The Book of Job is a deeply problematic text within the Jewish Canon. The book describes G-d inflicting undeserved punishment and suffering, which by itself is contrary to all the “reward and punishment” language of the Torah. But there is more. Beyond the singular challenge of G-d acting capriciously with mankind, I think there are three related problems that must be addressed.
1: G-d is depicted as a petty and foolish Greek deity.
In Job, Satan easily manipulates G-d, playing on G-d’s pride and insecure ego – much as Greek Mythology depicts the gods as childish and petty.
Job’s deity is simply unrecognizable to someone who takes the G-d of the Torah seriously. The mere idea of G-d engaging in a capricious wager that endangers an innocent person … it is inconsistent with everything else we know of G-d.
2: The Personification of Satan
The Torah identifies good and evil even before the fruit is consumed – in the text, G-d created both. And G-d made the natural world, which certainly is viewed as incomplete at best, and antithetical to holiness at worst (the word for “profane” chol, is used to describe nature in its primal state).
So evil exists in the Torah. And it is well identified: evil is destructive. It is immoral. Evil believes in “Might Makes Right.” It manifests in sexual perversions (virtually all pagan religions use sexual power as a sacrament). Basically, paganism and pantheism, writ large, are embodied with these characteristics.
Humans instinctively find animalism and lust and unrestrained behavior and abuse of others to be highly attractive. The idea of a Satan creature, resembling both the goat (the unrestrained natural lusty animal), and the embodiment of power and bringer of death, certainly find a home in the human psyche.
But Satan is not personified in the Torah. Quite the contrary.
The G-d of the Torah does not have a wife, or a counterparty. G-d certainly does not have an enemy or countering force. G-d is the only divine or supernatural force. G-d is Unity.
So for Jews, there is no organized opposition to G-d: there is only the natural world and all of its temptations. Man is not tempted by an entity; we are tempted by our attraction to power and lust and self-destructive behavior – all driven by our eyes and animalistic hearts (as opposed to our souls).
The opposite of godliness is not another supernatural being, but is instead nature itself.
And mankind is thus not torn between G-d and Satan, but between holiness and profanity. Holiness are good relationships with mankind and with G-d. In the Torah, the word for “profane” is the same word as “raw nature.” The opposite of nature is reversion to animalism, being led by our bodies and not our conscientious souls.
In the Torah itself, the word “Satan” is found, but not as understood in the modern world (or Job). To wit:
But G-d’s anger flared up because he was going, so G-d messenger stationed himself in the way as an adversary (satan) to him [Bilaam]. (N. 22:22, 32) This is not – at all – the Satan of Job.
3: The Suggestion That the World Was Made for Anything Other Than Mankind.
Job suggests that much of the created world exists and is sustained independently of humanity (“man”), for purposes, creatures, and places that have nothing to do with human benefit or presence. (Job 38:39–41:34): God’s direct address to Job from the whirlwind deliberately dismantles any anthropocentric (human-centered) view of creation. Job, for example, explicitly puts Behemoth as “first among the works of G-d,” suggesting that Behemoth (and perhaps also Leviathan) are equal to mankind.
This is directly contrary to the Torah – where G-d’s Creation reaches its apex when man is created.
Not a single verse in the Torah suggests otherwise: the text makes it exceedingly clear that G-d is deeply interested in mankind and the choices we make, and there is not even a hint of a shadow of the notion that the world was made for the sake of anything else within the natural world.
Indeed, in the Torah, every animal was destroyed in the Flood merely because man sinned.
For these three reasons, Job does not belong in the Jewish Canon.
P.S. The word “satan” is also found in 1 Kings 11:14 and Zechariah 3: 1-2. In both cases, Satan is an accuser, working on G-d’s behalf – like an angel that confronts mankind when we do wrong. This is a far cry from the common understanding of a fallen angel who works against G-d. Satan is like a prosecuting attorney. Other uses of this word that mean “accuser” are in Samuel 29:4; 2 Samuel 19:22–23, 1 Kings 5:4 (or 5:18), 11:14, 11:23, 11:25 (human adversaries raised against Solomon), and Psalm 109:6 (an accuser in a legal sense).
The only example of a “satan” character who seeks to undermine our service to G-d is found in 1 Chronicles 21:1, telling us that Satan (named without a definite article) incited David to sin by counting the people. Even so, I think this can be understood as “an evil inclination,” like an internal voice that gives us bad advice.