Abstract
The Testament of Job is a Hellenistic reception of the biblical Book of Job written sometime between the first century BCE and first century CE. This paper is attentive to Hellenistic notions of the masculine ideal as one fused with notions of virtue, where gender corresponds to virtue more than to anatomy. Masculinity is a continuum on which one’s masculinity and virtuousness is subject to slippage. It is this dynamic that energizes and dramatizes the narrative of the Testament of Job: Job is engaged in a wrestling match to demonstrate his virtue, and to prevail over weakness and traits associated with femininity.
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Article note
I would like to acknowledge the input of others towards development of this article. This article has benefited especially from the input of and dialogue with Pamela Eisenbaum, Daniel M. Yencich and Benjamin John Peters.
©2015 by De Gruyter
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Galatians 3:28 in Thomas Aquinas’ Lectures on the Pauline Letters: A Study in Thomistic Reception
- How the Goodman Read His Bible
- “I Was Exhausted as a Woman”: The Slippage of Virtue and Gender in the Testament of Job
- Stravinsky and U2 Fix Psalm 40
- After Beryl Smalley: Thirty Years of Medieval Exegesis, 1984–2013
- Book Review
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Galatians 3:28 in Thomas Aquinas’ Lectures on the Pauline Letters: A Study in Thomistic Reception
- How the Goodman Read His Bible
- “I Was Exhausted as a Woman”: The Slippage of Virtue and Gender in the Testament of Job
- Stravinsky and U2 Fix Psalm 40
- After Beryl Smalley: Thirty Years of Medieval Exegesis, 1984–2013
- Book Review
- IDOLS OF NATIONS: Biblical Myth at the Origins of Capitalism