Commentary on Job 1 part 1/19

HYPOTHESIS. Many opinions have occurred to the older [scholars] concerning the writing before us.

For some, defending the man beyond measure, say that since he lived before grace and hoped for nothing after this life, when he was deprived of the visible happiness of wealth and children, and was clothed with an incurable disease, he was understandably distressed.

For being conscious of no wrong in himself, and thinking that he was suffering unjustly, he was troubled.

And he uttered no blasphemy against God, which was above all what the devil was eager for;

however, he did not keep the utmost reverence toward God, in that he disputed at all about his providence—why God did not preserve for him what was due in judgment, but allowed him to be afflicted beyond his desert, and why he did not deem him worthy of loving-kindness, if indeed he had seen wickedness in him.

Those who say these things, then, do not grant to righteous Job perfect virtue, but say that Job became for us a good example, having contended thus before grace, so that we who have enjoyed grace might henceforth journey toward more perfect things, keeping in mind the saying of the most divine Paul, who said to those who dispute the divine judgments:

'O man, who indeed are you who answer back to God? Shall the thing formed say to him who formed it,'

'Why have you made me thus?' These, then, are the views of these men.

Others have dared to say that while the contest concerning Job is true, the writing is not among the divinely inspired books, but that some man learned in the oracles of the Hebrews, making a display of divine instruction, having received by hearsay the events concerning the righteous man, composed the book, and that whatever harsher-seeming words are attributed to the righteous man are the faults of the author;

for Job did not utter these things.

They say further that the author fabricated for himself both the speech of God and the sea-monster, and throughout, quite simply, they ridiculed the writing as being fabricated and composed from human invention.

Others did not say these things, but slandered the marvelous Seventy men who translated what was written from the Hebrew tongue into Greek.

For, they say, not having understood the Hebrew well, but having been led astray in many places by the equivocation of words, they rendered one thing in place of another.

And those who said these things, having been persuaded by a certain Hebrew who attempted to undermine and dissolve the translation of the Seventy, inserted other words into the composition in place of what was written.

Others accepted the writing as being divinely inspired, but strongly disparaged the friends of Job, saying that they were envious men and that it was out of envy that they thus attacked Job.

Others, setting aside what is written historically, turned almost all the statements into allegories.

These, then, are the views concerning the composition of the book.

Concerning the man himself they disagreed no less, some saying that he lived before the Law, others after the Law, while still others say that he lived even in the very times of the kings of Judah and Israel.

But I, obeying God, who ranked this man together with the righteous and with the prophets, and who said concerning him through the God-bearing mouth of the prophet Ezekiel:

'Even if Noah and Job and Daniel should stand there, they would by no means deliver their sons and their daughters'—and obeying also him who says:

'You have heard of the patience of Job, and you have seen the end of the Lord'—I am persuaded that the man was someone marvelous and apostolic, and that he was deemed worthy of prophetic grace, whether even before his wrestlings or in the very midst of his contests;

for indeed nothing of exactness was lacking to him.

He was, then, perfect in virtue and worthy of God's testimony,

following the apostles and our most holy fathers, who, having received the book from the apostles, listed it as issued according to the translation of the Seventy among the canonical books of divinely inspired Scripture—I say that the writing was not composed from human invention, but I affirm also that the Seventy, guided by the Holy Spirit and having well understood the Hebrew, translated this very book and all the books of the Old Testament into the Greek tongue before the Lord's coming, in the time of the Ptolemies who reigned over Egypt, God having so arranged it, lest anyone say that the Seventy translated the scriptures thus as a favor granted to Christians.

And the rest of the translators, having lived after the coming and not being Christians, made their translation according to their own private purpose, each one for himself, as they wished;

but these translated both before the coming and separately, having been divided by Ptolemy into pairs, and they all agreed with one another as though speaking with a single tongue, having made their rendering of the Hebrew neither out of favor nor out of hostility toward anyone.

For this reason, since it is beyond suspicion and was issued in truth by many elders of Israel, the divine apostles, the mystagogues of truth, have handed it down to the Church, so that the misinterpretations of the fable-telling Hebrews are superfluous.

For even if, rarely, we make use of some expression found among the other translators, we do this for the sake of clarity alone, yet we proceed in accordance with the very same meanings;

it is like hearing among the Greeks the oarsmen called 'eretai,' and since the hearers do not know who the 'eretai' are, we say to them that these are the 'rowers.'

