"I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages." 
- Charles Spurgeon

"Sanctification is worth all the pain on earth." 

- Gina's Poetical Books Professor

"...but when God comes with afflictions to the men or women who have studied their own hearts, they can say,'I would not have been without this affliction for anything in the world. God has so suited this affliction to my condition, and has come in such a way that if this affliction had not come I am afraid I should have fallen into sin.'"

- (saw this on Rachel's Facebook)

God and Suffering (3b): Grammatical and Literary Introduction to Job

In this section, special attention will be given to Job’s symmetrical structure. This will lay the foundation of my later asserted scope and plan of Job. I will also discuss how the symmetrical literary structure of Job relates to the heavenly drama introduced in the prologue. 

Symmetrical Literary Structure of Job

Job’s symmetrical literary structure is a key hermeneutical tool to consider in the pursuit of the book’s purpose. A poetic dialogue (Job 3-42.6) is sandwiched between a prose prologue (Job 1-2) and a prose epilogue (Job 42.7-17). There is also a prose interlude that assesses the preceding dialogic dispute, and validates the proceeding speeches of Elihu, whose speeches are then followed by God’s speeches (Job 32.1-5). The narrator of Job, who has access to the divine counsel of heaven in the prologue, writes in the third person omniscient. With this in mind, it can be assumed that the narrator makes correct judgments when narrating in prose. Thus, the narrator’s prose along with God’s speeches provide a reliable lens through which to properly interpret and judge the speeches of Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and Elihu. The symmetry of Job should cause the reader of Job to notice the dramatic similarities and differences between the prologue and epilogue, while considering how the poetic dialogue in the middle plays a role in the dramatic shifts from prologue to epilogue. This section will particularly focus on the symmetrical literary structure of Job as it relates to the resolution of the heavenly drama introduced in the prologue.

God’s Victory in the Heavenly Drama

A drama unfolds in heaven as God allows Satan to question Job’s integrity, seek to subvert Job’s worship of God, and implicitly undermine the glory of God’s perfect and just care of His worshippers. Satan, however, is defeated in the prologue because of Job’s relentless worship of God in his afflictions (Job 1.9-11; 2.4-5, cf. Job 1.22; 2.10). Similarly, in the epilogue, Satan, though unmentioned, is ultimately defeated in his purpose to sabotage Job’s worship of God. Satan is defeated because in the end of the poetic dialogue and in the epilogue Job repents of his ignorant speech, and he submits, once again, to being used as a servant in God’s redemptive purposes. God approves of Job’s submissive worship while in his suffering, and He displays His approval of Job by restoring Job’s health, relationships, and wealth in double portions (Job 42.9-10). Why didn’t God display his approval of Job’s faith and submission in the midst of his suffering in Job 2:10? After all, by this point Job had proven twice that his worship to God was pure, not merely because God had blessed him with possessions, family, and health. Job’s worship of God in his terrible suffering, despite Satan’s influence on Job’s wife (Job 2.9), proved Satan wrong, and thus defeated Satan’s purpose. God may have very well restored Job at this point, as He would later do in the epilogue. Why, then, were Job’s restoration and Satan’s final defeat put on hold for months of misery for Job (Job 7.3)? The poetic dialogue that constitutes most of the book of Job reveals clues to this answer.

In the dialogue, Satan is not mentioned, but his influence in the teachings of Job’s three friends is evident. If Job would subscribe to their teaching that God had sent suffering to Job to punish some past sin of Job, then Job would also follow their solution that he should pursue God with pleas for mercy for some past sin, for which God was not punishing him, for the purpose of being restored to his past comfort and riches (see Job 5.8-26). If Job followed this advice, then Satan would have proven to be correct in asserting that Job’s devotion to God was solely for materialistic, self-seeking purposes (Job 1.9-10; 2.4). At the same time, Satan’s influence is apparent in Job’s confusion of God’s friendship and justice, which he doubts in the dialogic dispute with his three friends (Job 16.9; 19.11; 31.35), and of which he repents at the end of God’s poetic speeches (Job 42.1-6). Job, though clearly in good standing with God in the prologue as the best man on earth, is shown to be a man at best in the poetic dialogue, during which time his suffering prolongs with no relief. Job’s disposition before God changes for the worst as he argues against his friends’ false accusations, and as he becomes increasingly self-righteous in his pursuit of vindication. Job brazenly subpoenas God to a court hearing as One who has unjustly punished Job (Job 31). Satan’s plan of subverting Job’s pure worship and ultimately undermining God’s sovereign care for His worshippers (Job 2.3) is almost realized in the dialogue.

