St Margaret's News February 2015 | Page 9

Between Heaven and Hell A Series on the Book of Job There are some things in life so rich that to find it begins a process of discovery. Surprise after surprise. And delight. There is at least one book in the Bible that qualifies on all accounts. This is the Book of Job. Of course most of us know the outline: A good man loses everything and in the end God restores his fortunes as a reward for his patient endurance and tenacious faith. But that is a half-truth. The book is much more interesting than a simple morality tale. My goal in this sermon is to introduce the ‘book’ beyond the ‘book’ and possibly to interest you enough to read it (again?). Great Literature The Book of Job is widely accepted as a great work of literature. I think it should be counted with the greatest accomplishments of humanity: Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Dante’s trilogy. Certainly it belo ngs when you think about the next level of the pantheon: Homer, Chaucer, Cervantes, Milton, and Tolstoy. I try to read what has been identified as the Great Books of the Western Tradition where it has a place. It is wisdom literature. In the Bible think in terms of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs. We don’t know the author but I think it was probably a courtier: an educated hanger on in aristocratic circles. Who else had the education, time, and knowledge of the world to write such as masterpiece? This was the group that produced most of the wisdom literature which of course was not limited to Israel but included Egypt and across the Middle East. The motif of a religious hero who suffered unjustly is found in ancient Assyrian and Babylonian literature. It seems likely that a story, in oral form circulated before Job was written. While this is lost, it formed the foundation of the book. Job was set in patriarchal times before Moses and the covenant relationship with God. This is seen even in the names of God: El and Shaddai, not Yahweh. This gives a more universal perspective, as it were the struggle of every human to find some meaning before God. If you have a look at Job in the pew Bibles you will see that there is a brief prose introduction and ending. The central chapters are set out differently, more like the psalms. This indicates Hebrew poetry. English poetry is distinguished from prose by rhythm and to a lesser extent rhyme. Most of Shakespeare is in iambic pentameter weak-strong with 5 stresses in the line: To be or not to be, etc. There are other poetic conventions but Hebrew poetry is marked by a repetition of ideas, which interestingly translates well. However there are interesting word plays which don’t translate (yam sea and yom day in 3.8). There is a poetic format to Job 1.21 “Naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I shall return there.” This plays on a theme that appears repetitive but twists it to an image of birth and death – so creates ambiguity and a double entendre. St Margaret’s News 9 February 2015