Walter Vogels, W.F.: Job's Superficial Faith in his first reactions to suffering (Job's empty pious slogans)(Job I:20-23; 2:8-10)Job's reaction to his trials when they first hit him seems very pious compared to the violent language he useslater in the book. Some scholars say that these two attitudes are irreconcilable, "contradictory," and that they"clash dramatically." They maintain that the same writer could not attribute such diametrically opposedfeelings to Job. This is one of the reasons why in diachronic biblical studies, it has just about become adogma that the prologue-epilogue in prose is an old Volksbuch into which the poetic dialogue was laterinserted. Job in the prologue is "the patient Job," while in the poetry he is "the impatient Job."Scholars using more recent synchronic approaches have to struggle with the Book as it now stands and withthe so-called "contradictory" attitudes of Job. Whatever the origin of the different parts of the book may be,they no longer function as independent layers, but fit together in the book in its present canonical form.The Book of Job raises the question of how to speak about God in the midst of suffering. It describesdifferent types of religious language used in suffering and it is this which gives the book its perfect unity. Inwhat I call the first part of the book (1:6-2:10) rather than the "prologue," Job quotes a few formulas learnedby heart. In other words, he speaks the language of superficial popular faith. His answer is not really apersonal expression of his struggle with suffering. Lately, several writers following the same line havequestioned this so-called patience of Job at the beginning of the book. It has been suggested that the framestory is an ironic exaggeration of conventional piety and that it presents an "unreal" Job to make the contrastwith the "real" Job of the poetry stronger. Others detect feelings of rebellion against God under Job'sapparent acceptance. All these studies suggest a continuity bet...