Book Of Job Rhetorical Analysis

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an end to Job's suffering, a painless journey to the sweet relief of heaven. This is certainly something Job himself desired of the Lord. It's not uncommon to find raw, honest, expressions of grief spilled on the pages of the Bible. Yet we celebrate David, Moses, Jeremiah, and even Job as being authentic and honest, but heap judgment on Job's wife for similar expressions.

Job's response is fascinating. He carefully listens and watches his beloved wife shrink under the weight of their shared hardships. I imagine Job lifts his blistered hand and strokes her hair. At first, his words read like a harsh rebuke: "You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?" (Job 2:10). Yet, if you listen to Job, you almost hear admiration. "You speak as one of the foolish women." He didn't say his wife was foolish. He didn't even say her words were foolish. He said, "She sounds like one of the foolish women." In other words, "You don't sound like yourself." You might read these words like …show more content…

This Catholic exegesis is based on the “Commentary on the Book of Job” by Thomas Aquinas (http://dhspriory.org/thomas/SSJob.htm) and more particularly on “The Catholic Encyclopedia” (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08413a.htm). Thomas Aquinas is considered the Catholic Church's greatest theologian and philosopher, and “The Catholic Encyclopedia”, as its name implies, provides authoritative information on Catholic doctrine. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops (http://www.usccb.org/bible/job/0) tells us that, “The Book of Job, named after its protagonist is an exquisite dramatic treatment of the problem of the suffering of the innocent. The contents of the book, together with its artistic structure and elegant style, place it among the literary masterpieces of all time. This is a literary composition, and not a transcript of historical events and

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