On Job
I find it disgraceful to think that the Book of Job (איוב) has been included in the cannon of the Hebrew Bible. I find that in reading it from a number of different angles it is impossible to reconcile it with Judaism, and not only Judaism but morality, ethics, common sense, and any productive view of God. I find it in direct conflict with other Jewish doctrines, and some Christian doctrine to an extent, and it may be my least favorite thing I have ever read.
First to give a brief overview. The Book of Job was composed by an unknown author at an unknown time in history. I believe that it predates Ecclesiastes, but there is no concrete evidence of this. The basic story is God makes a bet with Satan that a man named Job who has been completely faithful to God his entire life, and has been blessed with a good family and a stable lifestyle. However, Satan claims that if God were to take all this away from Job then Job will no longer praise his name. Yet God, in an immaculate stoke of genius decides to stoop to Satan’s level and takes him up on his offer. So God systematically takes away everything that Job has, leaving him with no property and worst of all no family. Yet in the end, Job decides to still praise God. And God wins the bet with Satan, proving that no matter what God does to Job he will still worship God. It is important to note that the Christian tradition views this character as Satan, and the Jewish as “The Adversary.”
In attacking this atrocity of the Biblical Cannon, I would like to say that this is in direct conflict with the God of other parts of the Bible. From now on the Bible will be used just in terms of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament if you are a member of Christianity. It is first important to note that there is not a uniform idea of God, Yahweh, VHWH, Adonai, Eloheim, or whatever you want to call him/her/it/God. I like to think that the idea of God put forth in Genesis written by The J Writer or as some like to call The Yawhist, is the idea of God that is most Jewish. Granted, parts of Genesis are taken from Gilgamesh, possibly some myths of Sargon II, as well as many other sources. So to address this, a portrait of the God of Judaism must first be drawn.
The God of Genesis is a tribal deity. He is a God who is the ultimate creator, and there is no one above him; the exalted one, oh most high. He has chosen the Jewish people, and he loves and will protect them, given they follow his commandments, especially what he tells them specifically. It is important to note that God decides, arbitrarily, to talk to certain people. God has not developed itself into the form of Judaism it was even in the Rabbinic Period (c. -200-250), so this is God in his most elementary form. The God of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joel, Hosea, Nehemiah, and all the rest of the prophets is different from the God in Genesis and to an extent Exodus. But the essence of God is a creator who loves his chosen people and who will punish the wicked.
The first extreme quandary with Job is the idea that God can have an adversary. The literal reading is there is a force that can contend with God. Not only is this a force, but this is a powerful force, juxtaposed to God, whose challenge is so great that God demolishes the life of a pious man to prove a point to evil.
Even if the story is to be read allegorically there are still an abundance of severe problems. The best reading that I can get from the text, and I am by no means a bona fide biblical scholar more a naïve and budding philosopher, is that even when God throws evil on you, for no apparent reason, you still ought to be faithful. This may be a misreading of the text, but it is what I have discerned from Job. God can decide to bestow hardship upon is, whether we believe in him or not. Well why bother believing in him? The answer is because God is good and it will all pay off in the end. Well if God is good how could he ruin the life of a very faithful man who never harmed anyone, was praised for his piety, just to prove a point to Satan, the Devil, or the other force that is not God? This can lead to those to see that Job, most pious, still lost his family, and property. If Job is not good enough for God than who is? This tends me to say that if this story were true, which it is obviously a fictional story designed to relay a point, it would discourage people from Judaism.
It is still shocking the idea that God could have an adversary. If he is the ultimate creator, the one God, how can there be a being that he would have to contend with. This reminds me, for some reason, of the paradox of ‘can God create a rock so large even he cannot lift it?’. How can there possibly a force in the universe that God can contend with? This reminds me of polytheism, and the Book of Revelation, where Good wins out because it is more powerful than Evil. Job can be read as a cosmic power struggle, but Bloom may claim that is a misreading. Regardless, there is a force that can contend with God, and God is jeopardizing the life of an innocent believer just to prove a point to this force. How it affects humans is that God can treat us however poorly he desires, but we should still believe him. This is implying that God will play around with humans just because he can, and that we are so far below God that we are completely helpless. This idea of a God who can give and take arbitrarily is not the same god of J, E, D, the prophets, the Psalmists, the Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) and the rest of the Hebrew Bible. The fact that the assembly of the Canon was not an exact science it is very probable that the assembler(s) made some mistakes. Well, Job was one. Job would serve well as an interesting apocryphal test, but as part of the Canon it is highly inferior to the rest of the Canon and does not fit in with the same concept of God.
