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The value of Dr. Singer's study is its searching examination of problems which are largely ignored in traditional interpretations of The Book of Job. Of these, the central question is this: What is the point of Job's rebellion—the theme of nearly the whole Book—if at the end, he submits unconditionally?
Dr. Singer possesses the equipment to approach this problem. His investigation is based on intimate knowledge of Biblical literature; he has a sense for the literary and psychological transformations of the ancient folktale, and its relevance to modern social dilemmas. Finally, Dr. Singer sensibly treats the book as a unit.
It is therefore disappointing to find that, after asking the relevant critical questions, Dr. Singer reverts, in the main, to the traditional answers. Thus, while he aptly terms Job “a revolutionary,” he then takes it back, by writing that Job “humiliates himself before his God” (possibly, the author means “humbles” himself?). Similarly, he speaks of Job's “maturation” in his development, but then finds maturation also in Job's recognition that life is contradictory and in his acceptance of “the principle of randomness,” in which events “take place in a disorderly way.”
In his psychological interpretation, Dr. Singer's position is similar to Jung's in his Answer to Job. Like him, Dr. Singer sees Yahweh as a contradictory God who acts immorally against Job, and like Jung, he implies that Job, the victim, stands higher than God, his victimizer. He modifies Jung by an existentialist theme: Job needs to become “an individual,” to satisfy his personal need.
An astonishing feature of this study by an Hebraic scholar is its failure to see the specifically Hebraic character of Job's Yahweh in distinction to Elohim of the Prologue. The nature of this Hebraic God (as differentiated, say, from Dante's God) is that he is not merely an unfathomable mystery, but also a dynamic restless deity (appearing in a “whirlwind”) who values restlessness of spirit and the cri