Here follows a guest post from Jeffrey Boss about his book on Job. The book is available now and can be previewed and bought via the widget on the left. DM
The purpose of this book is to enable the reader (and the writer!) to elucidate the Book of Job so that the suffering Job himself can be accompanied, and the reading of the book be the basis of what (for want of a better term) is a spiritual exercise. Since the other central character in the Book of Job is God, this study is necessarily both theological and psychological in its implications. To obtain a firm base for the enterprise it has been necessary to consider two thousand years of commentators, from Talmudic rabbis and Church Fathers, through Mediaeval and Renaissance writers (Christian and Jewish), down to scholars of our own day. This is not for agreement or disagreement with this or that writer, but rather to note topics that the present writer might otherwise have missed. As a result, this study is a commentary on the Book of Job.
It is shown that Job's awareness of divinity goes through seven stages: God as nurturer, as destroyer, as the self-concealing, as the desired, as the Holy One, as Job's destination, and as God beyond God. When God is to Job the far object of desire Job's three friends exchange speeches with him. They preach a form of distributive justice not elsewhere found in the Bible, and which is refuted by Job. He uses their speeches as rungs of a ladder to bring himself out of the darkness following God's self-concealment. Thus he perceives his value to God who may seek him, and sees that he is God's handiwork, that God could use his service, that the friends lack wisdom, that he will have unmediated knowledge of God his Vindicator, that reason and experience are more valuable than opinion and authority, and that oppression is a major source of suffering, which is therefore social as well as personal.
From this study some conclusions are drawn. Although the Book of Job has evidence of more than one author, it is nevertheless coherent and consistent in the form in which we have it. A central narrative theme is Job's consciousness of the Divine. In the Book of Job wisdom has two aspects, one towards God and one towards humanity. The Book of Job offers a view of non-human nature in relation to God. In some respects it belongs to the genre of hero stories. Job is of relevance to the state of humankind today.
The superb craftsmanship of the poet/dramatist is evident, but is not central in the present study. Although related to other biblical books (by quotation, for example), the Book of Job is one of the self-standing works of the human spirit, alongside classics such as the Bhagavad Gita and the Daodijing.
JEFFREY BOSS
'A distinctive position that needs to be taken account of by all readers of Job... A new and distinctive voice in biblical studies' - Professor John Barton, Oriel College, Oxford
'Thoroughly scholarly and very readable...' - Katharine Dell, University of Cambridge, UK
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