This would be far more reasonable than the situation of utter torture, without any time of relief, for Job that the narrative might superficially tend to convey.
Here we turn to the testimony of the German mystic, Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, who claimed to have been favoured from childhood with having seen famous Old and New Testament peoples and events. We are well aware that the little excursus that follows may be of keen interest only to Catholics. And, whilst we cannot accept Anne Catherine’s proposed era for Job (see section below), we accept that this very holy woman was perfectly honest in her testimony that she had seen Job (though having no idea at all of how to put what she saw into a proper chronological - and sometimes geographical - perspective) and that she can give us an idea of how the succession of trials befell Job. We at least think that the mystic’s account of the relative chronology and geography of Job’s sufferings may have a lot to recommend it.
Here are the relevant parts of Anne Catherine’s account of Job (in The Life of Jesus Christ and Biblical Revelations, Vol. 1, ch. 11), to which we have added some comments:
[Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich on Job]:
The father of Job, a great leader of the nations, was brother to Phaleg [Peleg], the son of Heber. Shortly before his time occurred the dispersion of men at the building of the
Comment: This reflects a traditional view that Job was the Jobab of Genesis 10:29; a view that one may find even in contemporary biblical commentaries. But we shall stick firmly to my own identification of Job as an C8th-C7th BC character. For one, the “Chaldeans [who] formed three columns” to seize Job’s camels and kill his servants, in Job’s third-listed trial (1:17), would be a complete anachronism, one would think, at the time of Peleg; but an organised Chaldean raiding force would be perfectly reasonable in my C7th BC context, when the Chaldean empire had begun to rise.
Anne Catherine continues:
…. Job … dwelt in different places, and his afflictions came upon him in three different abodes. Between the first and the second, there intervened a period of nine years’ posterity; between the second and the third, seven years; and after the third, twelve years. His sufferings always befell him in a different dwelling place. But he never was so absolutely ruined as to have nothing left; he merely became quite poor when compared with his former circumstances. He always had enough left to pay all his debts.
Comment: This all sounds entirely reasonable. But does Anne Catherine’s notion of long time intervals between trials actually accord with the Bible? The German mystic, whilst admitting that it may not seem so, has offered the following eminently plausible interpretation of this aspect of the Book of Job:
Although in the Book of Job this narrative is given very differently, yet many of Job’s own words are therein recorded. I think I could distinguish them all. Where the story says that the servants came quickly one after another to Job with news of his losses, it must be remarked that the words: “And as he still spoke of it”, signify, “And while the last calamity was not yet effaced from the mind of men”, etc.
Comment: Again, this seems to me to be most reasonable.
Perhaps an intuitive person might even be able to pick up a clue or two as to in which geographical locations some of Job’s trials had occurred, especially with occasional assistance from Anne Catherine. Though, as we shall see from the following passages, she herself is generally rather vague about locations, except in the case of
[First Trial]
…. Job moved with his followers northward from the
From this, his second dwelling place, Job went, accompanied by a numerous train of followers, to
Comment: The whole notion of a sojourn in the
With regard to
http://kinghezekiahofjudah.blogspot.com/
Anne Catherine Emmerich continues:
[Second & Third Trials]
…. When Job returned to his native country, his second misfortune overtook him; and when, after twelve years of peace, the third came upon him, he was living more toward the south and directly eastward from Jericho. I think this country had been given to him after his second calamity, because he was everywhere greatly revered and loved for his admirable justice, his knowledge, and his fear of God. This country was a level plain, and here Job began anew. On a height, which was very fertile, noble animals of various kinds were running around, also wild camels. ….
Job settled on this height. Here he prospered, became very rich, and built a city. The foundations were of stone; the dwellings were tents. It was during this period of great prosperity that his third calamity, his grievous distemper, overtook him. After enduring the affliction with great wisdom and patience, he entirely recovered, and again became the father of many sons and daughters. I think Job did not die till long after, when another nation intruded itself into the country.
Comment: Certainly tradition locates Job’s tomb at Ashtaroth Karnaim eastward of
Other points of interest made by Anne Catherine concern Job’s own nature:
Job was unspeakably gentle, affable, just, and benevolent. He assisted all in need. He was, too, exceedingly pure and very familiar with God, who communicated with him through an angel, or “a white man”, as the people of that period expressed it. These angelic apparitions were like radiant, but beardless, youths in long white garments that fell in heavy folds or strips around them, I could not distinguish which. They were girdled, and they took food and drink. God consoled Job during his sufferings by means of these apparitions, and they passed sentence on his friends, his nephews, and his other relatives. He didn’t, like the nations around him, worship idols.
Once three sons were born to him at one birth, and three daughters at another.
… Satan incited his wicked neighbours against Job, and they calumniated him. They said that he did not serve God properly, that he had a superfluity of possessions, and that it was very easy for him to be good. Then God resolved to show that afflictions are often only trials, etc.
The friends who spoke around Job symbolized the reflections of his kinsmen upon his fate.
The history of Job, together with his dialogues with God was circumstantially written down by two of his most trusty servants who seemed to be his stewards. They wrote upon bark, and from Job’s own dictation. These two servants were named respectively Hai and Uis, or Ois. These narratives were held very sacred by Job’s descendants.
One can now only with difficulty trace the particular history of Job, for the names of cities and nations were assimilated to those of the
Comment: Anne Catherine’s account of Job is perfectly compatible with what we know of the man from the books of Tobit and Job (presuming TOBIAS = JOB). She even describes his appearance, as she does all major biblical personages: “… Job was a large, powerful man of agreeable appearance; he had a yellowish-brown complexion and reddish hair. Abraham was fairer”.
Her description of the angel-youth is uncannily like that given in Tobit 5, for the angel Raphael (though Anne Catherine of course knew of no connection between Tobias and Job).
From Anne Catherine’s account, too, we learn that Job’s friends were relatives. We had surmised this in previous Jobian articles.
We cannot make much of the names of Job’s alleged trusty scribal servants, as given by Anne Catherine. Uis, or Ois, seems to be a version of the name, Uz, Job’s land.
Anne Catherine Emmerich attests that geographical names pertaining to Job have become a matter of “difficulty”, which is exactly what we had found in regard to the Book of Tobit. She also rejects a traditional view, that we too have rejected, that Job was an “Edomite”.
Generally, this all seems to be most acceptable.
It leaves us with a picture of TOBIAS = JOB that is somewhat expanded by comparison even with the composite one that we had drawn together in earlier articles. There is now scope for the holy man to have resided in more geographical locations - and with his series of famous afflictions being far more well spaced - than we had previously imagined.
Where else might he have gone?
