The Book of Job: Power, Justice, and Divine Ethics

In his opening lecture, Professor Goodman situates the Book of Job within the broader Hebrew Bible. He looks at the role it plays within Tanakh, its unique structure, and the criticism it levies against the rest of the biblical text. Indeed, Professor Goodman suggests that Job challenges the Bible’s core theology, critiquing the perspectives of both the Five Books of Moses and the Prophets.

The Book of Job opens with a curious dialogue between God and Satan. God argues that humans can be good—just look at Job—while Satan points out that Job’s goodness is a result of his circumstances, not his character. In this lecture, Dr. Goodman explores this conversation in-depth, probing the consequences it has for Job and for our understanding of the biblical system of reward and punishment. He also puts the Book of Job within the broader context of Jewish thought.

The middle of the Book of Job is an extended argument between Job and his friends about God. To understand their views, Dr. Goodman unpacks the theological problem of theodicy—if God is all-powerful and good, why do bad things happen to good people?—and how it fits into Job’s story. He also reveals one of the central paradoxes of the book, that Job is both God’s greatest advocate and His greatest critic.

Job’s friends argue that he is violating God’s law by criticizing Him. Job, in turn, suggests that failure to criticize God, when he believes it to be true, would violate God’s law. Professor Goodman suggests that this disagreement turns on the question of theological correctness: do we have to guard our true thoughts and speech in order to properly follow the word of God?

In our final lecture, Professor Goodman reviews the three paradoxes of Job: it gives sacred Jewish authority to non-Jewish ideas; it makes criticizing and telling the truth about God into a duty; and it criticizes classical biblical theology, while also being a part of the Hebrew Bible. Drawing on the ideas of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Professor Goodman shows how Job can change our understanding of the Bible, and how it helps us confront one of the biggest problems within modern liberal societies.