Greenstein, Edward L. Job: A New Translation. New Haven: Yale UP, 2019.
From the publisher’s website:
The book of Job has often been called the greatest poem ever written. The book, in Edward Greenstein’s characterization, is “a Wunderkind, a genius emerging out of the confluence of two literary streams” which “dazzles like Shakespeare with unrivaled vocabulary and a penchant for linguistic innovation.” Despite the text’s literary prestige and cultural prominence, no English translation has come close to conveying the proper sense of the original. The book has consequently been misunderstood in innumerable details and in its main themes.
Edward Greenstein’s new translation of Job is the culmination of decades of intensive research and painstaking philological and literary analysis, offering a major reinterpretation of this canonical text. Through his beautifully rendered translation and insightful introduction and commentary, Greenstein presents a new perspective: Job, he shows, was defiant of God until the end. The book is more about speaking truth to power than the problem of unjust suffering.
Edward L. Greenstein is professor emeritus of Bible at Bar-Ilan University and a prolific, world-renowned scholar in many areas of biblical and ancient Near Eastern studies.
The Hebrew that typically is translated as “blameless” in English is translated in the English translation by E.L. Greenstein (2019) as “whole (in heart).” Greenstein comments (p. 4): Job’s illness will be represented by figures of disintegration, as physical wellness will signify wellness compare for example Psalm 38. Being whole in body ought to be the reward for someone who is whole in heart — a person of integrity.”
See also blameless (Luke 1:6) and blameless (amemptos).
The Hebrew that typically is translated as “upright” in English is translated in the English Job translation by E.L. Greenstein (2019) as “straight (of path).”
The Hebrew in Job 42:6 is translated in the English translation by E.L. Greenstein (2019) as:
That is why I am fed up;
I take pity of “dust and ashes!”
Greenstein explains this unconventional choice (p. XIXff.):
“Job’s response to the deity’s lengthy lecture on his prowess as creator and sustainer of the world — and on Job’s total lack of power and esoteric knowledge — is routinely interpreted as surrender. The verse (Job 42:6) has always stymied translators. The earliest translation, an Aramaic version found among the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran, interprets: ‘Therefore I am poured out and boiled up, and I will become dust.’ The two verbs are parsed entirely differently from the way they are most often understood today. A typical modern translation of Job 42:6 is: ‘Therefore I despise myself (or: recant), and repent in dust and ashes.’
“The first part of this translation is a stretch, and the second part turns out, after advanced investigation, to be highly improbable. The verb in the first clause (mans’) is assumed to be transitive, in need of an object, and the translators supply that object, either explicitly or by implication. Concerning the widespread interpretation as ‘recant,’ it is an invention of the translator — no such usage is attested in ancient Hebrew. It assumes an implicit object, ‘words’ or the like, but no such expression occurs with this sense. Concerning the rendering ‘despise (myself),’ the closest phrase one can find occurs in Job 9:21: ‘I’m fed up with (despise) my life.’ However, the verb in question does not need an object. It occurs intransitively in the sense of ‘I am fed up’ in Job 7:16, where it is often rendered correctly. In other words, there is a very weak foundation in biblical parlance for the common rendering. It stems from the presumption of the translator that Job is repentant.
“The second verb phrase, ordinarily rendered ‘I repent,’ has other well-known usages. An often overlooked one is ‘to take pity, have compassion’ (for example, in Psalm 90:13). Those who translate ‘I repent’ tend to render the following words literally: ‘on dust and ashes.’ They assume that in Biblical Hebrew one can say, ‘I am doing such and such (in the present case, repenting) in / on dust and ashes.’ The assumption is false. An extensive examination of all phrases relating to performing an act in the dust, on the earth, and the like shows that another verb is required: if Job were ‘repenting’ or ‘regretting,’ he would have to be ‘sitting in / standing on / lying in / being in (and so forth) dust and ashes.’ No such complementary verb is found here. We ought therefore to adopt the same meaning for the phrase ‘dust and ashes’ here that we find in its two other occurrences, one in the haggling between Abraham and God concerning the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18:27), where the patriarch humbly presents himself as no more than ‘dust and ashes,’ and the other in Job’s characterization of his abasement: ‘making me seem like dust and ashes’ (Job 30:19). The phrase is used figuratively of the wretched human condition.
