Abstract
God is often portrayed extremely negatively in the Old Testament. For example, in the Book of Nahum God is pictured as being responsible for the most horrifying violence imaginable. This negative portrayal of God is also found in the Book of Job. God is responsible for the suffering that his righteous servant Job, has to endure. He is even manipulated by the satan to allow him free reign in attacking Job. God even acknowledges that the misery and pain inflicted on Job, was for no reason. Job�s children are killed in order for God to prove a point, and in his response to Job�s suffering, he doesn�t even address the issue of Job�s suffering. This is a picture of a very cruel, vicious God. This article investigates the negative, disturbing images of God in the Book of Job. Are these images of God who God really is, or is the God of Job a literary construct of the author? The focus of this study is on the prologue and epilogue to the book, as well as the speeches of God in Job 38�41.
Highlights
The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully. (Dawkins 2006:51). These words from well known atheist Richard Dawkins are shocking and Dawkins is obviously biased in his description of God, but the fact remains that the images of God in the Old Testament are often extremely negative
When one reads the Old Testament, one is often confronted with a picture of God that is totally different from the one we have learned at mother’s knee and in Sunday school
The God of the Old Testament is not always a very ‘nice’ God, whereas in the New Testament God is portrayed as the God of love who in Jesus Christ reconciled the world to himself
Summary
In the Book of Nahum God is pictured as being responsible for the most horrifying violence imaginable This negative portrayal of God is found in the Book of Job. God is responsible for the suffering that his righteous servant Job, has to endure. Job’s children are killed in order for God to prove a point, and in his response to Job’s suffering, he doesn’t even address the issue of Job’s suffering This is a picture of a very cruel, vicious God. This article investigates the negative, disturbing images of God in the Book of Job. This article investigates the negative, disturbing images of God in the Book of Job Are these images of God who God really is, or is the God of Job a literary construct of the author? Are these images of God who God really is, or is the God of Job a literary construct of the author? The focus of this study is on the prologue and epilogue to the book, as well as the speeches of God in Job 38–41
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