NOTES for Job 1:1-2:13

The opening chapters of the Book of Job raise a whole series of questions for the reader. The first concerns the identity of the book's main character. Who was Job? In answering this question, it is important to distinguish between the Job of Jewish folk tradition and Job as a character in the book that bears his name. Jewish tradition preserves ancient stories about a righteous man named Job who, according to some evidence, did not belong to the Jewish people. His righteousness was exemplary, and the author of the Book of Job drew on this traditional figure, making Job the hero of his work.

But who wrote the book, and when? Most biblical scholars date the Book of Job to the fifth or fourth century BC. As for its authorship, nothing definite can be said about the author except that, judging by the themes discussed in the book, he was closely connected with the synagogue and possibly with a circle of learned rabbis and teachers of the Torah. The Job of the biblical book is, of course, not identical to the Job of folk tradition.

Nevertheless, the author, whose name is unknown to us, retains one characteristic of Job as a folk hero: his righteousness. The Job of the biblical narrative is indeed righteous; he is even, so to speak, "more than righteous": he offers sacrifices of purification even when no sin is apparent, but one might have been committed without the sinners themselves noticing it (Job 1:4–5). And, in full accordance with traditional, ancient notions of the righteous person's prosperity, Job's household enjoys abundance in every respect (Job 1:1–4).

Such is the prologue to the Book of Job. Yet it also contains an episode that at first seems somewhat strange: the trial to which God subjects His righteous servant at Satan's instigation. First, He allows Satan to deprive Job of all his possessions (Job 1:6–12), and then of his health as well (Job 2:1–6). Thus, already in the prologue, the author establishes the central theme of the entire book: the suffering of an innocent, righteous man who, according to traditional notions of righteousness, certainly deserves nothing of the kind. The fairy-tale speed with which events unfold in the prologue (Job 1:13–19; 2:7–8) must not mislead us about the seriousness of the subject itself. At first, Job evidently reacts to what has happened to him as religion prescribes (Job 1:20–22; 2:9–10). His friends come to support him in that unwavering fidelity to his religion which they, like Job himself, associated with righteousness (Job 2:11–13). But human strength has its limits, and the day came when Job spoke.

The Book of Job begins with a kind of prologue. Who is the Job of the Book of Job? We know something about the Job of ancient traditions, though not much. The Job of tradition appears before us as a complete, ideal righteous man, a hero, a knight without fear or reproach. As we can see, the author of the book needed precisely such an image: an ideal and blameless righteous man. Job is even, if one may say so, over-righteous. For example, he performs purification rituals and sacrifices for his children even when he has no reason to think that they need purification. It is enough for him to think that they may have sinned, may have done something that makes purification necessary. Job is certain that in such a case it is better to overdo it than to leave something undone. And this is the very person who becomes the subject of a dispute between God and Satan.

A strange dispute, it would seem. But Satan, this spirit opposed to God, is free just as a human being opposed to God is free. God does not suppress his freedom either by force or by authority. And Satan is true to himself: he trusts no one and laughs at every good thing he sees in the world and in people. Satan simply does not believe that a person, or anyone else, can be good, and in this he is certainly judging by himself. Satan is certain that a person can do something good, pious, or righteous only if it is profitable for him. And he says this to God directly.

Then something happens that seems altogether strange: God permits Satan to test Job, giving him access to the righteous man, to his property, to those close to him, and even to his body. There is only one requirement: to leave Job alive, to preserve his "soul," his life. As we can see, the author of the Book of Job is well aware of the difference between God's will and what theologians would later call God's permission. But a natural question arises: why did God need this peculiar wager? It cannot convince Satan, whatever the outcome, for that is what makes him Satan.

To convince Himself? That is even stranger: could God not know what Job is really like? What, then? Perhaps the matter lies with Job himself? But what does God expect from him? Job accepts the trials as a deeply religious person: God gave, God has taken away; naked I came into the world, naked I will depart; blessed be the name of the Lord. In short, all the traditional religious formulas for such occasions are present. But time goes on. How long will they be enough? And what will Job say next, when these formulas seem too little to him? The story of a righteous man and the testing of his righteousness begins.

The first trial that came down on Job showed that his faith held firm; he remained faithful to God. The chief value for Job is not prosperity, not the gifts he possessed, but the Lord Himself. Job also endures the second trial, when he himself is struck by a most dangerous disease and becomes an outcast even among outcasts.

It is no accident that Job's dispute with his wife occurs after the second trial: in essence, it is a clash between deep faith and the "normal" worldly position, according to which a person sees God as the giver of benefits and, when they are absent, is ready to turn away from Him. In the first trial, the wife suffered the same calamities as Job, but the second trial did not touch her directly, and from the outside she is free to advise her husband to die by blaspheming. Job's view of the essence of things is deeper, and his attitude toward God is more exalted and is not reduced to demanding constant care for himself, so here too he withstands the test. But this is only the beginning. A calamity that has just happened is relatively easy to endure; it is harder to endure when the calamity lasts a long time.

In the account of both trials it is said that Job did not sin in his judgments and assessments of what happened to him. He is ready to receive everything that comes from God, even evil. The point, however, is that the Lord is not the source of evil; He only permits it. Why He permits it is an enormous question, and the answer to it lies beyond the text of the Book of Job, and even more beyond the text of the whole Bible. So one can wonder whether Job's ideas about the Creator are limited if he believes that evil can come from Him. Although it is said that there is no sin in this point of view, it is incomplete, as all our ideas about the Creator are incomplete. No human being can comprehend Him in His fullness.