an Agnostic Write the Book of Job?

SU P P L EM EN T TO THE “L IT E R A R Y G U ID E " A P R IL , 1896.

Long ages ago the peasants of Syria and the region round about, both young and old, listened with delight to the story of the

SORROWS OF JOli.

Job was an Eastern chief or sheikh, a good father, a good friend, a good neighbour. The legend heaped upon him all the glories of wealth and reputation and contentment. He had seven sons and three daughters. His herds swarmed on the pastures. His family frequently met in happy banquets, and on each such occasion pious Job offered beasts on the altar in order that God might pardon any light word spoken or improper act committed in the excitement of the feast. The next scene in the folk-tale lay in heaven. There, like the sultans in “ The Arabian Nights,” sat God, surrounded by his courtiers. A stern figure entered, like Mesrour the executioner. It was Satan the Adversary, who spied out the faults of mankind, and, with the Almighty Lord’s permission, visited dire punishments upon their guilty heads. But surely Job was beyond his power; for was not Job pure and upright? When God suggested the question to Satan, he smiled sarcastically. Job’s piety, he alleged, rested on selfishness: he served God only because it paid him to do so. Very well, replied God, then destroy all his riches, and we shall see if he still remains loyal to me. Then ensued four disasters, each announced by a terror-stricken messenger. The first messenger told how the wild marauders of the desert had carried off Job’s oxen, and slain the herdsmen. The second told how the lightning had blasted all Job’s sheep, and reduced the shepherds to ghastly cinders. The third recounted the theft of Job’s camels by a band of Chaldxan robbers. The fourth, pale with grief, related how a sudden storm had beaten down the house where Job’s children were assembled, and buried the gay company beneath the ruins. Job, broken-hearted but uncomplaining, shaved his head in token of sorrow, bent humbly to the ground, and ^said that, as he had come naked into the world, it was but just that he should leave it naked and unpossessed of anything to call his own. Again Satan presented himself at the court, and he obtained leave to smite Job’s body with a foul disease. Even though his wife tempted him, he would not even then, prostrate and wretched as he was, renounce his fidelity to God. Ere long his three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, came to console him. At first, however, an interval of silence occurred. Seated on the earth, they waited for seven days before he uttered a word in their sympathetic ears. Thus far (t.e., to the end of the second chapter of the book of Job) the story runs in prose. A long poem follows. If, for reasons which will appear later, we put aside the poem as not part and parcel of the original folk-tale, we arrive at the closing verses of the book—viz., at verse 7 of the forty-second chapter. The prose legend tells nothing of what passed between the moment when Job broke silence and the happy moment of his restoration. We can infer that a conversation had taken place on the subject of Job’s trials, and that God ♦ approved of Job’s speeches and disapproved of the utter­

ances of the three friends, for the Lord says to Eliphaz:

“ My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends, for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.” They had, therefore, to purge their foolishness away by sacrifice, while faithful Job received back a double measure of wealth—people heaped up gifts of money and jewels before him, his herds numbered twice as many as before, and there were born to him seven sons and three daughters, and he lived to a very advanced age.

Now, this old Syrian tale appears to have been picked up by

AN UNKNOWN POET,

who, taking the tribulation of Job as his starting-point, composed, in magnificent verse, a dialogue in which he discussed the problem,

“ WHY SHOULD A RIGHTEOUS MAN SUFFER PAIN ?” It was in much the same way that Goethe gave a new and sublime meaning to the legend of Doctor Faustus. The poet took no particular care to make the plan of his poem fit in with the incidents of the peasants’ tale. In the old legend of Job the patriarch bore all his sorrows patiently, and he spoke so wisely and his friends so foolishly that God praised him and condemned them. But in the poem Job breathes the most daring defiance against God, and loudly declares that God treats him with cruelty and injustice, while his three companions (no longer friends) load him with sneers and reproaches, and defend the action of the Almighty. And it is remarkable that, according to one version of xix. 17, his own children are represented as turning their backs upon him, though the Prologue, or opening portion, has already described how all his children met a violent death.

Another important point relates to the corruption of the text of the poem. All the verses did not proceed from the same author. As originally penned the poem appeared so presumptuous and sceptical that some pious scribe tried to tone it down by adding a considerable portion, and introducing a new character. This new personage was

THE YOUNG CRITIC, ELI HU,

and the scene which brings him on the stage begins in chap, xxxii., and extends to the end of chap, xxxvii. These are the opening words: “ Then was kindled the wrath of Elihu....... because Job justified himself rather than God. Also against his three friends was his wrath kindled, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job.” Now, this Elihu is not named in the Prologue or the Epilogue ; his speech contains no new arguments; its style differs from that of the rest of the poem ; and if we take Elihu’s remarks out of the book, the plot and the significance remain unaffected.

This is a striking instance of the freedom with which the books of the Bible w’ere treated by even devout and wellmeaning Jews. A volume so composed cannot be regarded as an infallible revelation.

We shall now examine the poem as it stands after striking out the speech of Elihu and certain other interpolations. Our chief guide will be the admirable translation and