Presented by Fr.

Randy Flores, SVD

“The book of Job is a crowning point of the history of
world literature.”
Fr. Luis Alonso-Schökel, SJ
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF 1964
BROADWAY; 1971 FILM)
 “I KNOW THAT MY
REDEEMER LIVETH!”
(FROM PART III MESSIAH
BY G. F. HANDEL, 1741)

Soprano Sylvia McNair with The Academy of St. Martin in the

Fields, Sir Neville Marriner performing I Know That My Redeemer
Liveth. (C) 1992 .
Poetic drama, J.B. based on the Book of
Job, was a Broadway success in 1957.

Was staged in Tagalog at Dulaang

Universidad ng Pilipinas (27th season
2002-2003
Translated by Virgilio Almario.
 INFLUENCE OF THE BOOK OF JOB ON MODERN
LITERATURE AND FILM

▪ John Milton (Samson Agonistes),

▪ Dostoevsky (The Brothers Karamazov),
▪ Franz Kafka (The Trial),
▪ Harold Kushner, When Bad Things Happened to Good People
▪ Coen brothers' 2009 film, A Serious Man, was nominated for two Oscars.
▪ Terrence Malick's 2011 film The Tree of Life, w/c won the Palme d’Or
▪ Marc Zirogiannis’ novel, The Suffering of Innocents (2015)
▪ And others
▪ Commentary on the Book of Job by Pope Gregory I (Gregory the Great) –
six volumes (year 540-604)
▪ Thomas Aquinas (13th cent)
▪ Maimonides
▪ Voltaire
▪ Thomas Hobbes (Leviathan)
▪ Kant
▪ David Hume
▪ Carl Jung
▪ Hannah Arendt
▪ Elie Wiesel
 Non est super terram potestas
quae conparetur ei.
(Job 41:24 VUL)
Cover page of Thomas Hobbes’ s book, Leviathan

On Duterte as Leviathan, see

http://opinion.inquirer.net/94901/duterte-a-
leviathan
William Blake’s “Behemoth and Leviathan,”
creatures of an all-powerful God.
▪ Gustav Dore (1865)
Job the Pious Job the Impious
BOOK AS A WHOLE AND ITS LITERARY
STRUCTURE
▪ Read from this
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aGbo33GaQA3TIgCRjo0
WLI4mcRq5OA6a/view?usp=sharing
▪ or click to download
Source: M. Barry, visualunit.me
▪ Unknown (Jew or Gentile?)
▪ very well-educated, a man of letters
▪ knew the literature of the ancient world (ANE)
▪ an expert of the Hebrew language
▪ a poet
▪ a person of deep faith in God
▪ a SOFER and a HAKAM
▪ No clear indications as to when.
▪ Some hints:
▪ The style of the Hebrew language is post-exilic.
▪ Post-exilic idea of innocent suffering and critical wisdom.
▪ The absence of polygamy.
▪ The protagonist (Job) is a gentile (from the East, from land of
Uz, an Edomite.
▪ The role of the “satan” as a guardian of motives is similar to
the one in 1 Chronicles 21:1
Early Persian Period (6th cent. B.C.E.),
under the reign of King Darius I of
Persia (Ceresko, pp. 68-71).
Narrative parts
(before the
Exile)

Dialogue parts
(during the
Exile)
Other parts
(after the Exile)
* Early Persian
Period
• Hymn to Wisdom in
Chap. 28
• Elihu Speeches in
Chaps. 32-37
“When you deal with any ancient
artistic creation, do not suppose
that it is anything against it
that it grew gradually.”
-G.K. Chesterton
 ▪ Most difficult in the Bible
▪ More than 30%
VERY untranslated.
COMPLICATED ▪ The Septuagint is 187
verses shorter.
HEBREW TEXT ▪ 170 words appear only
once or hapaxlegomena.
 ▪The divine test.
Can a human
being have
genuine faith?
• disinterested faith
• Hebrew: LEHINNAM
“for naught”

The satan before the throne

of God by William Blake
 God, who
is open-
minded

Hassatan,
Job, who
who is
is cool-
critical-
minded
minded
• Naked came I out of my mother's womb,
and naked shall I return thither.
(Job 1:21 KJV)
 • The LORD gave,
and the LORD hath taken away;
blessed be the name of the LORD.
(Job 1:21 KJV)
 What?
shall we receive good
at the hand of God,
and shall we not
receive evil?

