The Writings: Job–Sirach

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538.    [Wisdom Literature] Núria Calduch-Benages, “El Corpus sapiencial de la Bíblia: Status Quaestionis i debat actual [The Sapiential Corpus in the Bible: Status Quaestionis and the Current Debate],” RCT 44 (2019) 9–20.

This article presents a status quaestionis regarding the growing scholarly interest in the Wisdom Corpus in the Bible and highlights those wisdom themes that are currently receiving the most attention. Johannes Meinhold, writing in 1908, marked the start of a heightened interest by scholars in this area of study, which was subsequently picked up by such leading figures as G. von Rad and resulted in various publications dedicated specifically to biblical wisdom literature. In treating the contemporary situation in scholarship on biblical wisdom literature, C.-B. calls attention to the various positions one finds in this scholarship: doubts as to the existence of a wisdom tradition in ancient Israel (W. Kynes, M. R. Sneed), or questioning of our usual understandings of that tradition (M. V. Fox and M. K. Hamilton). C.-B. also gives consideration to the personification of Wisdom as a literary figure that develops into a “feminine” image of God and the theological dimension of biblical wisdom. Finally, she comments in turn on each of the books generally considered to be part of biblical wisdom literature, especially in terms of what contemporary exegetes find of particular interest in them. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.]

539.    [Job] William P. Brown, “Knowing Creation in the Light of Job and Astrobiology,” Knowing Creation, 141–54 [see #789].

In his article, B. reflects on the nature of creation by drawing on what, on first hearing, would appear to be very strange bedfellows: the Book of Job and astrobiology. In his discussion of Job, B. reminds us that, in the midst of creation, human beings are in a wilderness that is not the anthropocentric cosmos it is so often imagined to be. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.]

540.    [Job] Paul K.-K. Cho, “‘I Have Become a Brother of Jackals’: Evolutionary Psychology and Suicide in the Book of Job,” BibInt 27 (2019) 208–34.

C. notes the preponderance of images of trapped and defeated animals in the Book of Job, particularly in Job’s speeches. He argues that Job uses these images to represent his own traumatized sense of self. C. supports his reading with reference to contemporary work in evolutionary psychology on entrapment. When God invokes the same or related animal images in responding to Job, this demonstrates his care and concern regarding Job’s trauma.—R.G.

541.    [Job] Paul K.-K. Cho, “Job the Penitent: Whether and Why Job Repents (Job 42:6),” Landscapes, 145–74 [see #768].

C.’s essay addresses whether, according to Job 42:6, Job repents, and, if so, for what reasons he does this. First, using Roman Jakobsen’s notion of the translation process in which even correct renderings remain inadequate, C. situates Job 42:6 in a new literary context. In so doing, C. argues that Job indeed does repent of the hubris shown by him in Job 29–31. In the course of his essay, C. also addresses the compositional history of the book and its images of Job the defiant and Job the pious in light of the framework narrative of Job 1 and 42:11–17. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.]

542.    [Job; Joseph Caryl] Adam M. Corrington, “The Statesmanship of Job. Puritan Joseph Caryl on Job as the Model Magistrate,” EvQ 90 (2019) 213–30.

This article examines the political reading of the Book of Job by the English Puritan Joseph Caryl (1602/1604–1671). In his commentary on the book, Caryl assigned portions of it to the “mirror for princes” genre, a well-known type of writing of the time, intended for the instruction of current and future rulers. Focusing on Job 29, Caryl presents Job as exemplifying the goal magistrates should pursue, why they should pursue this, and how they should do so...