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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadGreater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 383. The Book
Subjects in this Topic:
II
The Book
Literature
Aitken, J., The Book of Job.
Benvie, A., Higher on the Hill (1900), 96.
Bradley, G. G., Lectures on the Book of Job (1888).
Caird, E., Lay Sermons and Addresses (1907), 285.
Cheyne, T. K., Job and Solomon (1887).
Cheyne, T. K., Jewish Religious Life after the Exile (1898).
Davidson, A. B., A Commentary on the Book of Job, i. (1862).
Davidson, A. B., The Book of Job (Cambridge Bible) (1884).
Driver, S. R., The Book of Job in the Revised Version (1906).
Driver, S. R., Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament (1913), 408.
Genung, J. F., The Epic of the Inner Life (1891).
Gibson, E. C. S., The Book of Job (Oxford Commentaries) (1899).
Gordon, A. R., The Poets of the Old Testament (1912), 202.
Gwatkin, H. M., The Eye for Spiritual Things (1907), 189.
McFadyen, J. E., Introduction to the Old Testament (1905), 264.
Marshall, J. T., Job and his Comforters.
Momerie, A. W., Defects of Modern Christianity (1885), 69.
Peake, A. S., Job (Century Bible) (1905).
Peake, A. S., The Problem of Suffering in the Old Testament (1904).
Strahan, J., The Book of Job Interpreted (1913).
Watson, R. A., The Book of Job (Expositor's Bible) (1892).
Wilkinson, F. H., The Book of Job (1901).
Wright, C. H. H., Biblical Essays (1886), 1.
Wright, C. H. H., The Book of Job (1883).
American Journal of Theology, viii. (1904) 66 (E. König).
Bibliotheca Sacra, lvii. (1900) 68 (C. H. Dickinson).
Church and Synagogue, ii. (1912) 1 (W. O. E. Oesterley).
Expositor, 3rd Ser., viii. (1888) 127 (W. B. Hutton); 7th Ser., iii. (1907) 185, 228 (A. R. Gordon).
Expository Times, viii. (1897) 111 (K. Budde).
Journal of Biblical Literature, xxv. (1906) 135 (M. Jastrow); xxxi. (1912) 63 (G. A. Barton).
New World, iii. (1894) 328 (B. Duhm); vi. (1897) 13, 261 (J. Royce).
Presbyterian and Reformed Review, viii. (1897) 683 (W. H. Green).
But now mine eye seeth thee,
Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent
In dust and ashes.- Job_42:5-6.
1. In the Book of Job the poetical genius of Israel reaches its noblest height. In range of imagination and sustained splendour of diction, the book not merely stands alone in the Old Testament, but takes a foremost place also among the masterpieces of the world's literature. Nor is it expositors alone who have been fascinated by the spell of this sublime poem. Tennyson but expresses the common feeling of literary critics when he pronounces it “the greatest poem whether of ancient or of modern times.” It is hardly possible to speak of it to an educated and thoughtful man who does not acknowledge its extraordinary power, its unrivalled excellence; while men of genius to whom the greatest works of literature in many languages are familiar, are forward to confess that it stands alone, far above all other and similar performance.
I call that, apart from all theories about it, one of the grandest things ever written with pen. One feels, indeed, as if it were not Hebrew; such a noble universality, different from noble patriotism or sectarianism, reigns in it. A noble Book; all men's Book! It is our first, oldest statement of the never-ending Problem-man's destiny, and God's ways with him here in this earth. And all in such free flowing outlines; grand in its sincerity, in its simplicity; in its epic melody, and repose of reconcilement. There is the seeing eye, the mildly understanding heart. So true everyway; true eyesight and vision for all things; material things no less than spiritual: the Horse-“hast thou clothed his neck with thunder?”-he “laughs at the shaking of the spear!” Such living likenesses were never since drawn. Sublime sorrow, sublime reconciliation; oldest choral melody as of the heart of mankind;-so soft, and great; as the summer midnight, as the world with its seas and stars! There is nothing written, I think, in the Bible or out of it, of equal literary merit.1 [Note: T. Carlyle, On Heroes and Hero. Worship, 45.]
2. The Book of Job is a product of the so-called “Wisdom Literature” of the ancient Hebrews; in other words, it belongs to the same branch of literature to which Proverbs and Ecclesiastes also belong, which embraced the observation of human nature, the analysis of conduct, the study of action in its consequences, and the consideration of the moral problems presented by human life and society. It is indeed the crown and glory of the Hebrew “Wisdom.” The sphere which “Wisdom” made its own embraced the observation of character and the analysis of experience. It did not concern itself with the dogmas of the national religion. These it took for granted, and went on to study human life from a wider point of view. It aimed at formulating maxims of conduct applicable to mankind in general, and throwing light upon questions which the common experience raised. Hence we remark as characteristic of the “Wisdom” books the absence of everything peculiarly Israelite. The Book of Proverbs contains no mention of Israel: Jehovah, the covenant name of God, does not occur in Ecclesiastes.
In the Book of Job this catholicity is fully exemplified. The scene of the story is laid outside the territory occupied by Israel; none of the persons who figure in it are Israelites; there are no references to laws or institutions distinctively Mosaic, on allusions to events in the national history. The name Jehovah, while it is used in the narrative portions, occurs only twice on the lips of the speakers, and in both instances (Job_1:21; Job_12:9) in what seem to be proverbial expressions. With these exceptions God is referred to by the names El, Eloah, and El-Shaddai (Almighty), and is worshipped after the patriarchal fashion. Even those epithets which were closely associated with Jehovah in common Hebrew speech are avoided, and God is nowhere described as “merciful,” “gracious,” “slow to anger.” A feature in the “Wisdom” books which can hardly escape notice is the wealth of illustration drawn from nature and natural history. The “wise men” in search of picturesque and gnomic expression were keen observers of things around them, and it is consistent with their general breadth of view that they should have relied so much on those objects which were familiar, not to Israel only, but to all mankind.
Essentially a people's literature is this Hebrew Wisdom; this, too, in the more natural and ordinary sense. Not an official utterance, it rises out of the people's everyday work and practical affairs, giving voice to the thoughts with which their lives are most conversant. To kings and labourers alike it gives direction and guidance: gathering wisdom for men when they go to the temple for prayer, and when they go to the city-gate for counsel; walking with them in the field where they toil and in the market-place where they bargain. Its note is eminently individual; herein lies one of its distinctive characteristics. Law and ritual are prescribed for the congregation; prophecy addresses itself to the nation at large, reading the nation's history in the Divine light. The counsel of the wise concerns man as man; and in no other department of the literature are we brought so near the great heart of the nation, so near to men's common and secular pursuits, as in this, where untitled and unmitred men take upon themselves to speak out freely and in the natural style what is in them. For this very reason, also, no other literature is so hard to connect, in our reading of it, with national events. To find its era and origin we must find how it answers to the general pervasive spirit of an age.1 [Note: J. F. Genung.]