Thus, a divine intervention is necessary to restore Job’s pure worship and defeat Satan’s plan. This divine intervention is first provided through God’s spokesman, Elihu, and then provided by God Himself (Job 32-41) (see footnote "Satan's influence on Job's Wife and on Job"). Without God’s merciful rebuke of Job, Satan would have triumphed in Job’s losing all faith in God’s perfect rule of the universe.

God could have restored Job to his health, family, and possessions in approval of Job’s unadulterated worship in affliction in Job 2:10. However, God’s prolonging of Job’s suffering through the dialogue allowed for God’s mercy toward Job and God’s redemption of Job’s three friends to be realized, along with many other characteristics of God that are displayed in the speeches of Elihu and God. If the book of Job had alternatively ended directly after Job 2:10, with God approvingly restoring Job to his former comforts because of his perseverance in his trial, then the hero of the story of Job might be Job instead of God. Job does not sin in the prologue, and it is thus not apparent that Job is in desperate need of God’s mercy. Job does sin in the dialogue, however, and realizes his propensity toward improper reflections of God that lead to a sinful attitude of self-righteousness. Job, the imperfect worshipper of God, realizes his desperate need for God’s mercy in light of God’s revelation of His perfect power, wisdom, justice, and control over the whole universe (Job 42.1-6).

In the epilogue, Job finds himself restored to fellowship with God and service to God in His redemptive purposes (Job 42.7-9), finally culminating in the outward proof of God’s approval of Job’s humble submission in his suffering (Job 42.10-17). Although Job’s humility and faith is to be admired in the prologue and epilogue of the book of Job, God mercifully rescues him from succumbing to Satan’s strong influence in the dialogue. God, who defeats Satan’s attempt to subvert Job’s worship and consequently diminish God’s glory, is the hero of the story. (see footnote "Not Dualism")

Footnotes:

 "Satan's influence on Job's Wife and on Job"

It is worth noticing that Job’s wife speaks on behalf of Satan, or as influenced by Satan, in the prologue when she says to Job, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” (ESV, Job 2.9). Elihu, on the other hand, speaks on behalf of God near the end of the poetic dialogue when he necessarily rebukes Job for his self-righteous presumption of God’s injustice (Job 32-37). Also, Job responds to his wife in the prologue by saying, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (ESV, Job 2.10) In saying this, Job does not condemn his wife as being a foolish woman, but he rebukes her for succumbing to a foolish resolution due to her improper view of God in her suffering, which Job corrects by his rhetorical question. Ironically, Elihu later rebukes Job’s sinful presumption of God’s injustice by saying, “he [Job] answers like wicked men.” (ESV, Job 34.36). Elihu does not deem Job to be a wicked man, as Job’s three friends had done, but he rebukes and corrects Job’s improper view of God in his suffering. Both Job and his wife are proven vulnerable to Satan’s influence to doubt the care and worth of God in their suffering. God graciously restores both Job and his wife in the epilogue despite their shortcomings.

"Not Dualism"

It may be necessary to comment here that the book of Job does not propose a dualistic view of God and Satan. God’s absolute sovereignty is over all of His creation, including Satan, who appears before God along with the other created angels, or “sons of God” (Job 1.6; 2.1). God is not principally compelled by Satan to ordain Job’s sufferings; instead, God focuses Satan’s attention on Job so as to provoke Satan to provoke God to afflict Job (Job 1.8; 2.3). Thus, when God indicts Satan for inciting God against Job “to destroy him [Job] without reason” (ESV, Job 2.3), God is revealing Satan’s motives, not God’s, to destroy Job and taint God’s glory. God, who is omniscient and sovereign (Job 38-41), ordains for the heavenly drama between Satan and Himself to unfold in such a way as to reveal multiple facets of His nature, namely His redemptive purposes for mankind (Job 42.7-9), His mercy toward suffering worshippers of God (Job 42.7-17), and His power over evil, which is especially displayed in the implied defeat of Satan in the epilogue of Job.

