A major theme in the Book of Job is trying to understand why an all-powerful God allows good people to suffer. In the article “U.S. Apologizes for Syphilis Tests in Guatemala it states that, “from 1946 to 1948, American public health doctors deliberately infected nearly 700 Guatemalan prisoners…with venereal diseases in what was meant as an effort to test the effectiveness of penicillin.” At first doctors used prostitutes to spread the diseases but when that did not work, they forcefully poured or injected bacteria into the prisoners. After all was said and done, there were no results. Susan M. Reverby said, “whether everyone was then cured is not clear.”
These tests were inhumane and cruel to the prisoners. Although the prisoners were not innocent like Job, these tests were not a part of their jail sentence. These tests can be related to the punishments given to Job. It seemed as if God and Satan were having a competition to see if Job was really a God fearing man. So first Job receives news that his livestock, and children have died. Job mourns but still blesses God and does not curse him. When this did not work, Satan appears in heaven again, and God grants him another chance to test Job. Satan says “touch his bone and flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.” (pg127) This time, Satan afflicted Job with boils on his face. Again Job does not curse God. In end result, Job passes the test but is forced to suffer for no given reason.
To these Guatemalan prisoners, the American doctors were God like figures because they were the ones who pulled the strings in the prison. They were able to do whatever tests they wished for their own gain and at the expense of the prisoners. In the instance of Job, he was like the prisoners.
-Sajjad Ali
