Job 13: The Right to Defense

Abstract

In the study of the book of Job, extensive attention has been given to theological and spiritual problems, such as the suffering of the righteous; the relationship between physical evil and ethical guilt; Job's guilt; the modest theology of God's defense by Job's friends or the presence or absence of a final conversion of Job. Perhaps less attention has been given to the problem that lies at the root of all those mentioned, namely the presence or absence of a legitimate procedure in which Job could have been found guilty or innocent, and convicted or released. This study concentrates on a crucial text of the book, which places us at the centre of the same old problem: the human being has to bear sufferings whose reason s/he does not understand and with norms of whose legitimacy s/he is not convinced.