God and Suffering (3a): Grammatical and Literary Introduction to Job

Grammatical and Literary Introduction to Job

In this section, I will make mention of the grammatical peculiarities of Job, and I will give a brief overview of the literary genres employed in the book of Job. In "God and Suffering (3b)", special attention will be given to Job’s symmetrical structure. This will lay the foundation of my later asserted scope and plan of Job.

The Language and Grammar of Job

Job is known as a difficult book to translate, study, and understand. The original language of Job is usually taken to have been classical Hebrew, but some scholars suggest that it could have been written in Arabic, Aramaic, or “some other related Semitic dialect or language” because of some peculiar grammar, syntax, and orthography within Job that are Arabic and Aramaic in flavor (NET 794; Harris 160-162; Gaebelein 845). Harris adds that Job “also evidences touches of Mesopotamian language and clearly shows similarities to the old Canaanite dialect of Ugarit” (162; Gaebelein 845). The book of Job contains the most hapax legomena—words that only occur once—of all the books of the Old Testament, and it abounds in “unusual grammatical constructions” and “cryptic” phrases (NET 794; Harris 158). For this reason, much attention was given in this analysis to comparatively reading the ESV, NASB, and NET translations of Job, reading the NET translation notes on Job, and conducting numerous word studies.

Literary Genres in Job

The book of Job is widely accepted as one of the major books of wisdom literature in the Bible. Job’s genre has been classified as a “poetic drama” (NET 794), “both an epic and a wisdom disputation” (Hartley 66), and even a dramatized “lament” (Westermann 53). The book of Job, however, cannot be classified in only one literary category because it uses various genres: laments (see Job 3; 19.13-20), hymns (see Job 26.5-14), proverbs, or wisdom instruction, (see Job 12.7-12), and oracles (see Job 36.1- 15). Gaebelein notes, “the Prologue [Job 1-2] has the stereotyped forms and expressions of an old epic tradition” (844). The dialogue in between the prose prologue and epilogue is in Hebrew poetry format (Job 3-42.6). A dramatic framework and legal metaphor are also apparent throughout the book of Job, and both of these literary features play roles in the reader’s sympathy for Job in his suffering and concern for Job in his changing disposition before God.

Dramatic Framework in Job

A dramatic framework is evident in Job. Dramatic tension is used in the prose narration when Job fears God and is blessed, and then fears God and is afflicted (Job 1- 2). Job laments in silence (Job 2.11-13), and then in an outburst (Job 3). Dramatic tension also rises between the retribution wisdom of Job’s three friends and Job’s anti-wisdom rejection of their doctrine (Job 4-27), which culminates into Job’s hymn that expresses the need for wisdom that both sides of the debate claim they have, but are clearly lacking (Job 28). Throughout the dialogue, there is dramatic tension between Job’s cry for a chance to plead his case and to hear God’s case concerning Job’s suffering (see Job 10.2; 13.20-22; 31.35-37), and God’s silence. Job also accuses God of injustice (see Job 24.1,12; 30.19-21), and is later rebuked by Elihu and God who prove that God is sovereign and just (Job 34-35; 40.8). When Elihu speaks in four speeches (Job 32-37), he confronts some of these dramatic tensions, exposing Job to the redemptive and instructive purposes of a non-silent God in suffering (Job 33,36).

The dramatic tension continues into the epilogue (Job 42.7-17), when God condemns Job’s three friends who had claimed to be correctly speaking on God’s behalf (see Job 4.12-21, cf. 13.7-12), and then uses Job as His restored servant to intercede on behalf of his friends-turned-enemies (Job 42.7-9). The dramatic tension between God and Satan, concerning the integrity of Job, is set in the prologue (Job 1-2), and resolved in the epilogue (Job 42.7-17) when God restores Job to a double-portion of his previous riches for speaking of God “what is right” in his repentance and for interceding for his estranged friends (Job 42.7,8, cf. 42.1-6). The dramatic framework of the book of Job reveals the difficulty of Job’s struggle through his trial, allowing the reader of Job to sympathize with him in order to be likewise corrected and instructed concerning the character and nature of God as revealed to Job in his suffering.

