UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The Book of Job in Early Modern England Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8r43635c Author Hedlin, Kimberly Susan Publication Date 2018 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles The Book of Job in Early Modern England A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in English by Kimberly Susan Hedlin 2018 © Copyright by Kimberly Susan Hedlin 2018 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The Book of Job in Early Modern England by Kimberly Susan Hedlin Doctor of Philosophy in English University of California, Los Angeles 2018 Professor Debora K. Shuger, Chair “The Book of Job in Early Modern England” examines how sixteenth- and seventeenth- century writers used Job to broach some of the most contentious issues of their era. The project probes the intersection of post-Reformation biblical exegesis and other literary forms, ranging from treatises on heliocentricism to religious lyric. The dissertation begins at the publication of the first English Protestant primer, which was innovative in its suggestion to read Job’s complaints as an expression of one’s own suffering. English Protestantism’s attention to Job’s complaints (rather than just his patience, as in patristic and medieval readings) signals a turn from using the Book of Job as hagiography to what early modern Protestants called “history” and what we might call psychological realism. The volatile religio-political climate of post-Reformation Europe was a particularly fascinating time in Job’s reception history. Commentators’ newfound interest in primary Hebrew sources, the emergence of textual criticism, and debates about how the Bible expressed its truth ii put the Book of Job’s “slipperiness” (to use Jerome’s term) at the center of controversy. Chapter 1 describes the groundbreaking shift toward a more “human” Job in Lutheran commentary, a shift that is reflected in early modern theologians’ obsession with Job’s historicity. Chapter 2 examines John Calvin’s defense of Job’s Edomite lineage, which became a matter of delineating the insiders and outsiders of God’s church. Chapter 3 traces how four theologians (ending with John Milton) used Job to “justify the ways of God,” either by insisting on God’s absolute power or suggesting how God shares his power with man. Chapter 4 recovers Job’s role in the Copernican Revolution by examining how the Augustinian monk Diego de Zuñiga used Job to consider man’s peripheral place in the cosmos. Finally, Chapter 5 considers how the Welsh poet Henry Vaughan finds in Job’s confusion and complaints an opportunity to encounter the sublime. “The Book of Job in Early Modern England” captures the diversity of the Bible’s uses in early modern literature and sheds new light on a turbulent period of ecclesiastical history. iii The dissertation of Kimberly Susan Hedlin is approved. Jason A. Mahn Jonathan F. Post Debora K. Shuger, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2018 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Prefatory Materials.........................................i-viii Introduction ....................................................1-43 Bibliography ........................................39-43 Chapter 1: Human Job ...................................44-106 Bibliography ........................................100-106 Chapter 2: Edomite Job ..................................107-179 Bibliography ........................................175-179 Chapter 3: Justifying God ..............................180-258 Bibliography ........................................253-258 Chapter 4: Peripheral Job ...............................259-300 Bibliography ........................................297-300 Chapter 5: Job and the Sublime .....................301-350 Bibliography ........................................346-350 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1. Keturah’s Descendants ................153 Figure 5.1. “Behemoth and Leviathan” .........346 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My committee members went far beyond the call of duty. Debora Shuger was the ideal chair, who both nurtured and challenged me. She encouraged my archival work; improved my Latin; deepened my engagement with ecclesiastical history; and seemed to bring her dogs to the office just when I needed a boost. Jonathan Post made me a much better reader of poetry; reminded me that readability matters; pushed my work into conversation with other scholars; and instilled in me a profound appreciation for Renaissance art and music. Jason Mahn helped me see old drafts with fresh eyes; broadened my theological vocabulary; added contemporary relevance to a historical project; and motivated me to pursue a graduate degree in the first place. In every way, I am grateful for their support. This dissertation was made possible by a UCLA Graduate Research Mentorship; UCLA English Department Dissertation Year Fellowship; UCLA Graduate Division Dissertation Year Fellowship; and Grace M. Hunt Archival Research Travel Award. I am thankful for the help I