The Makers and Teachers of Judaism / From the Fall of Jerusalem to the Death of Herod the Great

by Charles Foster Kent

The Elihu speeches in 32-37 are evidently from a still later author or authors who wished to rebuke Job's seeming impiety and the failure of his friends to bring forth a satisfactory explanation of the suffering of the innocent. Its independence is shown by the presence of many Aramaic words, by the lack of literary vigor, and by the frequent repetitions, which distinguish it sharply from the writings of the author of the main body of the book. Elihu and his contributions are also completely ignored in the rest of the book and at points where, if they were original, certain references would be almost inevitable. These speeches, in fact, are simply a fuller development of the argument of Eliphaz found in the fifth chapter. They also incorporate many suggestions drawn from the speeches of Jehovah in chapters 38 and 39.

II. Dates of the Different Parts. The classic Hebrew style and the absence of Aramaic words indicate that the prose story is the oldest section of the book. It also reasserts in modified form the dogma current far down into the Persian period, that if the righteous but patiently bear affliction they will surely in the end be richly rewarded. It contains a message well adapted to the needs and beliefs of the Jewish people during the calamities of the Babylonian period. Its conception of Satan as the prosecuting attorney of heaven, and of Jehovah as a transcendental ruler surrounded by a hierarchy of angels, is closely akin to that which first appears in the second chapter of Zechariah. The references to Job in Ezekiel 14:14,20, as one of the three heroes of popular tradition famous for their piety, implies the existence during the exile of a story closely akin to if not identical with the one found in the prologue and epilogue of the book of Job. Such a story was probably current long before the days of Ezekiel, but in its present form it was not committed to writing until the latter part of the Babylonian or the beginning of the Persian period.

The first part of this story was evidently used by the author as an introduction to the great dramatic poem. He thereby deliberately protested against the solution of the problem of innocent suffering suggested by the ancient story. The poem itself cannot be dated earlier than the middle of the Persian period. In it the great ethical and social standards of the pre-exilic prophets are fully accepted. Its marvelous breadth of vision also implies an advanced stage in Israel's thinking. The problem of suffering with which it deals is not merely that of the nation but of the individual or of a class within the Judean community. It is precisely the problem that confronted the author of Malachi and to which he refers in 3:13-16. It is the same problem that bulks largely in the psalms of this period and finds its noblest solution in Isaiah 53. All its affinities, therefore, confirm the conclusion that it comes from the middle of the fifth century B.C. and is probably slightly older than Isaiah 49-55, which presents a more fundamental treatment of the problem of human suffering. The author still holds the old, prophetic conception of the universe (38:4-6), and is unaffected by the priestly thought and tendencies which became especially prominent during the closing years of the Persian period.

The Elihu speeches and the supplemental poem in description of wisdom in 28, and of the behemoth and leviathan in 40:15-41:34, probably come from the Greek period.

III. The Prose Story. In the prose story Job is pictured as a man of superlative piety and prosperity. According to the popular standards of the earlier day he lived a blameless life. His afflictions came simply as a means of demonstrating the unselfish character of his piety. In rapid succession he is stripped of all his possessions and afflicted by the vilest of all diseases, apparently the loathsome tubercular leprosy. Even his wife tempts him to curse God and die, but he fully meets the test, and, according to the testimony of the concluding epilogue, receives Jehovah's approval and is restored to the joys of family, reputation, and riches. It is obvious that, as in the stories found in the opening chapters of Genesis, this is a popular narrative freely adjusted to the ends which the story-teller wished to attain. The incidents recorded are not in keeping with the ordinary experiences of life, but belong rather to the realm of popular fancy. As a reference in Ezekiel implies, it was probably, like the similar stories regarding Noah and Daniel, a heritage from the common Semitic lore. In fact, a recently discovered Babylonian tablet tells of a famous king of Nippur, Tâbi-utul-Bêl by name, whose experiences and spirit corresponds closely to those of the hero of this prose story.

