Job the Silent: A Study in Historical Counterpoint

Front Cover
Oxford University Press, 1998 - Bible - 305 pages
This study of the Book of Job argues that it was intended as a parody of the stereotypical, righteous sufferer, portrayed as patient and silent. This example is used to demonstrate how texts become separated from the intentions of their authors, and can evolve quite different meanings for readers.

From inside the book

Selected pages

Contents

Introduction
3
The Patience Problem
13
The Case against a Linear Reading
25
SuperJob
34
SuperReality
59
The Sincerely Wrong Approach
77
Barriers to Interpretation
87
The DialogueAppeal
93
The Legal Metaphor
104
The Death Theme
118
The Joban Fugue
175
The Text and Translation of Y L Perets
181
Index of Authors
283
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 60 - I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command...
Page 257 - Fury said to a mouse, That he met in the house, 'Let us both go to law: / will prosecute you. - Come, I'll take no denial; We must have a trial: For really this morning I've nothing to do.
Page 28 - Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
Page 60 - Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed : And on the pedestal these words appear : 'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair !
Page 28 - And the LORD said unto Satan, From whence comest thou ? And Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
Page 109 - Hammurabi, the exalted prince, the worshiper of the gods, to cause justice to prevail in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil, • to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak, to go forth like the Sun over the Black Head Race, to enlighten the land and to further the welfare of the people.
Page 126 - Almighty hath not built Here for his envy; will not drive us hence : Here we may reign secure ; — and, in my choice, To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell: Better to reigu in Hell than serve in Heaven ! But wherefore let we then our faithful friends, Th...
Page 28 - And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil...
Page 30 - In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark...
Page 19 - Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.

Bibliographic information