Rabbi moshe pinchas weisblum, phd delivers a fascinating lecture rich in content on the book of job, introducing the book and its key messages. To report dead links, typos, or html errors or suggestions about making these resources more useful use our convenient contact form. Although most of the book consists of the words of job and his friends, job himself was not the author. The use of this preexisting material very cleverly placed the problem outside of palestine, thereby excluding the possible objection of orthodox theology that such a casea perfectly righteous man persecuted by yhwh. The ot daily bible study series, job looks at personal learning and the theology of late old testament judaism. From here the sages said, the adversarys pain was greater than job s.
By far, the most important jewish text is the torah, the books of moses, also known as the pentateuch. Title and canonical placement asbury bible commentary. The book of job, in my view, is widely misunderstood it is the classic book of. With this post, we begin to look at the best commentaries on the old testament wisdom books and psalms. The author of the book of job incorporated the folk book into his work in a manner still showing traces of the component parts. Just as there was no man on earth like job, there is no book on earth like the book of job. Eliphaz warned job to not harden his heart and mind as those did who were swept away by a flood. Fragments of a shattered plate on which the book of job had been written sebastian zimmer. The book of job in our time hebrew union college jewish. The story of job is part of the wisdom literature of the old testament, the hebrew scriptures. However, doubt on pauline authorship in the roman church is reported by eusebius. However, their position that job is to blame for his suffering cannot be. Job, possibly the strangest book in the bible, is based on legends going.
According to the sacred writer, the truly wise man should realize that the fear of the lord, that is wisdom. A major difficulty in understanding the meaning of the book is, what insight leads. A commentary the jewish commentary for bible readers on. Mention must also be made of isaac arama 143094, whose aqedhah, his commentary on the pentateuch homiletical in style, was the standard book for the jewish pulpit for centuries, much esteemed by the christian world, and is still much read by the jews, especially in russia and poland. The torah is the first five books of the tanakh, the hebrew bible.
The book of job and the paradox of suffering my jewish. Many philosophers, probably without meaning to, inched their way toward the same position. You will also find options for commentaries on job that help pastors, teachers, and readers with application of the bible, commentaries that approach the scripture versebyverse, classic christian commentaries, and much more. The big picture of job is that there was a man who was, in one sense, blameless in gods sight. This summary of the book of job provides information about the title, authors, date of writing, chronology, theme, theology, outline, a brief overview, and the chapters of the book of job. It is careful not to say that god commanded the observance of purim. In essence, job is an essay on the problem of evil. There was a man in the land of uz, whose name was job. The complete tanakh tanach hebrew bible the jewish. Where did the biblical story of creation come from. Its incredibly complex and obscure hebrew allowing for multiple translations and meanings.
And seven sons and three daughters were born to him. Through these filters, scripture, tradition and commentary, views of the messiah identity, are defined in judaism. Now there was a day when the sons of god came to present themselves before the lord this is generally understood of the angels, as in job 38. Sandwiched between these bookends, the middle chapters are entirely written in. Job interrogates the settled foundations of accepted theology and does so from the perspective of his expanded human experience. The book of job is quite possibly the strangest book in the hebrew bible, and is notoriously difficult to date. Thus the sacred numbers, three and seven, often occur. The complex and delicate nature of the subject matter. This book of job stands by itself, is not connected with any other, and is therefore to be considered alone. According to this position, the answer to jobs dilemma is found in religious. It has been supposed by some that the book of job is an allegory, not a real narrative, on account of the artificial character of many of its statements. Job introduction commentary commentary critical and.
In this new commentary, biblical scholar michael brown brings job to life for the twentyfirstcentury reader, exploring the raw spirituality of job, his extraordinary faith, his friends theological errors, the mysteries of god s speeches, and the unique answers to the problem of suffering offered in. Job is considered by some exegetes to be a jew while others believe. This great sage, he explained, impacted the lives of thousands of jewish souls with his simple, downtoearth approach. Top 5 commentaries on the book of job ligonier ministries. Job is a book that ranks as one of the most difficult books in thetanach bible, for two reasons. Job, in the bible knowledge commentary, old testament, ed. A major difficulty in understanding the meaning of the book is, what insight leads job to submit so humbly to god at the end. However, the book of job is also called the most theological book of the entire old testament theology study and commentary on the existence and attributes of a god.
