Literal or Allegorical - The Book of Job

The summer after my Junior year of Bible College, I had the opportunity to do an internship at the church that a year later would hire me as Administrator. In addition to doing a month-long study on prayer they asked me to lead their Thru the Bible Sunday School class for adults. The class consisted of several men with seminary degrees in addition to some of the more respected people in the church - and there I was, a Bible College student, whom many in the class had known as a toddler, facilitating their Sunday School class. The first book I was asked to "teach" was the Book of Job.

The crux of the study of Job is one's approach to it's interpretation, whether to take the book as a literal account of what Job experienced or as a allegory, a mere story. I devoted most, if not all of our first week of the study to covering these matters and explaining why we interpret it as a literal story.

In week two, we started into the text, verse by verse until someone, who had missed the first week, shared comments about how the book was just a story not a literal account. Unfortunately, I think this individual had a reputation for stirring things up, so within seconds I had a unhealthy exchange on my hands. The conservatively educated seminarians were jumping all over the individual about how erroneous their views were. Recognizing that the purpose of the class was not to debate the proper hermeneutic for interpreting the Book of Job, and that I was in no way qualified to handle such a matter with the individuals involved, we moved on, I let the Senior Pastor know about it the following day and let he and the Elders take it from there.

From my perspective, I'm convinced the individual was raising the view because it was all they had ever heard or been taught. Unfortunately, others in the class viewed it as an attempt to introduce errant teaching into the church. In the end, I think it all worked out, but it was a firsthand example of the importance of hermeneutics.

That should be the last post on hermeneutics for a while.