The existence of evil has given rise to perplexed questioning of divine justice from the beginning of recorded history. The present volume examines early responses to the problem of theodicy in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Syria-Palestine as a way of assessing modern approaches to existential and religious crises. Through close readings of many texts in the Hebrew Bible and comparison with treatments in extrabiblical literature, it explores the richly diverse legacy of those who have influenced the West in so many ways. That legacy ranges from denying that a problem exists—the atheistic answer—to p ... More

The existence of evil has given rise to perplexed questioning of divine justice from the beginning of recorded history. The present volume examines early responses to the problem of theodicy in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Syria-Palestine as a way of assessing modern approaches to existential and religious crises. Through close readings of many texts in the Hebrew Bible and comparison with treatments in extrabiblical literature, it explores the richly diverse legacy of those who have influenced the West in so many ways. That legacy ranges from denying that a problem exists—the atheistic answer—to positing a vulnerable deity who assumes full responsibility for evil and its eradication. Between those two poles are responses that attempt to spread the blame, assuming a multiplicity of deities, a single rival deity (the personification of all evil), or a solitary deity who is somehow constrained, either by limited power and knowledge or by a split personality that struggles to balance the conflicting demands of justice and mercy. Analogies from parenting, jurisprudence, and the cult offer responses of discipline, retribution, and substitutionary atonement, respectively. Two final responses acquiesce to injustice in the present life, anticipating rectification beyond the grave or acknowledging human ignorance in the face of divine mystery. The limitation articulated by the last response requires that even the effort to provide a theodicy be questioned, especially given the fact that mortals have already received from the deity the greatest gift of all: life. Still, the search for answers is bound to continue, for it is only in challenging belief that theological discourse retains its integrity.