Book of Job - Dissenting/Speculative Wisdom

Dissenting/Speculative Wisdom

Michael Coogan writes in regards to both Ecclesiastes and Job that “Both take positions opposed to the mainstream of the wisdom tradition in the Bible, as exemplified in the book of Proverbs…” Job, along with Ecclesiastes is part of the dissenting or speculative group of wisdom literature within the Old Testament. In the narrative there are conversations that occur between Job and family, Job and friends, and Job and God. Conventional wisdom may be applied to the questions and advice given by Job’s friends or family, yet it is Job’s responses that make this book part of the dissenting wisdom or “anti-wisdom wisdom”