The Sage and Pious Wisdom

in the Book of Job:

The Friends’ Perspective
GROUP 8: BRACY, GUERRA, PINEDA

Presentation based on the article of the same name written by

Rainer Albertz (translated by Leo G. Purdue) in John G. Gammie
1
and Leo G. Perdue (eds.), The Sage in Israel and the Ancient Near
East (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1990), pp. 243-261.
Rainer Albertz (Ph.D. Heidelberg, 1972; Habilitation
Heidelberg, 1977) is ordinary Professor of Old Testament
Studies at the University of Münster (Westfalen, Germany.
He is the author of numerous scholarly works, including:
• A History of Israelite Religion in the Old Testament Period
• Israel in Exile: The History and Literature of the Sixth Century B.C.E.
• Yahwism After the Exile: Perspectives on Israelite Religion in the Persian Era

Leo G. Perdue (Ph.D. Vanderbilt, 1975), the

translator, is a Professor of Hebrew Bible at Brite
Divinity School of Texas Christian University.
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 STATUS
QUAESTIONIS
• Do the friends in the Book of Job (Eliphaz,
Bildad, Zophar) represent a type, that is, a
professional class of Sage?
• Or are they simply what the Book claims them to
be, viz., educated farmers? (R.N. Whybray
Hypothesis)
• What’s at stake? If Job and his friends are mere
individuals, and not representative of some class,
the socio-historical hypothesis of Albertz falls!
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 FIRST
APPROACH

4
 FIRST
APPROACH
• hakam - the way of the so-called wise…
• It is difficult to speak of a consistent use of terms
that would point to a class of sages. Only once
are the friends of Job designated as hakam (34:2)
and even this occurs in the speeches of Elihu,
which comprise a later addition.
• Consequently, one must support Whybray’s
position that Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar are not
presented as representatives of a class but,
rather, as friends of Job.
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 FIRST
APPROACH
• BUT, in examining the evidence more
carefully, it becomes evident that these three
educated farmers DO conform rather closely to
a sapiential ideal.
• One who is hakam cannot simply shout words as
Job has done, but must consider their meaning and
purpose (Cf. 15:2-3, Eliphaz’s 2nd Speech to Job)
• Eliphaz here addresses Job with an ideal mutually
held in common; an ideal that provides the basis for
a common perspective.
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 FIRST
APPROACH
• Moreover, this sapiential ideal takes shape
within a longstanding tradition. (15:17-19)
• By hakam is designated not an individual or type,
but a specific social group that transmitted a
particular tradition.
• Importantly, it refers to a time when the land still
belonged only to the fathers - this, apparently,
being contrasted with the “present” state.
• Albertz dates Job to the postexilic period while the
tradition of which we here speak is pre-exilic.
• While the characters in Job are foreigners the wisdom
tradition of which they speak is clearly that of Israel!
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 FIRST
APPROACH
• But the pre-exilic wisdom tradition seems put
to the test in the difficult postexilic context as
evidenced in a passage where the hakamim
are portrayed negatively. (5:12-13)
• Those who are hakam but wicked are the strong
who have the poor and lowly in their power. (5:15)
• That hakam is applied to each of two opposed
groups, indicates a debate over the nature and
purpose of the sapiential ideal.
• Is wisdom purely utilitarian?
• If so, how explain what has happened to Job?
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 FIRST
APPROACH
• FIRST APPROACH SUMMARY I
• The three friends of Job are neither teachers of wisdom nor
representatives of school wisdom. They constitute, rather, a
group that adheres to a particular sapiential ideal.
• Their alleged “foreign provenance” belongs to the earlier
material taken into the Joban tradition while, in reality, they
represent an indigenous Israeli group.
• Albertz thus argues that the Joban poet intends Eliphaz,
Bildad, and Zophar to represent a pious group within the
aristocratic class of postexilic Israel who concern
themselves with the plight of the poor in contrast to those
solely concerned with their own selfish ends.

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 FIRST
APPROACH
• FIRST APPROACH SUMMARY II
• A pious sapiential ideal was cultivated by this group in
contrast to the utilitarian philosophy of life followed by the
“wicked” and also in contrast to the purely eschatological
orientation of the downtrodden.
• The pious sapiential ideal includes not only the pedagogical
function common throughout the wisdom tradition (to advise,
teach, transmit knowledge, guide, educate and instruct) but
also a pastoral dimension – to provide consolation (16:2,
31:24), strength 4:3-4, 21:34), help (26:2), and healing (13:4).
• This pastoral function, exercised not only by Job’s friends but
also by Job himself prior to his own misfortunes (4:3-5, 29:24,
30:25), has clear religious undertones.

