One of the Tanak’s most profound statements on the human condition is in the dialogues of the book of Job. In this context, Job questions why Aheyeh has caused his sufferings, but at the same time, Job recognizes his absolute dependency on Aheyeh: Your hand fashioned and made me; and now you turn and destroy me. 9 Remember that you fashioned me like clay; and will you turn me to dust again? 10 Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese? 11 You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. (Job 10:8–11) Job confesses that he is the handiwork of Aheyeh. Note that Aheyeh’s activity in the womb is compared to the work of a potter. This is based on a similar relationship between the human body and the earth that is illustrated in creation. The earth, when it is personified, serves as a womb in which the fetus gestates from conception to delivery. The task of a potter in shaping and fashioning clay is similar to the growth and development of the fetus within the womb. This passage from Job, however, does not describe Aheyeh’s creation of humankind, but rather Aheyeh’s activity in the birth of the single human, Job. This creation is employed in order to give significance to Job’s human condition. By highlighting how Aheyeh shaped Job in the womb from the material of the earth. Creation further emphasizes the fragile nature of human existence and human dependency on The Eternal Creator. Humans are like a clay vessel fashioned by a potter. If the potter chooses, the vessel can be smashed into the dust from which it came. Job concludes, then, that he has no recourse against Aheyeh. How can the vessel challenge its maker? Such human impotence finally leads Job to question the value of life: Why did you bring me forth from the womb? Would that I had died before any eye had seen me, 19 and were as though I had not been, carried from the womb to the grave. (Job 10:18–19)
Posted on: Mon, 29 Jul 2013 00:48:01 +0000
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