The interpretation timeline

Job 21:22

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

1 Patristic · 1 Catholic

Job 21:22 · Douay-Rheims
“Shall any one teach God knowledge, who judgeth those that are high?”
Patristic before A.D. 750
604
A.D.
Gregory the Great Patristic
c. A.D. 540–604
“Ver. 22. Shall any teach God knowledge? seeing that He judgeth those that are high. 61. When in the things, which are done concerning us, we have doubts, we ought to look at others, which are well known to us, and to pacify that murmuring of the thought, which had arisen to us in consequence of our uncertainty. For see, whereas scourges recover the Elect to life, and not even scourges keep the wicked from bad deeds, Almighty God's judgments upon us are very secret and are not unjust. But if we stretch the eye of our mind to the things above, we see by those that touching ourselves we have nought to complain of with justice. For Almighty God discerning the merits of Angels, ordained some to abide in eternal light without falling, others, fallen of free will from the standing of their loftiness, He laid low in the vengeance of eternal damnation. By us, then, He doth nothing unjustly, Who judged justly even a nature more refined than ours. So let him say; Shall any teach God knowledge? seeing that He judgeth those that are high. For He that doeth wonderful things above our level, it is surely plain that touching ourselves He ordereth all things with knowledge.”
Source
670 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Scholastic c. 1100 – 1500
1274
A.D.
Thomas Aquinas Catholic
1225–1274
“Since Job had established above that evil men sometimes experience prosperous things and sometimes adverse things in this life, which causes doubt, he therefore seeks to resolve this doubt. First he shows that this does not arise from a defect in divine knowledge, as though the evil of those men to whom he gives prosperity escaped his notice. So he says, "Will anyone teach God knowledge?" as if to say: He does not need instruction by anyone about the merits of men to know to whom he should give prosperous things and to whom he should give adverse things. His next statement, "Who judges the eminent," can be interpreted in two ways: in one way God does not stand in need of the instruction of anyone to be able to judge the great, that is, those who prosper in this world, like judges in human affairs need to be instructed by witnesses about the merits of those they are judging. This text can be understood in another way as introduced as a confirmation of the preceding idea. For the fact that God knows all things and he does not stand in need of instruction by anyone is clear because he judges men no matter how great they are. No one judges things of which he is ignorant, and so it cannot be that knowledge of anyone no matter how great may escape his notice.”
Source
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.