Job 38—

Manuscripts of the Gods: The Bible and Ancient Cultural Thresholds

by James Whitlark, Ph.D.

… the only scriptural analogy to God’s answer [in Job] is the vision granted to Arjuna in chapter 11 of the Gita, in which that prince experiences, down to the marrow of his bones, the glory and the terror of the universe, all creation and all destruction, embraced in the blissful play of the Supreme Lord. Stephen Mitchell, The Book of Job

A terrifying voice from the whirlwind demands, “Who is this who darkens counsel with ignorant words?” (38:2) Presumably exemplary of knowledgeable words, God alludes to diverse aspects of the creation, how the measurements were set (38.3), how earth was shaped “like clay for a seal” (38.12), whence Thôth received wisdom, and so on. If God has accomplished all these wonders, then he is a prototypic scribe, measuring, working with a seal, imparting wisdom. If the Elihu section casts doubt on the “institution of prophecy” and thus on the possibility of scripture itself, this section confidently evokes a literary Deity.

God’s wide range of reference–strange monsters, the songs of angels, and so on–provide a store of vivid images. One ancient way of reading scriptures was as encyclopedias, the Bible, for instance being “The Book with Everything in it.” Howard Clark writes: “The Iliad and the Odyssey might be coherent stories on their surface, but they were also encyclopedias, and readers do not go to an encyclopedia for a single and consistent message” (Clarke 62). In summarizing the Bhagavadg—it—a , the Anugita gives far less prominence to its doctrines than to such matters as what is the greatest member of various categories–items that sound like answers in the game of trivial pursuit. Probably, scholastica of this sort fascinated the schools and accounted for one aspect of what readers would expect in the Book of Job, which raises recherché imagery to high poetry.

Such images may show God beyond human judgment, but they do nothing to explain Job’s suffering. The closest YHWH comes to addressing that issue is in saying that Job has spoken well, the Comforters not. To which of Job’s words does God refer? Job has just apologized to God while the Comforters said nothing. Is this apology what YHWH approves? Or does He refer to all of Job’s previous speeches. In them, he differed from the Comforters in terming God capricious and himself innocent. Since Job was most innocent when most afflicted, we have no reason to consider innocence decisive in his vindication.

As to recognition of the capriciousness of God, that is relevant. YHWH emphasizes his diversions with frightening monsters, e.g, his “playing” (´s.h q).with Leviathan (41.5). The image is like divine play (l—i l—a ) in Hindu theology, including the Bhagavadgita. YHWH has a right to amuse Himself with his creation. Indeed, such play may be an inherent aspect of creation itself, present even in its crowning moment, the Sabbath as sacred recreation. The divine imaged as a personified Hokhma is particularly associated with such play (Johnson 88). But if Job’s tortured cries for justice are to be met, God should have more benevolent motives than whimsy. In other words, Job should benefit from the experience.

In material terms he does. He receives twice the seventy years common to most men. His goods double. Based on a grammatical oddity, some scholars have argued his new sons number fourteen not seven (Good 384). But if this material reward is the only excuse, then YHWH seems like a rich profligate who does whatever he wishes as long as he can pay punitive damages. Comparably, in a Dead Sea Scroll (4Q550), Bagose receives a double measure when he is vindicated. Another detail of that scroll is also relevant to Job: a king has a book made to immortalize the vindication of a man–the kind of inscription for which Job hopes (Eisenman and Wise, 103).

Job, however, gains in subtler ways. He began tam, whole, seemingly perfect, but as we have seen the text presented his prosperity in a summary way, as if nothing were fully real about it to him except his fear of losing it. In his suffering, he gained a new courage. Without it, he could not have made the self—curse that apparently brought YHWH. Without courage, Job could not have been the only one who addressed God. Whether YHWH prefers Job to the Comforters because Job addressed him or because of all Job’s previous words, the quality that distinguishes Job is courage. Fear may be one side of wisdom but courage is the other.

Perhaps with this ability to face reality fearlessly comes a more sensitive appreciation of life. While the lack of children’s names made the opening impersonal, Job’s new daughters are called “Day—bright” (so ancient tradition understood Yeminma), “Cassia” (a perfume—herb), and “Horn of Eye—Cosmetic” (Greenberg 300). The text terms them incomparably beautiful and emphasizes that Job gave them an equal share of the inheritance with their brothers, an instance of his unconventionally great love for them. So the book ends on a note of beauty–the wonders of God’s creation He so eloquently describes and, more personally dear to Job, his daughters: “And in all the land were no women found so fair… (42.15). The Bhagavadgitaends with Arjuna’s recollecting the transcendent splendor of K.r.s.na (18.77—78). For the literary study of scriptures, this final emphasis on beauty suggests that depiction of aesthetic pleasure is not an accident of the book but an important part of its message.

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