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Job actually existed and he was blameless in relation to the rest of mankind.
Job is a type of Christ. Christ too was blameless yet suffered at God's hand.
Ezekiel and James both write about Job as a literal, historical person.
Job might have been a historical person and inspiration for the allegory. I seriously doubt that God made a bet with Satan to torment Job. God is benevolent and incapable of causing harm to simply win a bet.
Furthermore, the message of the book Job stands on its own much better if the book is allegoric.
The book of Job is an allegory. Job did not exist. The book was written to illustrate a point. In real life God would never be so cruel. In fact, God is incapable of doing what he supposedly did in the book of Job.
... and just think, for thousands of years, people have been waiting for you to sort-out what is true and what is allegory in the Bible! --- I think the word you have in mind is 'parable' ... which means that the stories and teachings in the Bible are just as applicable today as they were when the events or teachings occurred.
We really have no basis for making a clear and accurate determination of whether the events actually occurred or not. However, there is a great danger to the credibility of anything in the Bible we DO claim to believe ... when we start making assumptions that some things are only 'stories' and did not actually occur.
Your perception of God's cruelty and what God is capable of doing (based on our perception) makes assumptions that are without foundation. Do you, for example, believe God was cruel or incapable of allowing Christ to be murdered and die on the cross? How about the Christians who are martyred for their faith?
Job is confirmed in the words given to the son of man and my brother prophet, Ezekiel. Have a read;
The word of the LORD came to me: "Son of man, if a country sins against me by being unfaithful and I stretch out my hand against it to cut off its food supply and send famine upon it and kill its men and their animals, even if these three men--Noah, Daniel and Job--were in it, they could save only themselves by their righteousness, declares the Sovereign LORD. "Or if I send wild beasts through that country and they leave it childless and it becomes desolate so that no one can pass through it because of the beasts, as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, even if these three men were in it, they could not save their own sons or daughters. They alone would be saved, but the land would be desolate. "Or if I bring a sword against that country and say, 'Let the sword pass throughout the land,' and I kill its men and their animals, as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, even if these three men were in it, they could not save their own sons or daughters.They alone would be saved. "Or if I send a plague into that land and pour out my wrath upon it through bloodshed, killing its men and their animals, 20 as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, even if Noah, Daniel and Job were in it, they could save neither son nor daughter. They would save only themselves by their righteousness. 21 "For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem my four dreadful judgments--sword and famine and wild beasts and plague--to kill its men and their animals! 22 Yet there will be some survivors--sons and daughters who will be brought out of it. They will come to you, and when you see their conduct and their actions, you will be consoled regarding the disaster I have brought upon Jerusalem--every disaster I have brought upon it. 23 You will be consoled when you see their conduct and their actions, for you will know that I have done nothing in it without cause, declares the Sovereign LORD."
"Only in the Lord are just works and power".
Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on, let them find rest from their labors, for their works accompany them”.
The Lord’s judgments are true and just.
The ways of the Lord are true and just
Praise The Lord, all you his servants, you who revere him, small and great.
These words are true; they come from God. The wicked shall still act wickedly, and the filthy shall still be filthy. The righteous must still do right, and the holy must still be holy."
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; He has anointed me . He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and give sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year of favor from the Lord.
I did not come on my own, the One who is true sent me, Him you do not know. I know him, because I come from him, he’s the one who sent me.
(JN)
Job might have been a historical person and inspiration for the allegory. I seriously doubt that God made a bet with Satan to torment Job. God is benevolent and incapable of causing harm to simply win a bet.
Furthermore, the message of the book Job stands on its own much better if the book is allegoric.
God doesn't make bets. He knew the end from the beginning of how it would turn out for Job. God allows temptation in the form of sickness or whatever to give us an experience of the fact that evil is indeed real and personal, designed to pull us away from God but God intervened so that Job would not be tempted above that which he could endure. Job thought it was God who was doing it to Him until God cleared up the matter by speaking to him the Truth. The story is true and written for our sakes.
The lessons of Job are priceless. We waste time on blaming God which is what the tactic of the Devil is, to keep us in spiritual darkness. God is the author of healing and life not what the Devil does as was in the case of Job and for all but people refuse to believe that the way out is prayer, not blaming God. Temptation is allowed to give us choice; to prove the power of faithfulness if we come to our senses as the Prodigal son did and turned to God. Through Christ we have access to God the Father. Jesus healed all who came to Him. When Job realized his folly of blaming God for what the Devil did, he was healed and had a better life that before.
Job might have been a historical person and inspiration for the allegory. I seriously doubt that God made a bet with Satan to torment Job. God is benevolent and incapable of causing harm to simply win a bet.
Furthermore, the message of the book Job stands on its own much better if the book is allegoric.
Can not God do that which He wants with that which is His own?
James writes of the suffering of Job, not as if it were just an allegory but a fact.
The book of Job was written to teach a point. There was no need to punish a human to simply make a point to Satan.
The message remains the same with a parable. Nothing changes!
Something far far worse than Job suffering was God sending His Son into the world to have Him crucified. If God can do that which His own Son unallegorically then surely He can do with Job that which He wants.
Something far far worse than Job suffering was God sending His Son into the world to have Him crucified. If God can do that which His own Son unallegorically then surely He can do with Job that which He wants.
Job was not Jesus.
Jesus is God.
Job is a simple man.
I would not do that comparison. Furthermore, this book is written to discuss something that has bothered MAN for a long time. Why must MAN suffer?
Why does God allow MAN to suffer? That is the question.
Why presume that the happenings of Job is not a true occurrence?
Other biblical writers refer to Job as a real person. Ezekiel refers to Job along with Noah and Daniel (Ezekiel 14:14,20). And James draws upon the example of Job to comfort the suffering, proving the point that God is merciful. He commends the endurance of Job (James 5:11).
The view of many bible scholars can hardly be dismissed as a presumption.
I agree with them. You do not. That's all you had to say.
Sorry, I dont understand what you are trying to say with the verses. The writers' references to Job do not in any way provide verification that Job was a real person. Obviously, these people would have been familiar with the story.
This was not simply a name pulled out of thin air to tell a story. The area where he lived is given, which means that he was real.
When God says that a person was upright / blameless, then I can not make a statement in contradiction to God's Word; saying that he was not upright / blameless. It would require a far greater person than I to declare God to be wrong.
Job however did have a fear in his life, that is explained. His fear came true, and that gave him anguish.
Chapter after chapter of inward searching and reasoning, debating and anguish did nothing. A great deal of pain was rehashed over and over, and it was all in vain. None of that released Job from his self made prison.
Finally Job's suffering ended when Job began to minister to others. When Job prayed for his friends, that was the action he needed to do to get it all reversed.
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Thanks for the insight!
