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I’d Rather Die as the Devil: Marvel’s Daredevil and the Book of Job

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On September 10, 2018, a teaser trailer for the third season of Netflix’s Daredevil was released on Twitter. The trailer accompanying this tweet, which references Job 12:22, shows the battered and bloody superhero Daredevil confessing that he no longer believes in justice.1 This clip and biblical citation foreshadow the important role the book of Job plays in the third and final season of this Netflix series. Characters in the show reference Job’s story, using it to discuss the problem of evil. Matt Murdock specifically cites the narrative to expose worldly injustice. By contrasting himself with the prophet Job, Matt attempts to legitimize a form of vigilante justice, taking up the mantle the “Devil of Hell’s Kitchen.”

This article considers how characters within Daredevil, use the biblical book of Job as a launching point for a larger conversation on injustice and the effectiveness of vigilantism as a response to evil. The article proceeds in four parts. The first part notes how biblical scholarship engages adaptations or re-tellings of biblical narratives, with a particular focus on the book of Job. The second part analyzes how the text and third season of Daredevil address the issue of suffering using disability imagery. The third part discusses how Job’s and Daredevil’s “friends” react to the prophet’s and superhero’s suffering. The final part centers on the battle between Daredevil and Kingpin as well as the debate between Job and God, exploring how both confrontations establish competing responses to the problem of evil in the biblical text and television series.

Adaptations and Allusions: Retelling Job’s Story for a Contemporary Audience

In their introduction to The Book of Job: Aesthetics, Ethics, and Hermeneutics, Leora Batnitzky and Ilana Pardes ask a barrage of questions that, on a certain level, mirror those posed by God in the whirlwind at the conclusion of this biblical story. They inquire, “What makes the Book of Job such a prominent text in modern literature and thought? Why has Job’s response to disaster become a touchstone for modern reflections on catastrophic events?”2 To these questions, Batnitsky and Pardes assert that this narrative plays a vital role in the transformation of the Bible from a “book justified by theology to one justified by culture.”3 Put another way, Job’s articulation of the problem of suffering, and of divine injustice, captures the imagination of numerous literary, musical, and visual retellings of the story that extend beyond an overtly religious context.

The cultural value of the book of Job is especially important when looking at the third season of Daredevil. After all, this series does not espouse a specific religious ideology. It does not make any definitive claims about God or the nature of evil. Admittedly, Matt Murdock, the protagonist of the show, is Catholic. However, the problem of evil and Daredevil’s vigilantism are not exclusively Catholic social concerns. They encompass a variety of cultural institutions, including the court of law and the mass media. In this sense, the aesthetic value of Job leads to a larger exploration of political and social injustice as well as the portrayal of violence in this streaming series. In short, this topic moves beyond a biblical context, serving as a literary framework for the analysis of contemporary secular issues.

In addition to highlighting Job’s cultural value, biblical scholars stress that adaptations of the story often “take two directions: analysis of films that retell or re-present the … [story] and analysis of themes and allusions or character types in mainstream cinema.”4 Said differently, adaptations either retell the Joban story or use the narrative to allude to the themes of evil, injustice, and human suffering. Reinhold Zwick, for example, considers one adaptation of this text in his analysis of the episode “Cartmanland” in season five of South Park. He shows how the episode essentially retells the Joban story, using a “ninety-second film within a film,”5 to comment on the problem of evil. Alternatively, Tod Linafelt compares the themes in the book of Job with the Wizard of Oz.6 Although this film does not cite the biblical text directly, Linafelt contends that the movie is “a sort of modern midrash” with numerous “parallels between the two works.”7

Netflix’s Daredevil straddles the boundary between a direct adaptation and a thematic allusion. In the teaser trailer and first three episodes, Matt and Sister Maggie, a nun who knows about Daredevil’s secret identity, discuss the book of Job at length. Yet, in latter episodes, this retelling of the Joban story falls away. By the end of the season, characters no longer debate the theological importance of Job’s pain. Rather, they highlight the themes of suffering which are central to this text, adapting them to the series’ depiction of political and social injustice. Consequently, the analysis of the season three of Netflix’s Daredevil moves from a direct retelling of the book of Job, to an investigation of suffering, injustice, and vigilantism. The concerns in Job are recast as an aesthetic device that centers on these topics in the streaming series.