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 FIRST
APPROACH
• FIRST APPROACH SUMMARY III
• Consistent with his dating of Job, Albertz proposes that
this pastoral dimension of compassionate and
restorative efforts on behalf of those being destroyed
by the harshness of the day originated with the social
crisis experienced by the Jewish community in the
early postexilic era.
• It fell to the sages in this crisis to provide the sufferers
not only with the traditional wisdom pedagogy but also
with instructive, consoling and meaningful models of
explanation that could see them through their current
hardships and open up for them a perspective on the
future.
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 SECOND
APPROACH

12
 SECOND
APPROACH
• Sources… From whence comes TRUE WISDOM?
• While Job’s friends appeal, firstly, to experience, the
fundamental basis common throughout the wisdom
tradition, the plight of Job calls such wisdom into
question since it gives no satisfactory answers for what
has befallen him.
• In order to legitimize their position, Job’s friends
frequently fall back upon and appeal, secondly, to the
honored tradition and wisdom of the ancients.
• N.B. In the crisis of experience and the turning back to
tradition Albertz sees further support for his postexilic
dating for the Book of Job.
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 SECOND
APPROACH
• Yet Job even questions the honored tradition and
wisdom of the ancients since neither does it seem to
adequately address his condition.
• The friends now call upon a third source, which goes
beyond the traditional horizons of the wisdom tradition,
divine revelation! (Cf. 4:12-21, 15:14-16, 25:2-6)
• The Elihu speeches (a later addition) reinforce this
innovation, tracing all authentic sapiential knowledge to
divine inspiration. Simple experience is no longer taken
as sufficient for authenticating the validity of wisdom!
• Is this not the point of the closing theophany, in which
we hear the lengthy speech of God Himself!
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 SECOND
APPROACH
• SECOND APPROACH SUMMARY
• Recall the two opposing groups of “wise” identified in the
first approach.
• Experience tended to support the position of the wicked;
with their clever and self-serving interpretations of
sapiential maxims, they enriched themselves at the
expense of their country-mates.
• There is a pressing need, then, to offer the pious
segment of the Jewish aristocracy a clear orientation
during the period of crisis in the early postexilic period.
• The religious dimension grounds, legitimizes and
validates the sapiential ideal of the pious.
• In short, a theological wall is built around wisdom in
order to defend it from abuse by the wicked.
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 THIRD
APPROACH

16
 THIRD
APPROACH
• The PIOUS WISDOM of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar
• The conscious religious shaping of wisdom becomes
apparent in examining the contents of the ideal set
forth by the friends of Job.
• Trust (4:6; 8:14; 31:24)
• Hope (4:6; 8:13; 11:18, 20)
• Conditional Promise (5:19-26; 8:6b-7, 21-22; 11:15-19 et al.)
• Prayer (5:1-2, 8, 17-18; 8:5-7; 11:13-19; 22:21-28; 35:9-16)
• Throughout the Book of Job one may trace the effort to
combine learning with piety and to oppose the so-
called wisdom of the wicked.

