The Story of Job (Traditional Jewish myth)
The Story of Job is a significant narrative from the Hebrew Bible, often recognized for its exploration of complex themes such as suffering, justice, and faith. It follows Job, a prosperous and devout man, who faces immense trials after a challenge between God and Ha satan, the accuser. Job loses his wealth, children, and health but maintains his faith, prompting a series of philosophical debates with friends who suggest his suffering is a consequence of sin. The dialogue delves into the nature of divine justice and the reasons behind human suffering, ultimately leading Job to demand answers from God. When God finally speaks, He does not provide the explanations Job seeks but instead highlights the mysteries of creation, emphasizing human limitations in understanding divine will. The story concludes with Job being restored to prosperity, raising questions about the relationship between righteousness and reward. Job's narrative has inspired theological reflection and artistic expression, making it a timeless piece of literature that resonates across cultures and eras, especially in discussions of theodicy and the human condition.
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Subject Terms
The Story of Job (Traditional Jewish myth)
Author: Traditional Jewish
Time Period: 2499 BCE–1000 BCE
Country or Culture: Middle East
Genre: Myth
PLOT SUMMARY
The book of Job is classified as one of the poetic books of the Hebrew Bible, which Christians sometimes call the Old Testament. It comprises mostly monologues, and most of its action is reported rather than depicted directly. The opening verses of the book introduce Job, a prosperous, God-fearing man and the father of seven sons and three daughters. His herds of cattle and sheep, which many servants tend, are extensive.
Yahweh, or God, portrayed as a Middle Eastern patriarch at court, points out Job to Ha satan, or Satan. Ha satan is a Hebrew term that means “the accuser.” This is not the devil of later biblical thought, although most English translations capitalize the name. Ha satan is one of the heavenly beings, whose task appears to be patrolling the earth. Yahweh mentions the upright nature of Job, whom he calls his servant.
Satan first suggests that Job serves God only because God has blessed him. He is granted permission to destroy all of Job’s possessions but not to touch his life. Soon a succession of Job’s servants enter to report the utter destruction of his children and livestock. Job’s response is to worship God, saying, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).
Satan extends a second challenge, insinuating to God that Job would curse God if he did not have his health. God gives permission to this being to afflict Job, but not to take his life. Job is covered with boils, at which point he retires to an ash heap to scrape his sores. His wife seems to chide him for his faith, which Job maintains.
Three friends—Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar—arrive to commiserate with Job, keeping silence with him for seven days. At the end of this period, Job begins to lament his losses. For the bulk of the book, the men debate the reason for Job’s affliction. Prevalent thinking of the time held that blessings were the result of God’s favor; if this favor was withdrawn, sin must be the cause. A fourth man, Elihu, appears to castigate Job. However, Job maintains his innocence, ultimately demanding an answer from God.
God speaks to Job from a whirlwind. He does not explain the wager with Satan; instead, he poses a series of questions about creation, pointing out that Job does not make up the whole world. Job replies that he spoke of what he did not understand. Yahweh is angered by the wrong tack Job’s friends have taken, but Job prays for them, and they offer animal sacrifices. In the end, Yahweh blesses Job with twice as much in material wealth as he had before, as well as seven sons and three daughters.
SIGNIFICANCE
The story of Job has deeply influenced theological thought and is well represented in the arts. Although scholars are not able to date conclusively when the book was written, it is clearly built on an older traditional story told within the early Jewish community. The anonymous writer took the tale of Job, a righteous suffering man, and split the story, adding dialogue that reflects popular understandings of suffering. The poetry of the opening and closing chapters brackets prose arguments.
Two major theological interpretations of Job’s story exist. Many people view the book as a meditation on the meaning of suffering, an answer to the problem theologians refer to a theodicy. In this interpretation, the book of Job explores the reason why, if God is all-powerful and loving, innocent people nonetheless suffer.
A more recent development in the understanding of Job comes from Latin American liberation theology, an outgrowth of Roman Catholicism formulated in the 1970s. Liberation theology posits that God demonstrates a “preferential option” for the poor. This can be seen in reading Jesus’s words from the Sermon on the Mount, known as the Beatitudes, and also by examining the company Jesus kept—the poor, the outcasts of society, and women. Peruvian priest Gustavo Gutiérrez, considered the father of liberation theology, in his book Hablar de Dios desde el sufrimiento del inocente (1986; On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent, 1987) asks, “How are human beings to find a language applicable to God in the midst of innocent suffering?” He calls this the theme of Job, wondering, “How, then, is a human being to speak of God and to God in the situation that Job must endure?” (12). For him, these questions have special relevance for the very poor residents of Latin America. He concludes that God is love, offered and operating freely, not bound by human constraints of justice.
In literature, Archibald MacLeish, one-time US poet laureate, offers a modern retelling of Job. His 1958 Pulitzer Prize–winning drama, J.B., portrays a man and wife who lose everything. MacLeish presents J. B. and his wife, Sarah, as typical New Englanders with everything in their favor. But then each of their five children perishes, and their town is bombed. In MacLeish’s retelling, the contest is set in motion by Zuss (Zeus) and Nickels (Old Nick, a euphemistic title for the devil). The three comforters—a priest, a psychiatrist, and a communist—represent the major alternative understandings of suffering in the mid-twentieth-century United States. Like their biblical counterparts, however, they offer little real help. The play concludes with the reunion of Sarah, who had left, and J. B. Their reliance is on love, rather than on God’s goodness.
Nineteenth-century poet and visual artist William Blake created several versions of a work titled Satan Smiting Job with Sore Boils. Naked and triumphant, wings outspread, a classically beautiful Satan dominates the center of the painting, standing atop a prone Job, who is covered with a loincloth. In his left hand Satan is holding a small vessel from which stream the boils. Job’s head is tilted back, his mouth open in horror, and his hands posed in a gesture signifying halt. At the left, Job’s wife sits hunched over, her head in her hands. Job’s feet rest against her thighs. For theologians and artists alike, the book of Job has been a rich source of reflection and inspiration.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Bible. Ed. Bruce M. Metzger and Roland E. Murphy. New York: Oxford UP, 1991. Print. The New Oxford Annotated Bible. Rev. Standard Vers.
Ehrlich, Bernard. “The Book of Job as a Book of Morality.” Jewish Bible Quarterly 34.1 (2006): 30–38. Print.
Gutiérrez, Gustavo. On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent. Maryknoll: Orbis, 1987. Print.
Wright, Susan. The Bible in Art. New York: Todtri, 1996. Print.