Legal Metaphor in Job

A legal metaphor is clearly used throughout the book of Job as well. Satan falsely accuses Job of insincere worship that is motivated by self-preservation (Job 1.9-10; 2.4- 5. Note that Satan is elsewhere in the Bible referred to as an “accuser” of genuine worshippers of God (Rev. 12.10). God seems to commit an injustice toward Job in the prologue by permitting Satan to inflict Job with terrible suffering (Job 1-2). Job responds by worshipping God and refusing to “charge God with wrong” (Job 1.22). Job’s friends who originally come to comfort Job (Job 2.11-13), are so disturbed by the nature of Job’s suffering (Job 2.12-13, cf. Job 6.21), and by his opening lament-curse (Job 3) that they falsely accuse Job of some previously committed crime that he must repent of and for which he must plead with his Judge for mercy (Job 4-5, 8, 11, 15, 18, 20, 22, 25). Job denies the validity of this indictment from his friends (Job 6.29; 13:4-5, 12; 27:5), proclaiming his innocence and longing for vindication before them (Job 16.20-21; 19:21-27; 27.6). Job also pleads with God to appear in court to listen to Job’s case (Job 13.18; 23.3-7), the proclamation of his innocence as the defendant; he also pleads with God to present His case (Job 10.2; 31.35-37), God’s indictment against Job that would justify God’s actions as the plaintiff. Job goes so far as to charge his Judge (Job 9.15; 23.7) and Adversary (Job 16.9; 19.11; 31.35) of injustice (Job 10.2-3; 27.2), for which reason Elihu defends God as God’s attorney (Job 32.18; 33.3-4; 36.2), while also giving Job hope of restoration as Job’s advocate (Job 33.29-33).

God finally appears as in court, but does not defend or explain His ways to Job as Job had pleaded for Him to do. Instead, God, as the perfect, sovereign Judge of the universe uses His creation to reveal His perfect wisdom, understanding, power, and just rule over everything (see bottom note "Not a Theodicy"). God’s indictment of Job is that he spoke ignorantly during the dialogic dispute and condemned God in pursuit of his own justification (Job 38.2; 40.8). God asks Job, “Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty? Let him who reproves God answer it” (New American Standard Bible (NASB), Job 40.2). Job cannot vindicate himself in court against God because he lacks God’s perfect knowledge, power, wisdom, and righteous judgment (Job 40.14). Job pleads no contest in that he vows to no longer state his case before God (Job 40.4-5), and after God’s second speech, Job completely retracts his lawsuit (Job 42.1-6). Job then submits to mediating God’s redemption of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, who were found guilty by God for their incorrect speech concerning God, but shown mercy by their Judge through Job, their mediator (Job 42.7- 9).

Reitman states that the legal metaphor of Job serves to illustrate “Job’s changing disposition before God,” which grows bitterer as his suffering continues (52). Job begins by not charging God with wrong, but he then becomes obsessed with being vindicated before his friends who falsely accuse him. Job’s fallacious indictments against God, particularly his charging God with injustice, reveal Job’s need for mercy before his Judge. The legal metaphor in Job, then, ultimately highlights God’s merciful and redeeming purposes in forgiving Job of his false accusation of God, and reconciling Job’s three guilty friends to Himself.


Footnote:
Not a Theodicy

Because God does not explain nor justify His actions in His two speeches to Job in Job 38-41, I do not take the book of Job to be a theodicy as many consider it to be. A theodicy seeks to reconcile the idea of a good and just God with the reality of the unjust sufferings of the righteous and the prosperity of the unrighteous (Hartley 76-77). Job is greatly disturbed by the reality of his own innocent suffering and the prosperity of the wicked, even to the point of accusing God of injustice. Job seeks a theodicy (Job 10.2; 21.7; 24.1; 31.35-37), but God does not give it. Job’s answer from God, and His spokesman Elihu, is one that re-directs Job’s focus to trusting in a perfectly wise and sovereign Creator who executes justice, but who needs not reveal nor defend all of His inscrutable ways to man. Job is left to repent of his foolish assumptions concerning the nature and purposes of God in his suffering (Job 42.1-6), and to submit to serving his God who proves to be redemptive, merciful, and incomprehensible (Job 42.7-9)

God and Suffering (2): Historical Context of Job

Historical Context of Job

In this section, I will consider the authorship and dating of the happenings and composition of Job, arguing for a dating in the second millennium B.C. patriarchal age. I will also explain the place of the events of Job as stated within the text, and consider the theological implications of the historical context of Job.

