Wednesday Bible Study: A little literary history

In Ch. 24, Job laments the wickedness of many humans and the seeming indifference of God to the fate of the good versus the wicked. In the mercifully short Ch. 25, Bildad again tries to blame Job for his own fate. While we continue to wade through this interminable rich purple poetry, I ' ll at least try to entertain you with a bit of speculation about the origin of this story. Job was probably written in its present form in the 6th Century BCE, or perhaps a bit later. A Sumerian work dated around 1,700 BCE, usually called in English the Poem of the Righteous sufferer, tells a similar story, far more briefly, of a man who maintains his faith in God -- in this case Marduk, one of a pantheon -- although God has seemingly abandoned him.A lengthier version was composed in Babylon in the 11th Century BCE, with the title Ludlul-Bel-Nemequiwhich means  " I will praise the Lord of wisdom " although it is usually also called Poem of the Righteous Sufferer in English. Here ' s a summary:The poem begins with the speaker lamenting his suffering as he cries out for help from his god (Marduk) and receives no answer. His personal goddess is also silent, and the seers he consults offer no hope. He compares himself to one who suffers because of ingratitude toward the gods ( " Like one who the sacrifice to god did not bring " , line 12) but maintains he has always " thought of prayers and supplications " and how " honoring the gods was the joy of my heart " (lines 23 and 25). At...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs