Lecture 2 — Job’s great profession of faith: his redeemer lives

^19:23^ Who will grant me that my words be written down? Who will grant me that my words may be engraved in a book

^19:24^ with an iron stylus, or on a plate of lead, or securely sculptured on flint stone?

^19:25^ For I know that my Redeemer is living, and I shall arise on the very last day from the earth.

^19:26^ I will encircle myself again with my skin and in my flesh I shall see God,

^19:27^ whom I myself will see and my eyes will behold him and not another. This my hope has been put in my heart.

^19:28^ Why, then, do you now say: Let us persecute him and let us find a basis in his words against him?

^19:29^ Flee, then, from the face of the sword, for his sword is the avenger of evils and know there is a judgment.

293. Who will grant me that my words be written down. Job had said above that his hope had been taken away, like an uprooted tree (Job 19:10). He certainly said this referring to the hope of recovering temporal prosperity, a hope to which the friends urged him in many ways. But he showed many times above (Job 19:11–20) that he ought not to have this hope, by deducing various unfitting conclusions. Now he clearly declares his intention to show that he had not said these things in despair of God, but because he bore a higher hope about him, which was not even related to goods present here, but to future goods. Because he was about to speak about great, wondrous, and certain things, he first shows his desire that the thought he is about to express would endure in the faith of his descendants. We transmit our words and their meaning to our descendants by the service of writing. So he says, who will grant me that my words be written down? so that what I am about to say about the hope which I have fixed in God may not be forgotten. What is written in ink usually fades with the long passage of time, and so, when we want some writing to be preserved for a long time, we not only record it in writing, but we record it on skin, on metal, or in stone. Since what he hoped for was not in the immediate future, but must be reserved for fulfillment at the end of time, he then says, who will grant me that my words may be engraved in a book with an iron stylus, like an impression made on skin, or, if this is not enough, by a stronger impression made on a plate of lead, or, if this seems not enough, securely sculptured, with an iron instrument, on flint stone?

294. He shows what discourses he would like to preserve with such great diligence, saying, for I know that my redeemer is living. He clearly attributed this to the manner of a cause. Things which we are not sure of we are not anxious to commit to memory, and so he clearly says, for I know, namely by the certitude of faith. This hope is about the glory of the future resurrection, concerning which he first assigns the cause when he says, my redeemer is living. Here we must consider that man, who was established as immortal by God, incurred death through sin, according to Romans, through one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death (Rom 5:12). Job foresaw through the spirit of faith that the human race must be redeemed from this sin through Christ. Christ redeemed us from sin by death, dying in our place, but he did not so die that he was consumed by death;, for although he died according to his humanity, yet he could not die according to his divinity.

From the life of the divinity, the humanity has also been restored by rising up to life again, according to what is said in Corinthians, for although he was crucified because of our infirmity, yet he lives by the power of God (2 Cor 13:4). The life of the Risen Christ is diffused to all men in the general resurrection, and so in the same place the Apostle Paul puts, for we are weak in him, but we will live in him by the power of God in us (2 Cor 13:4), and so the Lord says according to John, the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it will live: for just as the Father has life in himself, so he gave it to the Son to have life in himself (John 5:25–26). Thus the primordial cause of the resurrection of man is the life of the Son of God, which did not take its beginning from Mary, as the Ebionites said, but always was, according to Hebrews, Jesus Christ yesterday, today, and forever (Heb 13:8). Therefore he clearly does not say, my redeemer will live, but, is living. In this cause he foretells the future resurrection, and he determines its time when he then puts, and I shall arise on the very last day from the earth. Here, one must reflect that some men posited that the motion of the heavens and this state of the world would endure forever, and they maintained that after the certain revolutions of years, when the stars return to their same places, dead men would be restored to life. Since a day is caused by a motion of the heavens, if this motion of the heavens will endure forever, there will be no very last day. Thus to remove this aforementioned error, he then clearly says, on the very last day, and this is consonant with the statement of the Lord, who says in John, I will raise him up on the very last day (John 6:40).

295. There were other men who said that men rose by resuming not an earthly body, but some kind of heavenly body. To exclude this he then says, I will encircle myself again with my skin. He expressly says this because he had said above (Job 19:20) that only the skin had remained around his bones. In this way of speaking, he assigns the explanation of the resurrection, namely, that the soul does not always remain divested of its very own skin. Again, there were some who said that the soul will resume the same body it had put aside, but according to the same condition, so that it would need food and drink, and would exercise the other fleshly operations of this life. But he excludes this, saying then, and in my flesh I shall see God. For it is clear that the flesh of man is corruptible according to the state of the present life.

As Wisdom says, the body which is corrupted weighs down the spirit (Wis 9:15), and so, no one can see God while living in this mortal flesh; but the flesh which the soul resumes in the resurrection will certainly be the same in substance, but will be preserved incorruptible by a divine gift, according to what is said by Paul, this corruptible must put on incorruption (1 Cor 15:53). Therefore, the former flesh will be of this latter condition, because it in no way will impede the soul from being able to see God, but rather, will be completely subject to the soul. Porphyry, not knowing this, said, the soul must completely flee the body to become happy, as though the soul, and not the whole man will see God. To exclude this, Job places, whom I myself will see, as though he should say, “Not only will my soul see God but I myself, who subsist in body and soul.” To indicate that the body will be a participant in that vision in its own proper way, he adds, and my eyes will behold him, not because the eyes of the body would see the divine essence, but because the eyes of the body will see God made man. They will also see the glory of God shining resplendent in created things, as Augustine says at the end of The City of God. That one should believe that man must be restored the same in number and not only the same in species in order to see God, he says, and not another, in number. This is so that one might not believe that he expected to return to the kind of life which Aristotle describes in II De Generatione, saying that each and every corruptible substance which has been moved will be restored in species, but not in the same number.

296. After these things as premises about the cause, the time, the manner of the resurrection, and the glory and identity of those who will rise, he then adds, this my hope has been put in my heart, as if he should say, “For my hope is not in earthly things which you promise vainly, but in the future glory of the resurrection.” He says clearly, has been put in my heart, to show that he not only held this hope in words, but hidden in his heart; not doubtfully, but most firmly; not like something of little consequence, but as something most precious. For what is hidden in the heart is possessed in a secret way, is firmly held, and is considered dear.

297. Thus, after he has shown the high character of the hope which he had in God, he rejects their false accusations, which they sought to make against him as if he had rejected the hope and fear of God by not putting his hope in temporal things. So he then says, why, then, do you now say: Let us persecute him? namely as one who despairs of God or does not fear God, and let us find a basis in his words against him, by condemning my speech as though I would have denied the providence of God? I do not deny, but assert, this providence, saying that rewards and punishments are also prepared by God for man also after this life. So he then says, flee, then, from the face of the sword, of divine revenge, reserved in the future life for you, even if you flourish in temporal prosperity; for his sword is the avenger of evils, that is, in the vengeance which he properly takes after death. Know there is a judgment, not only in this life, but also after this life, in the resurrection of good and wicked men.