Thus also, if we find in the Seventy a rather unclear expression stated more clearly by the other translators, we make use of the clearer one for the sake of clarity.

For we do not say that those translators translated better than these;

for this would be altogether senseless, and an undertaking of Jewish or even Samaritan audacity.

These, then, are our views concerning the most manly Job and the writing, all of which we accept together with what is written at the end, in which also the genealogy of Job is contained, through which it is shown that he lived before the Law.

For the Church has received the whole writing, thus written, from of old from the apostles.

And I am persuaded also that his friends were righteous;

for it was not fitting that the righteous man should possess friends who were not righteous;

but since he was a great athlete, and the devil, ruler of the apostate powers, came down himself to the contest, God, who proclaims his own crowned victors, permitted the righteous man to suffer all things and to bear all the blows of the enemy, so that no pretext might be left to him.

Therefore, in addition to all his sufferings, his friends also were permitted, instead of the medicine of comfort, to lay upon him words more grievous than his wounds.

And this permission came about in this way:

there are many modes of abandonment: one person suffers because of sin, as that man to whom the Savior said:

'Behold, you have become well; sin no more.' And another suffers so that God may be glorified, as the man blind from birth, concerning whom the Lord again said:

'Neither did this man sin, nor his parents, but that God might be glorified.'

And others suffer according to another dispensation, as the children slain by Herod, and others often, so that they might be checked from an anticipated evil, or so that they might turn from evil to virtue.

And, simply put, the modes of God's providence and of the discipline brought upon us by him are various and many, but all are beneficial and profitable, even if we are ignorant of their reasons.

And one of the modes is this one also, which is brought upon the righteous, so that their hidden virtue may shine forth, and, having been tested like gold in a furnace, they may shine out.

According to this mode, God permitted the great Job, that statue of patience, to be tempted by the devil,

in order that he might be shown to be manly even more conspicuously; but his friends also were ignorant of this.

But when they heard him praying for death—though they ought to have comforted him with other words—they were permitted, as we have already said above, not to do this, but, by a certain misguided sense of righteousness—and perhaps also with the devil secretly sowing this in them—to take up a supposed zeal on behalf of God; and, thinking (what was not true) that it was blasphemy against God for the righteous man to long to be released from the body, having taken up a supposed advocacy on behalf of God, those who came to heal him became more bitter to the righteous man than his sufferings.

That the suspicion was not true is shown by this: it was in his power to lay hands on himself and withdraw from the body, but he did not endure to do this, because of God, who had bound the soul together with the body.

and though he loved death, yet keeping his reverence toward God sincere, even though it was in his power, he did not kill himself.

If, then, anyone has followed in the footsteps of the great Job, and has passed beyond passionate fear, and has attained to perfect love, he knows out of what boldness Job speaks thus, and that he would not have dared to be judged before God unless he had been bound to him by love, and had greatly trusted in the Lord's righteous judgment;

wherefore God also accepted him, knowing from what disposition and what love he uttered his words.

And if anyone has experienced sufferings, he will be especially astonished at the man's philosophy amid his torments.

But now we must proceed to the interpretation of the text.

We shall state both what agrees with the historical sense and what looks toward allegory without in any way doing harm to the history, just as also with the rest of the holy books.

For thus have the fathers taught us: neither to uproot what is written and turn everything into allegory, nor to remain, in Jewish fashion, upon the letter alone, but to dig over and cultivate the intelligible paradise of the divine scriptures, and to assign some things to history and others to contemplation—and especially in the case of the prophets, of whom I consider the most holy Job to be one.

For if the text admits of both, without forcing—both the history and the contemplation—both must be used;

but if it admits of the history alone, let us remain upon the letter;

but if it looks only toward the inner meaning, the discourse must be lifted up into allegory.

Let us proceed, then, as I said, to the very elucidation of the text, having first asked the holy soul of blessed Job to entreat God to grant that we too may say something worthy of the man's greatness of soul.

'There was a certain man in the land of Ausitis, whose name was Job.'

Preliminary consideration of the chapter: Scripture states the name of the righteous man and his land, and outlines the beauty of his soul, thereby securing the hearer in advance, so that he may hear the things said by him according to this preconception of the man, without being at all disturbed, but rather firmly persuaded concerning his righteousness.

