Hiob - Vom Gottesfürchtigen zum Repräsentanten Israels

Raik Heckl shows that the composition of the book of Job as a poem framed by a prose text was developed by adding the prose frame to an earlier independent poem. In this earlier poem, Job was depicted as a pious pagan, who held onto his relationship to his deity. In the Yahweh speeches, the God of Israel reveals himself to Job. The earlier poem deals exemplarily with the question of God's attitude towards suffering. The prose frame transfers this image of Job into a theological concept of history. Job, who in the prologue is already presented as a pious worshipper of Yahweh, becomes a representative of Israel's fate. His final restoration prefigures the coming restoration of Israel and thus constitutes a contrast to the Deuteronomic theological concept of history in the books of Samuel and Kings.