The Prologue: Suffering and Disabilities in the Book of Job and Netflix’s Daredevil

Both the book of Job and season three of Netflix’s Daredevil begin with a prologue that underscores the problem of suffering using disability imagery. In the biblical text, the prologue outlines Job’s material wealth, piety, and physical prowess. It even notes that among the council of heavenly beings, God identifies Job as one who is “morally innocent, and upright, who fears God and turns from evil” (Job 1:8). However, the arrival of a שטן “adversary” to the divine council marks a turn in Job’s fortunes. The Satan contends that Job is pious only because of his health and wealth. He makes a wager with God that Job will curse the divine if these privileges are removed. What follows is the quick and decisive dismantling of Job’s economic and physical prosperity. His family, slaves, and animals are captured or killed, and Job has numerous boils that cover his entire body. As Sarah Melcher suggests, from the lens of disability studies “the role of the deity in human suffering must be acknowledged.” God’s role in allowing Job’s children, slaves, and animals to die “raise some ethical issues.”8 Yet, even as these individuals are annihilated, it is Job’s skin disease which prompt Job’s friends to debate the problem of human suffering. Here too, scholars recognize how Job’s skin disease effectively functions as a disability. Again, Melcher notes, that Job “seems confined to his home without any travel outside the immediate vicinity, and he experiences notable social estrangement as a result of his disease.”9 Job’s skin condition physically marks him as “the other,” resulting in his social ostracization and a conversation on the prophet’s piety.

The link between Job’s skin disease and suffering demonstrate how disability operates as a literary device which leads to a broader exploration of the nature of evil. As Rebecca Raphael suggests, “the book of Job would not be possible without the disabling disease … [This text exemplifies] narrative prosthesis in the sense that [its plot hinges] on disability.”10 Job’s skin disease is a stigmatizing condition that symbolizes his unjust suffering. It highlights both Job’s physical pain as well as the popular social conviction in the ancient Near East that “sickness [was] a punishment for the sins of the individual or the family.”11 Since “God is deeply implicated in the disabling of human figures”12 in the Hebrew Bible, Job’s skin disease serves as the impetus for the discussion on justice and suffering. This disability operates as a “crutch” that enables Job’s friends to converse over the nature of evil. In short, Job’s disability is a literary tool for analyzing the relationship between human suffering and divine justice.

Like the biblical text, season three of Netflix’s Daredevil begins with a brief prologue that recaps the events of the previous Defenders miniseries. This Netflix crossover has Daredevil team up with a number of superheroes to defeat a mysterious organization called the Hand. At the conclusion, Matt is crushed under a falling building and presumed dead. Season three of Daredevil then picks up a few weeks later, as the hero is rescued and recuperates at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. One notable feature of Matt’s recovery is its emphasis on disabilities. As a blind superhero, Daredevil relies on the enhancement of his other senses to fight crime. However, after his revival, he states, “I’m deaf in my right ear, and I can’t even walk to the bathroom now.”13 Matt’s altered condition is further reinforced by auditory distortions. Other character’s voices move in and out of focus and a ringing sound can be heard by both Daredevil and the audience. Like Job, these auditory disturbances, combined with Matt’s blindness, operate as a narrative prothesis. They lead to a broader evaluation of the subject of evil, human suffering, and lead to Matt’s reaffirmation of his vigilantism.

Of course, the overlap between the book of Job and Netflix’s Daredevil extends beyond thematic similarities. In the first episode, Matt offers a dramatic retelling of the Joban story:

Maggie: I get the sense things are complicated with you and the guy upstairs. Matt: No. Not at all. If anything, I’d say we finally know where we stand with each other. There was a man from the land of Uz… Maggie: The book of Job Matt: The book of Job. The story of God’s perfect servant, Job. He prayed every day at dawn, with his knees on the ground, his face in the dirt. Slaughtered ten goats, one for each of his children, and burned them at the altar in God’s honor. Of all of God’s soldiers, Job, he was the most loyal. Maggie: I know the story, Matthew. Matt: Oh. Then you know what happens next. God murdered all ten of his children in cold blood. Scorched every inch of Job’s land. Lashed at his body till his skin was covered in bloody welts. God rained shit and misery on the life of his most perfect servant. And still … Job would not curse him. You know what I realized? Job was a pussy. You see, that was me, Sister. I suffered willingly. I gave my, uh … sweat and blood and skin without complaint. Because I too believed that I was God’s soldier. Well, not anymore. I am what I do in the dark now. I bleed only for myself.14

