Journey Through Proverbs, Ecclesiastes & Jobਨਮੂਨਾ

The Lament of Job: Behind the Text

You might be surprised to find that a devil like Satan existed in other cultures. We’ll also discover that there were many stories like Job that tried to make sense of innocent suffering.

Ancient Near Eastern Theodicy

Ancient Near Eastern Theodicies

As we’ve mentioned, Job has parallels with other ancient Near Eastern stories. The problem of suffering and divine authority, often termed theodicy, has been a difficult issue in most cultures.

The outline of Job’s treatment of theodicy is presented above, alongside two other ancient Near Eastern texts. Each of these texts addresses the issue of someone enduring great suffering and grappling with deep theological questions.

Read the table below and then answer the questions in the following exercise.

1. What do these three pieces of literature have in common in terms of the sufferer’s status and condition? What does this show about the concerns and fears of people at that time?

2. How is Job unique from the other two in terms of the resolution and explanation?