Friends delayed; seven days’ watch; Job’s pain without blasphemy

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paradox of the calamity also seemed unbelievable — Job on a dunghill and uncared for. They waited to confirm the report through more witnesses, or to send and see if it was true; time was spent that way. Once they knew the truth, as kings about to travel they first had to set their houses in order and appoint deputies. That occupied them and delayed them. Had they not been deeply beloved and righteous, they would not have left countries and kingdoms to visit, but would have sent others. One may also see a divine arrangement in the delay: since the friends’ dialogue ends the whole contest when God speaks, recovers, and crowns the righteous man, the friends’ lateness stretches the illness so that, contending more, he may be declared more justly by God.

"They came to him with one mind to comfort and visit him." Symmachus: they arranged together to sympathize and comfort. Another stretch of time passed while they messaged one another and set a common arrival. "They sprinkled earth on their heads." "They sat beside him seven days and seven nights." Scripture does not mean continuous day-from-dawn and night-from-dusk without break. They sat the greater part of the day, withdrew for necessary needs, returned late into the night, left again, and rose early to him — the mark of genuine friends. Scripture speaks by common custom, as when Jacob served fourteen years burned by day heat and night frost without meaning he never entered a roof. Quibbling further is nonsense. Some mock Scripture as false — "How without food and sleep for so many days?" — and we are forced to answer their untimely distress.

Chapter 3 begins: the righteous man feels pain — no one denies it. Virtue is not numbness, but philosophy inside the passions. In appearance he is stung sharply in the flesh; in thought, as a God-loving man, he sees others scandalized at such sufferings, as if God’s glory were torn if the righteous endure this. When he says, "Why have you set me as your opponent in prayer?," he is not striking at God — far from it. To whom else would he petition? He means: Why, through me, Master, is your name blasphemed? He also grows dizzy lest abandonment from God be greater still. A God-loving soul suffers nothing like the suspicion of being left by God, and chooses death ten thousand times over life under that suspicion.

At the loss of goods and the sudden death of the children we heard his thanksgiving, how he schooled the wife who thought unseemly things of the Master, and how no human accident shook him. When righteous, sympathetic friends arrived, he judged it time — seeing their endurance and love — to publish the soul’s pains in a history without danger. The devil’s one aim was to make the righteous blaspheme God. Job nowhere does that; he rather speaks well and sends up thanks. He curses the day of birth, and

