Book Reviewed: The Book of Job, by Stephen Mitchell

Lessons from the Book of Job

What will happen when bad things happen to a God-fearing Man? The verbal fireworks of the dialogue between Job and his friends and beauty of the poetry on wisdom of the divine speeches are found in the Book of Job. Having lost everything, confused and angry, Job refuses to reject his faith. In order to understand the nature of God, he questions if God make good people suffer and what has he lined up at the end of this. Is he going to bring happiness? Is he testing the individual or it is a fact of life? At the end of this book, we learn that God indeed is benevolent and forgiving. The God Almighty blesses Prophet Job and bestows everlasting happiness in his life. In the process of teaching Job, God reveals that He is Omnipotent. In Job 4:17, we find that "Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his maker? The implication is that God alone can discern morality and goodness in the universe. This idea is reinforced by God's own voice which asks Job "Can thou draw out leviathan with a hook (Job 41) a rhetorical question which serves to demonstrate the almost abject lowliness of a human being when contrasted with the wisdom of God

The author briefly discusses the Hindu holy book of Bhagavadgita and the Book of Job on the Problem of the Self as a matter of academic expediency, since God talk to Arjuna, like he does with Job. In Bhagavadgita, Lord Krishna teaches and mentors Arjuna of his spiritual journey and quest for enlightenment. Krishna first comforts Arjuna by instructing him on the externality of the human soul and helping to stave off Arjuna 's own fear of personal mortality and fighting a war with his own kith and kin. In this story, God stands as a protector of Arjuna and all mortals (1, 2).

The author has translated the book from Hebrew to English with an emphasis on the accuracy and the meaning of the original version of the scripture. The life of Prophet Job dates back to about fifth century B.C., but the earliest Hebrew manuscript that survived was written some 1500 hundred years later. Through many centuries of or oral and scribal transmission, corruptions have occurred in the Book of Job. To prove this point, the author discusses selected verses such as 5:6-7; 23:13; 39:21, etc.

References:

1. The Bhagavad Gîtâ and the Book of Job on the Problem of the Self, James Norton, East-West Studies on the Problem of the Self, 1968, pp 177-192

2. Dilemma and Resolution in Bhagavad-Gita and Job, Hazel S. Alberson, College English Vol. 18, No. 8 (May, 1957), pp. 406-413