Job for the beginner

Koot van Wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Visiting Professor

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

Conjoint Lecturer of Avondale College

Australia

23 May 2011

Job is classified with Proverbs as wisdom literature but in our modern understanding of texts, it is probably a misnomer. Job is a combination of narrative, poetry, prayers, songs, dialogues. It is not just creating a character and put the words in his mouth in order to illustrate something. Job is history and history is description of past realities. Realities it were, even the case of Satan's involvement. It is a reality to have the Rebellion in Heaven Motif  and the Ancient Near East knew that well. From the library of Ashurbanipal for example, in Niniveh of ca. 650 comes the text of the Legend of the Worm. It is set in a realistic understanding of the Rebellion in Heaven Motif. The origin of evil and the contention between good and bad cannot be understood properly without a proper understanding of this reality. Again it is not a myth or legend of fable but reality. Most scholars like to call it the prologue to the book.

Readers of the book of Job need to know that it is one of the most difficult books in the Old Testament. The book is full of hapax legomena. These rare words may have a semantical origin with correlations to Egyptian. They may be Hebraistic Egyptian words. We have done a couple of probes already succesfully by using Middle and Late Egyptian and then correlate the consonants with simulations bringing very good results in the synonymous parallelisms involved. Better results than the Arabic traced meanings currently in many of our modern versions.

Wisdom literature is known by using short popular sayings that is organized as rules and is necessary for a successful life or for the complexity in life. Yes, there is also wisdom in Job. One can find this kind of literature with the Egyptians, Assyriology which include the way Babylonians viewed it. Yes, there will be many examples of correlations between the Bible and Ancient Near Eastern literature, but any reader needs to be very careful: it is not correct to imply that Israel in the Bible got all their wisdom and rules or ideas from nations surrounding them. Absolutely not. Israel's presentations are very unique that distinguish them from the nations around them. Israel has a long history that stretch all the way to Adam and Eve and not just to the time of Merneptah, the Egyptian king who found the seed of Israel presumably in Canaan in 1220 BCE. The Wisdom literature of Amenemope dates to 650 BCE and was thus in the library of Niniveh, a place where Israelites were scribes already from 723 BCE. After all, Solomon completed Proverbs and the other wisdom books already in 940 BCE. Who came first, the chicken or the egg? If one argues that ancient Egyptians were first since their history and the wisdom of Ptahotep goes back to the second or third dynasties. Do they? Hebrew wisdom goes back all the way to Adam and Eve nearly 1650 years prior to 2521 BCE. Of course only the 11 first chapters of Genesis survived to explain that and it is in bits and pieces selected by Moses from the Book of Adam (Genesis 5:1) and the Book of Noah (Genesis 6:1). Pre-Flood Egypt was all destroyed and does not exist. That is reality.

According to A. Bentzen, a very liberal scholar of the Victorian period, Bleeker wanted to see that Israel took over certain contours from the Ancient Cultures but that they transformed it to their own spirit (A. Bentzen, Introduction to the Old Testament Vol. II [Copenhagen: 1961],169 footnote 1). Seventh-day Adventism do not follow this concept. Bentzen is not cited because he is the best but rather closer to the opposite. J. Wellhausen felt that he was very successful in dividing the Biblical text but he was definitely not successful in the dating of the pieces that he demarcated.

Name of Job

In the Greek it is Iob but in the Hebrew it is iyyob. Luther used Hiob which was from the Hebrew.

Place in the Canon

In the so-called LXX, Job is just after the Historical Books of Esra and Nehemiah and Esther. In the Syriac translation it is just after the Pentateuch, why? They had the early reality that Moses was the author of Job. This reality is shared by Seventh-day Adventists and Ellen White also mentioned that Moses wrote Job during his sojourn in Midian between 1490-1450 BCE.

Person of Job

The Jewish tradition explains that he was a person that lived in the past (Baba Bathra 14b-15a). This reality of a living being in the past one can also see in Ezechiel 14:14, 20. Job is seen as a person as real as Daniel and Noah. Unless one does not accept the text of the Bible as authoritative and subject to pick and choose and rejection and glossed in conspriracy theories. Then one may as well close the science and go home. Either it is true or not. There is no middle way as the neo-orthodox scholars like Rudolph Bultmann was trying to create.

Time of Job

Scholars suggested the following dates for the writing of Job:

a. Patriarchal times

b. Time of Moses

c. Time of the Babylonian exile

d. Time of Xerxes

Is Job a legend or fiction? Job must have lived in the past since his name and birthplace are presented in the Biblical text.

Author of the book of Job

A. Bentzen is a skeptic and Rationalist of the Victorian Age (so-called Elightenment which is really shadowy views) and he said that the author is not known. The Syriac Tradition said Moses wrote it and also Seventh-day Adventism claims the same. If one looks at the hapax legomena in the book of Job one can see that it is normally the Pentateuch that shares these with Job and also Isaiah but Isaiah was a keen reader of the Pentateuch. So that is expected. The Egyptian presence in the book indicates that Moses wrote it. Job lived in the Patriarchal period and Moses was the first to mention Job in his book. Whether Moses had also access to books or diaries regarding Job and that this is really a research by him, is not impossible. If one looks at how Plato wrote the Apology of Socrates, it will give us a possible scenario how Moses could have written Job.

