Biblical character Job. Holy Righteous Job Long-suffering

The Old Testament among its so-called teaching books has an interesting work called the Book of Job. The name is given to her by the name of the protagonist, the pious righteous man and the faithful servant of God.

Structure of the book

To understand what the main character is, you need to first understand the work. The account of the misadventures that the biblical character of Job undergoes is divided into a prologue, a major part, and an epilogue.

The prologue describes the blessed life of the righteous, his prosperity in spiritual and material terms. The main part tells how Job long suffering suffers the grief that fell to his lot as a result of the dispute between Satan and God. By itself this part is divided into three sections: the conversations of Job with friends, the words of Elius and the speech of the Most High. Epilogue closes the circle and tells about the restoration of justice and the return of the welfare of the prophet.

Narrative of the work

The story begins with the fact that Satan came to the assembly of the sons of God and began to provoke God to take away his blessing from the righteous and sinless Job, in order to check whether he will keep faithfulness to the Almighty in sorrow. As a result, God gives in to provocation and gives his servant into the hands of the devil with one condition - not to kill him. In the future, the biblical character Job suffers a series of shocks: all his sons and daughters die at a time, he loses all his wealth and property, and he himself is severely ill with leprosy. To comfort and support him, three friends come to him. Most of the book is precisely their speeches and Job's answers to them, in which they together are trying to establish the reasons why such a disaster has struck the righteous. They believe that Job long-suffering is guilty of some grave sin, because in their opinion, God would save the innocent from vain torment. But the prophet stubbornly declares his integrity, and, humiliated under the rule of God, blessing his name, nevertheless calls him to account. After all, God is and reveals the wrongfulness of both Job and his friends. The Lord arranges judgment and questions the protagonist, to which he is not in a position to give an answer. And yet, in conclusion, God praises the faithfulness and patience of his servant, heals him from illness and multiplies lost property more than before. He blames his friends for slander and instructs them to ask Job to pray for them to turn away punishment for what they said about him "not so true." This ends the narrative.

The historicity of the book

Religious leaders of Judaism and Christianity until the twentieth century for the most part believed that the history of the biblical Job was historically reliable. Those who claimed the legendary nature of the events described in the book, as well as those who denied the very existence of this prophet, were usually compared to heretics. This happened, for example, with Theodore of Mopsuestia, whom the fifth Ecumenical Council condemned . But the development of biblical studies in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries led to the fact that the scales began to lean to the other side. Today, many serious Bible scholars believe that the story of the biblical Job is a parable, a pedagogical poem, and not a story about the life of a real person.

The time of Job's life and the time of writing the book

Immediately it is worth saying that all attempts to establish the time when the biblical character of Job lived is doomed to failure. Firstly, he was the head of the nomadic tribe, which there were many in the Middle East, and is not tied by the narrative of the book to any cities and monarchical dynasties. Secondly, most likely, Job is a long-suffering - collective image. Probably, he is not even of purely Jewish origin, because in the Bible he is mentioned as a man without a pedigree, having neither father nor mother. Meanwhile, the Jews always mentioned the pedigree branch when they talked about people (whether they are living people or biblical characters), who originate from Abraham, the ancestor of the Jews. Therefore, the logical thing to assume is that the book is based on the Middle Eastern pagan legend, creatively crafted by the Jewish author.

But as for writing this poem in the form in which it entered the canon of the Bible, it is possible to make certain assumptions. On the basis of the internal analysis of the text, language, structure, the presence of Aramaic influence and late doctrinal signs, it can be more or less confidently assumed that the middle of the first millennium BC is the time when the literary hero Job was "born." At that time the Bible of the Jews was codified and underwent serious revision. Probably, at the same time, for the pedagogical purposes, a narrative about the suffering righteous also contributed to it.

The authorship of the book

The question of who owes his origin to the biblical character of Job, is not easy to solve. On the one hand, the book is included in the Jewish canon of the Scriptures, and on the other hand all its actors among the people are not Jews. Job's wife is an Arabian, friends are also representatives of various non-Jewish Semitic nationalities. Plus the language of the book is very much Arabized, which allows one to make two assumptions: either the author was an Arab or a Jew living in an Arab environment.

In the church tradition, the author considered different people - Moses, Solomon, Jeremiah and other significant figures of the Old Testament. But in support of these hypotheses there are no arguments.

Interesting details of the book of Job

The Bible readers periodically ask questions about some strange creatures that inhabit the earth. An example of this is the famous leviathan. This is the story of the biblical Job, one of the few who mentions it, putting in the mouth of God the mention of the great sea monster. Together with him, a behemoth is mentioned. Most likely, we are talking about a mythical huge creature that is beyond human power. The Lord tells Job that only he who created him can stick his sword into it. Another interesting place is at the very beginning of the text, where Satan is spoken of as the son of God, one of his angels.

Conclusion

This book stands alone in the canon in its content and form. And although few doubted her canonical dignity, she is ambiguous on the most important issue - the question of evil. This is not the case with such strange images as the hippopotamus or Leviathan. This is the story of the biblical Job teaching the believers that the answer to the question of the cause of suffering to man is not to be recognized. After all, God is on the challenge of Job, but he does not want to bear responsibility and does not give an answer, but simply crushes him with his authority and power, asking questions, before which the person is powerless, as a result of which the hero simply "puts his hand on his mouth." The plot of the dispute itself does not receive development and total. Thus, it is unclear what and to whom God argued, leading his most faithful servant through terrible suffering (including the death of ten innocent children of Job). In addition, the actions of the Lord in themselves are difficult to call ethical in the modern sense of the word.