Then it says that he was also blessed with many children and fine children, and overflowing with all the things of human happiness.

It teaches also the concord and brotherly love of his children, and the father's care, and his reverence toward God, and with how much diligence he brought up his children, taking great forethought even to wipe away their involuntary sins of thought through sacrifices and supplication to God.

To this day in Arabia both the tomb of the manly Job is visible and the wrestling-ground of the dung-heap, in which he bound on his glorious crowns; and the local inhabitants keep his yearly honors, as certain of the brothers who came to us from there have related.

As for the land of Ausitis, some have said it is that of Sion, others that it is Idumea, others that it lies somewhere between Idumea and Arabia, and others that it is Arabia itself, in which also the tomb of the righteous man lies.

But that he was an Idumean is quite clear from what is written toward the end of the book.

And where he dwelt and where he contended is evident from what is seen even until now.

The land of Ausitis was the land of Esau;

and it means to say what sort of fruit unto piety the land of the profane and lawless man produced.

This land of Ausitis lies on the borders of Judea and Arabia, as Eusebius says that Aristaeus understood it thus in his work Concerning the Jews.

He was true and not feigned, blameless and righteous, in that he justly pursued the just for the sake of the good itself and not for the sake of anything else; and he was pious, since he kept God before his eyes and for this reason abstained from every wicked deed, having the divine law and fear inscribed in his mind according to the natural and primal understanding.

For the written law given through Moses did not yet exist.

It is therefore a marvel that, before the law and before grace, he conducted his life both according to the law and according to the gospel at once, and this while living among foreigners, God, who cares for all alike, having appointed him as a teacher of virtue to the nations round about those regions.

He recounts these things in order to show that, though he possessed such great prosperity, he was not undisciplined, nor was his mind distracted from piety.

1. From this, then, let the rich be instructed not to become insolent through abundance, and let the poor give thanks, whether they never possessed such wealth from the beginning, or possessed it and have fallen into poverty.

And let those who have lost their children be comforted, looking upon the marvelous example of the righteous man.

By "service" he means that rendered through household servants.

For Aquila rendered it "very great slavery."

By "great works" he means the buildings in the fields and in the houses, but especially the works of piety.

Fields of every kind and great plantations.

He says "especially the works of piety," and for this reason the devil could do nothing against such works.

"They used to invite one another in turn," it says, "each on his own day."

For thus Aquila rendered it.

This is a work of brotherly love and concord, and a mark of their father's upbringing.

Most marvelously, of the males he said "going together to one another" (that is, none of them made a choice about precedence, but each considered it the greatest thing to hasten to his brother), while of the females he said "taking along with them."

For they did not require of the women any concern for such matters, but took them along only as partakers of the feast.

And the men busied themselves with this service, while the women were present with their brothers in a dignified manner and without distraction.

And in this too is seen their mutual love: that they kept the women free from distraction.

1. When the cycle of seven days was completed, he offered sacrifice once during the week.

2. And it came to pass, when they were completed...

When the cycle of the seven days was completed.

The phrase "as the days of feasting were completed" means either that on each day he did this, offering the sacrifice on behalf of the day just past, or that after the cycle of seven days he did so once in the week.

The word "he sent" shows the father's diligent care.

For this was not done as a matter of mere formality, but out of watchful concern.

The word "he purified them" refers, it seems, to purifications by water, which men use by nature, and which the Jews use according to the law.

And so he offered the sacrifices on behalf of their well-being, but the calf on behalf of the sins committed in thought.

For he was wary of the disturbance of reasoning that accompanies feasting, and he was eager, by means of sacrifices, to purify the deeds known to God alone, looking to grace and passing beyond the precepts of the law.

Do you see evangelical precision?

For since the law of the gospel commands that one should not commit fornication even in thought, nor be angry without cause, holy Job also propitiated God through sacrifice even for the sins that occurred in the thoughts of his children.

For knowing that their visible deeds were pure, he considered whether there might be some hidden slip within them, and he offered sacrifice on behalf of hidden things, according to the prophet who says:

"Cleanse me from my hidden faults" — that is, from those things that occur through ignorance.

Preliminary consideration of the chapter: The devil, the common evildoer against mankind, unable to bear the righteous man's manly excellence in virtue, and indeed having no authority at all against us — seeing that he did not even have authority over the swine except what he received from the Savior — slanders the righteous man before God, as though he pursued righteousness not for the sake of virtue, but as one bringing a repayment to God for the benefits God had bestowed upon him; for he says:

"Take away his prosperity, and you will see the baseness of his character."

