Article May 12, 1951 Issue

JOB AND THE ADVERSARY

E. OLIVE DAVIS

One of the most interesting books of the Old Testament is the poetic drama which has come down to us under the name of Job. Who was the author of this extraordinary work? Was Job a real person? Did these experiences really happen to him? These are questions which have remained unanswered through the ages, though scholars have devoted their best efforts to finding the answers. Poets have analyzed the book of Job for its beauty, and philosophers have pondered the age-old problem with which it deals: Why do the righteous suffer; how can a just God permit evil in the universe; is there such a thing as disinterested love of God? Their study has apparently brought them to the conclusions that Job never received an answer to the questions which tormented him and that the ways of God are inscrutable and incomprehensible, even though Job himself seemed at the last satisfied and at peace within himself.

These are matters of academic and intellectual interest, to be sure; but to the Christian Scientist the book of Job presents that which is of much more import, namely, the account of the inward struggle and triumph of some sincere thinker in his journey from sense to Soul. Our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, tells us that it is the spiritual significance of the Scriptures which should concern us, and the book of Job, studied from this angle, yields especially rich rewards.

It may be helpful to think of the story from an entirely subjective standpoint; that is, to see it as the mental arguments coming to a mortal named Job—in the last analysis, indeed, to any human being. This brings the story into the ken of each one of us.

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