In this scene, Matt offers his own interpretation of the biblical narrative. Like other retellings of this story, he provides an inaccurate reading of the text “in which not Satan but God … afflicts Job.”15 Matt even inaccurately utilizes martial terminology, referring to both himself and Job as “soldiers.” These changes essentially reflect Daredevil’s own convictions. He compares himself favorably to Job, viewing his calling in life as vigilante warriors for justice. But after remarking on one possible similarity, Matt then contrasts himself with the prophet. Unlike Job, Daredevil blames God for his current condition and he disparages his literary counterpart for not coming to the same conclusion. Ironically, Matt even identifies with the devil, operating under this mantle to punish criminals for their misdeeds. In short, this extended discourse on the book of Job helps differentiate between the prophet and vigilante. Or, as Matt declares: “I’m not Job … I’d rather die as the devil than live as Matt Murdock.”16

Matt’s musings on the nature of evil and human suffering continue after his initial exchange with Sister Maggie. In a flashback scene in episode two, a young Matt considers blindness, violence, and free will with his mentor, Father Lantom. They argue over the youth’s propensity to beat up other students, with Lantom stating that Matt must learn to harness his violent tendencies. When the younger Matt retorts that perhaps his vicious outbursts are part of God’s plan, Lantom reiterates the importance of free will and notes that prayer may help people make good decisions. Back in the present, Matt listens to the various petitions at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and continues his conversation with Lantom:

Matt: I used to listen to people’s prayers. In here and out on the street. You know, people asking for God’s help or justice or… vengeance sometimes. See, it’s always the same. “Please, God.” I thought that God let me hear the prayers so that I could answer. So that’s what I did. That’s what I was trying to do, was trying to help people. But I am not what I was. Can’t do what I used to do. Lantom: Give it time. Whatever your new reality is, you’ll adjust. Matt: When I heard all those prayers, all those suffering people, I thought it was God’s voice. But I was wrong. All I ever heard was people in pain. And all he ever gave any of us was silence.17

Far removed from the trappings of the book of Job, Matt’s disability continues to operate as a device for examining the problem of evil. By indirectly referring to his auditory distortions, which prevent him from carrying out a violent form of justice, Matt begins to question God’s goodness. More specifically, he claims that God does not answer human prayers, but is silent in the face of suffering. Consequently, even after regaining his previous faculties and resuming his role as a masked vigilante, Daredevil directly challenges a victim who praises God for their rescue, stating: “He didn’t help you. I did.”18 This distinction between God’s kindness and Matt’s vigilantism, begins to create the space for a deeper analysis of the role individual initiative plays in addressing human suffering. This topic is then later debated more directly by other characters in the Daredevil series.

The Discourses: Theological and Secular Responses to Violence

While Netflix’s Daredevil and the book of Job both “asks how a good God can also allow, or even cause, evil and suffering,”19 they diverge on how various characters respond to this incongruity. In the biblical narrative, Job’s so-called friends reinforce a retributive system of moral justice. Articulated in the books of Deuteronomy and Proverbs, this moralistic system contends that people are rewarded for good actions and punished for sinful ones.20 Or as F. Rachel Magdalene suggests, “if disability, disease, and disaster are divine punishment for sin … then such traumas” are the recompence for those who experience them.21 Accordingly, Job’s colleagues contend that he must have done something wrong to deserve his punishment. They publicly berate Job and “accuse [him] of committing a wide range of social sins.”22 In this sense, the three friends uphold an ableist theology which asserts that disabilities or illness are “intimately connected with divine law.”23 Still, these three individuals do not have the final say. Rather, Job repeatedly declares his innocence in the face of suffering. He even formally accuses God of “failing to maintain proper social justice”24 and demands to meet with the deity face-to-face.

