The Struggle of Suffering in Antiquity

On January 5, 1955, The Christian Century magazine released an article on ancient predecessors to the biblical book of Job lauding the work of Samuel N. Kramer, the Clark Research Professor of Assyriology at the University of Pennsylvania. It said, “Thus from the literature of the earliest known civilization, which inspired many familiar stories in the Old Testament, has come another ‘first.’” According to this viewpoint, the biblical Book of Job was no more unique than it was first. It was a work “inspired,” not by God but by “the literature of earliest known civilizations.” At least one fact from the article is true. Many works in antiquity were written with themes like what one finds in Job. What should one make of such works? Do they prove Job to be only another iteration of a common question asked in antiquity (as well as in modernity), “Why do bad things happen to good people?