How to Cite
Abstract
Research on the intertextual relations between Job 3 and Gen 1:1-2:4a (undertaken by Michael Fishbane, Leo Perdue, Samuel Balentine and others) has demonstrated the likely presence of conspicuous parallels between the two texts. However, the rhetorical function of these connections remains an unsolved problem. This article’s reassessment of the lexical, motivic and structural parallels as well as the comparison of Job 3 with Jer 20:14-18 attempts to show that not only does Job’s soliloquy refer to the priestly creation hymn by means of allusive irony to facilitate a critical engagement with the Torah. Also, the same rhetorical device is used in Yhwh’s first speech (Job 38-39) which in turn alludes to Job 3 and is understood as ironically reversing Job’s allusive curse and lament. Based on these findings we may conclude that Job is ultimately defeated by Yhwh with his own arguments, yet not in a harsh, but rather in a soft and mitigative way.
References
Albright, William F. “Rezension Gustav Hölscher: Das Buch Hiob (1937).†Journal of Biblical Literature 57 (1938): 227-228.
Balentine, Samuel E. “Job and the Priests: ‘He Leads Priests Away Stripped’ (Job 12:19).†Pages 42-53 in Reading Job Intertextually. Edited by Katharine J. Dell and Will Kynes. LHB 574. New York: T & T Clark, 2012.
Balentine, Samuel E. Job. Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary 10. Macon: Smyth & Helwys, 2006.
Barbiero, Gianni. “The Structure of Job 3.†Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 127 (2015): 43-62.
Beyer, Andrea. “Hiobs Widerworte. Die Querbezüge zwischen Ijob 3,3-9 und Gen 1,1-2,4a.†BZ 55 (2011): 95-102. https://doi.org/10.1163/25890468-055-01-900000 07.
Clines, David J. Job 1-20. WBC 17. Waco: Word Books, 1989.
Dell, Katharine J., and Will Kynes, eds. Reading Job Intertextually. LHB 574. New York: T & T Clark, 2012.
Engljähringer, Klaudia. Theologie im Streitgespräch: Studien zur Dynamik der Dialoge des Buches Ijob. SBS 198. Stuttgart, 2003.
Fishbane, Michael. “Jeremiah IV 23-26 and Job III 3-13: A Recovered Use of the Creation Pattern.†Vetus Testamentum 21 (1971): 151-167. https://doi.org/10. 1163/156853371x 00029.
Fuchs, Gisela. “Die Klage des Propheten: Beobachtungen zu den Konfessionen Jeremias im Vergleich mit den Klagen Hiobs. Erster Teil.†Biblische Zeitschrift 41 (1997): 212-228.
Greenstein, Edward L. “Jeremiah as an Inspiration to the Poet of Job.†Pages 98-110 in Inspired Speech: Prophecy in the Ancient Near East. Essays in Honour of Herbert B. Huffmon. Edited by John Kaltner and Louis Stulman. JSOT.S 378. London: T & T Clark, 2004.
Habel, Norman C. The Book of Job: A Commentary. OTL. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1985.
Hermisson, Hans-Jürgen. “Notizen zu Hiob.†Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche 86 (1989): 125-139.
Homer. Iliad: Translated by Augustus T. Murray and William F. Wyatt. Loeb Classical Library 170. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1924. https://doi.org/10.4159 /dlcl.homer-iliad.1924.
Hutcheon, Linda. A Theory of Parody: The Teachings of Twentieth-Century Art Forms, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000.
Janzen, John G. “The Place of the Book of Job in the History of Israel’s Religion.†Pages 523-537 in Ancient Israelite Religion: Essays in Honor of Frank Moore Cross. Edited by Patrick D. Miller and Frank M. Cross. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1987.
Janzen, John G. Job. Interpretation. A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1985.
Keel, Othmar. Jahwes Entgegnung an Ijob: Eine Deutung von Ijob 38–41 vor dem Hintergrund der zeitgenössischen Bildkunst. FRLANT 121. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1978. https://doi.org/10.13109/9783666532825.
