Leviathan and the Hook (Part 1)

Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. -James 5:10-11

James

I had real fun today. I spent the entire day writing out and analyzing an article reviewing a 1905 commentary on a 7,000-year-old book. This is the kind of thing that makes me an oddity in my family and even among my friends. I honestly don’t know anyone else who would happily do something like this. Nevertheless, I found the experience so deeply satisfying it seems wrong to keep it to myself. So I have set myself the challenge of preparing the same 120-year-old essay for you so that, whether you share my “special” personality or not, you can experience the power of what the author has to say.

Over the next six weeks, I will post sections of the article. Each post will include an introduction about what excited me about the essay, the section of the essay for that post, and some thoughts on how it makesgoodhappen in our everyday life.

So, will you go on the journey with me?

Let me entice you with a few quotes from the article:

• “…the true secret and hope of human life is something more dark and beautiful than it would be if suffering were a mark of sin.”

• “…life is a battle in which the best put their bodies in front, in which God sends only the holiest into the hail of the arrows of hell.”

• “…he that bore the worst that men can offer was the best that bore the form of man.”

If you still aren’t convinced, a bit of background about the three things that had to come together to produce Leviathan and the Hook should help:

1-The Book of Job:

Many scholars believe the Book of Job was written in the 5th or 6th century BCE following the Babylonian Exile. Others suggest it might have been written 200 to 300 years earlier. Over the following two thousand years, innumerable commentators on this first poetic book in the Old Testament have written, taught, and preached their perspective on this ancient text. Commentaries from the Talmud, Midrash, and later Jewish scholars were joined in the first century by the author of James (see quote above) in the 3rd century by Origen (Selections of Job) and in the 13th century by Thomas Aquinas commentary (Expositio in Job ad litteram). Finally E.J. Dillon wrote his commentary in 1905. Though Dozens and dozens of commentaries have been written since that time on this book of the Bible, there is no definitive work on the Book of Job.

2-The Author of the Commentary Reviewed:

Emile Joseph Dillon (21 March 1854 – 9 June 1933) was an Irish author, journalist and linguist who wrote about a variety of subjects that caught his interest: a portrait of Tolstoy, The Eclipse of Russia, Mexico on the Verge, and The Sceptics of the Old Testament: Job - Koheleth - Agur. Sometime before 1905 he turned his degree in Oriental languages from the Collège de France in Paris, his Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Leipzig, and his two other doctorates, one in Oriental Languages and Literature from the Catholic University of Leuven, and the other in Comparative Philology from the University of Kharkiv to the ancient and influential book of Job.

3-The Reviewer:

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936), more commonly known as G.K. Chesterton, was an English author, philosopher, Christian apologist, journalist and magazine editor, and literary and art critic. He attended the Slade School of Art, a department of University College London, to become an illustrator. Chesterton also took classes in literature there, but he did not complete a degree in either subject. In 1905 he wrote his review of Professor Dillon’s work that is the subject of these posts, Leviathan and the Hook.

G.K. Chesterton

When Job, Dillon, and Chesterton come together, what results is an essay of depth, wit and wisdom. I conclude with a few more quotes from Chesterton’s essay:

• “Centuries hence the world will still be searching for the secret of Job, which is, indeed, in a sense the secret of everything.”

• “We can all endure catastrophe as long as it is catastrophic; it is maddening the moment it is orderly.

• “But God comforts Job with indecipherable mystery and for the first time Job is comforted.”

It all begins next week!

Sincerely,

Randy

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