Aim: How does the “Book of Job” structuralize and shape Western philosophy?
Write Now: What lessons and morals can be evoked from “The Book of Job”?
- Katherine wrote, “Humans are one small part of the bigger picture that God created but they are too arrogant in thinking they are the most important.”
- Gautaman wrote, “You may not know why you suffer but you should still trust in God.”
After we watched a short video summarizing the Book of Job
The Bible as Literature
Biblical Allusion: An allusion is a reference to another text, event, work of art, etc. A biblical allusion is an image or reference from the Bible in everyday language or literature.
Examples: having the “patience of Job”, or the “wisdom of Solomon” or the desire for “forbidden fruit”
“Man of woman born”- A line Shakespeare used from the Book of Job and put into Macbeth.
The Place of Job in the Old Testament
Summary of the first five books
- Job- How to suffer
- Psalms- How to pray
- Proverbs- How to act
- Ecclesiastes- How to enjoy
- Song of Solomon- How to love
Old Testament
- Monotheistic
- God is omniscient (all knowing), omnipotent (all powerful) and omnipresent (all present)
- He knows all of what was, what is and what will be —> has infinite wisdom
- Created people with free will
Whole- Class Discussion
Consider Satan's accusations to God concerning Job: Does Job fear God for nothing? Explain what Satan is trying to prove.
Mrs. Fusaro brought up how there is a modern misinterpretation of Satan.
Today we see Satan as a demon who raises hell however he wasn’t originally crafted to be like that. He is an archangel and his main role is to be the opposer, the questioner, and the tempter. He portrays aspects of us and how we are supposed to question thing especially when we or others are suffering.
Brian asked the class and Mrs. Fusaro a question about where faith was stronger: If we blindly believe in God or if we question him then choose to believe in him.
Mrs. Fusaro related this to a math problem. In one case, a student can just happen to get the answer without knowing why. But in another case, the student can understand the entire process of getting the answer. The difference between them is that in the second case you are understanding and suffering. If we compared it back to religion, through suffering and understanding the process it would make us more faithful in the end.
Sabrina talked about how throughout the entire course so far, a common theme is that suffering is a part of humanity and it is inevitable and we can do nothing about it. What we can do, however, is to question it and question why certain things are happening to us and those around us.
Reflection:
What did I learn?
For today’s lesson, we went over the Book of Job and talked about the lessons that we learned from it. A lesson I learned was that sometimes bad things could happen to good people and that we should question why they may happen. I also learned that compared to the grand scheme of things, we as individuals are pretty insignificant. This is an occurring theme throughout our course. When Dr. Davis came in to talk about the vast universe, we learned that there is so much we still don’t understand about the bigger things that surround us like the solar system and the creation of the universe. This is similar to the book of Job and how we may not always understand God’s wisdom and the things he does in the bigger scheme.
Why did I learn it?
We learned the Book of Job as the start of the Old Testament unit for this course. As we start each new unit, we learn about a different religion/ mythology. This gives us a chance to see how each culture has developed their own ideas and values. It also helps broaden and diversify our modern views. We are also able to compare and contrast different mythology/ religions by noting where certain religions got their influence from or how one is similar to another. For example, before this unit, we watched the Book of the Dead which inspired a lot of aspects of the Bible and the Ten Commandments. Learning about the Book of Job specifically allows us to try to understand human suffering and why it happens.
How will I use what I learned?
As Sabrina said, suffering is apart of humanity and it is impossible to avoid it. In a time where there is so much negativity going on such as all the school shootings, an important part of the suffering process is to raise questions about why we think it’s happening. We need to bring ourselves to be the questioner and the opposer. I also learned that from a religious perspective it is important to put trust in God or to at least trust the process.
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