#BibleStudy
#Fractal
Let me try to explain.
The book of Job is built around five fivefold patterns.
as well as a sense of progression. In line 1, YHWH asks Satan an apparently innocent question. (‘Where have you been?’)
In line 3, YHWH focuses the discussion on the story’s main character, namely Job.
In line 4, the discussion comes to a head as Satan offers God a wager,
which leaves us anxious to find out what will happen next.
More notable, however, is its sense of direction/crescendo (⟨ABCDE⟩).
Then, before Job is able to respond—i.e., before we find out how Job will react—, a second messenger arrives, who brings Job news of a second disaster.
Hence, as the scene unfolds, our sense of expectation/anticipation heightens, while the repetition of the words ‘I alone am left’ anticipate the awful exile/isolation about to befall Job.
That is to say, Job’s first four statements are statements of fact which don’t determine what follows them.
For the full details and exegetical payoffs, cf. here:
academia.edu/41599112/
In sum, then, fivefold patterns are hardbaked into the structure of Job, from the overall shape of its five scenes, to the individual acts of those scenes, to YHWH’s dialogue with Satan, to Job’s famous utterance (‘Naked I came forth from my mother’s womb, etc.’).
And yet, for all its regularity, the book of Job never absolutely conforms to any one pattern.
As Job’s friends failed to realise, every rule/pattern has its exceptions. (Just because trials are normally the result of sin doesn’t mean they always are.)
THE END.