Like the book of Job, the Daredevil series tackles the topic of injustice through a series of conversations between the protagonist’s friends and, in one case, his enemy. However, unlike the biblical text, the program does not focus on Matt’s disability or his social marginality. Rather, it centers on the release of Daredevil’s archnemesis Wilson Fisk from prison. Also known under the alias Kingpin, Fisk cuts a deal with the FBI to commute a lengthy prison sentence. Subsequently, when Matt’s friends discuss the proper response to Fisk’s ongoing criminal activities, their debate approaches the issue not from a theological understanding of inequality, but from a secularized one. For example, Matt’s law partner, Foggy Nelson, maintains that the judicial system is the proper means of enforcing justice. He repeatedly rejects Daredevil’s argument that Fisk must be stopped at any cost, including murder, by pointing to the power of the court.

Matt’s other friend, Karen Page, initially puts her faith in the press. She encourages Matt to bring an informant to the New York Bulletin to uncover the Kingpin’s misdeeds. But, after Fisk has the newspaper raided, she begins to tell about her own experience with vigilante justice. Whereas Daredevil considers the hypothetical murder of Fisk, Karen deals with the actual ramifications of killing James Wesley, a “fixer” for Kingpin. Her response to Wesley’s death is certainly conflicted. When she confides in Matt’s friend Foggy about the murder, he suggests that she killed Wesley in self-defense. She then retorts, “I shot him seven times because I wanted him dead.”25 In this scene, Karen expresses little regard for Wesley’s life. She upholds the violent moral justice that Daredevil espouses, arguing that her victim deserved his fate. Yet, in the later episode entitled “Karen” she expresses regret, asking Father Lantom how she can live with having killed someone. He responds, “whatever it is that you’ve done or haven’t done it can still be redeemed.”26 When Karen remains skeptical, he reiterates: “Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end. John Lennon said that. Who are we to argue with a Beatle?”27

Lantom’s secularized theology makes an impact on Karen’s perception of vigilantism. She still remains ambivalent about the hero’s plan to murder Fisk. Still, in her conversation with Daredevil, Karen begins to express reservations about how violence will change Matt’s identity:

Karen: You remember that friend he had that got shot? Wesley? I killed him. That’s why he sent Poindexter after me. I was stupid and … and reckless, and now Father Lantom is dead because of it. Because of … because of me. Matt: Why didn’t you tell me? Karen: I don’t know. You . . you always, uh, treated me like I was innocent. That was nice . . It was nice that you thought of me like that. [Pause] What were you gonna do to Fisk? Matt: Kill him. Your turn to judge me. Karen: No. No, I’m not. I get it. Trust me. Just makes me, uh . . It makes me sad for you. Matt: It has to be done, Karen. Karen: Okay, you’re gonna have to listen to me here. Okay, listen to me. Okay, I never told you why I left Vermont, right? Why I left home. Okay, see, there was a car crash. And … Um, I killed my brother, uh, because I was … I was high and I was drunk and I was angry— Matt: Jesus, Karen. Karen: —and I shouldn’t have been driving, and it changed everything. No matter what I do there is no atoning for that. Okay? There is no way to come back from it. Matt: What if … it is the way back? For me? I can’t let Fisk go. Karen: Killing anyone, even Fisk, it will change everything that you … that you feel about yourself.28

Karen recognizes that Wesley’s murder profoundly damaged her sense of self. She does not necessarily accept Lantom’s interpretation of the Christian atonement for sin, but she speaks of innocence, how violence takes away the characteristic that the characters Job and Matt hold in high esteem. She concludes that killing Fisk will make Daredevil like her. It will remove his innocence, or more generally the justice that Matt defends as a vigilante.

The third “friend” in Netflix’s Daredevil, is Fisk himself. The Kingpin appears throughout the season as an apparition of Fisk’s worst qualities, talking with Matt about the nature of suffering and injustice. Although, Daredevil is clearly aware that this version of Fisk is not real, his debate with Kingpin establishes Matt’s own understanding regarding the morality of violence. This version of Fisk first appears when Matt regains his hearing, and subsequently his enhanced senses:

Fisk: God restored your hearing just in time to hear my name chanted by the crowds. Just in time to learn, in the long run, I won, you lost. Does that sound like God’s forgiveness? Matt: No. It sounds like … hell.29

The imaginary Fisk plays with the retributive theory central to the book of Job. He proclaims that, in the long run, there is no such thing as divine justice. Fisk’s release from prison establishes the unjust nature of the world. Consequently, Matt concludes that the only way to stop Kingpin is murder. In the face of secular injustice, Matt finally resorts to murder as a final solution to the problem of evil.

The Whirlwind and Penthouse: Solutions to the Problem of Evil in Job and Daredevil?