“In this light, Job, in 42:6, is expressing defiance, not capitulation: ‘That is why I am fed up; I take pity on ‘dust and ashes!’ (= humanity).’ I note as well that in the preceding verses Job is mimicking the deity’s addresses to him from the storm (see there). Mimicry is the quintessence of parody. Parodic as well is Job’s assertion in 42:2: ‘you cannot be blocked from any scheme.’ Job is unmistakably alluding to the disdainful remark the deity makes about the builders of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:7: ‘they will not be blocked from anything they scheme to do.’ Consequently, Job is parodying God, not showing him respect. If God is all about power and not morality and justice, Job will not condone it through acceptance. This response may not accord with the image of a pious, Bontshe the Silent -type Job that most interpreters have wanted to find in this biblical book. However, Job’s defiance, a product of his absolute integrity, is not the only radical or surprising feature of the book in the reading presented and defended here.”
According to the Job translation by Greenstein (2019), Job 22:8 should be located following Job 22:14. He explains:
“Verse 8 is out of place, interrupting the mock tirade. It was apparently miscopied here because the scribe saw the word ‘arm’ in verse 9 and mistakenly copied verse 8, which also features the word ‘arm.’ Realizing his error, the scribe returned to verse 9 and continued copying. Verse 8 makes sense following verse 14.”
The Ancient Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible used the word pantokrator (παντοκράτωρ) or “Ruler of All” as a translation of the second part of the Hebrew term YHWH Tz’vaót (יְהוָ֨ה צְבָא֜וֹת) or “Lord of hosts” (see here) and occasionally ʼĒl Šadạy (אֵל שַׁדַּי), translated in English commonly as “God Almighty.” In the deuterocanonical/apocryphal books, pantokrator might have also been used in the original writing. The New Testament uses it one time in the writings of Paul (2 Cor. 6:18) and several times in the book of Revelation (see esp. Rev. 1:8).
One of the most influential icon styles of the Orthodox church has developed from this concept: Christ Pantocrator. In this icon style, Christ is looking straight at the viewer, his right hand is typically spelling a short form of “Jesus Christ” (see the bottom of the entry on Jesus and icons for an explanation), and his left hand holds a New Testament. His head is often surrounded by a halo.
The earliest preserved icon is found in the Greek Orthodox Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai from the 6th century:
In order to express the two natures of Christ, the two sides of the face are not symmetrical. The right side might represent the qualities of his divinity, while his left side represents human nature. (Source )
Orthodox icons are not drawings or creations of imagination. They are in fact writings of things not of this world. Icons can represent our Lord Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints. They can also represent the Holy Trinity, Angels, the Heavenly hosts, and even events. Orthodox icons, unlike Western pictures, change the perspective and form of the image so that it is not naturalistic. This is done so that we can look beyond appearances of the world, and instead look to the spiritual truth of the holy person or event. (Source )
“Almighty” is translated in Newari as “the strongest of all” (source: Newari Back Translation) and in the English Job translation by E.L. Greenstein (2019) as name: “Shaddai.”
See also LORD of hosts.
According to the Job translation by Greenstein (2019), Job 4:12-21 should be located following Job 3:26. He explains:
“For many reasons the passage 4:12-21 should be read here, right after chapter 3, as the conclusion of Jobs opening speech. One may suppose that two pages of ancient papyrus or parchment containing the two equal halves of chapter 4 were accidentally interchanged in the course of the text’s transmission. In an oft-compared Babylonian composition about a pious sufferer (“I Shall Praise the Lord of Wisdom”) it is the complainant, not the would-be sage, who experiences a divine revelation. It is also Job the sufferer, not his companions, who receives a theophany near the end of the book. More important, in the ensuing chapters both Eliphaz and Job refer to Jobs claim to have enjoyed a revelation. Further, Eliphaz (in chapter 15) and Bildad (in chapter 25) cite the words of the revelation as Jobs, and Elihu, who engages only with the arguments of Job, quotes from it (33:15).”
