Job and Theodicy Essay ⋆ History Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Job (c. 600–400 b.c.e.) is the principal character of the biblical book that bears his name. A prologue introduces the book’s readers to Job and describes decisions made in a parallel universe, that of a celestial court in which Yahweh, the head of the pantheon according to ancient Israelite belief, holds ultimate power. The heart of the book consists of a series of dialogue cycles between Job and three friends in which Job appeals to Yahweh for vindication, the responses by Yahweh to Job’s appeals, followed by a brief response by Job. Speeches by a young interloper, Elihu, serve as a kind of intermezzo before Yahweh’s response to Job’s appeal.

Job’s response to the experience of undeserved suffering is the focus of the book. The book’s resolution of the problem of Job’s suffering, the role assigned to God in bringing about Job’s suffering, and God’s reply to Job’s charges against God, have challenged and baffled generations of interpreters. The book describes the titanic struggle of a human being with the meaning of his suffering and what it says about him and the world of which he is a part. Even interpreters who do not believe in God or in the God of the book of Job have praised the book of Job as a literary and theological masterpiece. The influence of the book of Job on art, literature, drama, and philosophy, wherever Judaism and Christianity have been potent cultural forces, has been far reaching.

Suffering And Vindication

In the prologue Job, a man of exemplary behavior, is meted out suffering through no fault of his own. One of God’s angels (“the Satan” or “the accuser” in the original Hebrew) has cast aspersions on Job. God takes up Job’s defense. The matter is put to the test. If Job suffers every manner of affliction but does not thereby hold God in contempt, Job will be vindicated. God allows the Satan to empty Job’s life of whatever makes it meaningful, but the Satan must also act as Job’s guardian angel and save Job’s life from a premature conclusion: “He is in your power, but his life you must protect.”

No one in the Job story—neither Job, nor Job’s wife, nor Job’s friends, nor Elihu—knows about God’s wager with the accusing angel. The reader knows, but despite this knowledge, an explanation for Job’s suffering is not given. After all, Job fails the test. He cracks under the pressure of his suffering. He begins by speaking of God approvingly, even after he loses his children and all that he possesses. But when the suffering literally gets under his skin, Job maligns God again and again, directly and indirectly. “Let there be darkness,” exclaims Job. Job colors the world and God’s relationship to it with the same dark hues that have invaded his personal existence. He considers God to be his worst enemy and the enemy of all humankind.

When Job charges God with all manner of inappropriate behavior, Job’s friends defend God from Job’s charges by maligning Job. Job must have done something to deserve his fate. Job is incensed by his friends’ accusations. So malicious are their words that Job ends up contradicting the God-accusing thrust of his early speeches and insists instead on God’s righteousness and wisdom. In the end he needs God to be a righteous judge; otherwise, his friends will not be condemned, and he will not be justified. Job refers his case to God.

God replies to Job furiously, in a whirlwind: “How dare Job darken God’s counsel! Does Job even know what darkness is? Only God, of all living beings, has walked in the recesses of the deep.” God confirms Job’s worst fears. God’s counsel, or design, really does include unimaginable terror. The world God has created is not anthropocentric at all. It is full of awesome creatures, useless or inimical to human beings, creatures in which God takes immense delight. God’s knowledge and power, not God’s justice, take up most of God’s replies to Job. We sense the bewilderment of Job, who has suffered without cause under God’s hand. “I am of contemptible worth; what can I answer you? I clap my hand to my mouth,” and “I recant and I change my mind amidst dirt and ashes.”

The plot thickens. God acquits Job and vindicates Job before his friends. Job was right to defend himself before God. Job was guilty of putting God in the wrong in order to put himself in the right, the point of God’s reproof of Job before acquitting him, but Job’s forthrightness before God is ultimately held to his credit. In the end God responds by giving Job twice what he had before. He goes on to live a life of legendary proportions and delight in his children’s children.

Anti-Theodicy

A theodicy is an attempt to justify the ways of God to human beings. The book of Job is an anti-theodicy. According to the book of Job, unjustifiable suffering takes place in the world. Those who claim otherwise “do not speak the truth about [God].” Defense of man before God (anthropodicy), not defense of God (theodicy), is appropriate when suffering occurs. Job’s friends should have defended Job against God rather than God against Job. The apologetics of Job’s friends do not do justice to the status of the sufferer in God’s sight. An authentic theodicy will vindicate the sufferer even at God’s expense, if the book of Job is taken as a model. For in it God vindicates Job even as he puts an end to Job’s revolt against him.

There are other works of ancient literature outside of the Jewish Bible that attempt to deal with questions of theodicy. Examples include the Babylonian Theodicy and “I Will Praise the Lord of Wisdom” from Mesopotamian literature. Other similar biblical works include Psalms 37, 49, 73; Proverbs 30, and Qohelet (Ecclesiastes), 4 Baruch, and 2 Baruch.

References:

Laato, Antti, and Johannes C. De Moor, eds. Theodicy in the World of the Bible. Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 2003;
Newsom, Carol A. “The Book of Job.” In Leander E. Keck, et al., eds. The New Interpreter’s Bible. Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1996.
Perdue, Leo G., and W. Clark Gispin, eds.The Voice from the Whirlwind: Interpreting the Book of Job. Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1992.

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