MDDM Ch. 75 Job, 26:5 through 7

[jbor]

I'm relieved to hear that God hasn't unsubscribed! It's true that the verses
Dixon reads are from the KJV, but my point was simply that some versions of
the Bible, and Bible scholars, do attribute some or all of these lines to
Bildad, and that it does also make sense when read this way. The lines are
certainly not assigned in the KJV or anywhere else as "Job rebuking Bildad",
and whether or not the _Good News Bible_ was cooked up by Christian
fundamentalists (and the KJV wasn't?!) is completely irrelevant. It is in
common use, as is the Revised Version of the Bible which also attributes the
last two lines which Dixon reads to Bildad:

    [...] Behold, even the moon hath no brightness,
    And the stars are not pure in his sight:
    How much less man, that is a worm!
    And the son of man, which is a worm!
    Sheol is naked before him.
    And Abaddon hath no covering.
    He stretcheth out the earth over empty space,
    And hangeth the earth upon nothing. [...]

In the Revised Version these lines are definitively assigned to Bildad. So,
there certainly does seem to be some variation or uncertainty in the
interpretation, indeed, in the *text*, of the Book of Job, which I think
Pynchon is alert to as well.

I'd compare this incident to when Mason is thrown by his horse and spends
his confinement "reading I Corinthians, in which Paul's case for
Resurrection proceeds from Human bodies to Animal Bodies, and then to Bodies
Celestial and Terrestrial, and the Glories proper to Each, to Verse 42,-- "
and arguing about it with both the book and a shade of Rebekah (409).

It's a point of characterisation that has these two ardent men of science
immediately turning to their Bibles (which they carry around with them
always, and know off by heart) in moments of distress and uncertainty. But
the particular chapters and verses which they choose to read are hugely
ironic, not only in respect to the purpose Pynchon ascribes to each man for
reading the particular excerpt, but also in and of themselves, for the
revealed inconsistencies of Christian protocol in the first instance
(resurrection of animals, planets with souls etc) and of Biblical exegesis
in the latter (who is actually saying what to whom, and why).

best



on 12/9/02 11:20 AM, Tim Strzechowski at dedalus204 at attbi.com wrote:

> A Forwarded message I received this afternoon:
> 
> "Unfortunately, your correction of the 'incorrect correction' is incorrect.
> In the KJV, these words are spoken by Job.
> 
> "The KJV is the *only* version of the Bible that is correct.  The *only*
> one."
> 
> 
> -- God
> 
> I can't argue with Him.  Besides, he sends me some killer jokes!
> 
> T
> 
> 
> From: "jbor" <jbor at bigpond.com>
> 
>> Your correction is incorrect. As I wrote, some versions of the Bible do
>> attribute the lines from Job 26:5 through 14 to Bildad the Shuhite,
> replying
>> to Job and answering his questions at 26:1-4.
> 
>