As the success of Angels in America  illustrates, a complex nexus of problems emerge when questions concerning illness and responsibility collide. This paper will focus on the way the body in pain is expressed, and reacted to, within the book of Job. It will use diverse examples of culturally-based explanations of illness (as opposed to “disease” which implies a biomedical perspective) as a unique way of sharpening insight into the social dynamics fuelling the acrimonious dialogue between Job and his friends. Key areas of analysis include the notion of "sin visualised" and the theme of the "sinful" body, as expressed through moralising language surrounding the body; philological details concerning the expression of pain in Job; and symbolic protest expressed through the idea of an attacking deity. 

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