Authorship and Dating of Job

There have been various suggestions as to the authorship and dating of the events and recording of the book of Job. Jewish tradition holds Moses as Job’s author, which could date the happenings and/or the composition of Job to the post-patriarchal time of Moses around 1400 B.C. (Harris 152). An anonymous author wrote the book of Job, butthe author’s diction seems to indicate that an Israelite penned the book. The anonymous author uses the Israelite covenant name of God, “Yahweh,” in the beginning and ending prose narratives of the book (see Job 1.6,7,8,9,12,21; 2.1,2,3,4,7; 38.1; 40.1,3,6; 42.1,7,9,10,11,12), while Job and his friends use the more general terms for God, such as “Elohym,” which can mean “God,” and “Shaddai,” which means “the Almighty.”14 The author’s intimate knowledge of Job’s sufferings and the dialogue seems to suggest that the author was a contemporary of Job.

Estimations concerning Job’s composition date range from the patriarchal age of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the second millennium B.C. (Harris 154), to the Solomonic era in the first millennium B.C. (Keil and Delitzsch 18),15 to a postexilic date near 400 B.C. (Gaebelein 851). The possibility of the story of Job being orally transmitted from the second millennium B.C. until a later composition in the first millennium has been considered, but this possibility is not a certainty (Gaebelein 853). According to the NET translators, “We have no way of knowing when the book [of Job] was written, or when its revision was completed,” (The NET Bible (NET) 794). R. Laird Harris, professor emeritus of Old Testament at Covenant Theological Seminary, states, “Probably the most common view of the date of Job in conservative circles has been that the book is very old,” probably occurring and written in the patriarchal age of the Israelite fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the second millennium B.C. (152; Gaebelein 852; NET 794). The patriarchal dating of the book of Job is taken in this analysis because Biblical references to the characters and places within Job seem to indicate this dating, as does notable literature of the second millennium B.C.

First, Job’s content seems to indicate that Job was practicing sacrificial rituals that reflect those of the patriarchs (Job 1.4-5; 42.8-9, cf. Gen. 13.18; 26.25; 33.20; 35.2,7). As did Abraham and seemingly Melchizedek, Job acted as his family’s priest through his sacrificial rituals (Job 1.4-5, cf. Gen. 14.17-24). Harris adds that Job’s sacrificial ritual “bears no relation to the tabernacle ritual of Moses’ day and later” (154). Job’s living 140 years after his trial seems to also reflect the longevity of the patriarchs (Job 42.16, cf. Gen. 25.7-8; 35.28-29; 47.28; 49.33). Frank E. Gaebelein, General Editor of The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, also comments, “the picture of roving Sabean and Chaldean tribesmen fit the second millennium better than the first” (853, cf. Job 1.15,17; 6.19). The Bible references Job’s residence in the land of Uz, which could have come from the name of Aram’s son (Gen. 10.23), Nahor’s son, which was Abraham’s nephew (Gen. 22.21), or a descendant of Seir (Gen. 36.28). Elihu the Buzite may have been a part of the clan headed by Buz, Uz’s brother (Gen. 22.21). Bildad the Shuhite may have belonged to the clan that descended from Shuah, Abraham’s son by Keturah (Gen. 25.1- 2). Bildad may have also been the descendent of Shua, Judah’s wife (Gen. 38.2). Eliphaz the Temanite would have probably come from the lineage of Esau (Gen. 36.2,15). Job and his friends, then, were probably distant relatives of the Israelites during the patriarchal age.