The book of Job and Netflix’s Daredevil each culminate in an encounter with a “quite powerful and a (definitely) rhetorically impressive figure.”30 In Job, the debates lead to an encounter with the divine. In Daredevil, Matt encounters and fights the criminal Kingpin. On a surface-level interpretation, the climactic scenes of these two sources appear to have very little in common. Job does not physically fight his oppressors. In the same way, Matt does not have a conversation with the divine. Yet, despite these differences, both the narrative and streaming series use these encounters to address the problem of evil. God and Fisk each provide, admittedly problematic, solutions to the injustice highlighted at the beginning of both stories.

In the biblical story, God appears in a whirlwind and proceeds to question Job”s understanding of justice and the order of the world. God asks:

Where were you when I established the earth? Tell me if you know this knowledge. Who set its measurements—since you know? Or who stretched out the line on it? What did its pedestal sink down into? Or who placed its corner-stone? When the morning stars sang together and the children of God shouted? (38:4-7).

Job’s encounter with God does not actually address the problem of human suffering. God does not explain why a righteous Job suffers or why he is disabled. Rather, as Leo Perdue notes, “the God of the whirlwind comes not with answers, but with questions”31 which change the dynamic of the conversation itself. God focuses on the differences between human and divine knowledge and challenges Job’s perception of divine justice. These repeated statements lead Job to affirm “God’s integrity by acknowledging that he did not understand the structure of God’s cosmic design.”32 Consequently, God’s speech establishes that no human has a comprehensive knowledge of a moral system of justice. Or, as Carol Newsome suggests, the divine speeches are “a refutation of both the friends … and of Job.”33 In short, God affirms Job’s innocence and by challenging Job’s understanding of the order of creation God refutes his so-called friends’ attempt to implement a divine retributive system. True, God does not explain why Job suffers, but God also rejects a simplified morality that attributes wealth and ablebodiedness to righteousness.

Although the book of Job highlights the discrepancy between reality and a retributive moral system, the narrative concludes by rewarding Job for his piety. God heals the protagonist and doubles the material wealth he had previously lost. This turn of events ostensibly weakens the criticism of retributive justice articulated in Job’s encounter with God. Some, like Clines, go so far as to propose that the narrative confronts rather than undermines the “conflicting philosophies … [on] the view that piety leads to prosperity.”34 Put another way, the narrative paradoxically incorporates the retributive system of justice to solve the problem of evil. This creates a tension in the epilogue, as God simultaneously rejects the retributive system but then uses it to address Job’s suffering.

Just as the book of Job challenges the theological retributive system of justice, the third season of Daredevil highlights secular injustice. By the penultimate episode, Fisk is acquitted of all charges, blackmails agents of the FBI, and holds a press conference decrying “the news media’s fake story” that he is “evil.”35 Setting aside a comparison to contemporary political figures, the series establishes that secular systems of justice are not infallible. Courts can be swayed, police bribed, and the media hijacked by anyone with a microphone.

The failure of these organizations reinforces Matt’s vigilantism. He advocates murder as an “extra-legal” form of justice, a means to defend Hell’s Kitchen when it is not “adequately protected by the state.”36 Matt even argues with his law partner Foggy over this very point:

Foggy: It’s called having faith in the system. It’s something you used to have. Matt: It’s called facing the reality that some people are so rich and powerful, the system simply can’t handle them, that they actually are above the law. Foggy: That’s the bullshit that people like Fisk want you to believe. Nobody’s above the law. The only thing powerful enough to take down scumbags like him is the law.37

While Foggy reaffirms his faith in the judicial system, going as far as to report Daredevil’s activities as an officer of the court, Matt views himself as judge, jury, and executioner. He is prepared to render his own form of retributive justice, murdering Fisk for his numerous crimes.