Job 2:10 KJV

In all this did not Job sin with his lips.
(Job 2:10 KJV)
• Eliphaz, Bildad, and
Zophar
• They came to mourn
with him and comfort
him.
• They wept when they
saw how great was
Job’s suffering.
After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed his day.
(Job 3:1 NAB)

Structure:

I. Curse (vv. 3-10) • QALAL (curse)

II. Lament (vv. 11-26) • His day
(birthday?)
• Why did not die in • Summons the
the womb? forces of darkness
• Why is life given to
the miserable?
a magical incantation
a birth incantation
a wish to reverse creation (most popular
a death-wish

A similar genre of Cursing the Day of Birth

is found in Jeremiah 20:14-18
 REVERSAL OF CREATION

Job 3 Job says…. Genesis 1 God says….

▪ v. 3 Let the day ▪ v. 3 Let there be light

perish…

▪ v. 7 The waters above

▪ v. 4. Let not God the firmament…
above seek it…

▪ v. 2 Darkness was
▪ v. 5 Let Gloom and upon the face of the
Deep Darkness claim Deep.
it…
 Job’s six curses reversing six days of Creation
Job says God says
▪ V. 6 Let thick darkness ▪ V. 14 Lights to separate
seize that night; let it not day and night…for
rejoice among the days seasons for days and for
of the year… years
▪ V. 8 Let those who curse ▪ V. 21 God created great
it who curse the Sea; sea monsters
those who are skilled to
raise up Leviathan
▪ V. 15 Lights to give light
▪ V. 15 Let the stars of its
upon the earth
dawn be dark, let it
hope for light but have
none.
From the play J.B.
▪ Are called “friends” [Hebrew RE’A]
▪ Came from afar
▪ Purpose: to console Job
▪ More speeches than dialogues (3 cycles of long speeches)
▪ A kind tetralogues in speech form.
▪ Art: William Blake
 TRADITIONAL WISDOM

If you do good, you’ll be blessed;

If you do evil, you’ll be cursed.
ground of
-- by God. HOPE
 Remember now,
what innocent person could have perished?
And where could have been the righteous cut off?

As I see it, whose who plow iniquity

and sow trouble would harvest it too.

Eliphaz (Job 4:7-8)

Example of Traditional Wisdom

The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion,
and the teeth of the young lions are broken.
The strong lion perishes for lack of prey,
and the whelps of the lioness are scattered.

Eliphaz--(Job 4:10-11 NRS)

 Challenge the assumptions of
traditional wisdom

• Innocent suffering
• (bad things happen to good
people)
• Absence of divine justice
A CRITICAL • Skeptical attitude to life
WISDOM • Death-wish
• Intimations of life after death
• Inaccesiblity of wisdom
[question of • Source of critical wisdom:
theodicy] personal experience
“Even when I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I am not answered;
I call aloud, but there is no justice.”
Job 19:7
“from the city the dying groan,
and the throat of the wounded cries for help;
and yet God pays no attention to their prayer” (24:12)

“The murderer rises at dusk

To kill the poor and needy
And in the night is like a thief….
Yet God prolongs the life of the mighty by his power….
He gives them security.. “ (24:14,22,23)
 “A human being, born of woman,
Short-lived, and full of turmoil
Comes out like a flower, then withers,
Flees like a shadow, and could not last long.”
Job 14:1-2
 “For the arrows of Shaddai are in me;
my spirit drinks their poison;
the terrors of Eloah are arrayed against me. “

Job 6:4
“Would that my wish come true
And Eloah grant my hope
May Eloah decide to crush me
And free his hand to sever me.”
Job 6:8-9
 But as a falling mountain shall fade away,
and a rock moves from its place,
water pulverizes stones,
its torrent washes away the dust of the earth,
So you have destroyed people’s hope.

Job 14:18- 19
For there is a hope for a tree even if it is cut down,
again it shall sprout, it shoots shall not stop.
If its root grows old in earth,
And on the dust its stump dies,
At the scent of water it will bud;
And form branches like a young plant

Job 14:7-9
And I thought, “though I perish like its nest.
I shall multiply my days like the phoenix.

Job 29:18
 Even thus by the great sages 'tis confessed
The phoenix dies, and then is born again,
When it approaches its five-hundredth year.

Dante, Inferno

A phoenix depicted in a book of legendary

creatures by FJ Bertuch (1747–1822)
 I know that my Redeemer liveth
And that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
And though after my skin worms destroy this body,
yet in my flesh shall I see God
(Job 19:25-26 KJV)
 between

Traditional Wisdom & Critical Wisdom

▪ A magnificent poetry
▪ It’s not clear whose “voice” is this from.
▪ A kind of parody of traditional wisdom.
 a kind of • Cf. “Protestations of
Oath of Guiltlessness” in the Egyptian
Innocence Funerary Texts

or a kind of
Code of
Honor
 “Let God
weigh me in
the scales of
justice; thus
will he know
my
innocence!
“(Job 31:6 NAB)

Illustration from “Book of the Dead,” Egyptian funerary literature.