For as soon as his possessions are taken away, he will also utter blasphemy against you to your face.

In view of this, God, knowing the courage of the righteous man's soul, and wishing to proclaim him even more illustrious through his contests, gives the devil authority over Job's possessions.

And he so assailed him with the destruction of his possessions that he thoroughly cut off all his wealth, and left him nothing but messengers, who struck him with successive and most bitter reports of his calamities.

And since children are the most precious possessions of fathers, the devil, finding the excellent band of ten children feasting together, suddenly shook down the whole house upon them all and made their house a common grave for them, rendering the man who had many children childless in a single moment of time.

Then that adamant Job, rendering to nature its due, tore his robe.

And he also shaved his hair in mourning.

Yet he uttered nothing ignoble, nothing unworthy of his own greatness of soul; but immediately, with this final and greatest blow, he let forth those oft-praised words:

"The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away."

"As it seemed good to the Lord, so it has come to pass; blessed be the name of the Lord."

Receiving from these words the most decisive blows — especially through God's praises of the righteous man — the devil is not ashamed (for the beast is shameless), but adds a further contest, this time against the righteous man's skin, and asks God to receive authority to make use of Job's body.

And again God, who loves mankind, and who wishes to make his own crowned champions publicly known to angels and men, permits this also.

And since the man had received this incurable blow and nevertheless remained unbending and unshaken, the dragon turns to his customary cunning, and, insinuating himself with the man's wife, through her advises the righteous man, saying:

"Say some word against the Lord, and die."

But again the devil received a blow to the face, upon hearing:

"If we have received good things from the hand of the Lord, shall we not bear evil things?" Thus, the devil having been repeatedly overthrown and crushed by this contestant in many assaults, three renowned friends of Job, having heard of what had befallen him — his fame proclaiming his calamities everywhere — came to visit him.

But finding no remedy of comfort because of the excess of his misfortunes, they sat beside him in silence, displaying their compassion through their steadfast presence.

The words: "And it came to pass on this day that the angels of God came to stand before the Lord, and the devil came with them."

God is invisible to all created being, without quantity, without magnitude, present everywhere and standing over all things, encompassing all things, and there is no place outside his dominion; and he is present to each according to what is fitting — to the holy angels, as holy, sending forth ineffable words of command, but to the evil one, as evil, granting permissions that serve as tests.

For the devil can do nothing except what is permitted by God; and he does not stand in the places above the heavens — far be it!

For, it says, "how has Lucifer, who rose in the morning, fallen from heaven?" He is said to stand with the angels inasmuch as he too finds himself within the places of God's dominion, waiting to be permitted or allowed to carry out temptations against men — not fulfilling any ministry to God thereby.

...to bring temptations upon us.

Scripture, then, having depicted these very things for the sake of our understanding, has set forth the account in a figurative form.

The phrase "and it came to pass on this day" is equivalent to saying:

"A certain day came, on which the theater was opened and the contestant went down to the wrestling matches."

And since the holy angels care for us and attend to us, while the devil works against our salvation, and they work against one another concerning the same matter — namely, man — they are said to stand together before God, who oversees what is done.

But whether we conquer or are defeated depends not on the power of those who work against us, nor on the weakness of those who fight on our side, but on our own free choice.

For while both sides exhort us toward themselves — the holy angels toward what is good, the malicious demons toward what is base — our free will, being honored with self-determination, proceeds toward whichever side it wishes.

For neither does God compel us, having honored us with self-determination, nor does the devil possess any coercive power over us.

"And the Lord said to the devil:"

"From where have you come?" That angels converse with the devil is also shown from the passage in the prophet Zechariah, where the angel says to the devil:

"May he who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you."

It is also said in the Catholic Epistles, when Michael was disputing about the body of Moses, that:

"Holy Michael did not dare to bring a reviling judgment against the devil, but said only:"

Here too, then, one may understand that it is some holy angel, serving under the Master's command, who carries on this conversation with the devil.

And just as, if a bodyguard of a ruler should bring a reply from the sovereign to someone, we know that the reply belongs to the ruler, so also the words of the holy angels, being delivered according to the will of God, are believed to belong to God himself.

