Old Testament Traditional Theodicy the Book of Term Paper

Old Testament

Traditional theodicy

The Book of Job presents us several faces of theodicy and all of them make excellent examples of traditional Judaic theodicy. What is theodicy and more importantly, what are the characteristics of traditional Jewish theodicy as they appear in the Book of Job?

A discussion on traditional theodicy could probably start with an extract from Leibnitz's book "Theodicy," written in 1710, where he explains the concept of theodicy by using a syllogism:

Whoever makes things in which there is evil, which could have been made without any evil, or the making of which could have been omitted, does not choose the best.

God has made a world in which there is evil; a world, I say, which could have been made without any evil, or the making of which could have been omitted altogether.

Therefore God has not chosen the best."

Leibnitz overthrows this syllogism by stating that God, having a choice of creating a world with evil and not creating one at all, he chose the lesser evil, that is to create a world where good is greater than evil. Citing from St. Augustine and Thomas D'Aquine, he states that God allowed evil in the part in order to achieve good in the whole.

Theodicy is thus "the reasonable justification of the nature, the structures & the goals of evil in an order of things considered as created by God."2 The presence of evil in the world and things is an undeniable fact. Within the religious dogmatic, this fact had to be explained. Why did God, in his all mighty goodness, allow evil and suffering and pain? If he is Love and Goodness, how could this have been allowed?

Accepting evil in the world and in God's creation, one had to options: consider evil a mystery, a miscalculation in God's work, or try to explain it and be able to either use it to one's benefit or avoid it altogether. Theodicy takes the latter path. Theodicy, that is explanation of evil, can lead to denial (of God), to reconciliation, mysticism, satanism, etc. Let's consider an atheist for example: he would explain existence of evil in the world by a simple syllogism: if God is good, than evil does not exist; but evil is a fact in the world, hence God does not exist (this being mainly Sartre's argument). The traditional theodicy reconciles the two principles of good and evil by creating the principle of "imperfection in part, perfection in whole," that is the principle exposed hereabove by Leibnitz: evil was a necessary part of creating good, the alternative being non-creation. From two evils, take the lesser one.

The Judaic expression of evil and theodicy, characteristic of the Old Testament, finds its best expression in the Book of Job3. The story in Job follows a simple line: in an encounter with God, Satan claims that Job's righteousness and belief is governed by the fact that he is in good health, is wealthy and respected. God agrees to have Job's faith tested and puts him in Satan's power. Job's possessions are taken away, he is covered with boils and loses all respect from fellow man. However, he does not renounce his faith and is rewarded by God in the Epilogue.

For our theodicy debate, one must ask himself: why does God allow Job so much suffering? Why does he make a pact with the Devil and renounces one of his faithful servants to him? All suffering must know a good reason, but no reason is given to Job. What characterizes this theodicy?

We have to turn back to the Semitic concept of evil, where this is incorporated in the Divine. As it is said in Isaiah,

I am the Lord, and there…