The Book of Job: A Biography

Mark Larrimore has written a biography of a book. This book is not just any book, but one of the most controversial and perplexing in history, the Book of Job. The Book of Job puzzles and troubles nearly all who read it, with what it seems to say about justice and suffering being so separate and opposed to the solace readers find in other parts of the Bible. Larrimore's book is about the reception the book has received throughout history and the interpretations it has received. Joan Acocella of the New Yorker profiles Larrimore's book and is a good introduction to wrestling with the Book of Job. Is there justice in the Book of Job? The New Yorker, December 16, 2013
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words only definitions & notes
  1. eschew
    avoid and stay away from deliberately
    The Book of Job, in the Old Testament, opens with words both majestic and once-upon-a-time-ish: “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.”
  2. poignant
    keenly distressing to the mind or feelings
    His feelings about his loss of status are also poignant.
  3. abhor
    feel hatred or disgust toward
    Job immediately apologizes for challenging his maker: “I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
  4. bewilder
    cause to be confused emotionally
    The story is bewildering, from beginning to end.
  5. theologian
    someone who is learned in the study of religion
    Therefore, his struggle to go on believing in God is something that theologians and moralists have had to think about.
  6. cynicism
    a pessimistic feeling of distrust
    This stylistic contrast, together with the subject matter, underlies the main puzzle of the Book: the profound nature of Job’s complaint and of God’s answer versus the cynicism of the outer sections, where God bargains with Job’s life and then, at the end, pays him off.
  7. interpolation
    an action or remark that interrupts something
    More daringly, some writers have suggested that God’s speeches are interpolations.
  8. canonical
    conforming to orthodox or recognized rules
    For many centuries before that, philosophers and theologians took the Book as canonical and analyzed it as such.
  9. allegorical
    characteristic of or containing a symbolic meaning or moral
    His book, as Larrimore explains it, is our introduction to many centuries of allegorical interpretation of the Book of Job—indeed, of the entire Old Testament—as parallel to the New Testament; in particular, Job’s torment was thought to presage the sufferings of Jesus.
  10. presage
    a foreboding about what is about to happen
    His book, as Larrimore explains it, is our introduction to many centuries of allegorical interpretation of the Book of Job—indeed, of the entire Old Testament—as parallel to the New Testament; in particular, Job’s torment was thought to presage the sufferings of Jesus.
  11. vernacular
    the everyday speech of the people
    Luther’s Bible, one of the earlier vernacular testaments, had illustrations that combine, in the same frame, events in Job that occurred many verses apart.
  12. formidable
    extremely impressive in strength or excellence
    According to Larrimore, this was also, essentially, the opinion of the great Jewish scholar Maimonides, in the twelfth century, and of the formidable St. Thomas Aquinas, in the thirteenth.
  13. embolden
    give encouragement to
    Aquinas, emboldened by the dispute between Job and his friends, treated the Book as a quaestio, or debate, the primary mode of learning at the University of Paris, where he was a celebrated professor.
  14. theodicy
    the branch of religious studies that defends God's goodness
    Calvin’s view was the most radical, in terms of theodicy—that is, the attempt to reconcile the existence of evil with a benevolent and omnipotent God.
  15. succinctly
    with concise and precise brevity; to the point
    The problem was stated most succinctly two centuries later, by David Hume: “Is he willing to prevent evil, but not able?
  16. malevolent
    wishing or appearing to wish evil to others
    Then he is malevolent.
  17. abstain
    refrain from doing, consuming, or partaking in something
    One could not even abstain from observance.
  18. dervish
    a Muslim monk of an order noted for fast ceremonial dancing
    Larrimore quotes a passage from Voltaire’s “Candide” (1759): “ ‘What difference does it make,’ said the dervish, ‘if there is good or evil?
  19. impasse
    a situation in which no progress can be made
    In the face of that impasse, the discussion often shifts from content to style.
  20. sunder
    break apart or in two, using violence
    Now it is sundered: “I cry unto thee and thou dost not hear me.”
  21. anguish
    extreme distress of body or mind
    This interpretation anguished Wiesel.
  22. authoritarianism
    government in which the ruler is an absolute dictator
    Postmodern critics, by favoring certain political positions and by welcoming self-contradictory, ambiguous texts, have abetted this trend, arguing that the insistence on Job’s submission is a vote for authoritarianism.
  23. capitulation
    the act of surrendering, usually under agreed conditions
    But objections to Job’s capitulation came from many ideological quarters.
  24. behemoth
    someone or something that is abnormally large and powerful
    In two celebrated passages, he describes with pride the monsters he created: Behemoth and Leviathan, Behemoth’s counterpart in the sea: “His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth.”
  25. leviathan
    monstrous sea creature symbolizing evil in the Old Testament
    In two celebrated passages, he describes with pride the monsters he created: Behemoth and Leviathan, Behemoth’s counterpart in the sea: “His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth.”
Created on Mon Dec 09 15:14:16 EST 2013 (updated Sat Jan 25 06:05:05 EST 2014)

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