Job 9:1; 10:1-9, 16-22

Job Replies: There Is No Mediator

9:1 Then Job answered: (Job 9:1, NRSV)

Job: I Loathe My Life

10:1 “I loathe my life;

I will give free utterance to my complaint;

I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

2 I will say to God, Do not condemn me;

let me know why you contend against me.

3 Does it seem good to you to oppress,

to despise the work of your hands

and favor the schemes of the wicked?

4 Do you have eyes of flesh?

Do you see as humans see?

5 Are your days like the days of mortals,

or your years like human years,

6 that you seek out my iniquity

and search for my sin,

7 although you know that I am not guilty,

and there is no one to deliver out of your hand?

8 Your hands fashioned and made me;

and now you turn and destroy me.

9 Remember that you fashioned me like clay;

and will you turn me to dust again? (Job 10:1-9, NRSV)

16 Bold as a lion you hunt me;

you repeat your exploits against me.

17 You renew your witnesses against me,

and increase your vexation toward me;

you bring fresh troops against me.

18 “Why did you bring me forth from the womb?

Would that I had died before any eye had seen me,

19 and were as though I had not been,

carried from the womb to the grave.

20 Are not the days of my life few?

Let me alone, that I may find a little comfort

21 before I go, never to return,

to the land of gloom and deep darkness,

22 the land of gloom and chaos,

where light is like darkness.” (Job 10:16-20, NRSV)

The following comments are repeated here from September 2, 2006 (Saturday in the week of the Sunday closest to August 24, Year Two):

Job responds to Bildad in chapter 9, speaking of God in the third person (Job 9:3, 4, 5, etc., through vv. 32, 34, 35). But in chapter 10, he is determined to speak directly to God–or to say what he would say to God. So, after saying “I loathe my life” (10:1a), he asserts himself: “I will give free utterance to my complaint,” he says; “I will speak in the bitterness of my soul” (v. 1b, c). The transition to the second person pronoun follows: “I will say to God, Do not condemn me; / let me know why you (2^nd person singular verb forms) contend against me” (v. 2). On the phrase, “I will say to God” (NRSV), Mayer Gruber, following the NJPS 1985, 1999 translation, “I say to God,” says, “This introduces the speech (vv. 2b-22) that Job would like to address to God if indeed Job should be granted a day in court” (The Jewish Study Bible, 2004, pp. 1517-1518 on Job 10:2). Job considers God his Maker, “the work of your hands” (v. 3b, cf. vv. 8-12), but why, he asks, does God “despise” him and “favor the schemes of the wicked?” (v. 3).

Job would ask–in sarcasm, according to Gruber-- if God is really a mere human being. “Do you have eyes of flesh?” asks Job, “Do you see as humans see? / Are your days like the days of mortals, / or your years like human years” (vv. 4-5), which might explain why “you seek out my iniquity / and search for my sin” (v. 6). Gruber says, “Job’s sarcastic accusation here is among the most powerful in the book, demanding that God act like God, and not like a human being” (ibid., on vv. 4-6). God’s apparent seeking out Job’s iniquity, searching for his sin (v. 6), is in spite of his knowledge of Job’s innocence, says Job (v. 7a), but “there is no one to deliver out of your [God’s] hand” (v. 7b). Job returns to the theme that God has made him, but now seeks to destroy him (v. 8). “Remember that you fashioned me like clay,” says Job, “and will you turn me to dust again?” (v. 9). Job alludes to the creation story (Gen. 2:7), and then uses cheese-making imagery to describe God’s forming him, “possibly a metaphor for the formation of the embryo, pictured as a congealing of seminal fluids (cf. Ps. 139:13-16; Wis. 7:2)” (Leong Seow, NOAB, 3^rd ed., 2001, on Job 10:10).

