20. Februar 2006 1

Morton Kelsey on Job

Today we´ve got a guest-post on Job. It is by the famous Episcopal Priest and best-selling author Morton Kelsey. Actually the text is an exerpt derived from Kelsey´s „Healing and Christianity“ in which he investigates the religious and philosophical environment in which Jesus´ healing ministry took place.
Let me just add this little disclaimer: as I am not the author of this little piece of information I can in no way be held responsible for it´s contents. The theology of Mr.Kelsey may differ from mine. Italics by me.

„The great protest against the Deuteronomic theory of sickness and healing is found in the story of Job. One of the main purposes of this book was simply to challenge the theory. Job was a righteous man; of this there was no doubt. We are taken into the very court of heaven to discover why he should suffer. He was firm and sincere inhis religious profession, but in order to convince Satan of this – Satan, who is seen as one of the Sons of God – Job is overwhelmed with suffering and tragedy, with rebukes and illnesses.
Because this outer symptoms obviously indicate disfavor of God, Job is treated with scorn by his neighbours and even by children – unthinkable among Hebrews while an older man was healthy. And so he ends up on the village dump, throwing ashes over his boils and scratching his sores with a potsherd. Even former friends turn upon him with their judgement, suggesting that he look for sins of which he knows he is not guilty. His wife leaves him with the comforting recommendation the he curse God and die. Unquestionably the reactions of Jobs neighbors, children, wife and friends represent the actual attitude of people in those struck down by adversity and serious illness. These were signs that people had lost God´s favor, usually by their own wickedness. But Job, maintaining his innocence, was in the end justified by Jahweh.
The whole book is a profound discussion of the problem of evil. Job´s was a voice crying in the wilderness. So much did later copyists disagree with its presentation and its basic outlook that they altered the text to bring it a little more in the line with the orthodox Deuteronomic theory of the origin of suffering and sickness. Thus this strand of teaching was not final, accepted development of Jewish thougt about healing.“

Be Sociable, Share!

Ein Pingback

Schreibe einen Kommentar

Diese HTML-Tags und Attribute sind erlaubt: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>