A method for approaching Job

The first step in my approach is to be tried tonight and is roughly sketched here. If we continue with further sessions, I think this is how I might approach the whole epic.

1. Read the frame story.
2. Read and compare chapter 3 and chapters 38-41.
3. Develop a portrayal of each of the human characters in the poem: Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, Elihu
4. What meaning emerges: what relationships to the rest of the Bible (Deuteronomy 28 - direct, the NT rare).
5. What additional threads would one develop (e.g. like the thread on reproof/reason/referee).
6. Does Job intimate a necessary character of God?
7. How do we read Job's prayers/confession and distinguish them from the words of the religious?
8. Is chapter 28 reflecting the Narrator's view?
9. Elihu as a lead up to the speeches of YHWH.

42 chapters - minimum 10 weeks of study. Of course we could perform the whole thing with 7 or 8 speakers and really get into a shouting match as the third cycle degenerates. It would take about 2.5 hours - a stretch for an evening Bible study.