Segment:
Course Outline:
1. What
happens in the story?
a. Job, a
righteous man, lives in wealth (lots of animals and kids).
b. Ha-satan, lit. “the accuser”, is given
permission to test Job.
c. Job looses
everything.
d. Job becomes
greatly ill.
e. His friends
come and “comfort” him.
f. Job asks
God why this is happening.
g. God
responds.
h. Job gets
back more than he had and lives a long life.
2. Who wrote
Job?
a. Prose and
Poetry sections are written by two different groups.
b. Possibly an
Edomite because of where the Prose is set.
c. Could also
be an Israelite living in the outskirts of Palestine.
3. When was it
written?
a. We’re not
sure. No reference to specific events.
b. The story
of Job itself would’ve been pre-Exile.
·
Time before Edomites came into Israel
·
Israelites would’ve liked Edomites then still.
c. Poetry- during
exile or post-exile
·
Second Isaiah has some parallels with Job.
4. What do
people say the book means?
a. The point
is that Job “persisted”.
·
James 5:11 upomonen=holding
out, enduring, patience
b. God sometimes
tests our faith.
c. Theodicy
(lit. justification of God)
·
Why do bad things happen if God is all-powerful?
d. Prose
section is making sense of the poetry section.
5. What is the
“bottom line” of Job?
a. Why do bad
things happen to good people? (Theodicy question)
b. At the end
of the day, we don’t know why bad things happen.
c. We do know,
however, that God is with us through these times.
d. Anderson, Understanding the Old Testament asks
this: “What is a person’s relationship with God?”
6. How is the
book divided up?
a. Prose
·
1:1-2:13 and 42:7-17 (the beginning and end)
·
Intro and Epilogue to book
b. Poetry
·
Conversation with Job and his friends
Sources:
Anderson, Bernhard W. Understanding the Old Testament, ab. 4th
ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998.
Davidson, Lisa ed. “The Book of Job”,
The New Interpreter’s Bible.
Nashville: Abingdon, 2003.
Wright, Rebecca, Old Testament:Foundations II. The School
of Theology Sewanee, TN, Easter Semester 2014.