Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 57:225 (Jan 1900)
Article: The Drama Of Job
Author: Charles H. Dickinson

BSac 57:225 (Jan 1900) p. 68

The Drama Of Job

Rev. Charles H. Dickinson

A literary study of a scriptural subject needs no apology in this day. Such a study, to have even literary value, must be sympathetic with the peculiar religious spirit of the Hebrew writers, and must seek those religious treasures which absorbed all their thought.

This critique of the book of Job starts from the conviction that the book is purely a drama, containing nothing which detracts from dramatic quality or weakens dramatic power; that its author, though thinker and seer, is a dramatic genius of the first order, both in intensity of passion and artistic skill; that this drama is, therefore, not a treatise in the form of dialogue, nor an attempt at a speculative theodicy; and that the speculative elements of the book are introduced solely for their dramatic value.

By a drama we understand that form of literature which gives idealized representations of human experience, including experiences of inward conflict: representations of them, not accounts of them. It is none the less a drama, if it is able to dispense with an actual stage, and enacts itself before the mind of reader or auditor. The experience is idealized in the sense that the essential of it is separated from the insignificant details of daily life, and is made more intense and vivid. Whatever attainments are gained by the personages of a drama, whether in knowledge or happiness or character, are not the result of discursive thought, but of struggle and suffering. And if a mystery of life is illumined, it is by the light of an experience

BSac 57:225 (Jan 1900) p. 69

which also deepens the sense of life’s mysteries; as we feel the universe to be more mysterious the more we gaze at the stars. Such a drama, intended for recitation, is the book of Job: it unfolds a profound secret of life, but only by presenting life itself as the great teacher.

To test this conviction, we first look at the book as a whole, to see whether it is a dramatic unity; then we trace its course more in detail, to see if there is a purely dramatic progress. If the conviction is sustained, theories inconsistent with it disappear of themselves. A familiar acquaintance with the book is presupposed.

To begin with what is most evident,—the form of the book. In form at least this is a drama, with prologue and epilogue. The drama proper is written in magnificent verse. The prologue and epilogue are in prose. The prologue is intensely dramatic in everything except form. In the epilogue the style is idyllic, and the dramatic quality is carefully avoided. All these contrasts of form and style have an evident purpose. The author indicates that the drama proper begins with ...