The Book of Job: Chapter 1
It's Satan!!!! YAY!!!!
Before delving into some of the most existentialist poetry of the ancient world, we get the first chapters of Job. My main annoyance with the usual Job sermons is that these are the only chapters that anyone knows about. It's very easy to say that the theme of Job is “keep faith and eventually everything will work out” if you are only familiar with the first two chapters and that ending where Job lives happily ever after with even more children.
Yet, can you blame people for only knowing these chapters since Job is very weird. It certainly seemed strange when I was sitting in my grandmother's Lutheran church listening to the pastor expound upon a story where God and Satan are drinking tea; having a nice little conversation about Job. The strangeness of these chapters have carried this text into the modern world either with a funny bit on Good Omens or an easy reference to suffering.
One of the first things about this opening chapter is that it feels very Greek tragedy. Whomever the writer of Job might have been, they certainly knew their Greek literature. Certainly the overall structure of Job feels like a Platonic dialogue, except no one is Socrates and very few characters are actually listening to each other. Even before these dialogues, we have this bit of prose where Greek Tragedy tropes raise their heads. What's more Greek Tragedy than “don't get God's attention.”
Certainly God and Satan feel more Greek in this book than in any other book of the Bible. Jewish Publication Society's translation seems so burned by centuries of Christian obsession with Satan that they translated Ha-Satan as “the Adversary.” In the context of the book, Satan is an angel with a job and his Job is adversarial (if I translated the Bible I'd translate his name as Asshole, but then my language skills aren't up to translation levels and Job is famously difficult to translate).
So what the fuck is Satan doing in a book of the Bible? Especially the portion of the Bible that isn't concerned with that Jesus guy? Books after books of God being the only game in town in a very aggressive monotheism that barely acknowledges that people even believe in other deities and suddenly there's this character that speaks directly to God and then actually influences God to torture this poor schmuck? What does Satan have against Job anyhow?
Oddly enough, in context, Satan does make sense. From the first few paragraphs of this chapter we know that Job is extremely pious. He is generous. He offers sacrifices. He offers sacrifices on behalf of his children. He is what every religious person aspires to be and precisely because he's so pious, he gets God's attention.
Satan exists to make this all make some sort of sense. It really doesn't make sense, not in the standard feel good theology, but everything that happens to Job happens because an angel says “well what if you fuck with him?” Thus God fucks with Job. We move back to the earthly realm and Job loses everything in an afternoon. His children all die. His wealth vanishes and he throws off his clothing, cuts off his hair and stays faithful in the way that Christians have been reading the book for years.
Naked came I into the world and naked will I leave.
Isn't that nice? Horrible things happen to Job and he stays loyal.
Ok. Well that's the book. That's the sermon.
What's that?
Oh yeah, there are 41 more chapters to go.
Spoiler alert: Job's “oh well shit happens” attitude is not going to last. In fact, Job is going to get very angry at God, the world, his dumb friends and every injustice in the world.
Throughout the book, Job's friends will either imply or state outright that Job did something to deserve this fate. Job angrily dismisses their accusations and as readers we know that Job is 100% correct in his assertions. Sometimes shit happens and the world is not just.
Monotheism has trouble with this concept. In polytheism you can blame the god of shit and the god of wine and the god of war for screwing with your life. In monotheism, the same God that gave you life, chocolate and orgasms, also gives you cancer, fatal car accidents and Elon Musk. Christianity deals with it by putting all the bad stuff on Satan, but the other monotheistic faiths don't have that luxury. Even as the Jewish version of Satan (angel just doing his job) comes in to provide some theodicy, but it's a weak theodicy and Satan will fuck off by chapter 3, never to return.
Next chapter: Satan keeps up his bullshit.
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