“Myths for which there is no direct proof that they are structured by the scapegoat mechanism; the very fact that are implies that the mechanism is nowhere apparent. This is precisely what we observe in all the speeches that are not by Job. The friends cannot be expected to recognize their own injustice. As with …
Barbaric Lyricism
“Those who create the sacred with their own violence are incapable of seeing its truth. This is what makes the friends totally deaf to the appeals Job is constantly making. The more they participate in violence against the unfortunate man, the more they are carried away by their own barbaric lyricism and the less they …
Sacralizing the Violence
“Under our very eyes, the three friends sacralize the violence. The insults and meanness are metamorphosed into the grandiose accomplishments of a supernatural mission . . . Whenever opinion turns against a leader formerly elevated by the people’s favor, the community automatically attributes the change to the intervention of an absolute Justice” (Girard, Job, p. …
The Ancient Respectability of the Accuser
“Words, too, form a crowd; countless, they swirl about the head of the victim, gathering to deliver the coup de grace. The three series of speeches are like volleys of arrows aimed at the enemy of God. The accusations descend on Job like so many adversaries, intent upon the destruction of tyhe some friend. Their …
Barely Disguised
“Violence is the true ‘referent’; barely disguised in the threats of the friends and not disguised at all in Job’s laments. Although our two types of discourse seem so different, each deals, in its own way, with the same. They both refer to the process whereby a hero becomes a scapegoat; they both refer to …
The Uncooperative Victim
“Job is under no illusions. Point-blank, three times in a row, and in the same military order the three friends fire off their sinister and arrogant maledictions. At whom else could they be aimed? Job is not quite yet the enemy of God in question, but he could become God’s enemy and certainly will, if …
As the Crowd Turns
“The mystery of Job is presented in a context that does not explain it but at least allows us to situate it. The scapegoat is a shattered idol. The rise and fall of Job are bound up in one another. The two extremes seems to be connected . . . The one thing in common …
The Victim is Always Ignored
“Job constantly reverts to the community’s role in what has happened to him, but — and this is what is mysterious — he does not succeed in making his commentators, outside the text, understand him any better than those who question him within the text . . . No one takes any notice of what …
Job the Scandalous
“The scapegoat is the innocent party who polarizes a universal hatred, which is precisely the complaint of Job” (Girard, Job: The Victim of His People, pp. 4-5).
Christ Has Broken the Sacrificial Mechanism
“People caught up in the scandals and frenzy of a sacrificial crisis are prone to believe almost anything that will allow them to unleash their scapegoating violence with moral impunity. In Christianized cultures, however, attempts to claim such moral immunity by appealing to Christianity have been increasingly less successful. The moral blindness a sacrificial crisis …