Jensens survey of the old testament adam 152

areas of the first three statements. Stated
simply, who God is determines what He
does; therefore, we must trust Him
without reservation.
4. Doctrinal content. The book of Job
makes reference, directly or indirectly, to
most of the key doctrines of the Bible.
Subjects for which the book is particularly
known are:
a) Doctrine of God.
b) Doctrine of man.
c) Nature. Many references to God’s creation
appear throughout the book. Included
are such astronomical facts as:
names of stars and constellations (38:31-32)
suspension of the earth in space (26:7)
the earth as a sphere (22:14, margin)
(Scan chaps. 38 and 39, which are lled
with similar references.)


d) Satan.
e) Sin and righteousness.
f) Affliction, discipline, and blessing.
g) Justice.
h) Faith.
In your survey study you will be observing
these and other doctrines. Does it surprise
you that such a great variety of truth was
revealed to men of God even before the
Scriptures began to be recorded?

5. Style. As noted earlier in this chapter,
Job is classi ed as dramatic poetry. The
book is recognized even in the secular world
of literature as the most magni cent
dramatic poem ever written. Thomas Carlyle
wrote, “There is nothing written, I think, in
the Bible or out of it, of equal literary
merit.”
Since poetry is the language of the heart,


Job reveals the innermost thoughts of men
more so than their outward deeds. The
poetry section of the book (3:1—42:6) uses
the poetic structure of parallelism in its
arrangement of lines. Recall the three main
kinds of parallelism. Then read each of the
examples from Job cited below.
a) synonymous (4:9)
b) antithetic (16:20)
c) synthetic (4:19-21)
In drama, not everything spoken by the
actors is necessarily true. This is so in the
book of Job, where, for example, Job’s three
friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, give
their own interpretations of Job’s a ictions,
and are later rebuked by God for not
speaking “what is right” (42:7). (The
speeches of Job’s three friends take up nine
chapters of the book.)

6. Relation to other books of the Bible. As


noted earlier, all the books before Job, from
Genesis to Esther, are for the most part
historical in nature. If Job lived before or
outside the Abrahamic setting, an interesting
comparison may be made between the
poetical and historical books. This is shown
on Chart 66.
The book of Job is intimately related to
the New Testament, even though it is
explicitly quoted only once by a New
Testament book (1 Cor 3:19, quoting Job
5:13). The problems and questions of the
man Job are answered completely and
perfectly in Christ. It should be very clear
why Christ’s ministry is the culmination and
interpretation of all Old Testament history.
E. Heavenor relates this book to Christ’s
ministry correctly:
Like the other books of the Old
Testament Job is forward-looking to