First published 2013.

Chapter 1: Introduction

1. Outline 2. Method of Approach 3. Plan for This Guide 4. Date and Context of Writing 5. Literary-critical Concerns 6. Final Form Reading 7. Job 1-2 The Prologue

Chapter 2: Job as a Wisdom Book

1. Solomonic Attribution 2. Form-critical Classificaiton of Job as Wisdom 3. Wider Use of Genres in Job 4. Questions of Definition and Extent of Wisdom 5. Cross-fertilization of Ideas 6. The Wider Form-critical and Intertextual Context of Job 7. Chapter 28 The Hymn to Wisdom

Chatper 3: Job as Parody

1. Genre Issues 2. Parody as a Genre 3. Parody as a Technique of the Author of the Dialogue 4. Parody in the Overall Structure of the Book--Zuckerman's Thesis 5. Job's Speeches in the Dialogue

Chapter 4: Job in the Context of the Ancient Near Eastern World

1. Ancient Sumerian Wisdom 2. Babylonian Parallels 3. The Friends' Speeches in the Dialogue 4. The Elihu Speeches

Chapter 5: Theological Issues Raised by the Book of Job

1. Disinterested Righteousness 2. Retributive Suffering 3. The God/Human Relationship 4. Job: A Tragedy? ; 5. The Yahweh Speeches and Job's Responses

Chapter 6: 'Reading' Job In a Postmodern World

1. Feminist Appraisals of Job 2. Liberation Theology Reading 3. Ecological Readings 4. A Psychological Reading 5. Job 42.7-17 The Epilogue

In the light of dramatic new hermeneutical approaches to the Bible that have characterized the last couple of decades, this guide to Job follows both literary and readerly approaches to the book that acknowledge the traditional historical questions but find others yet more pressing for our time. Job is a work of great literature that has engaged readers, scholars, sceptics and believers for many centuries. This guide reflects that diversity in its rounded picture of exciting new work that is taking place in the present-day readerly arena. Each chapter contains a 'key text' that highlights a particular section of the text of Job that serves as a focus for a topic of current concern. A special emphasis and interest of Katharine Dell is the matter of genre. She shows how problematic the term 'wisdom' is for this unique book, and argues that its radical sentiments earn it, rather, the title of 'parody'. Of all the biblical books it comes closest to tragedy, raising profound questions about its nature and place in the biblical canon. Job's relationship to its ancient Near Eastern counterparts, notably in ancient Mesopotamia, are also closely examined and key theological themes that characterize the book are explored. Finally different readerly approaches-feminist, liberationist, ecological and psychological-are pursued that illuminate and inform our own personal readings and generate ever fresh understandings of this enigmatic text.

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