Ragnar Andersen, the author of The Elihu Speeches: There Place and Sense in the Book of Job, examines the arguments of the critics who claim that the Elihu speeches are later interpolations, while simultaneously presenting the arguments of those, who like himself, argue that the Elihu speeches are original text in the book of Job. According to Andersen, Matthias Heinrich Stuhlmann, a Lutheran preacher, was the first person to include an argument against the originality of the Elihu speeches in his commentary several years after Johann Gottfried Eichhorn first proposed that they were a later interpolation during the 1780s. Since then, as seen in the evidence presented by Andersen, several scholars have also refuted the idea that the Elihu…
Job starts off as “the richest man in the East” (5) who is also “a man of perfect integrity, [he] feared God and avoided evil” (5). He constantly stayed loyal to God despite God putting him through a series of great pain: “We have accepted good fortune from God; surely we can accept bad fortune too” (8). It is not until a sudden shift in the book that Job decides to question his views, “God damn the day I was born/ and the night that forced me from the womb./ On that day-- let there be darkness;/ let it never have been created;/ let it sink back into the void” (13). Job is abruptly struck with a great loss and is left with literally nothing; no family, no money, no animals, and no happiness. He goes so far as to cry to God, blaming him, and demanding answers to questions such as “If I testify, will [you] answer?…
Lastly, the “Book of Job”, the “Book of Matthew” and “Amos” are all part of the Christian bible. These three readings informed about different situations in a person’s life that is based on…
He began to curse his life and begged for death. His friends’ misinterpretations forced him to defend himself with that weary body. God’s love and mercy stayed with him. He had everything restored with more blessings. The fairy-tale beginning of Job’s story had a matching happy ending which comforted Job’s heart and the readers’.…
Job passes because he understands one of the fundamental doctrines of his faith, which is that suffering does not last forever because joy will eventually come. Job obeys the Lord because he loves his God and knows what is expected of him, no matter what kind of suffering he endures. Similarly, Griselda remains true to her vow because she loves her husband and is a patient, perhaps even virtuous, woman. Job’s story is an example of the rewards of faith and obedience. Story serves the same purpose, with the addition that Griselda also serves as a model of the perfect wife during the Renaissance…
Job is a major symbol in “Answers” because Job is a character in the bible that loses everything, resulting in his struggle to trust God. Job represents Alexis and Ronnie's marriage dilemma because the couple is about to lose their connection, but they are determined to persevere through it by applying the Twenty Question game into their lives to restore the devastating loss in the marriage that causes them to be insecure around each other. Given these points, the reader is presented with a different view on life that suggests just because a person has strong morals and values does not mean they are strong enough to restore the loss of trust in his or her…
Having formally sketched the ultimate and proximate settings in which human life is organized in 4A and 5A, in chapter 6, “To Be and Have a Living Body: Meditation on Job 10,” David Kelsey begins to address what human beings are. Kelsey argues that Job’s story of his own “having been born” (Job 10) narrates an account of his birth in two entwined, but distinct ways. These two ways of telling the story of his birth “also tell the story of the birth of every human person” (242). Job’s particular and subtle double-telling of his birth provides resources for a general articulation of two lines of human creatureliness. The source of Kelsey’s constructive claims are situated in Job’s “contest about wisdom” (241-245).…
However, Job concludes by questioning who can understand His ways? This verse is significant, because it reveals the cosmic view of relative and absolute truth. In this verse, Job is implying that no one can understand the ways of the Lord or the true greatness of His power, because, according to the cosmic view, humans are limited to inside-the-box, relative truth thinking. On the other hand, only God knows absolute truth and can view the world from outside of the box. Nevertheless, Job is able to understand these truths because, through faith, the Lord has revealed to him some of the absolute truths that can only be seen from outside of the box.…
Literature can be anything from poetry to an epic to a novel. It dates back thousands upon thousands of years. The “Epic of Gligamesh” and the Book of Job are two of these pieces of literature. These two works are very different, but at the same time they are very similar. A universal theme they both share is the characters have to come to term with and learn about the human condition.…
Job was doing everything the right way. God noticed Job and his righteousness. However, God made Job suffer. God watched him suffer, and He wasn’t going to stop the suffering. Job wanted to complain, and die, but God helped him when he couldn’t help himself.…
Love Casts Out Fear Although Dr. Miller’s discussion on the book of Job brought to light numerous insights that I had not previously considered, there was one phrase in particular that had a tremendous impact on my understanding of my own approach to God. To provide some context, Dr. Miller was interpreting what Job was thinking and feeling after God had asked him a disarming series of questions. Dr. Miller reworded Job’s new, humble perspective on his circumstances in the following manner: “…I know that God is so good that He wouldn’t be evil to me... And I totally trust Him.…
The Hebrew Bible considers Job in one of the poetic books in the Old Testament. The story of Job is about a wealthy man with a large family and farmland. He is blameless and selfless as he looks to God in everything he does. One day Satan comes before God and makes a bet with him that if he brings enough suffering to Job that Job will turn his back to God. Following the agreeance of this bet, satan takes everything from Job.…
Yancey asserts that while most people would say Job is all about pain, it is really about faith in pain. In the third chapter, the author addresses Deuteronomy, as the final summation of the books of Moses and for a chapter, writes from Moses’ point of view. Yancey describes in length how Moses may have been feeling and thinking and how God chose and unlikely leader for his chosen people. Moses was living out God’s mission, not his own.…
Suffering is in the world all around us, it is a fact of life (2) and it can teach us many things that help us to become better human beings. People often blame God for all of the pain and tragedy in the world; if we are going to learn from suffering and allow it to teach us about the world whilst remaining faithful to God, we must understand that God created a good world and good human beings, His creation has been infected by the introduction of sin, which resulted in the creation of evil and suffering (4). Man was given the option to accept or reject God, Man chose to reject and that is what has caused him to sin and therefore create suffering (5). Part of learning about the world is understanding that people are not perfect, we learn this…
Religion is and always has been a big part in people's lives. From the dawn of time, people have been asking questions and creating answers for them. Religion gives people a sense of duty, knowledge, community, and safety in their lives. Religion is used to explain things and occurrences that cannot be explained otherwise. Things like natural events, tragedies, and sometimes miracles.…