Recherche – Detailansicht
Ausgabe: | Juli/August/2021 |
Spalte: | 691-693 |
Kategorie: | Altes Testament |
Autor/Hrsg.: | Joode, Johan de |
Titel/Untertitel: | Metaphorical Landscapes and the Theology of the Book of Job. An Analysis of Job’s Spatial Metaphors. |
Verlag: | Leiden u. a.: Brill 2018. XVI, 274 S. = Vetus Testamentum. Supplements, 179. Geb. EUR 115,00. ISBN 9789004388840. |
Rezensent: | Urmas Nõmmik |
The complex metaphorical language of the book of Job is one of its most immense challenges. Generations of readers and interpreters have wrangled over the finer details, while ancient copyists and translators went to extreme ends to decode the sophisticated poetry and imagery. Today, the secondary literature on Job is vast yet it is extremely difficult to bring fresh perspectives. Johan de Joode ma-nages to do so.
In his monograph, based on the respective doctoral dissertation at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven supervised by Pierre Van Hecke, d. J. takes advantage of the conceptual metaphor theory as it is represented by Lakoff and Johnson and their followers. From the very beginning, d. J. demonstrates his ability to find a notably pragmatic approach. By devoting only a limited amount of space to discussing theory and the phenomenon of spatial metaphors, present-ing only what is needed for the study, d. J. avoids getting lost in the complex field of cognitive sciences. The result is effective and the study is easily readable and methodologically coherent. Furthermore, a database of metaphors specifically created for the purpose of the study (unavailable to the public) explains why d. J. so skil-fully navigates the metaphorical landscape of Job.
After introducing theory (12–45) and the phenomenon of spatial metaphors in language and cognition (46–67), d. J. discusses three clusters of spatial metaphors. The first cluster, »boundaries and containment« (68–88), is »a pre-dominant source domain for the metaphorical description of Job’s ill-being and distress«, conceptualizing how enmity breaks a boundary and how enmity sets an unwanted external boundary (87). Larger passages which are scrutinized greater in detail in this section come from Job 16; 19 and the prologue.
The second cluster, »place and placelessness« (89–132), is divided into three surveys. The first part conceptualizes retribution in terms of »retribution is the attribution of a place«, i. e., »one’s place reflects one’s moral behaviour« (131). Through a close look at »rootedness and rootlessness« in the second part, one becomes aware of how consistently vegetation metaphors disclose retribution theology. Thirdly, by addressing »metaphorical objects and their place«, d. J. succeeds in discussing a whole series of objects that can be displaced and thus explicate the fate of the individuals. More attention is given to the speeches of friends (5; 8; 15), but also to Job’s words in 12; 21; 27; 29; 30 and the depiction of Job in the prologue.
The cluster on »direction and distance« (133–173) discusses distance ethics focusing on location and journey ethics focusing on motion. One can move away from evil, but ill-being can also approach or touch the protagonist; one can hold distance to evil, but one can also taste evil and be contaminated. Among the remarkably vast range of texts analysed, the speeches of Job in 6; 21; 31 and of the friends in 20; 22; 34 offer the most essential material.
Before coming to the climax of the monograph, d. J. draws to-gether the findings from the three previous chapters and considers Job’s post-traumatic spatial metaphors as theological challenges (174–186). He underlines the lack of control as the key element for interpreting spatial metaphors in the dialogue, particularly when compared to the prologue. Spatial causality is a challenge to retribution theology since it points to the negative role of God. That the latter claim cannot be true is considered in detail in the final chapter of the monograph on spatial configuration in divine speech (187–242). After surveying a number of interpretations of God’s two speeches and the basic theological questions of Job, d. J. depicts the alternative, universal, creative, protective and knowledgeable geography presented in divine speeches. In the second speech, the descriptions of the two beasts and the abasement of the proud and the wicked are part of a vertical hierarchy demonstrating another dimension and perspective of the creation. With literal spatial language God alludes to the metaphorical landscape of the dialogue but points to a new frame of reference. »God successfully breaks Job’s unremitting lament of negative spatial metaphors with large-scale landscape that is radically different. The landscape that God depicts is the first step towards Job’s healing« (240).
D. J.’s approach offers significantly precise insights into and elaborate reasons for the theological »solution« of the book of Job. Against the backdrop of scholarly literature, it does not surprise us that the divine speeches drastically shift the perspective of Job and that this is a matter of healing, not a matter of power or domi-nance. However, d. J. delivers weighty arguments, step by step. In doing so, d. J. succeeds in overcoming most of the potential critique from scholars approaching the book of Job from a redaction-critical perspective. While spatial metaphors are so widespread across the book, they interact in various ways and any scholar has to struggle with them and find an interpretative model. Furthermore, for any researcher dealing with the textual cruxes of Job, d. J.’s study pro-vides unexpected insights or at least makes spatial metaphors into a serious subject of consideration. This is particularly true when it comes to interpreting variations of the lexeme tm(m) (bodily wholeness not piety) and several passages, such as 5:3–7; 13:27; 20:15–25; 31:4–7 and the whole second divine speech.
The monograph gives a strong impression that an optimal selection of secondary literature has been considered, situating the given approach against the backdrop of an immense number of academic studies. However, readers might miss some further discussion on retribution theology, particularly in the German scholarship initiated by Klaus Koch with his theses on schicksalwirkende Tatsphäre, which strongly presupposes spatial metaphors.
It is welcome that d. J. himself proposes a number of ideas for further research (246) but even more can be added here. At several places, someone trained in analysing biblical texts using a poetol-ogical approach would ask more intensively how spatial metaphors interact with parallelism and strophic structures in the highly ambitious poetry of Job, since metaphors often depend on their immediate parallel metaphors. Other scholars trained in literary and redaction-critical methods would ask whether certain secondary half-arbitrary glosses or secondary cola do not revise the antecedent primary metaphorical landscape. Larger textual units might also provoke questions, such as how to deal with hymns to God and wisdom in Job 9:2–14; 12:7–25; 26; 28; 36:22–37:24 that seem to an-ticipate divine speeches, or even react to them.
With its occasionally provocative interpretations, the study of spatial metaphors in the book of Job is a highly welcome contri-bution to the research. It provides a number of significant impulses for an existential interpretation of the book of Job. With that being said, d. J.’s monograph belongs to those exegetical studies that can be recommended for reading to all active in the field of pastoral care. It is a pragmatic, practical and unexpectedly physical exegesis of a biblical book.