Job continues the account of how God created him “with skin and flesh,” “with bones and sinews” (v. 11), and adds God’s early blessings: “You have granted me life and steadfast love, / and your care has preserved my spirit” (v. 12), but only to follow by accusing God of having a hidden agenda. “Yet these things [Job’s afflictions] you hid in your heart; / I know that this was your purpose” (v. 13). Job can’t win, for if he sins, he will be caught and punished (vv. 14, 15a), but if he is “righteous,” it only leads to disgrace and affliction (v. 15b, c, d). On the face of it the English expression, “Bold as a lion you hunt me”(v. 16a NRSV) seems to mean that God is the lion who hunts Job. Samuel Terrien and Roland E. Murphy say, “He is actually being hounded by God (v. 16)” (NOAB, 2^nd ed., 1994, on Job 10:13-22), but they apparently do not intend this in the sense of Francis Thompson’s poem, “The Hound of Heaven” (http://www.mcs.drexel.edu/~gbrandal/Illum_html/hound.html, accessed again August 29, 2008 [you may have to copy and paste the URL); rather hounding is hostile and aggressive. But a question can be raised whether the lion represents God, or Job. The NJPS 1985, 1999 translation, “It is something to be proud of to hunt me like a lion,” makes Job the lion who is hunted, not God the lion who hunts Job. A text note (a-a) referring to the first seven words says the “meaning of Heb. [is] uncertain.” James L. Crenshaw understands the verse in this way: “Job understands God in terms of ancient Near-Eastern concepts of royal sport. God, the King of Heaven, hunts the vulnerable lion, Job” (The Oxford Bible Commentary, 2001, p. 339 on Job 10:8-22). While Robert L. Alden finds either meaning possible, he adds, “Either God is like a lion stalking Job or God is stalking Job as a hunter would stalk a lion. Either picture could describe the way Job felt. Inevitably he would be trapped” (Job, The New American Commentary, vol. 11 [1993], p. 139 on Job 10:16). The sentence syntax certainly puts the emphasis on the verb “hunt” (yn9d2UcT4, tetsûdēnî). “This coordination [of verbs] without the copula [waw] belongs (as being more vigorous and bolder) rather to poetic or otherwise elevated style” (cf. Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar, edd. E. Kautzsch and A. E. Cowley, 2^nd Engl. ed., 1910, 18^th impression 1985, sec. 120 g, h, pp. 386-7). According to William L. Holladay, the word for “lion” (lHaw1, šachal) means “lion-cub” in Hosea 5:14, which would suggest a weak lion faced by a powerful hunter. But in the Hosea context, God, who “will be like a lion (lHawa, šachal) to Ephraim, / and like a young lion (ryp9K4, kephîr) to the house of Judah,” will be rather ferocious; he “will tear and go away” and “carry off, and no one shall rescue” (Hos. 5:14). God will use “witnesses” against Job, with vexation and “fresh troops” (v. 17). Job again asserts his wish that he had never been born (v. 18a, cf. vv. 3, 8-11), and his preference for having died in the womb (vv. 18b, 19). He would prefer death now (vv. 20-22). “Job again expresses preference for death or nonexistence,” says Seow, with reference to 3:11-22. “Here, however, he describes death in negative terms” (op. cit., on vv. 18-22). Gruber calls it “a description of Sheol, the abode of the dead,” and adds, “His mention of darkness [v. 22] returns to another central image of ch. 3” (op. cit., p. 1518 on vv. 21-22).

Acts 11:1-18

Peter’s Report to the Church at Jerusalem

11:1 Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, 3 saying, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?” 4 Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners; and it came close to me. 6 As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. 7 I also heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’ 8 But I replied, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ 9 But a second time the voice answered from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’ 10 This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven. 11 At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were. 12 The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. 13 He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; 14 he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.’ 15 And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. 16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?” 18 When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, “Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.” (Acts 11:1-18, NRSV)

On July 14, 2007 (Saturday in the week of the Sunday closest to July 6, Year One), comments were repeated with editing and supplement from September 2, 2006 (Saturday in the week of the Sunday closest to August 24, Year Two), when they were repeated from July 9, 2005 (Saturday of the week of the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, Year One). The revised comments are repeated again here with editing and supplement.

