Abstract
Abstract In Job 30:1–8, Job dehumanises his detractors: he depicts his low-class opponents as vile creatures in the wilderness. Dehumanisation has been a common strategy to devalue outgroups from Job’s time to our own. It functions by assuming a human-animal hierarchy (in which animals lack value), and mapping it onto a social hierarchy, delegitimising the animalised individuals at the bottom. By using this strategy, Job reveals his prejudice around other species and low classes. The logic of the divine speeches, however, overturns both these prejudices. The speeches respond to Job’s classism, not by denying that low-class humans are animals, but rather by celebrating animals (38:39–39:30). For Job, the non-human was a source of derision; for God it is a source of delight.
Highlights
A British regional newspaper depicted its working-class targets in the early 2000s
For Job, the non-human is a source of derision, but for God, it is a source of delight
Job 30:1–8 is structurally central to the speech, but it has struck some commentators as out of place
Summary
Citation for published version: Millar, S 2020, 'Dehumanisation as derision or delight? Countering class-prejudice and species-prejudice in Job', Biblical Interpretation. Dehumanisation as Derision or Delight? Overcoming class-prejudice and species-prejudice in Job
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