Folks, sorry it's taken me so long to respond. Hopefully the conversation hasn't died completely. While I've been away, however, I have had time to re-read
Job and converse with a few friends about my reading of it. So before interacting with comments from Steve and C. Gorsuch, I'd like to offer a few new thoughts of my own.
1) After reading
Job again, I am even more convinced that Job had no knowledge of the resurrection. What I am less sure about, however, is whether Job's angst stems from the loss of his children. Instead, Job's main concern is vindicating his own righteousness.
2) I found it fascinating that God rebukes Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar and yet He does not rebuke Elihu, the young man who chastises Job
just prior to God's appearance from the whirlwind. At the same time, I'm not sure what the real difference was between Elihu's advice and the others'.
3) When I spoke to a friend of mine about my reading of
Job, he used a hermeneutic from Augustine (sorry I don't have a citation). Here's an example from Theopedia, a reading of the word "Jerusalem":
- Literal: The historical city
- Allegorical: The Church
- Moral: Human Soul
- Anagogical: Heaven
According to such a hermeneutic, all four of these "readings" can simultaneously coexist within a text of scripture. None are subordinated to another. Perhaps my reading weighs heavily on the side of "Literal" while others tend toward the anagogical or Moral?
Ok, now to interact with C. Gorsuch:
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In the intro, the author makes it clear to us that Job's sinning began after he was already suffering, and the suffering was not punishment for sin: In all of this Job did not sin with his lips..." which is preparing us for Job sinning with his lips afterward so that we will not think Job is suffering because he is charging God with wrong later (he isn't being punished for something before he did it). God says (certainly in the context of their theology) that Job was suffering "for no reason."
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I am particularly interested in the first line of the above quote. How did Job sin? By demanding justice?
Now Steve, a few bullet points:
- Perhaps I should have said "virtual ignorance," but I think the effect is the same. At best, Job has a murky understanding that an afterlife exists, and that it is not pleasant.
- As human beings created
imago dei we have intrinsic value. I really think we agree here.
- Yes, Russ' essay is in
The Epic Cosmos
- I'm glad you discovered Zuck's interpretation, although it certainly is not conclusive since (as you mention) other expositors disagree.
Quote:
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I should mention I do not think there are many Hebrew scholars today who can hold candles to the learning and godliness of the scholars who translated the Masoretic Hebrew into the King James Old Testament.
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I found this quote interesting. Why would today's Hebrew scholars be any less capable in their translation? To me, the opposite would seem to be the case.