Second, the literature of the second millennium B.C. in Mesopotamia and Egypt included various writings on suffering that were similar to the book of Job. Gaebelein makes note of a Sumerian document that has been called “The First Job,” which is about an afflicted man who complains to his god (843). A Babylonian poetic monologue called “I Will Praise the Lord of Wisdom” is also of a “righteous sufferer” (Gaebelein 843), while the Babylonian “Dialogue about Human Misery” covers a similar topic (Harris 155). “A Dispute Over Suicide” and “The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant” are similar documents from ancient Egypt (Harris 155). The book of Job considers the issue of suffering, as did many ancient documents of the second millennium B.C.; Job’s monotheistic standard, however, causes it to stand out as a theologically counter-cultural document of its time.

Historical Setting of Job

The book of Job does not focus much attention on the setting of Job; instead, the most space is given to the poetic dialogue between Job and his three friends who argue concerning the nature and purposes of God in suffering. Still, the setting of the events as explained by the book of Job, coupled with the aforementioned awareness of the historical and cultural background of this setting, can assist the reader of Job in understanding certain theological implications in the book of Job.

Job 1:1 reveals that the place of the events of Job is in the land of Uz. The NET translators suppose that the location of Uz was “north of Syria or south near Edom,” and more specifically “east of Israel and northeast of Edom, in what is now North Arabia” (NET 794).16 As previously mentioned, Job’s location and possible lineage indicates that he was not of the immediate family of Abraham, the father of the Israelites. Abraham was the recipient of God’s covenantal promises of a land, descendants and blessings that applied to him and his descendants (Gen. 12.1-3; 13.14-17; 15.1-21; 17.1-27; 22.15-18).17 Job, probably a non-Israelite, was a worshipper of the Israelite God (Job 1.1-22). Job’s three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, were also estranged from the promises of the Israelite God due to their lineage, but would be reconciled to God near the end of Job’s trial (Job 2.11; 42.7-9). This rather shocking detail that Yahweh, the God of the Israelites, had a covenant relationship with a non-Israelite, Job, and would reconcile three non- Israelite men—Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar—to Himself gives reference to the merciful and redeeming purposes of God in suffering.

Conclusion

It therefore seems likely that an anonymous, Israelite contemporary of Job penned the book of Job, in the patriarchal age of the second millennium B.C. Set in the land of Uz and concerning non-Israelite characters, the book of Job, in part, reveals Yahweh, the God of the Israelites, as the sovereign ruler over the whole earth—Israelites and non- Israelites—as well as the mercifully redeeming God of non-Israelites.

God and Suffering (1): Intro., Methods, & References

“He delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ear by adversity.”

– Elihu

Introduction

The book of Job is about the immense, God-ordained suffering of the most righteous man of his time: Job. Probably written in the patriarchal age by an anonymous writer, the book of Job is a well-recognized literary masterpiece and is considered one of the major books of wisdom literature in the Bible. The book of Job is known for its profound, verbal illustration of the nature of innocent suffering and its confounding mysteries. It is not solely concerned with demonstrating the great pains of human affliction, however. The book of Job highlights the character and purposes of an incomprehensible, yet absolutely sovereign, perfectly wise, all-powerful, just, and mercifully redemptive God as the stable, constant backdrop of seemingly meaningless and unfair suffering.

Before diving into the lessons I learned from the book of Job about God and suffering, I think it is best to briefly discuss how I went about studying Job. I'll also list some of the helpful commentaries I used...  

....................

Summary of My Method of Interpretation

The method of interpretation that I used to analyze the book of Job was influenced by the grammatical-historical hermeneutic. Here is a summary of the steps I took:

1) I comparatively studied the English Standard Version (ESV), the New American Standard Bible (NASB), and the New English Translation (NET) of the book of Job, making note of major translational differences.

2) I also read various historical, grammatical, and literary introductions to the book of Job in the NET translation notes and other commentaries.

3) I then engaged in a cycle of inductive and deductive interpretation of the book of Job in order to establish the scope (purpose) and plan (order of thought) of Job. I reasoned using my established scope and plan of Job, context, parallel passages, word studies, and the NET translation notes to decide on the interpretation of passages of questionable meaning in the book of Job.

4) Finally, I use my interpretation of Job to write a critical analysis of the doctrines of God and suffering presented in Job. 

