如何理解约伯记？ 第1页

约伯记的确是很有趣的，而且和Torah（也就是旧约）前五篇基督教更加熟悉的上帝展现出来的形态也有所不同。我猜，题主的最主要的疑惑就是好人没好报的情况，但事实上，上帝已经在回答约伯了。

虽然上帝批评约伯朋友，“你们没有我的仆人约伯更了解我”，但起码有一句话，他们没讲错，人类的善不能惠及，人类的恶不能伤害到上帝。所以，首先，所说的好人有好报的理论基础是什么？既然上帝不受惠于人类的善，所以，要求上帝的主观去奖励人类的善是没有理由的。何况与，按他们的人物设定，世间的一切存在都是上帝创造的，所以，人类的生存本就是上帝的恩赐，在恩赐的基础上还在计较好人有好报，其实，是不合适的。而且，所谓好人有好报的这种想法和Satan（英文翻译上有翻译成Satan的，也有messenger的，所以不一定是像你们想象的Satan恶魔）的那种约伯因为上帝bless him而去信仰上帝，两种想法接近。所以，好人有好报本身这个思想就是错的。

真正的情况是牵涉到约伯记中上帝存在的形态的，所以，对于这个问题，用旧约圣经中上帝形象去解读，那一定是完蛋的。以及，既然好人不一定有好报，那人类为什么要坚持善呢？

而上帝的话中是有回答的。上帝的回答可以简单地分为两部分，前一部分在描述自然内部现象，后一部分就是提出了Behemoth和Leviathan，这种超自然的生物。

首先，前一部分，上帝在描述完那些牛逼哄哄的自然现象后，就讲到一个很有趣的地方，第一，狮子要打山羊去喂崽子，第二，当论及到山羊和鹿的时候，他并不是说山羊要被狮子吃，而是要长大。上帝给每个生物定下了律，但这些律都是专属于生物自身的。这些律精密组合成一个和谐而又完美的网，而上帝不偏爱任何生物。上帝不能偏向与任何生物，假设说，上帝偏爱于羊，使之不被狼吃，那么狼就去吃其他生物，其他生物就遭了殃，同样的，羊不受限制，那么数量就会增长，那么吃的草就会更多，那么其他吃草的生物就没那么多草去吃，再加之他们在有原捕食者的情况下又多了一个狼去吃它。牵一发而动全身，自然界就会失衡。所以，上帝不偏爱某个个体，某个族群，人类并不是上帝专属。

那好，这又怎么启示人类去坚持善了呢？我刚才说了，上帝给每个生物定了律，而这些律精密德组合成一个和谐的网。但是，请问，上帝给人定的律是恶吗？上帝造人时的理想人一定是善的，是virtuous的，那么人类的不善，一方面会破坏和谐的自然，那张网；第二，人类若不善，那么就是没按照上帝给予他们的路走，那么一定会和正常按照上帝的设计的自然届其他所有生物有冲突，而人类若与自然其他的一切起了冲突，那么一定是人类受伤，所以，其一，从自然内部的律出发，人类需要遵守上帝给予人类的律，在moral方面即是virtue。

其次，就是那两个大怪兽了，Behemoth和Leviathan，首先，他们是超自然的生物，前面自然界内，人类还能玩那种耳得之而为声，目遇之而成色，所以自然界的一切都与我有关，所以自然为我所造的这种想法。但现在，上帝来俩你们连接触都没接触过的超自然大怪兽，这个自然是加深了，上帝造世不为人造的那种观点。其次，那俩不是一般的大怪兽，Behemoth的描述叫，约旦河都到他鼻孔，他还气定神闲；对于Leviathan，他无敌的描述就更不用说了。他俩，是肉体上的强壮，所以伤害没办法伤害到他们。那么，精神呢？

举个简单例子来说，遭到一样的打击，有些心态好的就以之为勉励，更加奋发图强，有些人却自暴自弃，怨天尤人。对于Behemoth和Leviathan来讲，肉体上的强壮使伤害没办法威胁到他们。对于一个心灵强大的人来说，这些打击并没有办法影响到他们的mental stability。孔子说过，君子固穷，小人穷斯滥矣，讲的也是一个道理。甚至约伯自己都讲过，他的一切都是上帝给的，生杀予夺，雷霆雨露俱是天恩。所以，第二个人类需要坚持virtue的理由就是使自己精神强壮，在外来伤害不可避免的情况下，受其伤害的程度会轻一些。

