The Doctrine of Temporal Retribution
Date
1997
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Tangaza University College
Abstract
From the dialogue between Job and his friends; we see that two major things have
disturbed the friends and characterise the author's thinking: Job is propounding a strange
"theology of God', and he has adopted a new way of" making theology" by arguing from
experience rather than tradition.
The whole process poses a major problem: "should the basis of morality be
overturned, how can theology survive"? The belief was that "The good man is rewarded
with blessings and the bad man is punished with woes here on earth, because suffering is
the outcome of each one's mistakes".
To this traditional dogma, Job will react strongly, taking into account his own
experience which seems to be the opposite of the traditional Wisdom. For the friends who
represent the tradition. Job has a distinguishable theology of God which is considered as
heretical.
Job's anger comes from a clearly ethical vision of the divinity Suffering makes sense if it
responds to justice; if it does not fit into any just pattern it is arbitrary, it is an obscenity,
and cruel. For this reason, because to him" God" can only mean a God of justice. Job
must revolt against the absurdity created by a "just God', that is; "a suffering just man".
Our paper has three major Chapters: In chapter I, we shall make a parallel between
the Book of Job and the Ancient Near East texts. We have found that there were common
stories and myths all over the Near East which influenced the compositon of the Book of
Job a lot.
In the second Chapter, we shall discuss the problem of the "Doctrine of Temporal
Retribution". In this part, we shall look at the contribution of the friends of Job ( Bildad,
Zophar, Eliphaz and the young Elihu ). The friends represent the traditional view and its
theology. For them, God is just. Suffering is caused by human beings because of their
own mistakes ( Sins) Suffering is seen as punishment, warning, and correction from God.
In the end God is incomprehensible by human beings. This part is concluded by Job
himself who comes with a new way of understanding the relationship between God and man. For him, he sees himself as Innocent. God is the Source of suffering, the three friends
are traitors and God is really beyond reach.
In Chapter III, we shall consider some pastoral implications which come out of the
dialogue between Job and his friends and which are the outcome of their discussion.
Considering the amount of suffering in our time, we shall try to offer suggestions to face
life.
We did not discuss the whole Book of Job, but we are only concerned with the texts in the
dialogue particularly touching our subject and the speeches of Elihu in Chp.32 - 37. The
abbreviations and biblical quotations are taken from the" The New Jerusalem Bible".
In the dialogue with his friends, Job continues to defend his integrity, as he had
promised. As he recalls his past and the demands made by his God, he shows a clear
understanding of the religious meaning of service to the poor who are God's friends.
An unexpected character will come on the scene: the elusive and boastful Elihu. He is
convinced he has something new to say, he contributes certain nuances. His own personal
experience led him to understand that innocence is not a matter simply of individual
uprightness. It is rather a question above all of one's behaviour to the poor, who are
especially loved by the Lord.
In the face of the enormity and scope of human suffering people are tempted to
deny that God exists. In front of this concrete situation, people do ask questions as these:
Why could God not have originally created more provisions against suffering and
especially against the suffering of innocent people like Job and the children? Why could
God not have originally provided an effectively anesthetic plant to cure sufferings all over
the earth? Those questions have been already asked by people like Job and others.
Since the putative '' divine order" has failed to withstand the test of experience
man must go his own way and discover his own truth. We can see Job, a perfectly Just
man being like in a laboratory situation.
If then, God is a just judge a certain balance of deed-consequence is to be expected. Man
has been given a mind to use, and the fundamental attitude of the sapiential writers was
the use of experience as a norm of reality not the tradition based on a certain conception of God who is so powerful, so isolated from men and who cannot be challenged by man's
experience. The "c/), out" of Job for justice is not a complaint about unjust suffering, for
suffering is neither just nor unjust. He has already recognized that God's deeds are not
subject to man's laws and he acknowledges the " divine freedom to root justice where he
pleases". His" cry" is because his contemporaries no longer exercise the principle of the
sapiential writers, namely, that experience is the norm of reality. Job has hit on a crucial
truth of existence I think the starting point is God, and therefore the "problem" is a
personal question of the relationship between man and God, what befalls on man and his
concept qf God.
Job has discovered a God who is Lord of absurdity. Given this fact the first ethical
reaction is an attitude of revolt, a rejection of traditional " solutions" and evasions. His
revolt is theist in the sense that it accepts God but is directed against the state of affairs. It
can appear also atheist to some because it assigns effects to causes and finds God guilty,
thereby subjecting God as well as the world to human judgement.
The major question we will try to answer in our paper is " to what end does human
suffering and particularly the innocent suffering serve"? What th the relationship
between one's behaviour and the suffering which he endures?
Either events in the human sphere are explainable by reference to a " divine order"
or they remain absurd. The religion in which everything is rational ( that of the friends ),
and this means a religion in which God is understandable, is a false religion of intellectuals.
Description
Keywords
Ancient Near East, The Doctrine of Temporal Retribution, Suffering is seen as Punishment, Warning, Test and correction