Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament: Job

The Smyth and Helwys Bible Commentary series brings onsightful commentary to bear on the lives of contemporary Christians.Using a multimedia format,the volumes employ a stunning array of art,maps, and drawings to illustrate the insights of the Bible.It is built upon the idea that meaningful Bible study can occur when the insights of contemporary biblical scholars blend with sensitivity to the needs of students of Scripture.In addition,the CD-ROM,which offers powerful searching and research tools, pairs the text with a digital resource that is a distinctive feature of this series.

Interpretation:A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching is a set of full-length commentaries which assist teachers and preachers in their homiletic and educative tasks.Written specifically for those who interpret the Bible through teaching and preaching in the church.
The writers were chosenn for their proven abilities as biblical scholars and their experience as preachers and/or teachers.Each has an outstanding record of publication demonstrating a keen sense for biblical interpretation and expository writing.

The Moreshet (Heritage) Series represents the latest venture of the Jewish Theological Seminary of American in the dissemination of Jewish scholarship and thought.Under its imprint will appear the works of Seminary faculty and alumni in all areas of Jewish scholarly and theological endeavor,including works on Bible,rabbinics,history,philology,law,theology,philosophy and ethics.Among them will also be translations of classics,commentaries- ancient as well as modern-and books reflecting the whole spectrum of Jewish activity and expression.
No effort will be made to give the series any unity either thematically or ideologically.Each writer speaks for himself.What will provide the framework for the Series will be the language in which the works will appear-English,with the occasional accompaniment of texts in the original language of composition- their Jewish content and concern,and the association of their authors with the Seminary as teachers,as research associates or as alumni.

This work is a translation of the text of Thomas Aquinas's Expositio super Job ad litteram in Vol.XXVI of Sancti Thomae de Aquino,Opera Omnia,Iussu Leonis XIII P.M. edita. In view of the relative currency of this edition and the reputation of the editors of the Leonine Commission,we have with utmost confidence accepted this text as definitive for our purpose.
We have followed current academic convention in placing our interpretive essay before the translated text.Even so,we consider the former a guide,not a substitute, for reading the text with care.Readers are invited to proceed to Thomas directly,if they will,and to judge the merits of our work in the light of his.Our manner of citing references in and to the Exposition,in terms of Thoma's comments on the Vulgate verses rather than by arbitrary page numbers,aims at facilitating comparison with the Latin original.We are particularly indebted to the Leonine edition for its generous apparatus of cross-references and sources, on which we have relied extensively.

While many feel that Job is too long,full of windy and tedious words,Professor David J.A. Clines shows in detail how every element is essential and how only the interweaving of literary and theological perspectives can reveal the richness of the writing.

The Book of Job presents its readers with a profound drama concerning innocent suffering.Such honest,forthright wrestling with evil and the silence of God has intrigued a wide gamut of readers both religious and non-religious.
The excerpts in this collection focus on systematic treatment.Among Greek texts are those from Origen, Didymus the Blind,Julian the Arian,John Chrysostom,Hesychius of Jerusalem and Olympiodorus.Among Latin sources we find Julian of Eclanum,Philip the Priest and Gregory the Great.Among Syriac sources we find Ephrem the Syrian and Isho'dad of Merv,some of whose work is made available here for the first time in English.

Because of the high incidence of textual and lexical difficulties,Job poses a formidable challenge to the translator.In this context,Professor Pope's special knowledge of Ugaritic- an ancient Semitic tongue closely related to classical Hebrew-is pertinent.For the Ugaritic texts-mythological poems dating from the middle of the second millennium B.C. similar to much Old Testament poetry-offer innumerable clues to the linguistic and literary problems in the Old Testament.Marvin Pope brings this material meaningfully to bear in his translation of Job and in his introductory discussion.
But it is inevitably as literature that Job must be read and enjoyed.This tanslation is marked by a concerted effort to capture as much as possible the poetic and metrical characteristics of the original Hebrew:the result is a version notable for its accuracy and directness.

Job the Silent offers a provocative reading of the book of Job,employing an innovative analogical method for understanding how biblical texts evolve in the process of transmission. Zuckerman draws from a wide range of documents, from scriptural and rabbinic texts to ancient Canaanite legends and even Shelley's "Ozymandias" in defense of the iconoclastic thesis that Job was intended as a parody protesting the traditional stereotype of the righteous sufferer as patient,pious,and silent-unflinchingly accepting whatever is dealt by the divine hand.

Pointing to unmistakable structural and substantive elements of the traditional lament form in the Book of Job, Westermann reveals the interpretive power inherent in careful form-critical analysis which respects the literary genre.This lament form,well known from the Psalms, was evidently familiar to the poet who skillfully crafted every detail of Job.

The book of Job is a powerful story of deep faith in tragic times.In a larger sense, it is the story of each of us who has ever tried to make sense of apparently senseless suffering. In this study,noted Old Testament scholar and Christian educator David Hester focuses on the difficult questions raised in Job:Where is God in the worst moments of our emptiness? What are we to do when experience casts doubt on what we have always believed?Where in the world is justice?The author brings to this writing his own experience of suffering.His touching honesty provides a moving connection between the ancient text and the world of today,inviting us to join in Job's search for hope and healing.

"You have stood by me in my trials" is the title of a retreat given by Cardinal Martini to a group of Italian priests in 1984.
The consoling words which Jesus speaks to his disciples just before his passion are a remainder
to us that Christian life,like the life of human beings generally,is marked by trials.For this reason, the author has chosen the Book of Job as a primary text for reflection,although other passages of the Old and New Testaments are also offered for meditation.

If the book of Job holds the place it does in world literature,it is first of all because it provide us with a "classic" of this argumentative mode of wisdom.It is also because of the enigmatic and perhaps deliberately ambiguous character of its conclusion.
The final theophany brings no direct answer to Job's personal suffering, and speculation is left to pursue more than one direction.

Contents: The disparate text -- Composition and dissonance -- Dissonance and points of access -- The Book of Job in the world.

Contents: "He will curse you to your face" -- Between death and life -- Job spoke well -- Sorry comforters -- The suffering of others -- God and the poor -- Everything comes from God -- The spiritual struggle -- The mysterious meeting of two freedoms -- My eyes have seen you.

Contents: The Book of Job as a polyphonic text -- The impregnable word : genre and moral imagination in the prose tale -- Critical curiosity : genre and moral imagination in the wisdom dialogue -- "Consolations of God" : the moral imagination of the friends -- Broken in pieces by words/breaking words in pieces : Job and the limits of language -- Dialogics and allegory : the wisdom poem of Job -- A working rhetorical world : Job's self-witness in Chapters 29-31 -- The dissatisfied reader : Elihu and the historicity of the moral imagination -- The voice from the whirlwind : the tragic sublime and the limits of dialogue