When Peter returns to Jerusalem, he is asked to explain his actions with respect to Cornelius. “Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God” (Acts 11:1). Peter encounters some opposition from “some uncircumcised believers” (v. 2), whose question focuses on the Jewish food laws (kosher food): “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?” (Acts 11:3), one of the issues when Jews and Gentiles eat together. Peter responds with a detailed, but abbreviated, summary of chapter 10. He mentions his vision at Joppa (v. 5), the various animals lowered on the sheet (vv. 5-6), the voice from heaven commanding him to “kill and eat” (v. 7), and, when he had protested (v. 8), the voice’s second statement, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane” (v. 9). Peter tells how the vision was repeated three times (v. 10) and its coincidence with the arrival of the messengers from Caesarea (v. 11). “The Spirit told me to go with then,” says Peter, “and not to make a distinction between them and us” (v. 12a).

Peter reports that, in response to the Spirit’s direction, “these six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house [i.e., the house of Cornelius]” (v. 12b). According to Christopher R. Matthews, “six replaces ‘some’ in 10:23” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., 2001, on Acts 11:12). Peter says that Cornelius told them his vision. “He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved’ ” (vv. 13-14).

The climax of Peter’s report to the Jerusalem believers comes as he reports the “Gentile Pentecost.” “And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning” (v. 15; cf. 2:4). Peter remembers “the word of the Lord, how he had said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit’ ” (v. 16), and he accepts this as God’s action, “If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?” (v. 17). His questioners “were silenced,” and acknowledged God’s action, “Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life” (v. 18). Were they convinced? We learn from Paul that, though Peter ate with Jews at Antioch, he withdrew from such table fellowship when “certain people came from James” (Gal. 2:12). Peter probably thought he was respecting the scruples of “circumcised believers” from Jerusalem, but Paul scolded him, better, rebuked him, for hypocrisy (Gal. 2:13), for “not acting consistently with the truth of the gospel” (v. 14). But though Luke includes Peter’s critics’ question and its focus on the kosher food laws, for him the significant point is the gift of the baptism with the Holy Spirit given equally to Jewish and Gentile Christian believers (Acts 11:16-17), which Peter repeats again at the Jerusalem Conference (Acts 15:8-9).

John 8:12-20

Jesus the Light of the World

12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” 13 Then the Pharisees said to him, “You are testifying on your own behalf; your testimony is not valid.” 14 Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid because I know where I have come from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. 15 You judge by human standards; I judge no one. 16 Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is valid; for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. 17 In your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is valid. 18 I testify on my own behalf, and the Father who sent me testifies on my behalf.” 19 Then they said to him, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” 20 He spoke these words while he was teaching in the treasury of the temple, but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come. (John 8:12-20, NRSV)

On August 26, 2007 (the Sunday closest to August 24, Year One), comments were repeated from March 14, 2007 (Wednesday in the week of the Third Sunday of Lent, Year One), when comments were combined from December 31, 2004, from March 2, 2005 (Wednesday of the week of the Third Sunday of Lent, Year One), from August 21, 2005 (the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year One), from February 8, 2006 (Wednesday in the week of the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year Two), and from September 2, 2006 (Saturday in the week of the Sunday closest to August 24, Year Two). The combined comments are repeated here with some further editing::

In John's Gospel, the occasion of Succoth (the Feast of Tabernacles), which featured the drawing and pouring out of water, provides a setting for Jesus claim, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, 'Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water'" (Jn. 7:37-38). As discussion and debate with Pharisees continues, the emphasis upon light, "I am the light of the world" (8:12), leads to the healing of the blind man (chap. 9), with its question about who was really blind, the blind man whom Jesus healed, or the unbelieving Pharisees (9:40-41). And the Feast of Dedication (10:22), which we know as Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, continues the reference to "light." The Feeding of the 5000 in John, chapter six, followed by Jesus' claim, "I am the bread of life" (6:35) and comparison with the "manna in the wilderness" (v. 49) reminds some of the Christian Eucharist and associations with the Passover. But the reference to Moses (v. 32) suggests an association with Shavuot (the Feast of Weeks, remembered by Christians as Pentecost), at which Jews celebrate the giving of Torah:

Shavuot is the holiday Jews universally accept as the day when G-d gave the Jewish people the Torah following Moses’ descent from Mount Sinai. However, nowhere in the Torah is the holiday of Shavuot actually linked to Matan Torah, the giving of the Torah. (“History and Origin of Shavuot,” on the Internet at http://www.netglimse.com/holidays/shavuot/history_and_origin_of_shavuot.shtml, accessed again August 29, 2008 [address changed from March 11, 2007]–Copy and paste the URL).

