Job: An Introduction and Study Guide Where Shall Wisdom be Found?

✍ Scribed by Katharine J. Dell

• Publisher: Bloomsbury T&T Clark
• Year: 2017
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 130
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

In the light of dramatic new interpretative approaches to the Bible this guide to Job follows not only a range of new approaches to the text but also addresses the traditional historical questions and other topical issues.
Dell particularly highlights the problem of genre in understanding Job. She shows how problematic the term ‘wisdom’ is for this unique book, and argues that its radical sentiments earn it, rather, the title of ‘parody’. Of all the biblical books it comes closest to tragedy, raising profound questions about its nature and place in the biblical canon.
Job's relationship to its ancient Near Eastern counterparts, notably in ancient Mesopotamia, are also closely examined and key theological themes that characterize the book are explored. Finally different approaches - feminist, liberationist, ecological and psychological - are outlined so as to illuminate and inform our own personal readings and generate ever fresh understandings of this enigmatic text.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half-title
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Preface
Abbreviations
Commentaries on the Book of Job
Chapter 1: Introduction
1. Outline
2. Method of Approach
3. Plan for This Guide
4. Date and Context of Writing
5. Literary-critical Concerns
6. Final Form Reading
7. Job 1-2 The Prologue
Bibliography (By Year of Publication)
Further Reading
Chapter 2: Job as a Wisdom Book
1. Solomonic Attribution
2. Form-critical Classification of Job as Wisdom
3. Wider Use of Genres in Job
4. Questions of Definition and Extent of Wisdom
5. Cross-fertilization of Ideas
6. The Wider Form-critical and Intertextual Context of Job
7. Chapter 28 The Hymn to Wisdom
Bibliography
Further Reading
Chapter 3: Job as Parody
1. Genre Issues
2. Parody as a Genre
3. Parody as a Technique of the Author of the Dialogue
4. Parody in the Overall Structure of the Book – Zuckerman’s Thesis
5. Job’s Speeches in the Dialogue
Bibliography
Further Reading
Chapter 4: Job in the Context of the Ancient Near Eastern World
1. Ancient Sumerian Wisdom
2. Babylonian Parallels
3. The Friends’ Speeches in the Dialogue
4. The Elihu Speeches
Bibliography
Further Reading
Chapter 5: Theological Issues Raised by the Book of Job
1. Disinterested Righteousness
2. Retributive Suffering
3. The God/Human Relationship
4. Job: A Tragedy?
5. The Yahweh Speeches and Job’s Responses
Bibliography
Further Reading
Chapter 6: ‘Reading’ Job in a Postmodern World
1. Feminist Appraisals of Job
2. Liberation Theology Reading
3. Ecological Readings
4. A Psychological Reading
5. Job 42.7-17 The Epilogue
Bibliography
Further Reading
Index of Authors
Index of Subjects