Greek

παράδοξον τῆς συμ φορᾶς καὶ ἄπιστον ἐδόκει, εἰ καὶ ἐπὶ κοπρίας ὁ Ἰὼβ 17.65 καὶ ἀνεπικούρητος κάθηται. Καὶ περιέμενον διὰ πλειόνων πιστώσασθαι τὴν ἀκοὴν, ἢ καὶ ἐκπέμψαι καὶ ἰδεῖν, εἰ καὶ ἀληθῆ τὰ λεγόμενα. Ἐν τούτοις οὖν ὁ χρόνος ἐτρίβετο. Πρὸς δὴ τούτοις, ὅτε τὸ ἀληθὲς ἔγνωσαν, βασιλεῖς ὄντες καὶ ἐκδημεῖν μέλλοντες, ἀνάγκην εἶχον πρότερον εὖ διαθεῖναι τὰ κατὰ τὸν οἶκον, καὶ ἐπιστῆσαι τοῖς ἀρχομένοις τοὺς ἀνθ' ἑαυτῶν. Ταῦτα πάντα αὐτοὺς ἀπησχόλει, καὶ ἐνε βράδυνον. Καὶ εἰ μὴ σφόδρα γε ἀγαπητοί τινες ἦσαν καὶ δίκαιοι, οὐκ ἂν, τὰς οἰκείας καταλιπόντες χώρας καὶ βασιλείας, ἀφικνοῦντο πρὸς τὴν ἐπίσκεψιν, ἀλλὰ δι' ἑτέρων τὴν χρείαν ἐπλήρουν. Ἔστι δὲ ἐννοεῖν, ὡς καὶ οἰκονομία τις ἦν θεία τῆς ἀφίξεως ἡ ἀναβολή. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ὁμοῦ τῇ τῶν φίλων διαλέξει καὶ τὸ πᾶν τοῦ ἀγῶνος ἐλύθη, τοῦ Θεοῦ χρηματίσαντος, καὶ τὸν δίκαιον ἀνακτησαμένου καὶ στεφανώσαντος, οἰκονο μία τις γέγονε θεία, ἐμβραδῦναι τοὺς φίλους, ἵνα παραταθῇ τὰ τοῦ νοσήματος, καὶ μειζόνως ἀθλή σας ὁ δίκαιος, δικαιότερον ἀναῤῥηθῇ παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ. Στίχ. ιαʹ. Καὶ παρεγένοντο πρὸς αὐτὸν ὁμοθυ μαδὸν, τοῦ παρακαλέσαι καὶ ἐπισκέψασθαι αὐτόν. Ὁ Σύμμαχος οὕτως ἐξέδωκε· Συνετάξαντο γὰρ ὁμοῦ ἐλθόντες συμπαθῆσαι αὐτῷ, καὶ παραμυ θήσασθαι αὐτόν. Ὅρα καὶ ἐντεῦθεν, ὡς καὶ ἕτερος παρῆλθε χρόνος, ἕως ὅτε, πρὸς ἀλλήλους διαπεμψά μενοι, τὴν ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ σύνοδόν τε καὶ ἄφιξιν ἐποιή σαντο. Στίχ. ιβʹ. Καὶ καταπασάμενοι γῆν ἐπὶ τὰς κεφαλὰς αὐτῶν. Στίχ. ιγʹ. Παρεκάθισαν αὐτῷ ἑπτὰ ἡμέρας, καὶ ἑπτὰ νύκτας. Οὐκ εἶπε δὲ ἡ Γραφὴ, ὅτι παρεκάθηντο ἑπτὰ ἡμέρας πρωΐθεν ἕως ἑσπέρας, οὐδὲ ἑπτὰ νύκτας ἀφ' ἑσπέρας μέχρι πρωΐ. ∆ῆλον οὖν, ὅτι, τὸ πλεῖον τῆς ἡμέρας παρακαθεζόμενοι, ὑπεχώρουν τὰς ἀναγκαίας ἐκπληρώσοντες χρείας· καὶ πάλιν ἐπανήκοντες, μέ χρι πολλοῦ τῆς νυκτὸς παρεκαθέζοντο, καὶ αὖθις ἀπιόντες, πάλιν ὤρθριζον πρὸς αὐτόν. Ὃ δὴ τῶν γνησιωτάτων καὶ συμπαθεστάτων φίλων ἴδιον. Τῇ δὲ κοινῇ συνηθείᾳ χρωμένη ἡ Γραφὴ, οὕτως ἀπολύτως εἶπε· Παρεκάθισαν αὐτῷ ἑπτὰ ἡμέρας καὶ ἑπτὰ νύκτας. Ἐπεὶ καὶ ὅτε λέγει τὸν Ἰακὼβ δεκατέσσαρα ἔτη δουλεῦσαι, καὶ συγκαίεσθαι τῷ καύσονι τῆς ἡμέρας καὶ τῷ παγετῷ τῆς νυκτὸς, ἆρα ὑπὸ στέ γην οὐκ εἰσῄει ποτέ; ἆρα οὐδεμιᾶς ἀναπαύσεως ἔτυχεν ὅλῳ τῷ χρόνῳ; Ταῦτα μὲν οὖν καὶ λεπτολο γεῖν