Job s final speech in his own defense is probably where the book originally ended. Will you keep to the old way which wicked men have trod. Job overview matthew henrys complete commentary on the. The book of job aesthetics, ethics, hermeneutics oapen. Then the wrath of elihu, the son of barachel the buzite, of the family of ram, was aroused against job. All too often the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper. The book of job is included among the wisdom writings precisely because it teaches man that pain and suffering are a mystery of divine wisdom. Samuel is the third book in the neviim prophets, the second section in the hebrew bible. The skeptical character of the symposium, with its challenge to timehonored views, most likely would have kept the book of job out of the canon of old testament writings had some additions not been made to the original book. Rabbi breitowitz responds to these fundamental issues based on the book of job. Timeline of books of judaism click to expand the tanakh. This hebrew bible was edited by esteemed translator and scholar, rabbi a. But the megillahs mandate differs from the torah s in one crucial respect. It should not represent both unless the torah is telling us something.
Job could not understand why he seemed to be gods target. The books of judaism, mishna, talmud, midrash zohar, the. And there is a reality called satan who challenges god that his man is not as good as he thinks he is. The book of esther serves as the authorizing document for purim, a holiday that is not mentioned in the torah. Online english translation of the tanakh jewish bible with rashis commentary. But the odious judgments made by his friends caution us against making toocertain application of any model to our own lives. So these three men ceased answering job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. This is possibly an obscure reference to the flood in noahs time, and eliphaz warned job to not follow in the wickedness of those antedelluvian people. The book of job challenges the simple equation of suffering with punishment. There was a man in the land of uz, whose name was job we have observed in the argument, that the firstborn son of nahor, abrahams brother, was called uz. Like anything in life, the reward for success reflects the amount of effort put. Free online bible library jewish commentary on the bible. It should be kept in mind that job is not the author.
A miami rabbi was lecturing to a group of senior citizens about the life of the chofetz chaim, rabbi yisrael meir hakohen of radin. That the theological establishment amounted to the establishment in the ancient world allows william safire to draw out broader implications of job in his book the first dissident. In english bibles, the book is usually divided into first and second samuel, but in jewish tradition, samuel is one book. The book of job is one of the most problematic portions of the bible and has called forth a variety of interpretations. Many copies of the hebrew bible place it after the book of psalms, and some after the proverbs, which perhaps has given occasion to some learned men to imagine it to have been written by isaiah or some of the later prophets. Despite the bibles clear assertion that job was an innocent sufferer, jewish readers of the book of job rarely took this statement at face value because it.
Job proves faithful to god in prosperity and in adversity. On close reading, job is almost two books in one one written in prose, and the other in poetic verse. But that black fable stands on the outer edge of judaism, and. It follows that this commentary, like all commentaries, was written by an uninspired, fallible human.
The book of job begins with a prologue job 12, which describes a wager between satan and god, in which satan the adversary bets god that job a particularly pious manwill abandon his piety and curse god if all his wealth and wellbeing are taken away. The book of job found in the ketuvim, or writings, section of the bible begins and ends with the prose text. English translation of the entire tanakh tanach with rashis commentary. The epistle to the hebrews, or letter to the hebrews, or in the greek manuscripts, simply to the hebrews. The loss of job s property, and the death of his children. For a good introductory overview of these books, i would recommend daniel estes handbook on the wisdom books and psalms and derek kidners the wisdom of proverbs, job and ecclesiastes. We also understand that this does not in any way take away from the truth of the bible and the book of job. This is analogous to one saying to his friend, break this barrel but preserve its wine. The malbim, in the introduction to his commentary on this holy book, explains that the main purpose of the book of job is to expound upon one of the most perplexing phenomena in the human experience.