Daredevil’s attack on Kingpin’s penthouse marks a dramatic turning point in the series. Through the first twelve episodes, Fisk’s actions underscore the fallibility of the press, court system, and even the FBI. Still, the show does not overtly endorse vigilantism and murder as a legitimate way to confront evil. True, the series does effectively incorporate violent imagery in its portrayal of Daredevil’s fight with Kingpin. The hero’s beating the criminal to an inch of his life is underscored by the contrasting white of Fisk’s suit, furniture, and artwork with red blood. But ultimately Daredevil refuses to murder his defeated archnemesis, even when the kingpin of crime declares, “no prison can keep me. You know that. Come on, kill me!”38 Instead, Matt responds by declaring that Fisk cannot destroy who he truly is. He takes Karen’s advice, that murder changes one’s sense of self, and instead makes a deal—he will not reveal information implicating Fisk’s wife, Vanessa, if Kingpin returns to prison. So, ironically the Netflix series ends the same way its Joban counterpart begins: a deal is made with the devil. Fisk’s arrangement with Matt resolves the problem of evil by reincarcerating the kingpin of crime.

Even though God does not appear from a whirlwind at Fisk’s penthouse, the show takes a similar approach to address the problem of evil. In the final episode, Matt again meets with Sister Maggie to explain his decision to spare Kingpin’s life. He begins the conversation by quoting Father Lantom’s last words, “Forgive us.” When Maggie asks Daredevil if he can forgive someone like Fisk, Matt tells the following story:

He told me something, years ago, when this happened, that I never forgot. See, I was pretty angry at God and bitter toward his world. How could a loving God blind me? Why? Anyway, he told me God’s plan is like a beautiful tapestry. And the tragedy of being human is that we only get to see it from the back. With all the ragged threads and the muddy colors. And we only get a hint at the true beauty that would be revealed if we could see the whole pattern on the other side as God does. Anyway, I’ve been thinking a lot about it recently, ‘cause I realize I’ve made some bad choices and hurt people that I love without meaning to.39

This conversation between these two characters serves as a type of metaphor that mirrors God’s speech in the book of Job. Just as the prophet cannot understand the order of the cosmos, Matt does not see the other side of the tapestry. Consequently, Daredevil concludes that he cannot truly understand or dispense justice. Or, as he suggests, “people have died on my watch … [but] there are countless others that have lived. Maybe it is all part of God’s plan.”40 Matt’s deliberation over his decision underscores the tension between Daredevil’s vigilantism and his rejection of murder as a solution to the problem of evil. The show utilizes violent imagery, even celebrates it, as a check on social and political injustice. Yet, Matt’s decision also reaffirms the importance of the judicial process. As a character, Daredevil straddles the boundary between “vigilante values and due process values.”41

The Conclusion: Suffering, Violence, and the Problem of Evil

Season three of Netflix’s Daredevil reflects the same concerns regarding the problem of evil that are evident in the book of Job. Both works challenge, in different ways, the theological and secular systems of justice. Further, both articulate our inability to understand human suffering illustrated through disability imagery. But neither the biblical text, nor the Netflix series offer an exhaustive solution to these issues. Rather, they confront these problems before offering a simplified resolution. The Joban narrative recognizes the injustice of the prophet’s suffering but does not directly address the reason for his misery. Likewise, the Netflix series ultimately rejects murder and violence as legitimate responses to the problem of evil. Yet, the show utilizes violent imagery, conveyed through numerous fight scenes, to make this point. In this sense, both the book of Job and Netflix’s Daredevil underscore humanity’s uneasiness with suffering and violence. They represent the dissonance between the inexplicability of the problem of evil and the desire for justice—divine or vigilante.


  1. @Daredevil, “Trailer for Season 3 of Netflix’s Daredevil,” Twitter video, September 10, 2018, twitter.com/daredevil/status/1039181821269835777?lang=en ↩︎

  2. Leora Batnitzky and Ilana Pardes, “The Book of Job: Aesthetics, Ethics, and Hermeneutics,” in The Book of Job Aesthetics, Ethics, and Hermeneutics, ed. Leora Batnitzky and Ilana Pardes (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2015), 8. ↩︎

  3. Batnitzky and Pardes, “The Book of Job,” 8. ↩︎

  4. J. Cheryl Exum, “Editorial Preface,” in The Bible in Film The Bible and Film, ed. J. Cheryl Exum (Leiden: Brill, 2006), vii. ↩︎

  5. Reinhold Zwick, “The Book of Job in the Movies: On Cinema’s Exploration of Theodicy and the Hiddenness of God,” in The Bible in Motion: A Handbook of the Bible and Its Reception in Film, ed. Rhonda Burnette-Bletsch (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2016), 370. ↩︎

