New thought on Job

I had a new thought toward understanding the book of Job, really new, I think. The thought is: How does the poet view himself (or herself), and what understanding of the human struggle follows from this?

I just finished reading Job again, slowly, in Robert Alter's recently released translation (The Wisdom Books, Norton, 2010). Alter works to let the poetry of the original shine through, and he repeatedly accents how original, marvelous and beautiful it is. He credits the poet with courage and deep insight into the human character, the ways of God, and a challenge to conventional theology, of the poet's day and every era. The book of Job is a masterpiece, not only in the Bible but in all literature. Yet, Alter takes the traditional position regarding God's reply to Job, that it is sarcasm, putting Job in his place, and that Job's response is to repent of his arrogance and accept the limits of his understanding and of his humanity. J. Gerald Janzen (Interpretation Commentary, Knox Press, 1985) proposes that the God speeches are irony, that they show respect for Job's understanding, that they say Job does understand more than he believes, and his “repentance” is to acknowledge that he, Job, can stand in his integrity and not bow. [You have to read Janzen to see how he develops this, but it is convincing.]

Both of these interpretations work with how we can identify with Job, and both are meaningful but leave the issue unresolved: does Job see himself higher or lower than he did before his suffering? The poet, however, surely sees himself in the higher position. His theology is more sophisticated than that of Job's friends. His understanding of God is richer than anyone of his day (like the mystics in their days). And, he conceived the Job character! [You observe that I do not take Job to be a person to whom all this happened but the saga to be a great myth.] So the poet ends standing tall, and tall before God. The poet is not “in dust and ashes” (Janzen translates this as “over dust and ashes, with a very different meaning than the traditional) but is reveling in the wonder of God and the wonder of being a human before God. I do not have the experience of Job, nor the skill of the poet, but I have the humanity of both, and this poet and his story allow me to stand in wonder and awe of God and of myself – and of you.