Illness Theodicies In The New Testament Essay

The Book of Job is of wisdom genre. Job was a righteous, rich man. God and Satan have a confrontation regarding Job’s faith in God. God allows Satan to test Job by taking away his family, sheep, camels, and servants. Job was passed the test. Job was tested again. This time it was his health that was taken away. Job speaks to his three friends and curses the day he was born. The four of them have a lengthy conversation as to why Job is being punished. Elihu enters the conversation and becomes somewhat angry with Job’s lack of faith in God. God speaks to Job in question form. Job repents. God speaks the three friends and advises them to sacrifice a burnt offering. Job was them made prosperous and was “given twice as much as he had before” by God.

In the book of Job, Job walks through life making sure his actions and words are carefully chosen, and even goes as far as to burn offerings for sins yet committed. The book of Job, and then later the modern take titled J.B., was a new display from God, showing that bad things can happen to good people. The book of Job made it clear in the bible that God was not giving or taking anything because of our own achievement, but that all things good and bad are from God. Archibald Macleish tries to reenact Job in a more modern version that new readers today might find easier, and although so aspects might be off from the original text, the story of J.B. follows closely to Job’s story line. One area that can be compared when looking at both texts

The title of the book is a quote from the Bible. The God of Isaac, Abraham, and Jacob promises the Israelites that:

The Plague and the Book of Jobs How there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. The LORD said to Satan, "Whence have you come?" Satan answered the LORD, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it." And the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?" Then Satan answered the LORD, "Does Job fear God for nought? Hast thou not put a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But put forth thy hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse thee to thy face." And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power; only upon himself do not put forth your hand." (Source: Chapter 1, 6-12, http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/RsvBJob.html) The report is geared towards establishing the presence of hope in the face of extreme suffering. The report argues that suffering should be seen as more of a means to correct one’s flaws and develop fully than to be seen as something negative. My support is therefore for the way of life adopted by the doctor in Albert Camus’ book, The Plague. The report will first present a brief outline of the two stories and then put forward their similarities and differences. Finally the report

Considering, the faith and Loyality Job had for God, he allowed Satan to torture Job. First, Satan destoryed everything in Job’s life and took the lives of his ten children. Secondly, Satan harmed Job physically, causing his health to fail. According to Maxwell, Satan infected Job with sores over the surface of his body, and Job scratched his skin with a pottery shard for relief (as cited in John C. Maxwell, 2014, p.34). Moreover,when Satan was done torturing Job. The faith and loyality Job had for God was even stronger. Job told Maxwell all of his pain, suffering and scars, Satan inflicted on him carried no pain. The only thing mattered to Job was “God see the big picture” (Maxwell, 2014, p. 34). Satan never understood the reason why Job

Due to many different interpretations through translation of scriptures, there are many different viewpoints of disease etiology and healing. For this reason, not all Christians believed in the same methods of healing or even how these diseases came about (Amundsen, 1982, pg. 1). Amundsen states that some Christians saw naturalistic as the ultimate cause which contrasted other beliefs that the naturalistic approach was inferior and saw that supernatural powers were the ultimate cause of disease. This shows that Christians were influenced by both personalistic and naturalistic etiologies on disease and health. In summary, although in Christianity not all scriptural texts are translated exactly the same, there is the overlapping viewpoint among Christians that God is the ultimate healer and through Him, disease comes as a result of sin (Amundsen, 1982, pg.

If the writer of Job was Moses the book could have been written in the 10th century BC. If Solomon wrote the book of Job, then it could have been written in the 11th century BC. Nonetheless, whenever Job was written it is clear that the people surrounding Job took his situation very seriously. During the time of Job people took the number of livestock, number of children and physical health as an indication of one’s relationship with God. People figured the more someone had and the better their life was that God was pleased with them and the work they are doing. However, if someone was sick and could not have children many took this as a sign that God was upset with the way that person was living and should repent. Job’s companion Bildad even says, “Does God pervert Justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right?” (O’Day 694). During this moment Bildad is asking Job does he really believe that God is not just, and looks upon the innocent with favor, and looks down on evil. Before Job’s story during this time there was really no documentation for God testing someone in such a way, so to many this is a first. No one during this time would ever question God’s reason for taking things from someone, because it was usually for a just reason. However, during this time period after Job’s story, many people including Job himself may have seen God as “devious, fashioning mortals with an ulterior motive to discover their weaknesses and harass them until they die.” (Habel 61). Meaning that this would have scared many people about God and what he wanted from them. Many people during this time lived good lives in order to stay in God’s favor, so a story like this would bring many questions for them. They would want to know whether they safe from God’s random wrath? Would they be next? If God could do this to a righteous person does it make sense to be