REFERENCES (I'll bold my favorites):

Books on Biblical Interpretation:

Kaiser Jr., Walter C. and Moisés Silva. An Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1994. Print.

Kaiser Jr., Walter C. Toward an Exegetical Theology: Biblical Exegesis for Preaching and Teaching. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1981. Print.

Keil, C.F. and F. Delitzsch. Commentary on the Old Testament. Trans. Francis Bolton. Vol. 4. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company: Grand Rapids, 1976. Print.

Terry, Milton S. Biblical Hermeneutics: A Treatise on the Interpretation of the Old and New Testament. 1st ed. Eugene: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1999. Print. 

 

Zuck, Roy B. Basic Bible Interpretation. Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 1991. Print.

Bibles I used (NASB, ESV, NET):

New American Standard Bible (NASB Text Edition) (NASB). Anaheim: Foundation Publications, Inc., 1997. Print.

“New American Standard Bible Translation Principles.” Lockman.org. The Lockman Foundation, 1999. Web. 15 Oct. 2010. <http://www.lockman.org/nasb/nasbprin.php>.

“Preface To The NET Bible.” Bible.org. The NET Bible, n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2010. <http://bible.org/netbible/index.htm>.

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV Text Edition) (ESV). Wheaton: Good News Publishers, 2001. Print.

The NET Bible, New English Translation (NET). Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C., 1996.

Print. 

Commentaries on Job:

Gaebelein, Frank E. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary. Vol. 4. Grand Rapids: The Zondervan Corporation, 1988. Print.

Harris, Laird H. “The Doctrine of God in the Book of Job.” Sitting With Job: Selected Studies on the Book of Job. Ed. Roy B. Zuck. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1992. 151-179. Print.

Hartley, John E. “The Genres and Message of the Book of Job.” Sitting With Job: Selected Studies on the Book of Job. Ed. Roy B. Zuck. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1992. 65-78. Print.

Reitman, James. Unlocking Wisdom. Springfield: 21st Century Press, 2008. Print. 

Westermann, Claus. “The Literary Genre of the Book of Job.” Sitting With Job: Selected Studies on the Book of Job. Ed. Roy B. Zuck. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1992. 51-63. Print. 

God and Suffering: A Series on the Book of Job ... Coming Soon

Job by Jenna Thomas

You probably already heard that the book of Job is about suffering. 
But what is the main lesson that God teaches us through the book of Job?

You may have also heard that Job's three friends--Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar--presented inaccurate conclusions to Job concerning the reason for his extreme suffering.
But what about the argument of Job's fourth friend, Elihu?

You may have heard of the patience/steadfastness/endurance of Job (James 5:11).
But how do you explain his repentance in dust and ashes (Job 42:6)?

You may have read the first two chapters of Job, and then the last five chapters. Maybe you skimmed the bulk of the book in between.
But what does the drawn out debate between Job and his friends communicate to us about the nature of God and suffering? What parts of the debate should we receive as truth?

And what can a worshipper of Jesus today profit from studying the book of Job?

In 2011 I had the privilege of defending an undergraduate thesis about the book of Job at USF. This gave me the precious opportunity to study Job for a few months. By God's grace, I hope to present through a series of blog posts a few things that I learned about God and suffering through my study of the book of Job. I pray that it will be edifying to anyone who reads it.
...
I have much more to learn about the book of Job, about suffering, and ultimately about God. I do pray that God will use these posts to remind you and me (again and again) about His unchanging character so that we will be more trusting sufferers, and more faithful friends to sufferers, all to the praise of the glory of His grace in our lives.

Honors Thesis Complete!

Song in mind --->  Joy

USF Honors College Thesis title (completed April 2011): 
God and Suffering: Engaging Two Methods of Interpretation to Analyze the Theological Perspectives and Purposes of Suffering Expressed in the Book of Job

If you would like to view the thesis, I would personally recommend you to only read Chapter 3 (Grammatical-Historical Critical Analysis of the Book of Job) because it strictly focuses on the book of Job and the themes of suffering and theology.

I will probably post segments of Chapter 3 (eventually) for the edification of whoever decides to read it...

Pictures (thanks, Mom!) of the thesis defense at USF (4/22/11):

the committee

Pastor Mike came :D

thankful for the support and encouragement :)