God, therefore, converses with the devil through the holy angels, not deeming him worthy of direct address, but for the sake of the one being tempted.

Either, then, this is the case, or else — since God takes delight in the righteous man's upright deeds, while the devil is consumed with envy and seeks to obtain permission for trials against him — Scripture has once more cast its discourse in a figurative form.

The words 'From where have you come?' are spoken to the devil reproachfully, because he had fallen from the rank of the ministering spirits, just as God also said to Adam:

From what state have you fallen, and into what?

And the devil answered the Lord and said:

Having gone about the earth and walked up and down under heaven, I am here.

First he becomes his own accuser, in that he no longer holds a stable position, but is carried about restlessly everywhere, having taken upon himself the war against the whole of mankind; and also in that he even roams the uninhabited regions ('for,' he says, 'having walked up and down under heaven, I am here') — perhaps by some dispensation of God, so that he might not trouble our race at all times.

'Have you set your mind against my servant Job?' — that is, with your perverse and malicious mind, with which you are ever intent on turning aside the uprightness of men.

This is said either as a question, or declaratively and with an ironic tone, meaning:

'I know that you have set your mind on him,' for he is envious of him because of the virtues that belong to him.

for there is none like him upon the earth, blameless, true, God-fearing, abstaining from every evil deed.

With many praises he extols the righteous man, thereby summoning the adversary to the contest against the athlete.

And the devil answered and said before the Lord:

'Does Job worship God for nothing?' Truly these are the words of a devil:

'Not out of virtue,' he says, 'but as repayment for the benefits done to him does he render you his worship.'

The phrase 'before the Lord' is added to show his shameless disposition, which is always eager to act contrary to whatever seems good to God.

Have you not hedged about the things outside him, and the inside of his house, and all that he has round about? You have blessed the works of his hands, and made his cattle many upon the earth.

He rejoices in his household, he prospers in his fields, he abounds in cattle:

You have left nothing that does not, from every side, make him glad of heart.

But send forth your hand and touch all that he has; surely he will bless you to your face.

He is not content to destroy a part of his substance or some of his children, but wishes to render him utterly bereft of everything all at once.

The phrase 'send forth your hand' means:

Seize hold of him with a striking blow.

From this it is also shown that the devil has no authority whatsoever over us unless it be permitted by God, according to his ineffable dispensations concerning us.

The phrase 'surely he will bless you to your face' means:

Then he will indeed openly blaspheme you.

For Scripture, by way of euphemism, uses the word 'bless' in place of 'blaspheme,' just as it is also said in Kingdoms concerning Naboth:

He blessed God and the king.

Observe how cunningly and with hypocrisy he does not say that:

For he is conscious of his own weakness, and yet he raves and boasts, which is the mark of utter folly.

Then the Lord said to the devil:

Behold, all that he has I give into your hand, but do not touch him.

The evil one not having said:

'Permit me' — yet the great umpire of the contest, knowing the courage of his own athlete, hands him over to his very adversary to deal with as he wishes.

But knowing the insatiable rage of the man-hater, he confines within a measure the boundlessness of his desire.

'With his possessions,' he says, 'deal as you wish, but do not touch him.'

Observe the wisdom of the umpire and the loving-kindness of God:

First he allows the athlete to be trained in external and less perilous matters; then, having shown him victorious, he adds also the contest concerning the flesh.

And the devil went out from the presence of the Lord.

And yet there is no place outside the dominion of God; but this is said in order to show that, having received permission, he then set about the work, and that within the Good nothing evil can either exist or be done:

for evil things are outside the Good.

A certain day came, on which the contest was set in motion.

And observe how, in a single day, the devil brought upon the righteous man all the calamities, wishing to drive him either to consternation or to indignation and blasphemy.

For this indeed was what he had actually promised, when he said:

Surely he will bless you to your face.

The sons of Job and his daughters were drinking wine in the house of their elder brother.

Whence the devil also found opportunity for their sudden destruction all together, having found them all in one place.

And behold, a messenger came to Job and said to him:

The devil, having received authority from God, was indeed able both to incite the souls of enemies, and to bring down fire from the sky, and to preserve only the messengers of the calamities, and to stir up a wind for the collapse of the house, making use of the angelic power which he had received from the Creator from the beginning.

And he was able, as I said, because he was permitted by God.