The book of Job deals with the struggles of the title character (pronounced ‘Jobe’), as he expresses a particular form of the problem of evil, namely ‘why do good people suffer?’ Like the book of Psalms we looked
The book of Job deals with the struggles of the title character (pronounced ‘Jobe’), as he expresses a particular form of the problem of evil, namely ‘why do good people suffer?’ Like the book of Psalms we looked at last time, this is another example of wisdom literature in the Bible. This type of writing tends to be poetic in style but has a more philosophical tone, exploring how to live life and other intellectual questions. It is found in the traditional storytelling of cultures all over the world, and indeed the story of Job is of non-Hebrew origins.
The story goes that Job was well known as a very good man in his community and took care of his family. He was also a pious follower of God (though not, incidentally, of the Jewish kind), and one day a character called ‘the Accuser’ spoke with the character representing God, teasing him that Job was only pious because his life was so good. Maintainting that this was not the case, ‘God’ makes Job’s house collapse killing his children, gives him a painful skin disease, and worst of all gets his wife to nag him! Sure enough, Job continues to be faithful, but is provoked to ask some searching questions.
Some biblical critics have likened this genre of story to pantomime. A few reasons for this is are that it takes a traditional fable and expands it into drama, it uses exaggerated characters, indeed ‘God’ here is clearly a characature of the God of the Bible and not God ‘himself’, and has some comic moments (like the aforementiond nagging/teasing).
In each of the first two passages we looked at a different friend of Job’s is trying to console him, or rather, trying to get him to accept their explanations of why he is suffering.
Bildad, chapter 8:
Bildad extolls the wisdom of scholarly tradition and it seems he is telling Job that suffering is a punishment for sin. This is similiar to the idea of karma, you get what you deserve. But a more careful reading suggests he is saying that God *allows* people to suffer the effects that come from their sin, but His only active part is played in their redemption, not their punishment.
So basically, Bildad was saying to Job ‘I know you are righteous, but this is the way the world is, so you must have done something to offend God’. This is unsophisticated. It particularly stands in need of a distinction between direct and indirect suffering. For instance, if someone directly suffers -as Job’s children did- is that because the children themselves were deserving of death? But then they should not have been treated in that way if Job himself was very good, because then he wouldn’t have been deserving of the very large indirect suffering of having his children die. Even so, the approach taken in the more careful reading is congruent with the quite promising solution of the 17th century German thinker Leibniz.
Zophar, chapter 11:
A second friend Zophar insists that the world must have a moral framework. He seems to also make the stronger claim that we cannot know anything about this framework, so that we must blindly trust that everything that happens is for the best. But if this suggestion were true then it would have the sinister consequence that we cannot know when we are doing wrong.
He also suggests that God has probably forgotten the small things Job has done wrong, and that likewise Job will forget his suffering as it is temporary. But this is not very helpful because although suffering is temporary, so is life, and thus it can endure for as long as we live. As a person with disibilities may well have responded, knowing that pain is temporary is not the same as knowing that its affliction will pass.
Job’s response (from chapters 9 and 21):
“Indeed, I know that this is true.
But how can mere mortals prove their innocence before God?
Though they wished to dispute with him,
they could not answer him one time out of a thousand. His wisdom is profound, his power is vast….
When he passes me, I cannot see him…
How then can I dispute with him?…
Even if I summoned him and he responded,
I do not believe he would give me a hearing.
He would crush me with a storm…
Although I am blameless,
I have no concern for myself;
I despise my own life.
It is all the same; that is why I say,
‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’…
If it is not he, then who is it?
If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint,
I will change my expression, and smile,’
I still dread all my sufferings…
If only there were someone to mediate between us,
someone to bring us together,
someone to remove God’s rod from me,
so that his terror would frighten me no more.
Then I would speak up without fear of him,
but as it now stands with me, I cannot….
“Mortals, born of woman,
ar