First to give a brief overview. The Book of Job was composed by an unknown author at an unknown time in history. I believe that it predates Ecclesiastes, but there is no concrete evidence of this. The basic story is God makes a bet with Satan that a man named Job who has been completely faithful to God his entire life, and has been blessed with a good family and a stable lifestyle. However, Satan claims that if God were to take all this away from Job then Job will no longer praise his name. Yet God, in an immaculate stoke of genius decides to stoop to Satan’s level and takes him up on his offer. So God systematically takes away everything that Job has, leaving him with no property and worst of all no family. Yet in the end, Job decides to still praise God. And God wins the bet with Satan, proving that no matter what God does to Job he will still worship God. It is important to note that the Christian tradition views this character as Satan, and the Jewish as “The Adversary.”
In attacking this atrocity of the Biblical Cannon, I would like to say that this is in direct conflict with the God of other parts of the Bible. From now on the Bible will be used just in terms of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament if you are a member of Christianity. It is first important to note that there is not a uniform idea of God, Yahweh, VHWH, Adonai, Eloheim, or whatever you want to call him/her/it/God. I like to think that the idea of God put forth in Genesis written by The J Writer or as some like to call The Yawhist, is the idea of God that is most Jewish. Granted, parts of Genesis are taken from Gilgamesh, possibly some myths of Sargon II, as well as many other sources. So to address this, a portrait of the God of Judaism must first be drawn.
The God of Genesis is a tribal deity. He is a God who is the ultimate creator, and there is no one above him; the exalted one, oh most high. He has chosen the Jewish people, and he loves and will protect them, given they follow his commandments, especially what he tells them specifically. It is important to note that God decides, arbitrarily, to talk to certain people. God has not developed itself into the form of Judaism it was even in the Rabbinic Period (c. -200-250), so this is God in his most elementary form. The God of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joel, Hosea, Nehemiah, and all the rest of the prophets is different from the God in Genesis and to an extent Exodus. But the essence of God is a creator who loves his chosen people and who will punish the wicked.
The first extreme quandary with Job is the idea that God can have an adversary. The literal reading is there is a force that can contend with God. Not only is this a force, but this is a powerful force, juxtaposed to God, whose challenge is so great that God demolishes the life of a pious man to prove a point to evil.
Even if the story is to be read allegorically there are still an abundance of severe problems. The best reading that I can get from the text, and I am by no means a bona fide biblical scholar more a naïve and budding philosopher, is that even when God throws evil on you, for no apparent reason, you still ought to be faithful. This may be a misreading of the text, but it is what I have discerned from Job. God can decide to bestow hardship upon is, whether we believe in him or not. Well why bother believing in him? The answer is because God is good and it will all pay off in the end. Well if God is good how could he ruin the life of a very faithful man who never harmed anyone, was praised for his piety, just to prove a point to Satan, the Devil, or the other force that is not God? This can lead to those to see that Job, most pious, still lost his family, and property. If Job is not good enough for God than who is? This tends me to say that if this story were true, which it is obviously a fictional story designed to relay a point, it would discourage people from Judaism.
It is still shocking the idea that God could have an adversary. If he is the ultimate creator, the one God, how can there be a being that he would have to contend with. This reminds me, for some reason, of the paradox of ‘can God create a rock so large even he cannot lift it?’. How can there possibly a force in the universe that God can contend with? This reminds me of polytheism, and the Book of Revelation, where Good wins out because it is more powerful than Evil. Job can be read as a cosmic power struggle, but Bloom may claim that is a misreading. Regardless, there is a force that can contend with God, and God is jeopardizing the life of an innocent believer just to prove a point to this force. How it affects humans is that God can treat us however poorly he desires, but we should still believe him. This is implying that God will play around with humans just because he can, and that we are so far below God that we are completely helpless. This idea of a God who can give and take arbitrarily is not the same god of J, E, D, the prophets, the Psalmists, the Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) and the rest of the Hebrew Bible. The fact that the assembly of the Canon was not an exact science it is very probable that the assembler(s) made some mistakes. Well, Job was one. Job would serve well as an interesting apocryphal test, but as part of the Canon it is highly inferior to the rest of the Canon and does not fit in with the same concept of God.
posted by Brian Hillman at 5:59 PM
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