17
 THIRD
APPROACH
• The Confession of Confidence, typical of Psalms and
Laments, is modified so as to underscore the necessity
of an inseparable unity between piety and conduct.
• The wicked, who behave in a most unsociable manner
(20:19, 22:5-9) have nothing upon which to base their
confidence and trust.
• God opens up a future only for a way of life that is under His
direction, which means, in particular, the recognition of social
obligations deriving from the ownership of possessions.
• Yet this position is nuanced to protect against what
we might now refer to as Pelagianism. (Cf. Job’s
outrageous claims in 13:13-19, Ch. 23, and 31:35-37
and God’s own refutation thereof in Chapters 38-41)
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 THIRD
APPROACH
• The need for integrating piety and conduct is apparent also
in the friends’ position on prayer. (8:5-6, 22:30)
• While moral rectitude does not automatically procure God’s
attention and salvation, it is a necessary presupposition for
the hearing of one’s prayer by God.
• Moreover, prayer is only legitimate, and thus heard, when
accompanied by a patient demeanor. That is, one must not
attempt to pressure God but must trust that the One Who
wounds for disciplinary reasons will also heal (15:4-6).
• This position is nuanced so to avoid a quid pro quo
rationalization of man’s relationship with God, a form of
which is seen in Job’s self-justified attitude, as well as to
avoid limiting the mercy of God, Who ultimately deigns to
answer the impatient prayer of Job.
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 THIRD
APPROACH
• THIRD APPROACH SUMMARY I
• The group of the Jewish aristocracy behind pious
wisdom found it necessary to argue against a rigid
doctrine of retribution, for the pious were suffering for
their fidelity while the wicked prospered in their greed.
• Their difficult task was to argue that while God will
indeed punish the wicked, not all suffering results
from wickedness.
• They defend the divine prerogatives, moreover, by
arguing that, because of creaturely sinfulness and
relative worthlessness, no man is justified in
accusing God but must steadfastly acknowledge
His justice even in misfortune.
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 THIRD
APPROACH
• THIRD APPROACH SUMMARY II
• With respect to the suffering of their own, pious wisdom
advances possibility of disciplinary pedagogy.
• With respect to the wicked, pious wisdom asserts the
(eschatological ???) position that their good fortune
will not long continue and that they will eventually
suffer a terrible fate.
• The Book of Job itself, over and above the position of
pious wisdom represented by Job’s three friends,
presents too the possibility of a trial or test to
determine whether one’s piety is indeed authentic or
whether it is based on considerations of utility.
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 CONCLUDING
SUMMARY

AN EVALUATION
OF THE THEOLOGY
OF THE JOBAN SAGES

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 CONCLUDING
SUMMARY
• The philosophy of life represented by the pious friends in
the Book of Job and developed by segments of the
aristocracy of early Judaism becomes a very impressive
theology!
• One may describe it as a conscious synthesis of the
sapiential mastering of life and piety, or as reason’s
permeation of personal piety, fashioned by the perspective of
the upper class. Subsequently, there is a total absence (?) of
explicit Israelite nationalism and the prophetic-eschatological
horizon of expectations.
• N.B. Is this really the case? Has not the earlier sapiential
position of hic et nunc rewards and punishments been
altered in the direction of delayed gratification? (go back 2)
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 CONCLUDING
SUMMARY
• The concerns and position of pious wisdom represented
by the three friends shows points of contact with
those of the pre-exilic deuteronomic reform
movement. The postexilic social upheaval would have
posed a crisis to the philosophy of life adopted by
these reformers.
• No matter how bright were their sages, they still had to
face the experiential fact that many of their members,
in spite of or even because of their piety, were
experiencing severe hardship and great suffering.

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 CONCLUDING
SUMMARY
• While the notions of pedagogical discipline and trial or
test are advanced, offering little real consolation, there
seems also to be an admission that the teaching of
wisdom, even if theologically correct, does not reach
people like Job in their suffering.
• So too are exposed the dangerous errors that
accompany a rigid notion of retribution and a quid pro
quo rationalization of personal piety.
• Perhaps these points pertain not only to the theology of
the friends but to any theological attempt to rationally
explain the relationship between God and humanity?
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 STATUS
QUAESTIONIS
REVISITED
• Do the friends in the Book of Job (Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar)
represent a type, that is, a professional class of Sage?
• Or are they simply what the Book claims them to be, viz.,
educated farmers? (Whybray Hypothesis)
• What’s at stake? If Job and his friends are mere
individuals, and not representative of some class, the
socio-historical hypothesis of Albertz falls!
• While Albertz presents a remarkably coherent
theory it still remains but a theory inasmuch as
no amount coherence can prove conformance
with reality.
26
 STATUS
QUAESTIONIS
REVISITED

• One might muse that

scholars would do well to
steer clear of the
enigmatic Book of Job if
not prepared to enter into
the mystery of suffering
portrayed therein.
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 REVIEW
QUESTIONS
• According to Job’s friends, righteousness
requires something more than hokma.
Explain.
• What are the three sources of wisdom to
which the Book of Job appeals?
• What evidence does Albertz see for a
postexilic dating of Job.
• Differentiate legitimate and illegitimate
prayers according to the friends.
• What two dangers of a retribution theology
are addressed in Job?
• What notions are advanced in Job to
explain the suffering of the pious? 28