2. The Book Job or Why do bad things happen to good people? RP1080, The Bible as Literature, Craig Ho, HKBU

3. Job2 約伯記 (Job) 4 Authorship: anonymous; Jewish tradition attributed it to Moses but is no more than a pious pronouncement and should not be taken seriously. 4 Date: not sure, between 600 - 250 B.C. 4 Form: a drama in the form of a debate written in poetry with some prose at the beginning and the end. 4 Theme: the justice of God or Why does the righteous suffer?

4. Job3 The problem of injustice 4 What kind of man is Job and why does he suffer? - Righteous, blameless - Satan’s test with God’s approval: Is Job’ s piety motivated by self-interest? 4 What is Job’s first reaction to his suffering? Why does he behave like that? - desires his own non-existence - suffering is pointless, suffering is absurd, death is better than unended suffering

5. Job4 Job’s understanding and his wife’s response 4 How does Job explain the cause of his suffering? - it is from God - but he does not deserve it 4 How does Job’s wife respond to his suffering?

6. Job5 Eliphaz ’s explanation 4 How does Eliphaz explain Job’s suffering? - he doubts Job’s piety - it is a punishment for his evil - it is God’s trial and he will heal 4 What is Job’s response to Eliphaz’s theory? - he is being unfair and unjust - Job maintains his righteousness

7. Job6 Bildad’s explanation 4 How does Bildad explain Job’s suffering? - God is just - Job is punished for the sin of his children - God will not forsake a righteous man and will not help an evil man 4 What is Job’s response to Bildad ’s theory? - no man can be perfect in God’s sight - Job maintains his righteousness - The end of good and evil men is the same - God is the ultimate cause of human injustice

8. Job7 Zophar’s explanation 4 How does Zophar explain Job’s suffering? - Job is arrogant - Job should repent immediately instead of boasting about his righteousness 4 What is Job’s response to Zophar ’s theory? - Job insists his integrity. - There is nothing new in the friends’ theories - The defence for God’s justice will not suceed

9. Job8 The main issues 4 What are the main issues in the debate? - Is Job a sinner? - Is God just? - Why bad things happen to good people? - Why do the innocent suffer?

10. Job9 Summary of the dialogues 4 Job’ s friends: We can’t expect God to tell us what we are being punished for. We are accountable to him not he to us! Nobody is perfect and God knows what he is doing. 4 Job’s reply: I am not perfect but God cannot be just if more wicked people remain unpunished and the innocent suffer! 4 Friends: You deserve what you are suffering from because you are proud, arrogant, and impatient, and blasphemous!

11. Job10 The logic of the debate: theodicy 4 The logic of the argument of the whole book – the following three statements (p. 37) cannot be true at the same time, at lease one of them has to be denied: 4 God is all powerful and causes everything that happens in the world. Nothing happens without His willing it. 4 God is just and fair, and stands for people getting what they deserve, so that the good prosper and the wicked are punished. 4 Job is a good person.

12. Job11 The points of view 4 Which one do Job’s friends deny? 4 Which one does Job deny? 4 Which one does the author of the book of Job deny? 4 Problem of denying (c): “blaming the victim so that evil doesn’t seem quite so irrational and threatening.... It makes everyone feel better – except the victim, who now suffers the double abuse of social condemnation no top of his original misfortune.” (p. 39)

13. Job12... 4 Problem of denying (b): it makes ethical decision meaningless because “we live in an unjust world, from which we cannot expect fairness. There is a God, but He is free of the limitations of justice and righteousness.” (p.41)

14. Job13... 4 Problem of denying (a): we lose the assurance of being ruled by an all-wise and all-powerful God 4 The idea of a non-ominpotent God : 4 The constancy of natural law. 4 The experience of chance and luck. 4 The experience of human autonomy. 4 => All necessary ingredients of an open universe. => God cannot be omnipotent with respect to justice and suffering. 4 The idea of a powerless / suffering God => Jesus as the suffering innocent man (Luke 23: 47)