John's Gospel seems to progress through the Jewish calendar: Passover and/or Shavuot (chap. 6), Sukkoth (chap. 7), discussion of light and blindness (chaps. 8, 9), Hanukkah (chap. 10), and Passover again, in relation to the Christian Holy Week. Jesus uses these connections to present himself as the one sent by the Father (8:16). "If you knew me, you would know my Father also" (8:19).

According to Rabbinic tradition, a part of the celebration of bet hashshoebah was a ceremony of lights–torches carried in an evening procession to the temple–which would light up the city. Jesus thus claims to be the true light, the fulfilment of that aspect of the Feast of Tabernacles. This is one aspect of the presentation of his divinity in John’s Gospel, and the point of contention in the “testimony” which the Pharisees claim “is not valid” (v. 13). Jesus says that his claims have the testimony of two witnesses (v. 17; cf. Deut. 19:15). Moreover, merely human testimony would be invalid; Jesus comes from above (v. 14; cf. 3:31-33). “He alone knows who he is (Obery M. Hendricks, Jr., NOAB, 3^rd ed., 2001, on Jn. 8:13-18). So the testimony that counts is his own and that of “the Father who sent me” (vv. 16, 18).

The Mishnah’s description of celebration at the Festival of Tabernacles continues with the playing of instruments (harps, lyres, cymbals, trumpets, and other musical instruments) by Levites standing on the steps which go down from the Israelites’ court to the women’s court, singing the “fifteen Songs of Ascents which are in the Book of Psalms,” followed by sustained shofar blasts. (People of Houston may be reminded of the annual but brief “Lighting of Houston” celebration in November.)

5:1 A. Flute playing is for five or six days;

B. This refers to the flute playing on bet hashshoebah.

C. which overrides the restrictions of neither the Sabbath nor of a festival day.

D. They said: Anyone who has not seen the rejoicing of bet hashshoebah in his life has never seen rejoicing.

5:2 A. At the end of the first festival day of the Festival [the priests and Levites] went down to the women’s courtyard.

B. And they made a major enactment [by putting men below and women above],

C. And there were golden candleholders there, with four gold bowls on their tops, and four ladders for each candlestick.

D. And four young priests with jars of oil containing a hundred and twenty logs [i.e., about 40 liters], [would climb up the ladders and] pour [the oil] into each bowl.

5:3 A. Out of the worn-out undergarments and girdles of the priests they made wicks,

B. and with them they lit the candlesticks.

C. And there was not a courtyard in Jerusalem which was not lit up from the light of bet hashshoebah.

5:4 A. The pious men and wonder workers would dance before them with flaming torches in their hand.

B. and they would sing before them songs and praises. (Mishnah, Sukkah 5:1-4, trans. Jacob Neusner, 1988, pp. 288-289)

The Gospel of John continues in 8:12 within the context of the Festival of Tabernacles (following the story of the Woman taken in Adultery, 7:53-8:11). If the people of Jerusalem celebrated in the manner described in the passage from the Mishnah cited above, lighting up every “courtyard in Jerusalem,” that is, lighting up their “world,” then it was very bold of Jesus to assert, “I am the light of the world” (Jn. 8:12). But it fits with earlier claims made for Jesus, and by Jesus, in the Gospel of John. “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life. As before, Jesus’ claim is disputed by the Pharisees: “You are testifying on your own behalf; your testimony is not valid” (Jn. 8:13), an objection which was anticipated by Jesus already in 5:31-47. In chapter eight Jesus claims the testimony of two witnesses, that of himself and that of his Father (8:18), citing the validity of the testimony of two witnesses (v. 17, referring to Deut. 19:15). The lighting up of Jerusalem was apparently glorious for a time, but as with our holidays, over all too soon. But Jesus remains as the light of the world.

Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.

rdworden@hgst.edu

deanworden@comcast.net