  6. Tod Linafelt, “The Wizard of Uz: Job, Dorothy, and the Limits of the Sublime,” in The Bible in Film The Bible and Film, ed. J. Cheryl Exum (Leiden: Brill, 2006). ↩︎

  7. Linafelt, “The Wizard of Uz,” 95. ↩︎

  8. Sarah J. Melcher, “Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes” in The Bible and Disability: A Commentary, ed. Sarah J. Melcher, Mikeal C. Parsons, and Amos Yong eds. (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2017), 173-174. ↩︎

  9. Melcher, “Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes,” 174. ↩︎

  10. Rebecca Raphael, Biblical Corpora: Representations of Disability in Hebrew Biblical Literature (New York: T&T Clark, 2008), 106. The term, narrative prosthesis, was first proposed by David Mitchell and Sharon Snyder. They use this term to “indicate that disability has been used throughout history as a crutch upon which literary narratives lean for their representational power, disruptive potentiality, and analytical insight … [They] demonstrate that the disabled body represents a potent symbolic site of literary investment.” See David T. Mitchell and Sharon L. Snyder, Narrative Prosthesis: Disability and the Dependencies of Discourse (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2000), 49. ↩︎

  11. Gustavo Gutierrez, On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent, trans. Matthew J. O’Connell (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1985), 6. ↩︎

  12. Raphael, Biblical Corpora, 106. ↩︎

  13. Daredevil. “Resurrection.” Season 3 Episode 1. Directed by Marc Jobst. Written by Erik Oleson. ↩︎

  14. Daredevil. “Resurrection.” ↩︎

  15. Zwick, “The Book of Job in the Movies,” 347. ↩︎

  16. Daredevil. “Resurrection.” ↩︎

  17. Daredevil. “Please.” Season 3 Episode 2. Directed by Lukas Ettlin. Written by Jim Dunn. ↩︎

  18. Daredevil. “Please.” ↩︎

  19. Raphael, Biblical Corpora, 106. ↩︎

  20. As David J. A. Clines notes, this concept is “widely supported in the Hebrew Bible, above all by the Book of Proverbs . . [and] the Book of Deuteronomy.” See David J. A. Clines, What Does Eve do to Help? And Other Readerly Questions to the Old Testament (Sheffield, Sheffield Academic, 1990), 108. ↩︎

  21. F. Rachel Magdalene, “The ANE Legal Origins of Impairment as Theological Disability and the Book of Job” Perspectives in Religious Studies 34 (2007): 26. ↩︎

  22. Norman C. Habel, The Book of Job: A Commentary (Philadelphia, The Westminster Press, 1985), 31. ↩︎

  23. Magdalene, “Impairment as Theological Disability,” 26. ↩︎

  24. Magdalene, “Impairment as Theological Disability,” 45. ↩︎

  25. Daredevil. “The Devil You Know.” Season 3 Episode 6. Directed by Stephen Surjik. Written by Dylan Gallagher. In episode 8, Karen reiterates this view claiming, “I killed Wesley. I shot him seven times. Because the clip ran out. He deserved more.” (See Daredevil. “Upstairs/Downstairs.” Season 3 Episode 8. Directed by Alex Zakrzewski. Written by Dara Resnik.) ↩︎

  26. Daredevil. “Karen.” Season 3 Episode 10. Directed by Alex Garcia Lopez. Written by Tamara Becher Wilkinson. ↩︎

  27. Daredevil. “Karen.” ↩︎

  28. Daredevil. “Reunion.” Season 3 Episode 11. Directed by Jet Wilkinson. Written by Jim Dunn and Dara Resnik. ↩︎

  29. Daredevil. “No Good Deed.” Season 3 Episode 3. Directed by Jennifer Getzinger. Written by Sonay Hoffman. ↩︎

  30. Linafelt, “The Wizard of Uz,” 97. ↩︎

  31. Leo G. Perdue, Wisdom in Revolt: Metaphorical Theology in the Book of Job (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1991), 272-273. ↩︎

  32. Habel, The Book of Job, 66. ↩︎

  33. Carol A. Newsome, The Book of Job: A Contest of Moral Imaginations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 237. ↩︎

  34. Clines, What Does Eve do to Help, 108. ↩︎

  35. Daredevil. “Reunion.” ↩︎

  36. Andrew E. Taslitz, “Daredevil and the Death Penalty” Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law 1:699 (2004): 699. ↩︎