The message of the prose story of Job, as it was sent out to the Jewish race, was that it was not always possible to understand the reason why the righteous were afflicted, but that if they faithfully met the test restoration to Jehovah's approval, with the honor and reputation that necessarily follow, were assured. To the nation such a message was not without its practical application and value, but it failed completely to meet the individual problems that became pathetically insistent during the middle of the fifth century B.C.

IV. The Poem of Job. In the later poetic version of the story (which begins with the third chapter) Job himself is the embodiment of the problem of innocent suffering. His friends' suppositions and condemnations add still another burden to his weight of woe. More intolerable, however, than loss of possessions, health, and reputation is his sense of being forsaken and condemned by Jehovah. Job cannot shake himself entirely free from the belief, which had been inculcated in his mind from earliest infancy, that calamity was a sign of divine displeasure, and therefore of sin on the part of the victim. In the series of monologues and dialogues between Job and his friends he voices every phase of the great problem and makes it concrete and objective. With marvellous psychological truth and insight the author has presented the different phases of feeling through which an innocent sufferer in Job's position naturally passes. At times Job is intemperate in his speech and at other times he yields to despondency; again his faith overleaps all obstacles and he holds for the moment a clear belief in the ultimate vindication not only of himself but of Jehovah's justice.

His friends, on the other hand, formulate at length the current Explanation of suffering. Job in his sharp retorts makes clear the Inapplicability of the arguments and the limitations of the dogmas which they constantly reassert. In the concluding speeches of Jehovah the author with masterly skill takes Job out of his little circle into the larger world of nature, and brings him face to face with the evidences of Jehovah's might, wisdom, and gracious rulership of the great universe and of the complex life of those who inhabit it. Above all, Job learns to know God, not through the testimony of others, but by direct personal experience, and this knowledge begets humility and trust.

V. Progress in Job's Thought. The thought of the book of Job is characteristically Oriental. Instead of moving straight on from premises to conclusion it constantly reverts to the same themes yet advances along independent, parallel lines. Its progress is not objective, as is usually the case in a drama, but almost entirely subjective. These parallel lines of progress are: (1) the conviction gradually crystallizing into certainty that the current explanations of suffering are in certain cases inadequate and false. While viewed from one point of view this conclusion is merely negative, it nevertheless opened the eyes of Job and his generation to a larger conception of Jehovah and a far broader interpretation of the universe and of the laws which regulate it. The second is that he is guilty of no crime commensurate with the calamity which had overtaken him. Overwhelmed by misfortune and the reiterated charges of his friends, only through a superhuman struggle did Job ultimately attain the unshaken conviction that he was indeed innocent in the sight of God and man. The third line of progress is that, if not in the present life, in that beyond the grave his reputation would not only be vindicated but he himself would be fully conscious of that vindication.

As is illustrated by the third chapter, Job in common with his race still shared the belief that for the ordinary individual life beyond the grave was a shadowy existence, far removed from Jehovah's presence. This conception of the life after death was inherited by the Israelites from their Semitic ancestors, and was held in common by most ancient peoples, both of the East and of the West. The Babylonians believed, however, that certain favored mortals, as, for example, the hero of the flood, were transported to the abode of the gods, there to enjoy blessed individual immortality. The same belief is the foundation of the Hebrew stories regarding Enoch and Elijah. This belief was apparently the germ which in time developed, as in the twelfth chapter of Daniel, into the widespread conviction that the grave would not hold those who had been loyal to Jehovah, but that he would surely raise them again to a glorious life. In the book of Job it is possible to trace the birth-pangs of this broader hope. Conscious of his innocence and confronted by the grave, Job repeatedly voices the deep conviction that God, because he is just, will raise his afflicted servant from the grave and accord to him that justice which seems excluded from his present life. This solution of the problem of innocent suffering is not given the central place by the author of the book of Job. It is safe, however, to conjecture that if the appearance of Jehovah had not furnished to the author's mind a more satisfactory conclusion, the vindication after death would have been the solution offered. At several points Job approaches very close to the belief in individual immortality which became a commonly accepted tenet in the trying days of the Maccabean struggle.