Who Really Wrote The Book Of Job
Job, possibly the strangest book in the bible, is based on legends going back thousands of years, and is written in a very unusual form of Hebrew.
The Book of Job is quite possibly the strangest book in the Hebrew Bible, and is notoriously difficult to date.
In essence, Job is an essay on the problem of evil. The book starts with God and Satan discussing Job, a perfect and upright man who feared God and eschewed evil . Satan tells God that Job is only virtuous because he is well off were he to suffer, he would surely curse thee to thy face . God accepts the challenge and gives Satan permission to destroy Jobs life.
Satan kills his children, destroys his house, bankrupts him and gives him a terrible skin disease. Jobs unnamed wife says to him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die , but Job stands firm.
The story then stops being a narrative and takes a philosophical bent, with Jobs friends Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, each in turn, saying that all reward and punishment comes from God. God is just. Job was punished. Therefore Job must have sinned grievously.
A fourth character then enters the story Elihu, who accuses Job as well . Biblical scholars suspect him to be a later addition to the book, mostly because while the first three friends are mentioned in the introduction, Elihu appears from nowhere.
Strange Hebrew
Satan at the right hand of God
Archaeological signs from deep antiquity
Life Lessons From Job In The Bible
Sometimes suffering is not related to anything we have done. If it is allowed by God, we must trust him and not doubt his love for us.
Job’s suffering, and ours too, has a purpose. That purpose is not always punishment, although sin does bring punishment. But that is only a small part of suffering’s role in the life of the believer. Suffering proves the authenticity of one’s faith and produces righteousness in the true believer.
Islamic Views And Quranic Account
romanized: Ayyb) is considered a prophet in Islam. The narrative frame of Job’s story in Islam is similar to the Hebrew Bible story but, in Islam, the emphasis is paid to Job remaining steadfast to God and there is no record of his bitterness or defiance, or mention of lengthy discussions with friends. Some Muslim also spoke of Job as being the ancestor of the Romans.Muslim literature also comments on Job’s time and place of prophecy, saying that he came after Joseph in the prophetic series and that he preached to his own people rather than being sent to a specified community. Tradition further recounts that Job will be the leader of the group of “those who patiently endured” in Heaven. Philip K. Hitti asserted that the subject was an Arab and the setting was Northern Arabia.
The Qur’an mentions Job’s narrative in a concise manner. Similar to the Hebrew Bible narrative, Islamic tradition mentions that Satan heard the angels of God speak of Job as being the most faithful man of his generation. Job, being a chosen prophet of God, would remain committed in daily prayer and would frequently call to God, thanking God for blessing him with abundant wealth and a large family. But Satan planned to turn the God-fearing Job away from God and wanted Job to fall into disbelief and corruption. Therefore, God allowed Satan to afflict Job with distress and intense illness and suffering, as God knew that Job would never turn away from his Lord.
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The Limits Of Human Wisdom Exposed
Jobs friends confidently assume that the logic of their theology can account for all of Gods ways. However, Jobs experience makes bitterly clear to him that their wisdom cannot fathom the truth of his situation. Yet Jobs wisdom is also at a loss to understand. So when the dialogue between Job and his three wise friends finally stalemates, the author introduces a poetic essay on wisdom that exposes the limits of all human wisdom. Standing as it does at a major juncture between the dialogue and the final, major speeches , this authorial commentary on what has been going on in the stalemated dialogue anticipates Gods final word to Job.
In the end, the adversary is silenced. Jobs friends are silenced. Job is silenced. But God is not. And when he speaks, it is to the godly Job that he speaks, resulting in the silence of regret for hasty words in days of suffering and the silence of repose in the ways of the Almighty . Furthermore, as his heavenly friend, God hears Jobs intercessions for his associates and restores Jobs blessed state .
Job Bible Story Summary With Lesson
Just about everyone has heard of the suffering of Job in the Old Testament. You might have heard someone say, They have the patience of Job. There is good reason for that saying. According to biblical scholars, the Book of Job is the oldest book in the Bible. If you were to fit it chronologically, it should be place in the early chapters of Genesis. What can we learn from the Book of Job? Is there application for the believers life today? Was sin involved in Jobs suffering? Is there sin in all suffering? Why does God allow suffering?
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Sometimes We Sin Against Our Friends
Jobs friends not only failed to be there for Job in a supportive, loving way but they gave poor advice based on their misunderstandings of God.
The Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.~Job 42:7
Three Monologues: Poem To Wisdom Job’s Closing Monologue And Elihu’s Speeches
Job and His FriendsIlya Repin
The dialogues of Job and his friends are followed by a poem on the inaccessibility of wisdom: “Where is wisdom to be found?” it asks, and concludes that it has been hidden from man . Job contrasts his previous fortune with his present plight, an outcast, mocked and in pain. He protests his innocence, lists the principles he has lived by, and demands that God answer him.
Elihu occupies chapters 32 to 37, intervening to state that wisdom comes from God, who reveals it through dreams and visions to those who will then declare their knowledge.
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Local Traditions Regarding Job
There are at least two locations that claim to be the place of Job’s ordeal, and at least three that claim to have his tomb.
The Eyüp Sultan Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, holds the tomb of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, a companion of Muhammad, not the Biblical/Qur’anic Job , though some locals tend to conflate the two.
Suffering Can Be Used For Fatherly Discipline
God may use the results of evil and suffering to build the moral and spiritual character of His people or to express fatherly discipline . Courage is forged only through facing ones fears, just as steel must be refined by fire. For faith to grow, it often has to be tested by fire. God expresses more concern for His children than for their comfort.
Therefore, God uses evil and suffering to facilitate the believers moral and spiritual maturity. The Apostle Paul, who endured much evil and suffering, explains the relationship between suffering and character in Romans 5:3, But we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance perseverance, character and character, hope.
A loving earthly father disciplines his children. Though unpleasant at the time, discipline is crucial to a childs growth as a responsible person. God similarly allows evil and suffering to bring about discipline in the lives of His children. As the writer of Hebrews declares, Endure hardship as discipline God is treating you as sons .
The assuring guarantee for the Christian is that God does not allow evil and suffering to come into their lives without producing a greater good. Romans 8:28, And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
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Suffering To Get Peoples Attention
While Christians should be cautious about claiming to identify Gods purposes behind specific incidents of injustice and suffering, the Bible does reveal insight into how God uses evil and suffering. God may use evil and suffering to get an unbelievers attention and ultimately to draw the person to Himself .
Evil and suffering can also shock people out of their indifference to spiritual things, and sometimes even out of their false sense of control. In this way, problems may be used by Gods grace to bring a person to saving faith in Christ. As C.S. Lewis in The Problem of Pain so eloquently put it, God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
After Repentance And Forgiveness Comes Blessings
In Job 42, Job made a burnt offering for his friends and prayed for them as God commanded Him to do. God accepted Jobs prayer for them and THEN Jobs fortunes were restored WHEN he prayed for his friends!
Isnt this an interesting connection? Job forgave his friends BEFORE he knew how blessed he was about to become. It was Jobs prayer that released blessings!
The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning.~Job 42:12
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Who Is Job Talking To In The Bible
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. Consequently, who is biblical Job?
Job is a wealthy man living in a land called Uz with his large family and extensive flocks. He is blameless and upright, always careful to avoid doing evil . One day, Satan appears before God in heaven.
Beside above, why is job the oldest book in the Bible? The book of Job was written 400 years before Moses in a land east of Edam. The Pentateuch would have been written after the time of the Patriarchs, so Job would be, by default, the oldest book in the Bible. Job is a Gentile much like Abraham. Job lived before the Abrahamic Covenant.
Similarly one may ask, what is the moral of the story of Job in the Bible?
The true moral of the book of Job is that we must trust God even though we don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes in our life.
What is the meaning of patience of Job?
the patience of Job. the ability to remain patient and to do what you think you should do despite having many problems. Patient and uncomplaining.
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PART 6 IN SERIES The Purpose of Physical Reality
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Composed sometime between 500 and 300 B.C., the Book of Job examines justice in the physical world from the point of view of a belief in one Creator.
To a certain extent the Book of Job takes up where Plato leaves off. Here God is not simply the sum total of virtuePlatos Good. God is the Creator, a cognitive Being aware of each individual life and intimately concerned for His creation.
If we put aside the numerous disputes over composition and textual integrity, we can see in this masterpiece of world literature some issues of justice not raised in the dialogues of Plato. For example, Job examines the critical dilemma of how we can maintain and sustain belief in a just God when we are daily exposed to the appearance in the physical world of seemingly arbitrary acts of cruelty, corruption, and blatant injustice.
This is the heart of the great human question of theodicy: How can a just, merciful God allow us to suffer so much?