received at the British Library; Bodleian Library; Cambridge University Library; UCLA Special Collections; Folger Shakespeare Library; Huntington Library; University of Illinois Special Collections; Newberry Library; and Sidney Sussex, Cambridge Archives. I am humbled as I consider all of the supportive people in my life. Here, I will only mention my family. Dave Hedlin taught me to close read and ask questions as part of faith. Carol Hedlin taught me to write and reflect on my writing. Chris Hedlin, who is simultaneously finishing her dissertation on nineteenth-century American literature, has been an inspiring colleague, as well as a great twin sister. Abby Wolfgram (with the help of Josh and Nora) has always been a refreshing voice of reason, in addition to an accomplished writer of haikus. This quick acknowledgement cannot capture my gratitude for your unconditional love. vii VITA | KIMBERLY SUSAN HEDLIN Education 2014 University of California, Los Angeles Masters of Arts, English 2011 Augustana College, Rock Island, IL Bachelor of Arts with Honors, English Publication 2018 “Christian Revenge in Chapman’s The Revenge of Bussy D’Ambois,” Renaissance Drama 46.1: 87-111. Selected Conferences 2017 Peripheral Earth, Peripheral Man Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies, Emerging Scholars Conference Los Angeles, CA, October 2017 2017 “Thou Art Become Mine Enemy”: George Herbert’s Justification of God Renaissance Society of America Chicago, IL, March 2017 2017 The “Historical” Book of Job MLA, “Theorizing Fiction in the Early Modern Period” Philadelphia, PA, Jan. 2017 2017 Sleep According to Luther MLA, “1517-2017: Dealing with Luther” Philadelphia, PA, Jan. 2017 2016 “Visions of the Night” in the Book of Job Shakespeare Association of America seminar, “Sleeping through the Renaissance” New Orleans, LA, Nov. 2016 viii Introduction This dissertation explores how post-Reformation literature—ranging from neo-Latin exegesis to religious lyric—engages with the Old Testament figure of Job. Far from the patient Christian saint that dominates medieval commentary, Job in the early modern period is a racialized, masculine mortal; a complainer with free will; a mere atom in a heliocentric cosmos; and a discoverer of the sublime. He is a typological figure of Christ, the patron saint of syphilis and music, and an epic poet. His story was conjectured to be the most ancient in the world and his poetry the most difficult in the Bible. In the Book of Job, Job starts off as a prosperous and pious man. One day when Satan is roaming around heaven, God advertises Job’s exceptional piety. Satan taunts that Job is only pious because his every desire is fulfilled, so Satan urges God to test Job’s uprightness by taking away his livelihood. God agrees to the bet and hands Job over to Satan, who proceeds to kill Job’s livestock and children, burn his property, subject him to robbers, and afflict him with ulcers from head to foot. All of this happens in the first two chapters of Job. In these chapters, which are written in prose, Job remains patient, insisting, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” 1 But, then, at the start of chapter three, Job “opens his mouth” against God. In the next thirty-some chapters of poetry, Job begs God to kill him or give him justice. His bitter complaints are mixed with unsought chastisement from his “friends” who warn that, surely, Job must have done something to offend God, and, really, innocent people are never made to suffer. Finally, in chapter thirty-eight, God appears in a whirlwind and 1 “The Book of Job” in King James I, The Holy Bible Conteyning the Old Testament and the New (London: Robert Barker, 1611), Job 1:21. Henceforth cited, “King James Version.” Available online at https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/k/kjv/kjv-idx?type=DIV1&byte=2079883. 1 reminds all of the humans of their smallness relative to the vastness of creation. God asks, “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?”2 and Job repents in “dust and ashes.”3 In the final chapter, which returns to prose, God tells Job that he has “spoken rightly,” chastises Job’s friends, and returns everything that Job lost. For many contemporary readers, this summary raises more questions than it answers. Why was God bragging to Satan? Why would God cause an innocent person to suffer? What prompts Job’s change of heart between the prose frame and the poetry? What is the relationship between God’s speech from the whirlwind and the many questions that Job and his friends have been asking? What does God mean when he says that Job has “spoken rightly”? If Job “rightly” refutes the notion of cosmic justice, why does God reward him for his good behavior at the end? How can Job’s murdered children be sufficiently replaced? This list of questions, like the summary itself, reflects the version of Job in contemporary western academia. In this version, our investment in psychological realism draws us to Job’s complaints, and our hermeneutic of suspicion to Job’s resistance to God rather than his friends’ doctrinal aphorisms.