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Syllabus, Poetical Books The Poetical Books (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes & Song of Songs) Gerard van Honthorst. King David Playing the Harp (oil on canvas), 1622. Centraal Museum, Utrecht, Netherlands. with Dr. Bill Creasy Copyright © 2021 by Logos Educational Corporation All rights reserved. No part of this course—audio, video, photography, maps, timelines or other media—may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval devices without permission in writing or a licensing agreement from the copyright holder. Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner. 2 The Poetical Books (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes & Song of Songs) Traditional Authors: David, Solomon & Others Traditional Dates Written: c. 1010-539 B.C. Traditional Periods Covered: c. 1010-539 B.C. Introduction In the Christian canon of Scripture, the books of the Old Testament (or better, the Hebrew Scriptures) are classified into four categories:1 • Pentateuch (or Torah) o Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy; • Historical books o Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, 1 Esdras, Ezra, Nehemiah, Tobit, Judith, Esther (with additions), 1 & 2 Maccabees, 3 & 4 Maccabees. • Poetical books o Job, Psalms (plus Psalm 151 and the Odes, which include the “Prayer of Manasseh”), Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs, Wisdom (also called “Wisdom of Solomon”) and Sirach (also called “Ecclesiasticus”) • Prophets o Major Prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah/Lamentations/Baruch (including the “Letter of Jeremiah”), Ezekiel and Daniel (including “Prayer of Azariah,” “Song of the Three Holy Children,” “Suzanna” and “Bel and the Dragon”) o Minor Prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. In this course, we will study Scripture’s poetical books, as they appear in the “common” canon: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs. 1 Protestant bibles include all the books listed above in black; Roman Catholic bibles add those listed in red; and Orthodox bibles add those listed in blue. Consequently, the number of books in the Hebrew Scriptures are: 39 for Protestant (and Jewish) bibles; 46 for Roman Catholic bibles; and 51 for Orthodox bibles. Those not included among the 39 books in Jewish and Protestant bibles (or the “common” canon) are called “Apocrypha” by Protestants and “Deuterocanonical” by Roman Catholics. For an in-depth study of all the Deuterocanonical books (or “Apocrypha”) see Dr. Creasy’s course: The Deuterocanonical Books. 3 Whether studying the “common” canon of Scripture (39 books of the Hebrew Scriptures, plus the 27 books of the New Testament, for 66 in total), or the complete canon including the Deuterocanonical books (46 or 51 books of the Hebrew Scriptures; 73 or 78 in total), the books of the Bible represent a wide variety of literary genres: mythopoeic literature, as in Genesis 1-11; historical narrative, as in 1 & 2 Samuel (the story of king David); poetry, as in the book of Psalms; prophetic literature, as in the major and minor prophets; gospels, as in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; epistles, as in Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians and Galatians; letters, as in St. Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus; and apocalyptic, as in Revelation. Each genre places unique demands on the reader, and each genre includes its own set of literary conventions: reading poetry is very different from reading historical narrative; reading an epistle (a correspondence meant to be read aloud to a group of people) is very different from reading a letter (a correspondence meant to be read privately by the person to whom it is addressed). The poetical books in the common canon—Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs—represent five sub-genres of literature and in this course, we’ll be taking a look at each one, learning how to engage each according to its own set of literary conventions, taking one giant step forward in becoming “educated readers of Scripture.” Job Let’s begin with the book of Job. As the books are arranged in the Christian canon of Scripture, Genesis through Esther offer a straight chronological narrative: the curtain rises in Genesis 1 and 2 with creation; in Genesis 3 sin enters the world; Genesis 4-11 sees the effects of sin on both humanity and creation itself; Genesis 12 introduces God’s plan of redemption; the stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob see God’s plan implemented; and Exodus through 1 & 2 Kings and 1 & 2 Chronicles see God’s plan dramatically collapse, with Assyria conquering the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C. and Babylon conquering the southern kingdom of Judah in 586 B.C. With the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, God’s