus, Job cannot claim to speak of the moral realm • The figure of Leviathan – what does it suggest? • Note Isaiah 27:1; Job 26:12-13 and Revelation 12

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