This semester I am taking a class called Psalms and Wisdom Literature. In this class we are digging deep into the wisdom literature found in the Bible including Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastics. Throughout this semester I will try to share all that I can with you as I learn from my professors. Here is what I have learned about the Book of Job so far...it may be a little choppy but I hope you can take it as nuggets of truth and investigate it further for yourself.
First of all, the Book of Job has to be seen through the lens of its genre. There are many different styles of writing or genre throughout the Bible and each style is used for a particular pupose. The story of Job is a parabolic story (not a true story as one should know by all the poetry in the middle) and has to be understood in the light of reading a parable. This can be seen by its parabolic characteristics revealed in the original Hebrew language that it was written. For example, the very first line of the Book of Job, "There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job," has a similar meaning in Hebrew to our..."Once upon a time in a land far, far away there was this man..." So, one can see in the opening line in Hebrew that this is a parable. The point of a parable is not to tell real factual stories but to convey a particular truth or point through that story. Whether Job was real or not is not important to the POINT of the story.
Another major aspect of the Book of Job is that the main point of the Book of Job is not "Why do the righteous suffer?" as many would ask... but rather, "Why do you serve God?" or "Do human beings serve God for God's sake or for their own profit?" If the question, "Why do the righteous suffer?" is asked the book does not make sense because of the way God reacts to Job when Job questions Him, but if the latter is asked, the point of the book has clarity.
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