这些是我摘取的我的论文的一部分观点，是仅根据约伯记做出的微末的思考，其中多有观点并不适用于像创世纪，出埃及记里的上帝形象。希望能够解答一些您的问题。

以下是我paper的原稿：

Shijie Chen

Sophomore Seminar

Mr. Thompson and Mr. Appelbaum

The most “unfair” contract—— the tenets of Job’s suffering

At all times, all over the world, people are well accustomed to hearing one of the basic tenets of nearly all religions: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. We have also seen the skeptic atheists disproving the existence of gods by enumerating the facts that good and evil will not necessarily be rewarded. It seems that the cycle of karma is duly related to the existence of god to people. However, according to Job from the Hebrew Bible, God allows the blameless Job to suffer, not due to his morals or behaviors, and the indignant Job make complaints against God’s connivance to all the chaotic, wicked phenomena. From this ancient and mysterious book, I will make an analysis of the reason for and the whole process of Job’s suffering, attempting to explore the relationship of one’s persisting on virtues and the consequence brought about by God.Ajax is an eminent tragic hero in Homer’s Epic.

From the perspective of the reader, we know from the beginning that Job is blameless. Citing the word of god, “there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil” (1.8 and 2:3). To place blame on someone blameless, in any respect, is not fair and just behavior. Such reasoning will ultimately result in one situation, reflected in the words of God, “Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be justified?” (40.8) Therefore, to avoid admitting that God is wrong, Job’s three friends have to insist Job has some sins. When Job questions with regard to the phenomenon in general of why the wicked are preserved, his friends can only give him a poor answer, “how then can a mortal be righteous before god? How can one born of woman be pure?” In another word, everyone is born with some sins, so everyone suffers, but it is not an answer for why evilness is condoned by God. The foundation of their argument is that God is omnipotent and omniscient, and God is always fair, it’s not possible that God reproves a person because of his merit. Thus, acknowledging Job to be guiltless, in some sense, equals an acknowledgement that either God has limits in power or that god is unfair.

However, with regard to Job’s complaints and the refutation of his friends, God indeed makes a surprising response: “My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has”.(42.7) Job has queried the rationality of everything, except for God himself, and the world created by God. Nevertheless, the reaction of God to this is Job spoke “what is right”. As to the verdict of Job’s friends, the punishment to them seems less incomprehensible. Job bluntly argues at the beginning, “As for you, you whitewash with lies, all of you are worthless physicians”(13.4), he determines their argument as “Will you speak falsely for God, and speak deceitfully for him?” (13.7) Thus, in essence, Job’s friends make a highly irresponsible and unfounded defense disregarding the facts and the reasonings.

Job makes an accusation regarding every injustice in the world, he is baffled and indignant. He seeks reasons from God, but he does not arbitrarily attribute it to some reason he presumes. However, his friends imprudently opine, “think now, who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off?” (4.7) Or, in another word, more specifically, “is it for your piety that he reproves you, and enters into judgement with you.”(22.4) God punishes the unjust person because of his unjust deed. This is one of the most important premises in their argument. They establish a necessary congruence between a human deed and God’s reaction, and such reasoning is extremely similar to the logic initially brought up by Satan,

“Does Job fear God for nothing…You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” (1.9, 1.10, 1.11)

People do good deeds because they wish to acquire or keep some profits from God. Nevertheless, with regard to God, as brought up exactly by the friends, the goodness a man provides does not benefit God, and on the contrary, the evilness a man does is also not harmful to God.

Anything human possesses is the general bequeath from God. In fact, the concept of God let someone suffers does not even exist, “the Lord gave, the lord has taken away”(1.21) The so-called suffering or punishment is just that God takes some of his blessings. Human beings has already took God’s invaluable and selfless dedication. Under such a generous bestowal, they are still calculating how much more or less grace they have received. Thus, it is no wonder that such an opinion will irritate God. So, firstly, Job’s friends utilize an unjust, erroneous rule in the establishment of their outlooks of the relationship between God and human beings.

Job’s friends make the wrong estimation, because the rule they use to understand God is false and biased. But it is still possible that human beings, if they know the precise rule God follows, will be able to speculate about God’s reaction. So, now, it is necessary to investigate if there are any laws that God adheres to.

