Board Thread:Bible Study Forum/@comment-5175866-20161001235626

This month we will be reading the Book of Job. Compared to the other books we have read so far, Job is almost entirely poetry excluding Chapters 1, 2 and portions of 32 and 42. The Book however does express a historical narrative throughout reading. This work has 42 chapters so it suggested to read 1-2 chapters a day based on the speaker. Job will go back and forth between speakers so it is suggested to read one speaker's dialogue in one setting before it switches to another one. This rule is not always uniform, but it is helpful to have the context of previous dialogue fresh in your mind.

Interestingly, the Book of Job was the first book of the Bible to be written. The events of the book may predate Hebrew writing and so its very possible it was actually repeated through oral tradition. Then it could've been written generations later or even a short time after the dialogue if writing occurred.

The work likely poeticized the dialogue and conversation of the people in the book so it could be easily memorized and passed through oral tradition or elsewhere. The dialogue would be either exact or paraphrased. Nevertheless it is a narrative of actual events and experiences of the people in the book. The poetic style is similar to that of many other contemporary ancient languages and it uses literary techniques, such as epithets (that denote their ancestry) for speakers. It switches between each person in the book as a "speaker", even God Himself has a share of speech in the role of speaker.

Relevant articles for the Book of Job are
 * Book of Job
 * Job (Person)
 * Eliphaz
 * Elihu
 * Zophar
 * Bildad
 * Land of Uz 