Knox, Dilwyn. Ironia: Medieval and Renaissance Ideas on Irony. Columbia Studies in the Classical Tradition 16. New York: Brill, 1989.
Köhlmoos, Melanie. Das Auge Gottes: Textstrategie im Hiobbuch. FAT 25. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1999.
Kwon, JiSeong J. “Divergence of the Book of Job from Deuteronomic/Priestly Torah: Intertextual Reading between Job and Torah.†Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament 32 (2018): 49-71. https://doi.org/10.1080/09018328.2017.1376522.
Kwon, JiSeong J. Scribal Culture and Intertextuality: Literary and Historical Relationships between Job and Deutero-Isaiah. FAT II 85. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2016.
Muecke, Douglas, C. Irony and the Ironic. The Critical Idiom 13. London: Methuen, 1982.
Lapp, Edgar. Linguistik der Ironie. 2nd Edition. TBL 369. Tübingen: Narr, 1997.
Lausberg, Heinrich. Handbuch der literarischen Rhetorik: Eine Grundlegung der Literaturwissenschaft. 4th Edition. Philologie. Stuttgart: Steiner, 2008.
Müller, Marika. Die Ironie: Kulturgeschichte und Textgestalt. Epistemata. Reihe Literaturwissenschaft 142. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 1995.
Müller, Wolfgang G. “Ironie, Lüge, Simulation, Dissimulation und verwandte rhetorische Termini.†Pages 189-208 in Zur Terminologie der Literaturwissenschaft: Akten des IX. Germanistischen Symposions der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft, Würzburg 1986. Edited by Christian Wagenknecht. Germanistische Symposien, Berichtsbände 9. Stuttgart: Metzler, 1989.
Nünlist, René. “Rhetorische Ironie – Dramatische Ironie. Definitions- und Interpretationsprobleme.†Pages 67-87 in Zwischen Tradition und Innovation: Poetische Verfahren im Spannungsfeld Klassischer und Neuerer Literatur und Literaturwissenschaft. Edited by Jürgen P. Schwindt. München: Saur, 2000. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110958294-005.
Perdue, Leo G. “Job’s Assault on Creation.†Hebrew Annual Review 10 (1986): 295-315.
Perdue, Leo G. “Metaphorical Theology in the Book of Job: Theological Anthropology in the First Cycle of Job’s Speeches (Job 3; 6–7; 9–10).†Pages 129-156 in The Book of Job. Edited by Willem A. M. Beuken. BETL 114. Leuven: University Press, 1994.
Perdue, Leo G. Wisdom in Revolt: Metaphorical Theology in the Book of Job. BiLiSe 29. Sheffield: Almond Press, 1991.
Pettys, Valerie F. “Let there be Darkness: Continuity and Discontinuity in the ‘Curse’ of Job 3.†Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 26 (2002): 89-104.
Pyeon, Yohan. You Have Not Spoken What Is Right About Me: Intertextuality and the Book of Job. StBibLit 45. New York: Peter Lang, 2003.
Schmid, Konrad. “Innerbiblische Schriftdiskussion im Hiobbuch.†Pages 241-261 in Das Buch Hiob und seine Interpretationen: Beiträge zum Hiob-Symposium auf dem Monte Veritá vom 14.–19. August 2005. Edited by Thomas Krüger et al. AThANT 88. Zürich: TVZ, 2007.
Schoentjes, Pierre. Poétique de l'ironie. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 2001.
Schwienhorst-Schönberger, Ludger. Ein Weg durch das Leid: Das Buch Ijob. Freiburg i.Br.: Herder, 2007.
Seow, Choon L. Job 1–21: Interpretation and Commentary. Illuminations. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013.
Sperber, Dan. “Verbal Irony: Pretence or Echoic Mention?†Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 113 (1984): 130-136. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.11 3.1.130.
Van der Lugt, Pieter. Rhetorical Criticism and the Poetry of the Book of Job. Oudtestamentische Studiën 32. Leiden: Brill, 1995.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).