1. Dr. H. Telle and mr. A. Tronson who taught us the Apology of Socrates made two important points for us to take note of:

a. No one would argue that everything Socrates said was truely said by Socrates and no one would try to demarcate where Socrates ends and Plato begins.

b. Two reasons why Plato wrote the Apology of Socrates: "Firstly, as Plato wrote dialogues depicting the process philosophising, not treatises or textbooks in which his philosophy is systematically set out, he may have used these dialogues as propaganda documents. Through them he may have tried to recruit pupils for the live philosophical dialogues held at the Academy. The other possible answer is that the dialogues were meant as a second best way of coming in touch with philosophy for those who could not and cannot take part in a live philosophical conversation. The reader of the dialogue mentally takes part in the conversation led by Socrates, he takes part in the many refutations, disappointments, acknowledgements of ignorance by Socrates as well as by his interlocutor, in the new hopes of finding, what they are looking for, in short the reader starts to philosophise himself" (Telle and Tronson, Unisa Guide Greek II/Hellenistic Greek II HELG2/6 1977: 11).

Application to Moses and the book of Job

Job really lived but long before Moses. Moses were suffering existentially from being a son of the Palace of Queen Hatshepsut in Egypt until he killed the Egyptian overseer in 1490 and had to run from the palace police of Thutmosis III to Midian. In Midian his life changed to that of a daily worker who worked for a salary under overseers. Hard work, difficult life, a lot of problems and pain. Job's hard life was for Moses an image of his own. It is contrary to Jewish historiography and contrary to the Holy Spirit to allow monkey tricks to be applied to literature. What we read Job said, he really said and what we read his advisors said, they really said. In the process they helped Moses to answer many questions for himself. Theodicy, pain, suffering, difficulties, bankruptcy, God's dealings with man. All these subjects in the forms of dialogues and discussions helped Moses to unwind his own upset mind. Moses may have written the book for himself although it is a biography of a man from the patriarchal times, probably the same time as Abraham in 2160 BCE. The difference between Plato on Socrates and Moses on Job is that Plato invented much of his own agendas to be built into the text whereas Moses did not interfere with the reality of the past of Job by glossing in some of his own thoughts, not that of Job. He did not add any of his own thoughts, but only that of Job and his friends, very faithfully.

Time of the author

The author was a person skilled in poetry. Some data link Job to Edom, Tema, Uz (1:1). It is possible that Job lived in the patriarchal period because of this. The hippo (?) [behemoth] and the crocodile (?) [leviathan] of Job 40:15 and 40:25 (in Hebrew but 41:1 in English) reminds one of Egypt and this is what one expects with Moses who came from the royal house. But, what we have in Job 40:15 is the Rebellion in Heaven Motif as we find it also in Isaiah 14 and also in Ezechiel 28. See especially the connection of verse 15 with verse 19. That is also the findings of my wife in her book, Sookyoung Kim, The Warrior Messiah (England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010). The Beast and the Leviathan seems to be symbolic images of political powers (Egypt) and or Mesopotamia. It is a power since it has swords and military might.

Bentzen claims that the exile is hinted at in Job 12:14-25 and 15:19 but that is highly unlikely. Moses found himself in exile due to his own activities. There is absolutely nothing in the text that could have given Bentzen this idea of an exile here. Anyone familiar with the history of post-Flood Mesopotamia as described by Samuel Kramer in his book on the Sumerians will know that these events happened in every century since then.

In Job 31:26 Bentzen thought he could see something regarding astrology or the star cult, and he said that this cult was only operative in the seventh century BCE. Such a comment does not line up with what we know now about astronomy among the Ancient Near Eastern nations. What is known about Moses is that during the time of his stay in the palace of Hatshepsut between 1518-1490 BCE, there was a very famous court/palace astronomer, Senenmut in Egypt whose tomb was also discovered and enlightened us on the relationship of Hatshepsut to this teacher of stars. We must remember that Layard picked up at lense at Babylon made of rock crystal that measured 4.5 in focal length. It was found in 1850 and A. Kyrala was informed about it on the 23rd of February 1972 (Sumer 27 no. 1 and 2 [1972]: 21-28). Our knowledge of ancient astronomy is too fragmented and too pessimistic. Job is talking about a heliocentric universe in Job 26:10 and Moses knew of stringing nebulae connecting each other in Job 38:32-35 with the Orion and Pleiades. He must have used a telescope, that belonged to astronomer Senenmut in Egypt?