In stark contrast to God’s presence in Genesis, the character of God in Job strays from the ideal perfection of the divine. The concept of the ideal manifested in Genesis is embodied in God’s moral, reasonable, and rational behavior. In Job, on the other hand, rather than being reasonable, methodical, and creating life, God displays more human characteristics and plays the role of both creator and destroyer. The book of Job begins with God’s boastful bargain with Satan, which subsequently leads God to allow the total destruction of Job’s family and livelihood. Job is even attacked physically with “loathsome sores… from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head” (Job 2:7). In an uncharacteristically immoral decision, God gives Satan the power do

In The Book of Job, we can clearly get the idea of Job suffering because his faith is being tested. At the beginning, he thought he was a wealthy man and had found happiness. He had a “perfect” life. As time passed, Satan and God made a deal to prove Job’s loyalty towards God. Along the way, Job suffers different types of loses; he loses his children, his goods and he suffers physically. “Why is light given to him that is

Alas, poor Job is left to ponder why such misfortunes were heaped upon him, for God never really answers this question. Moreover, throughout history, people have been pondering the very same question. Many books and essays have been written on "The Book of Job" in an attempt to try to explain the cause of suffering, but the theories that have been extracted have had primarily western theological overtones.

Job was the type of man that prayed and asked for forgiveness not only for himself, but also for all of his family that may have sinned throughout the day. "He feared God and shunned evil." (193) He was a very wealthy man and had everything he every wanted. Satan told

The view of fate the book of Job expresses, though similar in that it originates from God, differs in a few important ways. In Job, situations are predetermined to occur, but the personal choices of the people involved determine the outcome of the situation. The story of Job opens with Job's fate of suffering being planned. Satan presents himself in an audience before God. God makes example of Job, and Satan rebuffs, stating that Job's constancy is only because of God's preferential treatment. Satan tells God, "But put forth thy hand now and touch all he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face."(40). In response, power is given to Satan to torment Job as a test. Job's life and finally health are viciously mangled and destroyed by Satan. Though Job does not know the reasons behind his great suffering, we are told that "In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly."(41), and "In all this did not Job sin with his lips."(41). Self-pity creeps into Job's thoughts and words, but there is no disenchanted turn from God. Instead in Job the reader sees a turn to God for relief and

The spiritual significance of illness and suffering is a topic Christians continue to grapple with, as Larchet points out in The Theology of Illness. Scripture offers a wealth of wisdom and cues for understanding illness, health, and healing from a Christian perspective. Larchet analyzes the various and often contradictory Christian positions on health and illness, revealing how attitudes have shifted over time and with changes in medical technology, practice, and ethics. For example, St. Barsanuphius presents a comprehensive analysis of the spiritual significance of illness and suffering. One view holds that illness signifies a lack of faith; another presents illness in terms of a person who is offered the opportunity to develop a stronger faith, or whose faith is being put to a test like the story of Job. Ultimately, the latter remains the most helpful way to approach illness and healing from a Christian perspective. The essence of Christian health care is that, "Healing itself, while resulting from natural processes, actually comes from God," (Larchet 116).

The concept of faith and suffering in the Hebrew Bible has filled worshippers with fraught throughout the ages of its existence. The crux of the matter is that there is no definition of what exactly these things are and what they mean, leading to many different theories to emerge on the concept of whether suffering is necessary for faith in God. This has historically caused strife between many populations of worshippers, and continues to be a point of bitter disagreement between people. Wildly contradicting itself between various books, the Hebrew Bible is at best ambiguous in many of these concepts, but when analyzing small passages, certain themes can be argued for with much more strength. In the Book of Job, loyalty to God is questioned, and ultimately the theme of free will in faith is addressed through the pain and suffering of its characters.

The Book of Job gives an answer as to why bad things happen to good people. God allows people to suffer for the good they will attain in the future, both immaterial and physical. This is why many Christians believe that suffering is not necessarily an evil in itself. The Book of Job also contains elements of Paul Ricoeur's typologies of evil; including the elements of combat and chaos, the questioning of God’s goodness, and the tragic existence of man’s soul.