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Be sure that your preliminary work is attached to your paper. After 5:30 pm today, I am not accepting papers! There are three venues for turning them in after class: Send an e-mail attachment Slide it under my door (308 Frost) Put it in my mailbox (second floor Frost). Exam Statistics
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Be sure that your preliminary work is attached to your paper. After 5:30 pm today, I am not accepting papers! There are three venues for turning them in after class: Send an e-mail attachment Slide it under my door (308 Frost) Put it in my mailbox (second floor Frost) Exam Statistics Range of Scores: 35 to 100 Distribution: A – 44 B – 24 C – 18 D – 11 F – 22 Announcements
Oseh Shalom (Job 25:2b) • O-SEH SHALOM BIMROMAV • The One Who Makes peace in His heights • HU YA’ASEH SHALOM ALENU • He will make peace for us • VE’AL KOL ISRAEL • And for all Israel • VE’IMRU IMRU AMEN • And say say Amen! • YA’ASEH SHALOM, YA’ASEH SHALOM • SHALOM ALENU VE’AL KOL ISRAEL (4 times)
Review Characteristics of Biblical Wisdom Texts • Proverbs is instructional • Job and Ecclesiastes are speculative, raising questions about the difficult issues of suffering and death • Song of Songs is lyrical poetry
Questions • What is the overall purpose of the book of Job? • A definition: Theodicy (“justifying God”) - defense of God’s goodness and omnipotence in the face of the existence of evil • Is Job a theodicy? • How does God deal with Evil? • What do we learn about God, the Adversary, and Job from the first two chapters? • Was Job “sinless”? • What are human motives for obedience?
Further Questions • What is so inappropriate about the friends’ (Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar) statements? After all, they seem to have a good handle on basic principles of justice. • What is the essence of Job’s responses to his friends? Does he disagree with them regarding the nature of God? • What do Job’s statements about and to God indicate? • And what do we learn from the responses of God?
Brief Background • From the land of Uz - which may be equivalent to Edom (Lam 4:21) • Date: Customs and institutions may imply patriarchal period for events • Authorship and date of composition unknown – but likely composed in the framework of the covenant community of Israel
Sketch of the Book of Job • Narrative framework (chs 1-2, 42) • Job’s character established – his mediating role • Heavenly scenes with God and Satan • Epilogue – rebuke of friends; restoration of Job • Job’s initial outburst of grief and pain (3) – note the adumbration of Leviathan (3:8) • Three poetic cycles of dialogue, the last of which is incomplete (4-27) • Note changing character of friends’ statements • Note Job’s addresses to God; increasing pleas for audience • “Monologues” from Job and Elihu (28-37) • God’s verbal responses (38-41)
Job’s Perceptions of God • God is just and sovereign over all creation • Dismay over God’s sovereign control over his life • God seems to be Job’s Adversary – and Job says so! • At the same time, Job trusts and hopes for an Advocate (ch 16) and Redeemer (ch 19) who is God
God’s Responses to Job • Job has neither the knowledge nor the power of God • God as Architect, midwife, commander-in-chief • God’s sovereign control over all the vast reaches of the universe • Note allusions to wild animals; no mention of humans • Thus, Job cannot claim to speak of the moral realm • The figure of Leviathan – what does it suggest? • Note Isaiah 27:1; Job 26:12-13 and Revelation 12