Steuernagel is of the opinion that El was used for God before Moses and that since Moses Yahweh was used. Thus, when the friends of Job is using the name El for God, then he concludes that it means those sections are pre-Moses. This conclusion is not correct. For Steuernagel Exodus 6 was written by P or Priestly redactor. Seventh-day Adventists do not work with these theories of Wellhausen and kie.

Other comparative "Job" events

Scholars are indicating that there are a number of similar stories. However, many of these examples post-date the 1460 BCE timeline of the composing of Job by Moses. To cite sections from Ben Sirach to verify the comparison will not suffice. It is way too late to come into consideration. Some make reference to the Babylonian pessimistic dialogue between a man and his slave. There is the dialogue between a world tired person and his soul.

Content of the book of Job

The history of Job is placed in perspective with a prologue explaining a dialogue in heaven between Satan and God regarding Job. Job is placed under suffering.

Prologue

Dialogue in three rounds:

4-14

15-21

22-28

Monologue 29-31

Elihu 32-37

Speeches of Jahweh 38-41

Rehabilitation of Job 40:4-5

Job 42:1-6

Form of the book of Job

Bentzen wants to see two forms in the book of Job. Two literary forms are important for him: prose (1-2; 42:7-17) and poetry (the rest). This is not correct. The whole book is series of careful prepared dialogues. It is almost taking part in a courtcase. It is as if each participant is very conscious that God and the angels, and other unfallen beings can hear them in their reasoning. Each one is presenting their Image of God to each other.

Dialogue and advice from his friends

Some may want to say that Job is righteous and right and his friends are wrong. It will not be correct. His friends do have a theological understanding but what they are sometimes doing is to give right doctrines that are not applicable to Job's case. When they say that God punish the wicked and save the righteous and that therefore you [Job] are suffering because you must have done something wrong, then that would not be correct because the prelude's purpose is to give us a window of what happened before the origin of the sufferings of Job. This gives us an insight that on this issue, any of his friends will not be correct. It is biblical that God will take care of the righteous, it is also biblical that He will punish ultimately the wicked. Psalm 37 is all about that. However, although they are wrong on issues here and there, an overall discarding of their advice is not advisable. It is not a case of Job = right theology, friends = wrong theology. If it is a courtcase, was it the custom for people in those days to prepare their speeches in text, well in advance, in the form of parallelisms, envelope forms and what the Semiticist Emeritus, A. van Selms in his article in Semitics 1989, pointed out as devices dealing with two opposing themes at the same time. He announces two themes, then treat one first and return to the other one in the next verse. Moses may return again later on to the other theme again. It is a device of bi-thematic announcement followed by a bi-thematic rotational treatment, like pistons of a car, then one theme and then the other just to come back again to the other on a rotational basis. Van Selms called it, "dichotomic elaboration of a dual theme". One can see it in Job 7:1; 14:1; 23:13; 28:13; 30:28 and a number of other places as well.

In Job 19:3 Job is saying that it is ten times they argued with him. However, if you count his friends arguments from this point back to the beginning of the book, it is only five times. Of course, Job had to answer also five times. And here is the solution. Five times listening and five times responding to the listening equals ten times bothering by his friends. Ten times involvement with things he did not want to but had to since that is the Ancient Near Eastern way of dealing with issues in such a dialogue form.

Climax of the book

Some scholars think that the climax of the book is Job 19:26. Jerome felt in 398 CE that Moses describe here his faith in the Resurrection. Other scholars wants to see this Resurrection faith in this verse as originating from the Greeks, but that is farfetched since Moses wrote the book in 1460 BCE in Midian and Greek literature that we have available, fragments of what survived until deep in the Middle Ages, is just not sufficient to be used for comparison with Job.

"and after my skin shall destroy this,

and from my body I shall [vision]see God” [eloah = special spelling].

Eloah as spelling for the name of God is very special. It appears a number of times in Job. See also Job 2:4.

Job may have been written before Moses wrote it

Job 1:5 says that Job offered burnt offerings "from what is written, all of them/them all". Some translations wants to read "according to the number of them all". If Job lived in Abraham's times in 2160 BCE, then books already existed in those days specifying the offerings. Job offered according to what was specified. Moses was then not the first to receive these revelations. What Moses received was then a restatement of what was given prior? Noah knew what to offer and how when he left the ark in 2521 BCE.

For the root meaning a written book or scroll see also Job 19:23 "inscribe in a book".

Egyptianisms in the book of Job

The book of Job, abounds with Egyptianisms and at www.egw.org at van wyk notes, there are a number of articles dealing with the Egyptian Loanwords of Moses in Job. Middle and Late Egyptian are two very fruitful avenues for understanding the hapax legoumena in the book of Job.

Cosmology of the book of Job is very advanced

When we talk about the cosmology of Moses as writer reflected in the book of Job, three options are available: that the earth is shaped like a paper, like a coin or like an egg. Interestingly enough, neither of the first two finds satisfaction in the text of Job. The third one does, as Job 26:10 tells us, namely that the earth is hanged on nothing. See the article "Egyptian Months" at www.egw.org at van wyk notes.