people are taken captive to Babylon where they languish until Cyrus the Great, king of Persia, defeats the Babylonian Empire in 539 B.C., allowing the Jews (and all the others taken captive by Assyria and Babylon) to return home and rebuild their cities, temples and infrastructures. In 538 B.C., the first wave of Jewish captives arrives in Jerusalem and they begin the task of rebuilding: Ezra and Nehemiah tell their story, while Esther tells the tale of the majority of Jews who remained behind, having found prosperous and more gratifying lives in the Persia Empire. If we begin reading Genesis 1 and we continue straight through Esther 10, Scripture presents a clear lesson: “If you do what God says, all will go well; if you don’t, it won’t.” 1 Chronicles 9: 1b supports that verdict: “Now Judah had been exiled to Babylon because of its treachery.” 4 But then we turn the page from Esther, and we run smack-dab into Job. Job is the most “blameless and upright man” alive (Job 1: 1), yet his life becomes a total disaster! What gives with that? Léon Bonnat. Job (oil on canvas), 1880. Bonnat-Helleu Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bayonne, France. No one knows who wrote the book of Job, nor do we know when it was written or for what audience. If we read the Odyssey, for example, we can easily imagine the blind poet Demodocus reciting his poem in the court of the Phaeacian king Alcinous, his guests enthralled by the performance, Odysseus weeping great tears at the poet’s words. When we try to picture Job’s author or the work’s performance, however, we draw a complete blank. Yet, Job is a quintessentially Jewish work, bemoaning the characteristic Jewish theme of the victim, as in the opening sentence of Franz Kafka’s The Trial: 5 “Someone must have been telling lies about Josef K., he knew he had done nothing wrong but, one morning, he was arrested.” This victim theme echoes throughout Jewish literature, yet paradoxically, the hero (indeed, all the characters in Job) is a Gentile. There’s not a Jew in sight! Whoever its author, whoever its audience, the book of Job is a stunning literary tour de force. • Victor Hugo said, “Tomorrow, if all literature was to be destroyed and it was left to me to retain one work only, I should save Job.” • Tennyson referred to the Book of Job as the “greatest poem, whether of ancient or modern literature.” • Virginia Woolf said, “I read the book of Job last night. I don’t think God comes out well in it.” • G. K. Chesterton believed that Job posed a question so difficult that even God could not answer it. • Carl Jung thought that God suffered such a deep defeat with Job that he had to come to earth in human form and sacrifice himself. Although we don’t know who wrote the book of Job or when it was written, it is set around the time of the patriarchs, the beginning of our linear narrative, for at the end of Job we read: “Job lived a hundred and forty years; and he saw his children, his grandchildren, and even his great-grandchildren.” (42: 16) Recall the old ages we encounter in Genesis: Methuselah 969 years Jared 962 Noah 950 Adam 930 Seth 912 Kenan 910 Enosh 905 Mahalalel 895 Lamech 777 Enoch 365 Abraham 175 Isaac 180 Jacob 147 Joseph 110 Moses 120 Psalm 90: 10 70 years or 80 for those who are strong. 6 Once sin enters the world in Genesis 3, the principle of entropy enters our text, a gradual “winding down” of creation, illustrated by the decreasing ages of the patriarchs. As St. Paul said: “All creation groans” under the weight of sin (Romans 8: 22). Job dying at the age of 140 places him squarely within the time of the patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—the very beginning of our narrative. We might also note that in Hebrew, Job’s vocabulary and style are noticeably antiquated, with an inordinate number of unique words, words used nowhere else in Scripture. The dominant theory today is that the author of Job was a native Aramaic speaker whose literary language was Hebrew, and that he deliberately used archaic language and style to evoke a distant, patriarchal past. If that is the case (and it’s a pretty good theory), Job was probably written sometime after the return from Babylonian captivity (539 B.C.), deliberately questioning the fundamental biblical lesson that “if you do what God says, all will go well; if you don’t, it won’t.” Job is carefully structured as a three-act drama, framed by a prologue and an epilogue: Prologue (1: 1 – 2: 13) Act 1: Job’s lament (3: 1-26) “A” Cycle (4: 1 – 14: 22) “B” Cycle (15: 1 – 21: 34) “C” Cycle (22: 1 – 26: 14) Act 2: Job’s summary defense (27: 1– 31: 40) Interlude on “Wisdom” (28: 1-28) Elihu Objects (32: 1 – 37: 24) Act 3: God Answers (38: 1 – 42: 6) Epilogue (42: 7 – 17) And like most ancient literature, Job was written to be delivered orally, performed for an audience.
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