Fragments on Job

Contents

Staged: the fragments on Job (Nr. 1-25). Not staged: Bonwetsch's 'small fragments' (pp. 520-521).

1. 1.1God judges by persuading, not by force, and Christ will ask the judged what they have done worthy of his blood.
2. 1.2The mountains God overturns (Job 9:5) are read as Moses and the prophets, made old by Christ.
3. 1.3At the crucifixion darkness, it is said, stars appeared as at night.
4. 1.4The visible works already named are not yet the “great and unsearchable” things of Job 9:10.
5. 1.5The fear that comes from God is his gift, completing the fear that is our own work.
6. 1.6God's patience does not mean the punishment of the ungodly is postponed forever.
7. 1.7God allows temptation because no one could be righteous without an adversary.
8. 1.8The “worm” of Job 25:6 is read of Christ, humble and not born of human union.
9. 1.9Job confesses that God's judgments are beyond human grasp, against friends who think they know why he suffers.
10. 1.10The “divine spirit” of Job 27:3 is read as the conscience God gives to all.
11. 1.11Christ, the Wisdom of God, went down to the abyss unconquered and enables those who trust him to walk on the waves of life.
12. 1.12“My head” is read as the mind, the ruling part of the soul.
13. 1.13Job made his wealth into virtue by using it well.
14. 1.14God speaks to Job only after his long testing, through a whirlwind that signifies the storm he endured and clouds that signify his restoration.
15. 1.15The rebuke “Who is this who hides counsel?” (Job 38:2) is read as addressed to the defeated devil, not to Job.
16. 1.16God's challenge “Gird up your loins” (Job 38:3) is read as addressed to the devil, who cannot answer.
17. 1.17The devil had already fallen before creation; the darkness of Gen 1:2 is darkness by choice, not created darkness.
18. 1.18The plural “measures” of Job 38:5 shows the variety of the earth's produce.
19. 1.19The catenist notes that Methodius's commentary ends here, then reads the cornerstone of Job 38:6 as Christ, who joins Jews and Gentiles.
20. 1.20A “great voice” is one that utters great things, as Paul's “great letters.”
21. 1.21Christ alone went down to the abyss as a free man and called its prisoners out.
22. 1.22God tells Job his sufferings were not without reason but were meant to show him righteous.
23. 1.23The beasts and the dragon of Job are the hostile powers, over which the servant of God has authority.
24. 1.24The plants under which the beast rests are read as the souls and demons among whom the devil dwells, including some who practise chastity.
25. 1.25The taming of the dragon (Job 40:25–26 LXX) is read of the demons' defeat and of good works that silence the devil.