RT Article
T1 Did Job Live "Happily Ever After"?: Suspicion and Naivety in Job 42:7–17
JF Journal of theological interpretation
VO 17
IS 1
SP 77
OP 91
A1 Millar, Suzanna 1991-
LA English
PB The Pennsylvania State University Press
YR 2023
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1851212280
AB The book of Job apparently ends happily ever after, with the restoration of the protagonist’s family and fortune (42:7-17). Juxtaposed with the rest of the book, however, this epilogue may appear incongruent and deeply problematic. In light of that, this article argues that a double reading is warranted. On the one hand, the epilogue may be read with a hermeneutic of suspicion, which resists superficial worldviews and protests against injustice. This reading will unmask troubling features in the representation of Job’s God, Job’s restoration, and Job’s speech. On the other hand, though—and drawing on Paul Ricœur—the text can be approached with "second naivety." The audience is thereby welcomed to inhabit the symbolic wholeness of the textual world. The text invites both these readings and does not adjudicate between them. By holding them in dialectic tension, both hermeneutics and theology are enriched.
K1 Job
K1 Ricœur
K1 "Job 42"
K1 "frame narration"
K1 "happy ending"
K1 "second naivety"
K1 Ambiguity
K1 epilogue
K1 Hermeneutics
K1 Suspicion
DO 10.5325/jtheointe.17.1.0077