578 - Job

Job

By J. Gerald Janzen

Atlanta, John Knox, 1985. 273 Pp. $18.95.

The Book of Job is not primarily a meditation on theodicy. It is not even an extended lament with its patterned movement from lament to praise. No, the Book of Job, according to J. Gerald Janzen in his recent contribution to the Interpretation series of Bible commentaries, is a call and a challenge "to be dust in God's image," to take up the divine image as a creature engaged with the "partly determinate, partly indeterminate character of the world."

With such words, Janzen tackles head on the central dilemma for anyone who would dare to venture a commentary on Job, namely, how to make a book so provocative on a superficial level equally provocative when studied in detail. Janzen does so by casting his net wide from the very beginning. Rather than reading Job solely from the point of view of the question on the human side ("Why do the righteous suffer?"), Janzen proposes a prior and deeper question from the side of God ("Why are the righteous pious?"). A dialectic is thus set rolling which propels the book forward and which finds its focus in the humanity of Job, torn between his creation by God as a creature of dust and his invitation from God to share a vocation of royalty. Job is, therefore, essentially a question posed by God about God which, when shared with Job, establishes a "covenant" of inquiry that challenges the very meaningfulness of life itself.

It is this dialectical perspective that gives to Janzen's commentary both its sense of open inquiry and purposeful direction from beginning to end, such as: (1) when he places this dialectic within the history of religions (refuting two analogous attempts by Jacobsen and Cross), the literature of the Old Testament (Genesis 1, Psalm 8, Second Isaiah, etc.), and, only tangentially, the vocation of Christ and the New Testament (a move regarding which he is justifiably cautious); (2) as he stresses the importance of "form" over "content," arguing for reading the book of Job as a unity which culminates in the "ironical" (a key adjective in Janzen's approach) questions of God in chapters 3 8-4 1; and (3) whenever he grounds his argument in particulars of structure, language, and style, such as his illuminating reading of Job 42:6b as "I repent concerning (versus in) dust and ashes."

580 - Job

However, it must be noted that this same consistently dialectical perspective raises some problems regarding accessibility for this commentary series' targeted audience of preachers and teachers. This is a commentary that demands to be read in full before, it is used in parts. It requires a mastery of the world of Job itself before moving to its implications elsewhere. Furthermore, it assumes the relevance of its material once that is correctly understood, as indicated by Janzen's primary dialogue with the world of scholarship, rhetoric, and poetry versus current issues and movements in the life of church and synagogue.

One could argue that such is the only possible approach to a book which speaks so directly regarding problems, yet so indirectly regarding answers. Certainly it follows Janzen's repeated emphasis on the importance of "implicit" meanings and the task of commentary to position the reader "for ways of entering the text itself." Surely it shall warn us all against any superficial and casual appropriations of the wisdom of Job as we enter the tasks of preaching and teaching with Job in hand. Viewed in this light, Janzen's Job is not only worth the effort, but may well be the best up-to-date commentary on this book available. It expects and demands much of us not only as readers, but as human beings responding to God's challenge "to be dust in the image of God."

RICHARD N. BOYCE

Bedford Presbyterian Church
Bedford, Virginia