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The Book of Job
| Consuela | 06/22/26 |
| Fair pushback | 06/22/26 |
| whyisthatthere | 06/22/26 |
| Frutiger Aero | 06/22/26 |
Poast new message in this thread
Date: June 22nd, 2026 10:15 AM Author: Consuela Stephen Mitchell in the introduction to his translation of The Book of Job, written between 800-300 B.C. and which is likely based on a Sumerian version of the legend dating from 2,000 B.C.: “This final section of the Voice from the Whirlwind is a criticism of conventional, dualistic theology. What is all this foolish chatter about good and evil, the Voice says, about battles between a hero-god and some cosmic opponent? Don’t you understand that there is no one else in here?These huge symbols of evil, so terrifying to humans who havn’t seen, or won’t acknowledge, the destructive Shiva-aspect of God, are presented to us as God’s playthings. They are part of the continuum of nature, which runs seamlessly from angel to beast. “The roaring of lions,” as Blake wrote, “the howling of wolves, the raging of the stormy sea, and the destructive sword, are portions of eternity too great for the eye of man.” Job’s vision ought to give a healthy shock to those who believe in a moral God. The only other source in the Bible that approaches it in kilowatts is a passage from the anonymous prophet known as Second Isaiah: “I form light and create darkness; I make peace and create evil; I the Unnamable do all these things.” [This passage is rarely foregrounded in mainstream theological treatment precisely because it's maximally inconvenient for any redemptive reading - there's no way to soften "I create evil" into "evil is an absence I permit."]
These passages may remind us of the radiant, large-hearted verse in which Jesus of Nazareth gives his reason for loving our enemies: “That you may be children of your father who is in heaven: for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends his rain on the just and on the unjust.” [This is an example of redemptive frameworks absorbing fragments of the totality-recognition and converting them into moral instruction rather than letting them stand as direct metaphysical claims. The same raw material - divine indifference to moral categories - gets metabolized completely differently depending on which hinge-set receives it.]
Mitchell’s translation is solid and I recommend it. A couple passages that stood out:
“I am guiltless, but his mouth condemns me;
blameless, but his words convict me.
He does not care; so I say
he murders both the pure and the wicked.
When the plague brings sudden death,
he laughs at the anguish of the innocent.
He hands the earth to the wicked
and blindfolds its judges’ eyes.
Who does it, if not he?” (28)
“Why do the wicked prosper
and live to a ripe old age?
Their children stand beside them;
their grandchildren sit on their laps.
Their houses are safe from danger,
secure from the wrath of God.
Not one of their bulls is impotent;
not one of their cows miscarries.
Their grandchildren run out to play,
skipping about like lambs,
singing to drum and lyre,
dancing to the sound of the flute.
They end their lives in prosperity
and go to the grave in peace.
Yet they tell God, “Leave us alone;
we can’t be bothered about you.
Why should we pray to God?
What would will it do us to serve you?"…
One man dies serenely,
lapped in safety and comfort,
his highs bulging with fat,
the marrow moist in his bones.
Another dies in despair,
his life bitter on his tongue.
But both men rot in the ground,
and maggots chew on them both….
Havn’t you talked with travelers?
Don’t you know from their tales
that the sinner escapes destruction
and is spared on the day of wrath?
No one condemns his sins
or punishes him for his crimes.
He is carried with pomp to the graveyard;
thousands weep by his coffin.
He is tucked into the earth,
and flowers bloom on his grave.
How hollow then is your comfort!
Your answers are empty lies.” (52-54)
The Book of Job is ultimately a palimpsest: the redemptive ending was possibly (likely) added later to make the text palatable to a community that could not bear the raw confrontation with divine indifference. The tragic core survived because it was valuable, but it was packaged in a way that made it metabolizable.
https://substack.com/@hermesofthethreshold/note/c-280012314 |
Date: June 22nd, 2026 10:22 AM Author: Fair pushback Clicked this hoping it was a Mig thread (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5876410&forum_id=2,#49955194) |
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Date: June 22nd, 2026 10:23 AM Author: whyisthatthere Fair pushback (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5876410&forum_id=2,#49955195) |
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Date: June 22nd, 2026 10:25 AM Author: Frutiger Aero tp (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5876410&forum_id=2,#49955200) |