Intertextual Discourse and the Problem of God: The Intersect...

Common understandings of the books of Job and Deuteronomy cast them as contradictory documents. Some scholarship concurs with this view. Despite this understanding, scholarship has not thoroughly investigated the relationship of these two texts. The book of Job carries allusion and references to muc... Read more

Common understandings of the books of Job and Deuteronomy cast them as contradictory documents. Some scholarship concurs with this view. Despite this understanding, scholarship has not thoroughly investigated the relationship of these two texts. The book of Job carries allusion and references to much literature in the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East. In this thesis, I argue that the speeches of the character Job create a constructive dialogue with the book of Deuteronomy. While the views of the books are not identical, I argue that the speeches of Job largely evidence affirmation of Deuteronomy rather than derision or deconstruction. In order to demonstrate this claim, I examine the views of socio-religious expectations and retributive justice exhibited in each book. After these investigations, I examine the many intertextual connections between the speeches of Job and Deuteronomy. Three conclusions emerge from the study. (1) The socio-religious expectations, especially social ethics, of the book of Job are strikingly similar to Deuteronomy's expectations. It is possible that the author(s) of the book of Job used Deuteronomy as source material. (2) The views of retributive justice in the speeches of Job and Deuteronomy are similar, as opposed to popular belief. (3) Rhetorical analysis of Job's uses of allusions and references to Deuteronomy reveals far more affirmation and agreement than disagreement and derision. Show less