The two set of books have supernatural beings playing important roles in the lives of characters involved. The Biblical Jobs story revolves around him undergoing a lot of both spiritual and physical torture. Protagonists in the stories at one point battle with misfortunes which are partly blamed on the supernatural beings. The plots of the texts we are going to look at here will explain how Gods in them played different roles as well as how they differed in terms of their characteristic
The nature of God in the book of Job is brought out as being unforgiving .Elihu and other friends of Job are convinced that God punishes sins and that is why Job is undergoing a lot of suffering Although Job maintains that he is living a righteous life. The god in the rage of Achilles is a forgiving .It goes ahead and unleashes his wrath none the Achaean forces as a result of their ruthlessness in their war with their enemies.
God of Job is also presented as being mysterious. Actually he appears to Job in the form of a whirlwind. This nature of his is further shown when he fails to answer Job’s questions. His explanation to Job about human suffering totally leaves him baffled and repentant
In his answering Job’s questions Indirectly God comes out as someone who values freedom. It can be argued that the fact that he is not promising Job, as an upright man by Job and his friends. Life free from suffering. In His speech he paints a different picture of the world as seen by Job and his friends. King Oedipus god on the other hand prescribes a tragic destiny for him. He therefore does things according to the prophecy. Oedipus laments later on how ruined his life was because of his well defined destiny.
Jobs God plays the role of bringing faith to the course of humanity. It is arguable that Job is being used by his God to show himself, his friends and the whole humankind that all is not lost in our daily struggles. Satan is also shown by God through Job that mankind can still have unshakable faith in God even in suffering. This is opposed to the gods that we find in the story of king Oedipus. This god is making things much worse for the king. He makes him to kill his own father and worse still to marry his own mother. These leave him distraught to a point that he wants to escape from Thebes.
The issue of reward and punishment seems also to be explained by God to Job and his friends. He plays the role of letting them to know that it is not a matter of being moral or immoral that determine whether someone undergoes through suffering in his life or not. This he explained for example by using the story of the rain falling in the desert where it is not required by man. When we look at Oedipus story, the gods there seem to be playing the role of explaining the point that personal flaws can led to self destruction. King Oedipus is particularly proud and arrogant. Although his death had been destined by the gods we can still argue that he ended up being a tragic hero because his negative traits aided in him being destroyed by the gods.
The gods in King Oedipus are seen as bringers of sorrow. King Oedipus laments the murder of his father that he had to do as prescribed by the gods. Worse still he has to bear the pain and shame of marrying his own mother. In Homer’s poems, The Rage of Achilles, the god here is presented as ready to bring suffering to the people. In them we find the priest of god Apollo calling asking his master to destroy the forces of Achaeans .This shared role contrasts that of the God in the book of Job. He is only seen as an observer of the forces of nature. He maintains in His conversation that righteousness that he stands for does not guarantee a life free from pain and suffering.
The God of Job’s story is performing the role of a revealer of truth to the characters in the story that is Job and his friends. Job is constantly lamenting about the torture he has to go through yet he is not a sinner. So both his friends and he are convinced that suffering is only for sinners. God reveals to them that it is human nature to suffer and while doing that one should not lose faith in God. The deities that we encounter in The Rage of Achilles do not communicate any truth as they are early compromised. They are said to be easily influenced by the Achilles to move against the Agememmon, s forces.
Works Cited
The Bible: The King James Version.
Sophocles. Oedipus the King. Translated by Robbert Faggles. New York. Norton &Co Inc, 2003.
Lawal, Sarah.Homer: The Illian. Norton Anthology of World literature. New York. Norton &Co Inc, 2003.
