The Encyclopedia of World Religions

Job S 243

they meet with God. Satan patrols the earth and enters into conversations with God. Sometimes he raises sticky questions, as he does about Job. CONTENT Job combines poetry with prose. Most of the book is poetry, but the beginning (Job 1–2) and the end (Job 42.7–17) are prose. So is a brief part in the middle when a new speaker arrives (Job 32.1–5). The beginning sets up the story. Job is both rich and righteous. God notices Job’s faithfulness, and he boasts about it to Satan. Satan replies that Job is faithful only because he is rich; if he lost his family, possessions, and health, he would curse God instead. God wants to prove Satan wrong, so he gives Satan permission to destroy Job’s riches, to kill off his children and grandchildren along with his servants, and to destroy his health. Once this has occurred, three friends come to comfort Job. The poetic part of the book begins with their conversations. The friends mostly take the position that God rewards the virtuous and punishes the wicked. Therefore, if Job is suffering, it must be his own fault. He should repent, and then God will reward him. In response, Job protests that he has done nothing to deserve his suffering. He says he wishes he had never been born; he also says that he wants to talk with God face to face. In chapter 32, a younger man begins to speak. He is angry that the friends have not criticized Job more effectively. He says Job is wrong to question God. He also says that if people learn from their afflictions, they come out better in the end. At the climax of the book, God himself appears. In chapters 38 to 41, he speaks to Job out of a whirlwind. God does not explain or justify what has happened to Job. Instead, he overwhelms him, presenting himself as the Lord of the Universe. In response, Job admits he was wrong to question God. God then scolds Job’s friends for thinking he had done something to deserve his suffering. He also restores Job’s fortunes, and Job lives to a ripe old age.

Joan was 13, she began to hear voices. She later said these were the voices of Saints Catherine and Margaret and of the archangel Michael. The voices told Joan that it was her responsibility to help Charles, son of King Charles VI, acquire the throne of France. As a result of Joan’s activities, Charles did become Charles VII. Following the instruction of the voices, Joan wore men’s clothing and joined the French army as a commander. Her presence reinvigorated the French troops. Her first success came in May 1429, when she broke the siege that English troops had made by completely surrounding the city of Orleans. That July Charles VII was consecrated king in Reims. In 1430 Joan was captured by the English. The INQUISITION tried her for HERESY . Its verdict required her to repudiate the voices and wear women’s clothing. For several days she did so. But when she returned to her former ways, she was burnt at the stake. In the mid-1400s, Charles VII managed to have the verdict against Joan overturned. After all, he had became king largely because of her activi ties. In 1920 the Catholic Church recognized Joan as a SAINT . She is remembered annually on May 30, the day of her death. Job One of the best known books of the Hebrew B IBLE , and the central figure in that book. Job belongs to the part of the Hebrew Bible known as the Ketuvim, Writings. It deals with questions of THEODICY : “Why do good people suffer?” Some people may believe that it reports actual events. Many scholars, however, think that it was a work of literature and that Job himself was a hero in folk tales. No one knows when the book was written. One of the peculiarities of Job, at least from the point of view of later Jews, Christians, and Muslims, is the figure of S ATAN : He is not the devil. The Hebrew word from which “Satan” comes really means “accuser.” In Job, Satan may be one of the “sons of G OD ,” as they are called in the book. For example, he comes along with these sons when