Reading: Footnotes for Communicating the Book of Job ...

I John C. Holbert, Preaching Job, Preaching Classic Texts (St. Louis: Chalice, 1999), 149 observes: "The collectors of the Revised Common Lectionary have a neat solution for the would-be preacher of the book of Job. In four successive Sundays in year B--during "ordinary time" of course-the preacher is given the opportunity to tackle Job. She is to use the prologue (chaps. 1-2) on Sunday 1, one speech of Job's from chapter 23 on Sunday 2, a bit of God's first speech on Sunday 3 (chap. 38), and Job's final response and his restoration by God on Sunday 4. 

        To reduce Job to this sort of Reader's Digest version is sure to distort its meaning and to tame its anger effectively enough to make its impact minimal and those summer Sundays appropriately innocuous. Best stick with the gospel reading, I suppose:'

2 Greg W. Parsons, "Guidelines for Understanding and Proclaiming the Book of Job;' BSac 151 (1994): 393 notes, "Job has often been presented as a model for modern-day believers to 'be patient' in the midst of trials.  However, few expositors delve into the complex dialogue between Job and his friends. Preachers tend to skip over  Job's cursing of the day of his birth (chap. 3), the intricate and often argumentative interaction between Job and his friends (chaps. 4-27), and other hard-to-understand passages. Sermons or lessons have mainly focused on Job's idealized faith and patience epitomized in the famous verse, 19:25. Yet this image of Job is a distortion of the  overall story presented in the Book of Job:'

J M. Vernon Davis, "Preaching from Job;' SwJT 14 (1971): 65-76; Clyde T. Francisco, "A Teaching Outline of  the Book of Job," RevExp 68 (1971): 511-20; John Holbert, "The Book ofJob and the Task of Preaching, Journal for Preachers 13 (1990): 13-22; Joan Penzenstadler, "Teaching the Book of Job with a View to Human Wholeness;'  RelEd89 (1994): 223-31; Parsons, "Guidelines for Understanding and Proclaiming the Book of Job," 393-413; C. F.
Melchert, "The Book of Job: Education Through and by Diversity;' RelEd92 (1997) 9-23; and Samuel E. Balentine,  "Preaching Job's God;' Journalfor Preachers 36 (2013): 22-27. In James L. Crenshaw, Reading Job: A Literary and Theological Commentary, Reading the Old Testament (Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys, 2011) the author concludes with a brief, two-page postscript entitled "Why Read Job Today?" in which he offers the tentative statement that
Job speaks to the tragedies and dilemmas of life today.

4 Holbert, Preaching Job.

S David R. Jackson, Crying Out for Vindication: The Gospel according to Job, The Gospel according to the Old Testament (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian & Reformed, 2007), 3-11; Christopher Ash, Job: The Wisdom of the Cross, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014), 17-23; and especially Lindsay Wilson, Job, The Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015), whose insightful section on Job and
Theology (pp. 291-382) explores how the book is situated within biblical theology, systematic theology, moral theology, and practical theology. These recent treatments of the book of Job raise the broader question of the extent to which Job as an Old Testament text can be read appropriately through a Christological lens. Elsewhere in this issue of Themelios, I address this question as it pertains to the Song of Songs in my review of two newly- released commentaries on that book. In brief, I maintain that the exegetical meaning of the biblical text is properly connected with its theological significance, but the two must not be conflated. There is always the danger that the reader will suppose that what he or she sees in the text is its intended meaning, when in reality what is seen could be better explained by the theological or ideological lens through which the reader is viewing the Scripture.

6 David 1. A. Clines, "Why is There a Book of Job, and What Does it Do to You if You Read It?" in The Book of
Job, ed. W. A. M. Beuken, BETL 114 (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1994), IS.

7 Francisco, "A Teaching Outline of the Book of Job," RevExp 68 (1971): 511.

s J. P. Fokkelman, Reading Biblical Poetry: An Introductory Guide (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2001), 177-88 provides an insightful entree into the poetry of Job.

"William P. Brown, "Introducing Job: A Journey of Transformation;' Int 53 (1999): 228.

10 Tryggve N. D. Mettinger, "Intertextuality: Allusion and Vertical Context Systems in Some Job Passages;' in Of Prophets' Visions and the Wisdom of Sages, ed. Heather A. McKay and David 1. A. Clines; JSOTSup 162 (Shef- field: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993),274.

II Cf. Gary V. Smith, "Is There a Place for Job's Wisdom in Old Testament Theologyr," T J 13 (1992): 3-20.

12 Katherine J. Dell, "Does God Behave Unethically in the Book of Job?" in Ethical and Unethical in the Old Testament. God and Humans in Dialogue, ed. Katharine J. Dell, LHB/OTS 528 (New York: T&T Clark, 2010),
170-86.

13 David J. A. Clines, Job 38-42, WEC 18B (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2011), 1377-1464; C. L. Seow, Job 1-21: interpretation and Commentary, Illuminations (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013),153--66,232-42.

14 Samuel Balentine, Job, SHBC 10 (Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys, 2006), 23.

1; Archibald MacLeish, J B.: A Play in Verse (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1958); Harold S. Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People (New York: Aron, 1981).

16 MacLeish details his view of the book of Job in his sermon, "God Has Need of Man;' in Nahum N. Glatzer, The Dimensions of Job: A Study and Selected Readings (New York: Schocken Books, 1969),278-86.

17 David C. Tollerton, "Reading Job as Theological Disruption for a Post-Holocaust World;' JTI3 (2009): 197- 212.

18 James M. Gustafson, ''A Response to the Book of Job;' in The Voice From the Whirlwind: Interpreting the Book a/Job, ed. Leo G. Perdue and W. Clark Gilpin (Nashville: Abingdon, 1992),172-73.

19 Sybil Mary Schreiber, An Introduction to Literary Criticism (Oxford: Pergamon, 1965),25.
20 Davis, "Preaching from Job;' 66.

21 Parsons, "Guidelines for Understanding and Proclaiming the Book of Job;' 394.

22 Philip Yancey, Disappointment with God (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1988),29-30.

23 Elliot W. Eisner, The Educational Imagination. On the Design and Evaluation of School Programs, 2nd ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1985),97.

24Cf. Daniel 1. Estes, "Job 28 in its Literary Context;' JESOT2.2 (2013): 151-64.
" Brown, "Introducing Job: A Journey of Transformation;' Int 53 (1999): 229.

26 Holbert, Preaching Job, 162.