Questions on Eschatology

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Job 19

[25] For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

[26] And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:

If flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor 15:50), how can Job proclaim that his would?

Thanks,

Dale

Reply: First, it would be a contradiction to say within the verse to have the first part say that "after" my skin worms destroy this body, and yet in my flesh I shall see God. If the body is destroyed, then it will not be in the flesh. It can't be both.

Secondly, it would contradict 1 Corinthians 15:50 as indicated. If one assumes that this is physical resurrection, then, If flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom, Job would be shut out by virtue of his flesh.

Thirdly, it is my belief that the problem lies in the faulty rendering of the text in that particular translation. "The Hebrew opposes 'in my flesh.'..It is 'from my flesh' that I shall see God--from my renewed body, which Job contrasts with "this." pointing to his poor emaciated frame which was soon to lay by. Jamison, Fausset, Brown's Commentary, p. 48

Barnes concurs that this text is best rendered "from" my flesh versus "in my flesh." Citing Rosenmuller, absque carne mea--"without my flesh.; and explains it as meaning, "my whole body being consumed, I shall see God." The literal meaning is, 'from,' or out of, my flesh shall I see God." Barnes Notes, Job, p. 328.

Barnes adds, It does not mean "in" his flesh,...but there is the notion that from or out of his flesh he would see him; that is, clearly, as Rosenmuller has expressed it, tho' my body be consumed, and I have no flesh, I shall see him...Barnes concludes, "It cannot be provedthat this refers to the resurrection of the that body, and indeed the natural interpretation is against it. It is, rather, that though without a body, or though his body should all wasted away, he would see God as his vindicator. Barnes, p. 328)

The Pulpit Commentary records: "The phrase, "in my flesh [literally, 'from, or out of, my flesh'] shall I see God" (p. 329)in light of the above needs little explanation.

Keil & Delitzsch's Commentary offer the following:

Therefore verse 26a, according to the usage of the Semitic languages, can only be intended of the complete destruction of the skin...Free from such violence in the translation: and after this my skin is destroyed, i.e. after I shall have put of this my body, from my flesh (i.e. restored and transfigured), I shall behold God." (Job, p. 359)

The testimony is unanimous that the Hebrew text is best rendered, out of my flesh. Therefore Job 19:25, 26 does not teach a future physical resurrection. Job's reference to the Redeemer standing on earth in the latter days is a reference to Christ's first coming and public ministry on earth in which he spoke in the last days [of Judaism], (Hebrews 1:1, 2).

Verse 26, speaks of the end time when Job has risen into the eternal kingdom along with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, (Matthew 8:11) to see God.

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