God prescribes all the rules of nature, so God is above the rules, which means God is not necessarily obliged to obey any of the laws. On the other hand, God’s laws are universal, so the law is above human beings, and human beings obey the the laws. However, if God is the creator of the laws, will it be equal to saying that God is the laws, and God never violates his laws? It is the quintessential question that needs to be clarified to judge whether human beings are able to understand God.

First, to explain what I mean by “God is the law”, may I be allowed to use a crude example: if a person feeds his pigs at 10 am. everyday, with respect to the pigs, the person is just something which feeds them at 10 am. Then there will also be nothing unreasonable for the pigs to conjecture that the person will feed them at 10 o’clock on the next day. So, even though the person is a more complex being than the pigs can understand, as long as the person feeds the pig at the same time, it will be more than enough for the pigs to make the presupposition that the person will follow the old habit. However, there is one premise for this deduction, under the circumstance of possessing the capability, it’s still impossible for God to make any changes. For instance, it is absolutely reasonable to suppose that the person might just, for one time, change his mind and feed the pigs at 9 o’clock.

People might change, but God will not, even though he owns the capacity. A change results from exterior and interior reasons. The interior reason is that the subject making changes has the capability and intention to do so, and the exterior reason is the exterior circumstance that facilitates the subject attaining such capability and intention. The person might make a change to feed his pigs at 9 o’clock because the newspaper he read says it is better to feed the pigs at 9 o’clock. So, the original behavior is the consequence of a bunch of reasons, if none the factor that cause the consequence changes, there is no possibility that the consequence might ever change. However, to omniscient God, it seems that the slightest change in the whole universe might be the external reason that causes him to make a change.

Regarding such suspicion, there is one logical mistake, it is not in the whole universe but of the whole universe. All particulars in the universe are changing all the time, but the universe as a whole remains the same to God. The sum of the total elements within nature neither grows nor withers. The change happens just in the form of the elements transfer on to another subject or in another form. In fact, the laws of nature God prescribes do not also stabilize the world, but this fluctuation makes another form of stability.

Therefore, to explore the relationship between God and the world he creates and if there is some law for God, we should find the answer from God’s response. The pronouncements of God can be roughly separated into two realms with two themes. Firstly, God proclaims that he laid out the natural laws and continues to make the world operate based on them. Subsequently, he brings up the living state of two supernatural existences, the Leviathan and Behemoth. Therefore, in the next few paragraphs, I will analyze how God manages the natural laws and why God introduces to the two monsters and their relationship to the natural world.

In Chapter 38 and 39, God enumerates the eminence of his creating the world, the development of heaven and ground, the interchange of light and darkness, the fall-off of snows and rains, and the growth and habits of lives; everything operates on the basis of the laws that God has given. Nevertheless, there are two seemingly conflicting parts: On the one hand, lions hunt the prey and satisfy the appetite of the young lion, so the growth of lions count on preying on other animals for food. On the other hand, when God mentions the reproduction and growth of mountain goats and deer, he does not state that the destiny of mountain goats and deer is to be eaten. The tenet of growth of each animal is not to feed other animals but for the individual themselves. The conglomeration of each delicate creation of God is a carefully woven, tight and ethereal net. Each creature follows a law assigned by God, so that nature as a whole functions perfectly and harmoniously. Therefore, God is not partial to any particular creature in nature. The object God pays attention is each of the particulars and the conglomeration of all of them as nature. The subjective consciousness of God does not intervene in the affairs of any particulars within nature. Thus, human beings, which are just one particular group of livings within nature, have no way themselves to comprehend all the assemblage of the laws for all the particulars, the law of nature; in the same way as any part individually can not understand the whole. Then, there is certainly no possibility for them to understand God.

Furthermore, why does God bring up Leviathan and Behemoth? The presumption can be easily reached that the creation of God within nature is not for other creatures. However, in the eyes of each creature, the world is indeed made for them. For example, to a goat, grass is for eating, a wolf is something which eats them, everything they encounter with eyes is a color and shape to them, everything they encounter with ears is a sound to them. Each thing is created individually but also has a delicate relationship to everything else. Therefore, the arrogant persons might still treat everything within nature as having been created for them or for human beings. Then God refers to other beings he has created like Leviathan or Behemoth that are out of our perspective of nature, which have absolutely no relationship with humans, and reinforces the idea that the creations of God are not for them.