After a series of disasters that deprive Job of his possessions and most of his family, he is grief stricken, but he still praises God. Not satisfied, Satan proposes that Job suffer injury to his person, and God, still confident, gives Satan permission to inflict on Job a loathsome disease.
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Job Is Faithful To God
DO YOU feel sorry for this sick man? His name is Job, and the woman is his wife. Do you know what she is saying to Job? Curse God and die. Lets see why she would ever say a thing like that, and why Job suffered so much.
Job was a faithful man who obeyed Jehovah. He lived in the land of Uz, not far from Canaan. Jehovah loved Job very much, but there was someone who hated him. Do you know who?
It was Satan the Devil. Remember, Satan is the bad angel who hates Jehovah. He was able to get Adam and Eve to disobey Jehovah, and he thought he could get everybody else to disobey Jehovah too. But was he able to? No. Just think of the many faithful men and women we have learned about. How many can you name?
After Jacob and Joseph died in Egypt, Job was the person most faithful to Jehovah in all the earth. Jehovah wanted to let Satan know that he could not get everyone to be bad, so he said: Look at Job. See how faithful he is to me.
He is faithful, Satan argued, because you bless him and he has many good things. But if you take these away, he will curse you.
So Jehovah said: Go ahead. Take them away. Do all the bad things you want to Job. We will see if he curses me. Only be sure that you do not kill him.
This made Jehovah very happy, and afterward he blessed Job, as you can see in the picture. He healed him from his sickness. Job had 10 more beautiful children, and twice as many cattle, sheep and camels as he had before.
Job Contemplates The Mystery Of God
Job reacts to each of these remarks, becoming so angry that he calls his sympathizers worthless physicians who whitewash with lies . He questions why God judges people by their deeds if God can just as easily change or forgive their behavior. It is confusing to Job how a human can truly satisfy Gods justice as his ways are mysterious and exceed human comprehension. Furthermore, humans cannot possibly convince God with their words. God cannot be fooled, and Job confesses that he does not even know himself well enough to adequately defend his case to God. Job desires for someone who can mediate between himself and God, or be sent to Sheol, the dark space of the dead.
Job believes that there is a witness or a Redeemer in heaven who will testify for his integrity . The suffering shows too much for Job, and he turns bitter, anxious, and scared. He deplores the injustice that God lets evil people thrive while he and many other honest people suffer. Job wants to face God and protest, but cannot physically find God. He assumes that wisdom is concealed from humans, but he decides to persevere in seeking wisdom by fearing God and evading evil.
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As Job Might Have Told It Today
When my three so-called friends had lit into me, it served only to polarize our discussion and make me mad. Elihu, though much younger, at least proved that he was wise beyond his years. But now my direct appeal to the LORD was coming and it would be nothing like the display of righteous indignation I had rehearsed in my mind.
He wasted no time in niceties. Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? He demanded. Brace yourself like a man I will question you, and you shall answer me.
Then with eloquence only the Almighty can muster, and sarcasm enough to rip even the strongest of men to shreds He compared His skills and ability, His wisdom and experience to mine. Needless to say I came out on the short end of that one, and wound up being put firmly in my tiny little place in the grand scheme of things.
Then He demanded of me, Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!
Meekly I answered the LORD: I am unworthy-how can I reply to you? I spoke once, but I have no answer twice, but I will say no more.
Then the LORD spoke to me again. Brace yourself like a man I will question you, and you shall answer me. Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?
You said, Listen now, and I will speak I will question you, and you shall answer Me. My ears had heard of You but now my eyes have seen You. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.
In The Greek Old Testament Book Of Job
Job Restored to ProsperityLaurent de La Hyre
The , an ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, has a revised and updated final verse that claims Job’s genealogy, asserting him to be a grandson of Esau and a ruler of Edom.
This man is described in the Syriac book as living in the land of Ausis, on the borders of Idumea and Arabia: and his name before was Jobab and having taken an Arabian wife, he begot a son whose name was Ennon. And he himself was the son of his father Zare, one of the sons of Esau, and of his mother Bosorrha, so that he was the fifth from Abraam. And these were the kings who reigned in Edom, which country he also ruled over: first, Balac, the son of Beor, and the name of his city was Dennaba: but after Balac, Jobab, who is called Job, and after him Asom, who was governor out of the country of Thaeman: and after him Adad, the son of Barad, who destroyed Madiam in the plain of Moab and the name of his city was Gethaim. And his friends who came to him were Eliphaz, of the children of Esau, king of the Thaemanites, Baldad sovereign of the Sauchaeans, Sophar king of the Minaeans.
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