Posted on 06/04/2022 4:08:38 PM PDT by Faith Presses On
No one has ever known quite what to make of Job.
The title character of the Book of Job is a confounding figure for Christians, Muslims, Jews, and those of any faith who have tried to incorporate the story over millennia. The tale goes like this: Job is a perfectly righteous and God-fearing man whose good deeds have brought him prosperity—children, an estate, good health. But then God enters a wager with a member of the Heavenly Host, haSatan (“the Adversary”), who claims he can make even goodly Job curse the deity. Soon, Job’s servants are killed. His children are killed. He is afflicted with painful boils, finding only mild relief when he gouges them with a potsherd. His life is a waking nightmare. But he refuses to curse God for what has befallen him.
(snip)
Religious people who wait for a messiah may soothe themselves by believing that divine intervention can bring about an end to mortal horrors, and that the pious will eventually ascend to a state of eternal existence. But for secular types—including agnostic Jews like me—who find themselves concerned about the state of the world, both reform and revolt seem impossible routes out of all of humanity’s messes. If it all keeps getting worse, what’s the point of anything?...
Lucky for us, there’s an ancient text that offers guidance on how to navigate the pain that lies before us, and how to start rebuilding in the ruins. It’s called the Book of Job. We just haven’t been reading it right.
(snip)
So, Greenstein says, Job’s final words to God should be read as follows:
That is why I am fed up: I take pity on “dust and ashes” [humanity]!
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
basically a climate change lie
“Absent the book’s likely tacked-on epilogue, the Book of Job teaches that there is no final victory, no ultimate divine deliverance.”
I have always said, I would be able to understand Revelation before the book of Job.
I do know that Job was not, in the least, a patient man. He was frantic.
But after reading this — just another inner searching by a thick-headed Jew.
I have always said, I would be able to understand Revelation before the book of Job.
I had only heard about You before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.
That might be the key point of the whole book. A personal encounter with God, of who He really is. Yes, God is still love, BUT He is also a lot of other things.
I suspect Job said in retrospect, I am glad I went through that but wouldn’t want to do it again. How many of us want to know God to that level?
We are all Job.
There’s no textual evidence that Job was a Hebrew.
A nihilistic article about someone who doesn’t know much about the subject. Or at least as much as they think they know. Job was a very patient man. He was subjected to extreme supernatural abuse. If God was not the Author, at least He allowed it. This was unfathomable to Job (as it would be to us). We cannot see things the way God does. We just have to accept the slings and arrows shot our way.
Who said Job was a Hebrew?
and We are JONAH.
.
JOB and JONAH’S life have
Much to teach.
.
I’ve been studying Jonah for a year now.
Amazing.
.
Job is another thing.
“Thou He Slay me,
Yet Will I Trust Him.”
.
Job
I read the entire article. The ONLY thought it provoked was that the author was an ignorant moron. Certainly NOT a JEW, as in having any knowledge of Judaism, other than MAGELLAN was the first to circumcise the globe (although he didn’t quite make it).
SLATE! If I had seen that first I’d have saved all that wasted time and effort!
A true MAROON!...Not fit to opine on whether it’s raining or not!
All of us need to get used to inflation.
I’m doing an in-depth look at Job. I’ve bookmarked this for reading.
Spiritual truth is only understood by spiritual people, when revealed by the Holy Spirit. We see no truth until it is revealed. A fact found stated throughout the NT.
Best book on Job, IMHO - “The Splendor of His Ways” by Stephen Kaung
Thanks
I read a study on Job to try to understand a couple of decades ago. It was very thorough — by Ray Stedman. I thought it was helpful, then. Maybe I’ll go back and see if I still think so.
https://www.raystedman.org/old-testament/job
Part of the thesis of this article isn’t the author’s, but a scholar:
“This “bold new English translation” (Adam Kirsch, Wall Street Journal) of Job by one of the world’s leading biblical scholars will reshape the way we read this canonical text
“A work of erudition with . . . a revolutionary twist.”—James Parker, Atlantic
“The book of Job has often been called the greatest poem ever written. The book, in Edward Greenstein’s characterization, is “a Wunderkind, a genius emerging out of the confluence of two literary streams” which “dazzles like Shakespeare with unrivaled vocabulary and a penchant for linguistic innovation.” Despite the text’s literary prestige and cultural prominence, no English translation has come close to conveying the proper sense of the original. The book has consequently been misunderstood in innumerable details and in its main themes.”
https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300162349/job/
Yes, it’s an atheistic opinion, but informative in its own way and made me think about Job, even if only to disagree.
The Slate writer was partly conveying what a scholar, Edward L. Greenstein, recently wrote about Job (also described here):
“And Then Job Said Unto the Lord: You Can’t Be Serious”
“In a new translation of the Book of Job, the famously repentant hero gives God a piece of his mind.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/09/job-edward-l-greenstein/594769/
It seems so.
In order to try to understand it, I read Ray Stedman’s study of it a couple of decades ago. It seemed very helpful to me then, and still might be so, but my understanding has grown so much since then that I might think differently now. I may try to re-read it soon to see.
https://www.raystedman.org/old-testament/job
Never heard of it, but I’ll take a look.
I read Ray Stedman’s study a couple of decades ago. Very thorough and helped me at the time.
https://www.raystedman.org/old-testament/job
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