The Book of Job in the Context of the Writings

Abstract

This chapter provides a fresh angle on the book of Job through the lens of its collection in the Writings. Issues of the themes and structure of Job are discussed and put into the context of the authorial use of genres, used, in a skeptical and questioning vein, to create a parody of traditional sentiments. Although traditionally designated a wisdom text, the wide variety of parodied genres in the book of Job indicate that it is not to be narrowly classified. Rather the links with other narratives and the dominance of lament genres resembling the Psalms and Lamentations indicate significant genre connections and also detailed intertextual links across much of the material of the Writings section of the canon.