« This Seems Self-evident
Main
Four Stone Hearth Is Up »
March 25, 2009
The Rebel Job Revised
Loren Fisher has just completed and published a revised edition of his The Rebel Job. Here's what Loren has to say about his revision.
The invigorating discussion of The Rebel Job at the 2007 Job Conference at The Center for Process Studies made it clear that this book needed to be revised. In this new edition, I have changed my translation of the text of Job 3-26 in a few places and added to the notes. Appendices I and II address some of the questions raised by the participants of the conference. The response to the first edition was helpful, and I was motivated to make this revised edition even more meaningful.
The Book of Job is one of the most abnormally interesting and some might say just plain abnormal books in the Hebrew Bible. In fact, it's one of the most interesting works to have come down to us from antiquity. Loren bases his understanding of the book as a whole and of Job 3-26 in particular on a lifetime of study and reflection. Not everyone will agree with Loren's understanding but everyone will profit from the intellectual challenge that his rebel Job presents.
I am somewhat skeptical of the specific historical context in which he places the composition of Job 3-26. But I find Loren's far more important understanding of their literary and, dare I say, theological context extremely compelling. And that understand would hold in nearly any possible historical context. Heck, he may even be correct about the historical context he favors.
As soon as my own copy comes and I've had time to read it and compare it with Loren's first edition, I may write a little review for your amazement. In the meantime, why not get your own amazing copy?
This new revised edition of The Rebel Job is now available from Booksurge and from Amazon in both soft cover and Kindle book formats.
Posted by Duane Smith at March 25, 2009 3:03 PM | Read more on Hebrew Bible |
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.telecomtally.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2826
Comments
Job sure is in vogue these days - I am working through it myself and have seen a couple of other orthodox bloggers doing it for lent. Perhaps I will later compare with his book. I am using Tur Sinai at the moment just to help with the sense of some words especially those he thinks are wrong in the Hebrew due to mistranslation of an Aramaic original - does anyone else think that the dialogues were originally in Aramaic?
Posted by: Bob MacDonald at March 25, 2009 4:23 PM
I'm not sure about Aramaic but Abraham ibn Ezra, 11th century CE, thought Job was a translation from some other language. This notion, in various, versions has been around since then. Some scholars have suggested that the language of Job is Edomite, for example. And not necessarily a translation but Edomite as it stands. I think this idea goes back to Pfeiffer. Loren's certainly thinks Job was written in Hebrew.
Posted by: Duane at March 25, 2009 4:55 PM
Thanks Duane - that is helpful - I have had my doubts about some of the reconstructions in Tur Sinai's work - mostly because some don't seem necessary. I am chasing a few frames and a few threads in the dialogues - it will be interesting to me to see 1. if I finish and 2. what I find if anything.
Posted by: Bob MacDonald at March 25, 2009 4:58 PM
Post a comment
Please read Abnormal Interest's Comments Policy.