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Nov 3, 2023Liked by Jack Cluth

Your meme about Job reminded me of the book Jack Miles published a few years back, "God: A Biography," where he goes back to the original (untranslated) texts to reconstruct the Old Testament as a narrative of development. In the book of Job, Miles points out, we have radically (and likely deliberately) mistranslated the final drama between God and Job. God snarls at Job with something about, "Who are you to question me?" Job bites back, saying in essence, "Who do you think I have to be? It is enough that I am a thinking being. You have the power to kill me, but you will never stop me from questioning." (Anyone familiar with Hebraic scholarly traditions will easily recognize this as true to their approach.) Miles argues that God basically realizes he just got his ass kicked, restores Job's life and possessions to him, and goes slinking off to whimper.

It would be funny, were it not so pathetic, the neo-fascists accusing *us* of moral relativism.

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We have a wonderful way of remaking "God" into something that's both convenient and palatable to us. If "God" were to be loving, kind, and forgiving, most of the neo-fascists wouldn't know how to translate Him in a way that suited their absolutist agenda.

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