The implication that God raises about Behemoth and Leviathan is far more significant than simply introducing two random monsters that are unrelated to human world. For both monsters have one commonality: on the subject of Behemoth, according to the original text, it is, “even if the river is turbulent, it is not frightened; it is confident though Jordan rushes against its mouth.”(40.23) With regard to Leviathan, the emphasis on its invincibility is even more obvious, “Though the sword reaches, it does not avail, nor does the spear, the dart, or the javelin.” (41. 26) and ultimately, “On earth it has no equal, a creature without fear.” The descriptions of both of them indicate that nothing would be able to harm, and more importantly, no harm may induce Leviathan and Behemoth’s fear. In other word, because of the physical power of Leviathan and Behemoth, those which can harm normal human cannot injure them, not even threatening to them. Thus, the examples of Behemoth allows us to deduct if there is laws for God. Laws are executed by means of having the transgressed restricted. However, nothing can be treated threatening to the Behemoth and Leviathan, they have no fear, and naturally, they can be restricted by nothing. Then, it can be easily concluded that there is no law for them and they live an absolute free and unfettered life. Not even mentioning God, who is much higher above than Leviathan and Behemoth.

Going back to the original question, why do human beings persist in virtue, even if it does not necessarily bring about the blessings of God? The answer is also implied in God’s response. First, human beings are a particular facet belonging to nature. To fit into nature harmoniously so that people are not excluded from nature and incur trouble themselves, people should follow the laws God prescribed to them. To lions, the law is hunting and preying, so that they live, to mountain goats and deer, the law is going, reproducing, and escaping from being eaten by the predators, otherwise they will be extinct. To human beings, they must follow the moral laws which is also a part of their general laws, by which human beings, in general, can all possibly avoid the conflicts with other parts of nature. The difference between such a thesis and Job’s friends’ idea that Goodness will be praised and rewarded, and evilness will be punished is that, what Job’s friends wish, in essence, is that the subjective consciousness of God interfere with the affairs within nature, which, as I have analyzed, does not accord. with God’s way to treat natural beings. On the other hand, the theme I am trying to say here is by following the laws God prescribed for human beings, we can simultaneously keep ourselves away from the sufferings resulting from collisions with other natural beings.

Owing to their physical strength, Leviathan and Behemoth will not be injured by the harms of nature. Similarly, by fortifying our mental strength by the means of following the virtue, the physical harms will not influence our mental stability. Confucius said: “Of course the gentleman encounters hardship. The difference is that the petty man, encountering hardship, is overwhelmed by it.” How miserable a man feels depends on his perception to sufferings. Because of the limit of the human beings, sufferings are unavoidable and physical harms can not be eliminated. However, by persisting in their virtues, people would gain the capacity to defend the negative impact of the suffering on our mind. Job is a model for that, when all his offspring are killed and all his fortunes are ruined, he is still grateful to God, saying “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (1.22)

In the perspective of the world in Job, God is mystical and amazing being. He possesses an independent consciousness while knowing everything, he does not intervene the development of the world with his subjective consciousness. God is also a complex being. In fact, my inference based on the word of God here can be challenged with many fundamental questions, why did God create the World, although God does not take actions himself, but the harms of Satan to Job is still under his permission, should it be counted as an interference to nature… But, no matter how, life is great, the World is beautiful, and we should also be grateful for that.

Notice: The opinion in this passage is just the analysis of the relationship between God and nature based on Job, and does not necessarily fit into other texts in the Hebrew Bible.

我在原稿中又加入了对于上帝形象，以及上帝和他的律法的一个论述。至于说，我对约伯记还有什么特别困惑的地方，就在于，在约伯凭啥不死？约伯原本是个有钱人，并且已经多子多福了，是上帝狠捶他一顿之后，又听到上帝的教诲，约伯大彻大悟了。而之后还是那老一套，儿子女儿，钱财产一类的，加倍了又咋样？但约伯要还在意这些吗？这就好像那些出了家又还俗的，那他有开悟吗？

另外，中世纪有一位叫Maimonides的同学，他的作品中也有对于约伯记的讨论，因为我自己的文章，所以，读他的时候会有先入为主的影响，若题主有好奇，也可以读他读读看。