φλύαρον. Ὡς γὰρ ἔφην, ἡ Γραφὴ κοινῇ συνη θείᾳ χρῆται. Ἐπειδὴ δέ τινες, κωμῳδοῦντες τὴν Γραφὴν, καὶ ἐντεῦθεν αὐτὴν ὡς ψευδῆ διασύρουσιν· Ὡς γὰρ ἂν, φασὶν, ἄσιτοι διετέλουν καὶ ἄϋπνοι ἐπὶ τοσαύταις ἡμέραις; ἠναγκάσθημεν αὐτῶν συνα παχθῆναι τῇ ἀκαίρῳ στενοχωρίᾳ. ΚΕΦ. Γʹ. Ἀλλ' ἐν τούτοις μὲν τὸ δεύτερον ἤνυσται κεφά λαιον· τοῦ τρίτου δὲ προθεωρίαν ποιούμενοι, φαμὲν, 17.68 ὡς ἀλγεῖ μὲν ὁ δίκαιος, καὶ οὐκ ἄν τις ἀρνήσαιτο οὐ γὰρ τῶν ἀναισθήτων ἡ ἀρετὴ, ἀλλὰ τῶν ἐν τοῖς πάθεσι φιλοσοφούντων. Οὐ δύναται δὲ, κατὰ μὲν τὸ φαινόμενον, ὑπὸ τῆς ἐν σαρκὶ πληγῆς δριμυ τάτως κεντούμενος· κατὰ δὲ τὸ νοούμενον, οἷα δί καιος καὶ φιλόθεος ἀνὴρ ὁρῶν τινας σκανδαλιζομέ νους ἐπὶ τοῖς αὐτῶν παθήμασιν, ὡς τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ δόξης ἐπ' αὐτῷ διασυρομένης, εἰ ὁ δίκαιος ταῦτα ὑπομένει. Καὶ γὰρ ὅτε λέγει· Ἵνα τί ἔθου με κατ' ἐντευκτήν σου; οὐκ αὐτὸς κατὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐτύγχανε, μὴ γένοιτο! τίνι γὰρ εἶχεν ἐντυγχάνειν; Ἀλλὰ τοῦτό ἐστιν ὅ φησιν· Ἵνα τί δι' ἐμὲ, ∆έσποτα, τὸ ὄνομά σου βλασφημεῖται; Θορυβεῖται δὲ οὐδὲν ἧττον καὶ ἰλιγγιᾷ, μήπως πλείως ἐγκατάλειψιν ὑπέστη παρὰ Θεοῦ. Οὐδὲ γὰρ οὕτω τιμωρεῖται ψυχὴ φιλόθεος, ὡς τὸ ὑποπτεύειν καταλελεῖφθαι παρὰ Θεοῦ· καὶ μυριάκις αἱρεῖται τὸν θάνατον, ἢ μετὰ ἀλγηδόνων καὶ τοιαύτης ὑποψίας τοῖς ζῶσιν ἐγκατα λέγεσθαι. Ἐπὶ μὲν οὖν τῇ τῶν κτημάτων ἀπωλείᾳ καὶ τῇ τῶν παίδων ἀθρόᾳ τελευτῇ οἵας ἀφῆκε χα ριστηρίους φωνὰς ἠκούσαμεν, καὶ ὅπως τὴν γυναῖκα ἐξεπαίδευσεν ἀπρεπές τι περὶ τοῦ ∆εσπότου λογισα μένην, καὶ ποῖα μετὰ πεῖραν καὶ ἐξουδένωσιν καὶ τὸ δριμὺ πάθος ἐφθέγξατο, καὶ ὡς οὐδὲν αὐτὸν τῶν ἀν θρωπίνων συμπτωμάτων διεθορύβησεν· ὡς δὲ οἱ φί λοι παρεγένοντο ἄνδρες δίκαιοι καὶ συμπαθεῖς, εὔ καιρον ᾠήθη, θεωρῶν αὐτῶν τὴν ὑπομονὴν καὶ τὴν ἀγάπην ἐπ' αὐτῶν, εἰπεῖν καὶ δημοσιεῦσαι τὰς κατὰ ψυχὴν ἀλγηδόνας, καὶ φθέγγεται μὲν καθ' ἱστο ρίαν ἀκίνδυνον. Ἓν γὰρ ἦν τοῦ διαβόλου τὸ σπού δασμα, τὸ παρασκευάσαι τὸν δίκαιον βλασφημῆσαι Θεόν. Ὁ δὲ οὐδαμῶς φαίνεται τοῦτο διαπραξάμενος, ἀλλὰ καὶ μᾶλλον εὐφημήσας, καὶ χαριστηρίους ἀνα πέμψας φωνάς. Καταρᾶται δὲ τὴν ἡμέραν τῆς γεννήσεως, καὶ τὸν

About this text

Origen of Alexandria, Enarrationes in Job (Greek).

Catalogue & scope

Khazarzar scan

Witnesses

Copy-text PG 17 (Khazarzar) (Greek)

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