Job's "Not to be" speech

So, here's the idea. What if the writers of the bible weren't western europeans ? What if they didn't think in Shakespearean English and proclaim their words in funeral tones echoing round gothic buildings ? So obvious it's almost a truism. But what if we're still reading it in our heads as if it were ?

I once saw a tv programme showing how French Jews celebrate the festival of Purim, commemerating when Queen Esther saved them from a masacre. They all come in costume as the characters in the story. Girls are princesses, Dads typically dress up as the baddie Haman. They read out the whole of the book of Esther and at appropriate moments everyone cheers or boos.

This scene came back to mind as I was thinking about the book of Job. I know, the connexion isn't imediately obvious. I tried to skim read it because I'd forgotten the ending but I got caught up in the drama. What if it was written as a drama ? Maybe I'm getting too carried away, but I think it would lend itself rather nicely, once we get past the leather backed bible plummy reading voice.

I daydreamed off into a Medieval or African village. Preparations begin days before. Visitors start arriving, news and greetings are exchanged, meals eaten. The story teller or theatre troupe arrives and is wined and dined. The next day with high anticipation musicians start early. Everyone gathers.

The narrator takes the stage. He paints a colourful picture : the great assembly, the key characters, the wager. Then the shattering losses come at pantomime speed, one messenger hasn't finished speaking before the next interrupts ! 

Then Job is alone, terribly alone.

The friends arrive and say ... nothing. For 7 days they sit in stunned silence (nice round number).

The speeches. Different actors or different hats ? Does it matter ?

The first speech is so shocking that if it's performed convincingly it will have the same dramatic power as "To Be or Not To Be". The character is saying out loud utterly taboo thoughts, one to end one's own existence, the other to never have existed.

It gets darker.

Each successive character is more melodramatic, more pompous, arm waving, beard stroking, head shaking, finger pointing and eyebrow waggling than the last. Job sinks beneath the emotional blows, becoming progressively more despairing, heart wrenching sobs, pleading to the audience to believe him, breaking off to scrape at his skin (eeew) ?  And he sounds pretty convincing, gives a great list of how a really decent person should behave (can he be real ?).

Change of pace.

The upstart steps forward, gangling, cocky. The crowd gets ready to laugh. He shouts at his elders, the crowd's enjoying this. Then when everyone's defences are down the blow comes in under the belt, the crowd draws in it's breath. With God in the picture everyone else looks a bit silly. He's no longer a posturing potentate before some hypothetical assembly, but is become fearsomely intimate. "I ... you ...". A climax. A hallelujah chorus.

The epilogue. All the loose ends are tied off. Job talks to God " I had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you." He turns his life around. He prays for his friends. He throws a party. His fortunes are restored (double), his family give him gold and silver. He has new children. The daughters are so beautiful he bends the rules so that they can inherit. He lives a long life.

The End.


Little ones who had been fighting off sleep now jump up. Music comes to life, a celebratory dance, shouting and laughter, more food more wine.

What do I feel all this story achieves.

* Most of all for me it gives a model of dealing with sickness and loss where the generalised blamers are shown up as unhelpful. They need ignoring and  forgiving.

* There has to be no assuming someone's laid a curse, no ostracising, no blaming.

* Job's relationship with God is made into something fresh and new through the experience and though his good works aren't criticised  (in fact I think they might be being used as a reminder to the community how to function healthily) they're also shown to be inadequate to deal with personal sin, which everyone has, which needs an encounter with God to deal with it.

Perhaps this isn't the full story of Job but I've found it interesting to see it in a more community rather than just individualistic context.

So I've been left muchly encouraged.