  37. Daredevil. “Reunion.” ↩︎

  38. Daredevil. “A New Napkin.” Season 3 Episode 13. Directed by Sam Miller. Written by Erik Oleson. ↩︎

  39. Daredevil. “A New Napkin.” ↩︎

  40. Daredevil. “A New Napkin.” ↩︎

  41. Taslitz, “Daredevil and the Death Penalty,” 710. ↩︎

References: 

Batnitzky. Loera and Pardes, Ilana. “The Book of Job: Aesthetics, Ethics, and Hermeneutics,” in The Book of Job Aesthetics, Ethics, and Hermeneutics, ed. Leora Batnitzky and Ilana Pardes, 1-8. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2015.

Clines, David J. A. What Does Eve do to Help? And Other Readerly Questions to the Old Testament. Sheffield, Sheffield Academic, 1990.

@Daredevil, “Trailer for Season 3 of Netflix’s Daredevil,” Twitter video, September 10, 2018, twitter.com/daredevil/status/1039181821269835777?lang=en

Daredevil. Episode no. 27, first broadcast October 19, 2018 by Netflix. Directed by Marc Jobst and written by Erik Oleson.

Daredevil. Episode no. 28, first broadcast October 19, 2018 by Netflix. Directed by Lukas Ettlin and written by Jim Dunn.

Daredevil. Episode no. 29, first broadcast October 19, 2018 by Netflix. Directed by Jennifer Getzinger and written by Sonay Hoffman.

Daredevil. Episode no. 32, first broadcast October 19, 2018 by Netflix. Directed by Stephen Surjik and written by Dylan Gallagher.

Daredevil. Episode no. 34, first broadcast October 19, 2018 by Netflix. Directed by Alex Zakrzewski and written by Dara Resnik.

Daredevil. Episode no. 36, first broadcast October 19, 2018 by Netflix. Directed by Alex Garcia Lopez and written by Tamara Becher Wilkinson.

Daredevil. Episode no. 37, first broadcast October 19, 2018 by Netflix. Directed by Jet Wilkinson and written by Jim Dunn and Dara Resnik.

Daredevil. Episode no. 39, first broadcast October 19, 2018 by Netflix. Directed by Sam Miller and written by Erik Oleson.

Exum, J. Cheryl. “Editorial Preface,” in The Bible in Film, The Bible and Film, ed. J. Cheryl Exum, vii. Leiden: Brill, 2006.

Gutierrez, Gustavo. On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent, trans. Matthew J. O’Connell. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1985.

Habel, Norman C. The Book of Job: A Commentary. Philadelphia, The Westminster Press, 1985.

Linafelt, Tod. “The Wizard of Uz: Job, Dorothy, and the Limits of the Sublime,” in The Bible in Film, The Bible and Film, ed. J. Cheryl Exum, 94-109. Leiden: Brill, 2006.

Magdalene, F. Rachel. “The ANE Legal Origins of Impairment as Theological Disability and the Book of Job.” Perspectives in Religious Studies 34 (2007): 23-60.

Melcher, Sarah J. “Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes” in The Bible and Disability: A Commentary, ed. Sarah J. Melcher, Mikeal C. Parsons, and Amos Yong eds. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2017.

Mitchell, David T. and Snyder, Sharon L. Narrative Prosthesis: Disability and the Dependencies of Discourse. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2000.

Newsome, Carol A. The Book of Job: A Contest of Moral Imaginations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Perdue, Leo G. Wisdom in Revolt: Metaphorical Theology in the Book of Job. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1991.

Raphael, Rebecca. Biblical Corpora: Representations of Disability in Hebrew Biblical Literature. New York: T&T Clark, 2008.

About the Author: 

David A. Schones is the Director of the Veterans Onward Program and is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Humanities at Austin College. He holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Southern Methodist University specializing in Biblical Studies. He also studied at the University of Oklahoma (B.A., 2010) and Brite Divinity School (M.T.S., 2013) where he wrote his thesis on the Dead Sea Scrolls. His current research interests include disability studies, gender studies, infertility, and the cultural study of religion. His dissertation, entitled “Infertility in 1 Samuel 1: Toward a Hermeneutic of Reproduction” employs social scientific models to analyze the conceptualization and stigmatization of involuntary childlessness in this text.

Volume 7, Issue 1

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