The hearts of the dead were weighted against a feather of Ma'at.
"I am young in years, and you are aged;
therefore I was timid and afraid to declare my
opinion to you.

I said, 'Let days speak, and many years teach

wisdom.'
(Job 32:6-7)

• a brash young man,

• a comic relief,
• adds nothing new to the debates
(quatrilogues),
• mostly “selfie” introductions

Artist: William Blake

▪ Elihu = “It is God”
▪ Barachel (his father) = “Blessed is El!”
▪ Prepares the coming of God
▪ a forerunner of sort
 At the center of the
Structure
Fourth/Final Speech

Critique of Power
(vv. 5-15)

Critique of Wealth
(vv. 16-21)
 Critique of Wealth (Job 36:5-15)

▪ v. 5: Introduction of Divine Power

▪ vv. 6-15 : The Fate of those who abuse power
▪ e.g. “they have magnified themselves (v. 9)
▪ “they shall perish by the sword, and die without knowledge. (v. 12)

▪ “anti-royal power pervades the OT”.

 Critique of Power (Job 36:16-21)

▪ v. 16 – God “entices” (tests) Job with wealth

▪ v. 17 - Wealth versus social justice

▪ “wicked judgment” over “just judgment
▪ Read: Isaiah 10:1-2

▪ v. 18 - The Enticement of Wealth

▪ Wealth as “greed”
▪ Read: Sirach 3:1-11
▪ Job 20:15-16
▪ Wealth as “huge bribe”
▪ Amos 5:12
▪ Prov 17:23
▪ v. 19 Wealth and Power
▪ “unlimited wealth”
▪ Read 1:3
▪ Contrast 24:2-11
▪ Wealth begets “forces of power”
▪ Read 29:7-11
The Elihu Speeches in summary:
▪ 1. They prepare Job to meet YHWH.
▪ Note his name: Eli-hu = “My God, he is” or “It is God”
▪ 2. God’s sovereignty/power is clearly emphasized.
▪ 3. Elihu addresses the danger of absolute power and
obsession to wealth.

see also R. C. Flores, “NAB . . .: Elihu’s Critique of Power and Wealth (Job
36:16-21),” in Scripture and the Quest for a New Society, Proceedings of
the Sixth Annual Convention of CBAP, Tagaytay City, 23-25 July 2005
(Quezon City: CBAP, 2006), pp. 90-111;
and R. C. Flores, “Power in Question: Elihu’s Speech in Job 36:5-15,” Diwa
32 (2007), pp. 75-88.
THE DIVINE
SPEECHES (CHAPS.
38-41)
YHWH Speeches in Job 40:15-14 and 40:25-32
▪ Hebrew “behema” = animal
▪ Plural = behemoth = super beast”

▪ Some attempted identifications:

▪ 1. Hippopotamus (Egyptian mythology)
▪ 2. Bull-like creature or carabao (Ugaritic and
Mesopotamian mythologies).
▪ - better, a primordial creature, belonging to the world
of legend and myth, and considered hostile.
▪ 1. is the only creature in the survey of animals
that God introduces with affirmations, not
questions.

▪ 2. Behemoth is a creature with extraordinary

strength and power (vv. 16-18).
▪ 3. described as the “first [reshit] of the great acts of
God (v. 19a).

▪ 4. Behemoth has a unique way of responding to

aggression and violence (vv. 23-24.
▪Ugaritic mythology
▪Lotan – mythological sea serpent
▪ In Ugaritc mythology, Baal’s nemesis described
as a twisting serpent and seven-headed dragon
▪ See Psalm 74:13-14; Isa 27:1
▪The Portrait of Leviathan

▪ = has fearsome teeth (41:13-14)

▪ = armored scales protect his back; can’t be
penetrated by a sword or spear (41:15-17)
▪ = like a dragon—fire comes from his mouth and
nostrils (41:18-21)
▪ = exceptional strength in his neck; his chest is hard
as a lower millstone (41:22-25)
▪ Leviathan, like Behemoth, represents the primordial
beast in creation, not as God’s enemy but his
friend.

▪ *See handout – Further notes on YHWH Speeches

(uploaded)
Source:
Balentine
▪ 1. “I am small” (40:4)

▪ 2. “Therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust

and ashes." (Job 42:6 NRSV)
▪ “Therefore I accept and repent,
a child of dust and ashes (Ceresko’s translation)
▪In prose (narrative)
▪Read Job 42:7-17
▪ Read Ceresko, pp. 87-89.