What are the types/parallels in Job?

Question

As I read through Job, so much of it is reminiscent of other scriptures, and even as I read through other books, for instance certain chapters in Psalms or Lamentations, the words seem as though they could be coming from Job's mouth rather than David et. al and Jeremiah. I haven't taken a deep dive yet and I'm wondering if someone else has that could light the way.

One example- Job 39:27-30, a potential picture of Revelations 29:11-21, Matthew 25:28, Luke 17:30-37, and Ezekiel 39?

What are the types and foreshadowings you've found in Job? Thank you for sharing.

Answer 1

Job is a story of how Job was brought out of the law into grace. Job had the self righteousness of the law but through his sufferings learned that he had only know God by the hearing of the ear but now by the seeing of the eye. This is a story about the conversion of Job.

Answer 2

Job falls in the scriptural type known as the Writings and also Wisdom literature. As a frame of reference the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) is divided into three sections known collectively by the acronym T-N-K or Tanak.

• Torah (Instruction)
• Nevi'im (Prophets)
• Ketuvim (Writings)

Job as one of the Writings

The Writings can be arranged in three parts:

• Poetic books: Psalms, Proverbs and Job.
• Five Festival Scrolls (also called the Megilloth): Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Esther.
• Historical books: Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles.

Christians may or may not accept the above categorizations. For example Christian readers have difficulty appreciating the poetry of Job and do not think of it is a poetic work but can readily understand how it fits into the category of Wisdom Literature. In addition, Jewish bibles do not separate either Ezra and Nehemiah or 1 and 2 Chronicles. This results in 11 books among the Writings, but Christian Bibles have 13.

Job as Wisdom Literature

Viewed as wisdom literature, Job falls into the same category as Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and parts of the Psalms. Some analysts include the Song of Solomon and Lamentations. Among the Apocrypha, we may include the Book of Wisdom, Wisdom of Sirach, and possibly Baruch.

It should be noted that, as Wisdom Literature, Job has important parallels outside of the Bible itself. Among these are the so-called Babylonian Job and the Dialog between a Man and his God. Because the largest section of Job is a dialog between Job and his friends it also has a parallel in the Dialogues of Plato and similar works. Just as Plato used dialogues to examine topics just as justice (The Republic) and virtue (Meno), the Book of Job's main topic is theodicy - the problem of evil and suffering in a world created by a good God.

The Epilogue and the Prologue

Finally, Job also contains a prologue - in which God makes his famous "wager" with Satan - and an epilogue involving God's conversation with Job, as well as a narrative that can best be described as a happy ending. The prolog has parallels with other biblical books in which God speaks to supernatural beings, although it is unique in that Satan (ha-satan: the adversary) is one of them; and he seems to be on surprisingly good terms with God. The epilog has parallels in the historical books which speak of the final days of the patriarchs and good kings who die in peace and "rest with their fathers."

Regarding Job 37:27-30: this is part of God's declaration of responsibility for what appears to men as "natural evil" but is in fact beyond human moral categories. It is unrelated to apocalyptic passages such as those mentioned in the OP.