LITERARY STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK OF JOB: A NEW APPROACH

Abstract

This study conducts a synchronic analysis of the Book of Job with the aim of demonstrating the thesis of fourfold structures present within the narrative. The methodology employed integrates the canonical approach and narrative analysis, examining and organizing the text based on its syntactic and thematic indications. The focus is on identifying these fourfold structures within the literary blocks and chapters, as well as the fourfold rhetoric in pericopes and verses. The research, grounded in the analysis of the Masoretic Text (MT), investigates the ethical quadrilateral (1,1b), which characterizes Job as “blameless and upright, fearing God and shunning evil”, and in 23,8-9, which reveals Job’s search for Eloah in the four corners of the cosmos. The findings support a cosmological hermeneutic that integrates and illuminates the entire narrative of the Book of Job.

KEYWORDS: Book of Job. Quadripartite Structures. Cosmological Hermeneutics. Literary Plot. Ethical Quadrilateral.