Few books of the Bible have had the enduring impact upon believers and nonbelievers alike as the Book of Job. Its combination of profound dialogues and majestic, natural images commands our attention, not the least so because of the strangely recognizable condition of Job himself: Although may of us never encounter sufferings the like of his, all of us at some time or other ask - or want to ask - the questions he hurls fearlessly at his Lord.
As we witness the drama of one man grappling with the problem of unmerited suffering, we are obliged to ponder a wide range of other topics: disinterested obedience to God under testing, social oppression, religious experience and pious suffering, a man's relation to God, and the nature of God. Every thoughtful interpretation of the book must explain the mystery of God's seemingly cruel treatment of Job, and the mystery of Job's surrender in faith without finally obtaining any definitive answers to the questions he poses to the Voice in the Whirlwind.
Stephen Mitchell's new translation and reconstruction of this literary masterpiece attempts to deal with these issues, and he elaborates his perspective in an introductory essay excerpted from The Book of Job in the following pages. Four scholars respond to Mitchell and his translation in the commentaries adjoining the excerpt. First, Job expert Edwin Good makes a detailed textual critique of Mitchell's translation (p.368), followed by a discussion of the significance of the Book of Job in the context of wisdom literature by Old Testament scholar James Crenshaw (p. 375). Next, theologian Lonnie Kliever, in a discussion of two alternate readings of Job, argues that the book represents a rejection of the notion of redemptive suffering (p. 383).
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