Job suffering A ridiculous story. (page 2)

jam

Thanks to all for your comments. I think that,s one

of the stories they could have left out. It does not

make sense, sorry.

MrFreeze

If you view the story as fact, it is a pointless test. He tested Job for no reason because apparently it didnt answer the question Satan posed. If it had, God wouldnt still be testing us today.

Reading the first dozen verses shows the book of Job is of the "parable" genre, not "historical". God and Satan engaging in a challenge, as if over drinks at the corner tavern? That tells the reader this story is to be read figuratively for its message, not literally as a record of real events.

To read it too literally is to ignore that the Bible is a collection of different works, recorded in different ages, by different authors, for different audiences and purposes. Each book should be read according to the context of its origin, intent and literary genre. To do otherwise not only leads to poor interpretations, but also is disrepectful to the very words believers claim to revere.

shepherd

One thing that most JW's don't realize is that Job was an epic POEM. It is carefully structured by the author as a work of literature. The fact it is poetry is lost in translation. It is not a literal history any more than if Romeo and Juliet got added into the Hebrew Canon.

There was no real conversation with God and Satan, no three comforters, no Job, for that matter. Not only is it fictional, but it was never even disguised to be treated as fact. It is epic poetry.

The book of Job has a fairly simple structure. Job 1 and 2 are the prologue, written in prose. Job 3:1-42:6 is poetry that consists of a cycle of speeches between Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar and later Elihu, and then the dialogue between Yahweh and Job. Job 42:7-14 is the epilogue, which is written in prose.

Most modern scholars date the extant text to the 4th century BCE, prior to Ecclesiastes in the development of Wisdom literature. Scholars agree that the introductory and concluding sections of the book, the framing devices, were composed to set the central poem into a prose "folk-book", as the compilers of the Jewish Encyclopedia expressed it. The central poem is from another source.

Although JW's are told otherwise, it was not written by Moses at all, nor in his lifetime.

transhuman68

It's just a story to show that bad things can happen to good people. I doubt that God & Satan were any more real to those ancient Israelites than they seem now in the 21st Century. They were just advocates of good & evil.

WTWizard

The whole thing is all a scam. Jehovah wrote this down so he could make us endure whole lifetimes of suffering, without the happy ending, just by being misled into thinking our outcome would be the same. "If this happened for Job, it certainly will happen for us" is the bait--and the religions fall for it. Trouble is, Jehovah can decide to not let it happen for us this time (or ever). Just because something happened once doesn't mean it will happen this, or any, time. Job's experience was unique and not to be repeated. Yet, Jehovah decided to write it down to dangle in front of us in lieu of solving our problems now. All this does is further prove what an Almighty Lowlife Scumbag Jehovah really is--all the shame and all the guilt in the universe isn't enough for him.

botchtowersociety

The Book of Job is a morality play. It is a fictionalized account about the life of a man called Job. It wasn't intended as a literal history, but as a story designed to teach moral lessons. Think of Aesop's fables as a non-Biblical example of what the book represents. I think it is the greatest book in the Old Testament.

Band on the Run

Job, plus the Prodigla Son parable, could send me around the bend. I became extremely, at death, for many years, decades. As I turned to lit about suffering, Job kept popping up. Jung wrote in The Problem of Job that a God inflicting suffering as though it were a game is outrageous. Jungs says humans are much more moral than God. He added why Jesus had to be crucified. God as a blood thirtsy monster.

I am Anglican so I turned to various sources about Job. The opening narrative when wives and children are slaughtered and the new ones make Job forgot about the first loss made me furious. The scholars noted that the poem itself is moving and instructive. The narrative is part of a Middle Eastern myth htat predates Bible events. When I focused odn the poem I saw several points.

Humans do not cause their own suffering. Job is invaluable for the dialgue with his friends who accused him of conduct that needs to be punished.
Job's symptoms match the symptons of extreme depression. He longs for union with God. God ultimately appears out of the whirlwhind.
Who created the crocodile is sublime poetry but leaves me falt. There is no satisfactory response to suffering. It is beyond our knowledge.

With all the above caveats, I now find it most of the inspirational stories in the Bible. God deigns to answer Job. He is the other, not human. I believe if Jesus were not an actual event, Jeus would have to be invented the way Mary, mother of Jesus, became so elevated when the world feared the Second Coming as brutal and horrific. God needed to be softened. Jesus is very feminine for a MIddle Eastern man. Self-centered, I felt Job only outraged me. It was an experience to read Jung;s scathing analysis. It made me freer to express my rage at my illness. Job shows that we don't need to be pollyannas saying what ever God is best. It is beyond me why anyone would worship a God who demands sacrifice. Abraham and Isaac did not know God would stop the knife. If the narrative is included, God and Satan casually make pacts to mess with humans as wonton flies bother boys.

jgnat

I don't think you can do the book of Job justice with a fast gloss-over. It stands out from the other books of the bible. Quoting the link below, "Combining elements of folklore, wisdom literature, prophetic literature, poetic drama, tragedy, lament, hymn, diatribe, proverb, and judiciary procedure, The Book of Job defies strict literary classification."

http://www.enotes.com/classical-medieval-criticism/book-job

Job is not a Hebrew name. He was a sheik, a nomad, perhaps Arab. Origins and authorship are obscure. There is no way to place the story in context with the rest of the bible accounts. Parts of the story may have been borrowed.

If you try and reconcile the book of Job with the rest of the bible teachings on sin, suffering, and evil, you are going to be disappointed. The book raises more questions than it answers. It is good to read a book once in a while that challenges rather than confirms.

its_me!

It always bothered me that God rewarded Job with more children. As if new children would replace the old ones and make life better than before your other children had been killed. Yuck, its like the message goes..... "Children can be replaced after a tragedy just like a big screen TV. Isn't that great?!!!"

Job suffering A ridiculous story.

jam