Was Job a Man or a Myth?
00:00:00.000 | Well, the book of Job is a profound work on human suffering and is worth a lifetime of
00:00:08.960 | study and reflection. But was Job himself a real historic character like John Bunyan?
00:00:15.960 | Or is Job a mythic legend like Paul Bunyan? And does it really matter in the end which
00:00:21.080 | he was, fact or folklore? The question comes from a listener named Lori. "Dear Pastor John,
00:00:27.440 | I have enjoyed your messages on the book of Job. Recently I was at a memorial service
00:00:31.960 | at a Reformed church in which the pastor said Job was a fictitious character. The lessons
00:00:38.040 | of the book, he said, are still helpful, but what do you think? Was Job a real person or
00:00:42.360 | not? Why or why not? And do you think it really matters in the end?"
00:00:48.000 | Yes, if I heard my pastor make the confident statement that Job was a fictitious character,
00:00:58.080 | I would seriously consider finding another church. Now, I want to be sure here that I'm
00:01:05.520 | not assuming that Lori got it right. That is, that she's really quoting her pastor accurately.
00:01:12.920 | She may not be. And I say that not because it can't be true and the Bible still be infallible.
00:01:21.560 | I say it because, that is, I say I would consider leaving the church. I say that because there
00:01:28.280 | are no grounds for being dogmatic that Job is fictitious. That's my first reason. Second
00:01:37.000 | reason, the inclination to take the book as fiction with a moral truth, fiction with a
00:01:44.680 | moral truth, betrays a mental leaning that I think throws the pastor's biases into question.
00:01:56.000 | That's the way I would put it for myself. I'd say his biases are leaning in the wrong
00:02:03.200 | direction. That's my concern. Now, are there good reasons for taking the book of Job as
00:02:09.760 | an accurate account of events that really happened? Or do we just say, "Well, it's
00:02:17.680 | a draw." I read some commentators who said, "It's just a draw. We don't know if it's
00:02:24.640 | a parable or if it's history. It doesn't matter," they say. Let me give three reasons
00:02:31.840 | for taking the story as real history rather than a parable with good morals and good theology.
00:02:39.480 | Number one, take the way the book opens. There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was
00:02:45.240 | Job and compare that with the beginning, say, of Judges 17.1, the beginning of the story
00:02:52.560 | there. There was a man in the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah. Or compare
00:02:57.760 | it with the beginning of 1 Samuel 1.1. There was a certain man of Ramoth, Zopharim, of
00:03:03.880 | the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Elkanah. Now, one of the ways to assess whether
00:03:10.840 | a piece of writing is history or whether it bears the traits of, say, fiction would be
00:03:20.320 | to compare how the books are written. And the fact that Job begins the way those chapters
00:03:28.780 | begin which are not presented as parable or fiction is at least one pointer, just one
00:03:35.160 | pointer to the way readers would have taken it as they begin to read this book. They would
00:03:42.680 | have taken it the way they began to read Judges or 1 Samuel as an account of things that really
00:03:48.000 | matters. That's my first argument. Number two, in Ezekiel 14.12-20 where the prophet
00:03:55.800 | is showing how hopeless Jerusalem is under God's judgment because of how much immorality
00:04:02.200 | there is in the land, it says this, "The word of the Lord came to me, 'Son of man, when
00:04:09.440 | a land sins against me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it to break
00:04:16.100 | the supply of bread and send famine upon it and cut off from it man and beast, even if
00:04:24.080 | these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver but only their own
00:04:33.200 | lives by their righteousness.'" Verse 19, "Or if I send a pestilence into that land
00:04:38.800 | and pour out my wrath upon it with blood to cut off from it man and beast, even if Noah,
00:04:44.880 | Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, declares the Lord God, they would deliver neither son
00:04:51.680 | nor daughter. They would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness." Now, I
00:04:57.320 | know that there are more or less conservative scholars who say that these names, Noah, Daniel,
00:05:05.920 | Job, are mentioned here not because they're historical, but because they're all eminently
00:05:11.860 | righteous in the books that tell their story. Nevertheless, the case of Jerusalem is so
00:05:18.160 | bad, this writer, Ezekiel, chooses three people, two of which are manifestly historical, and
00:05:29.360 | the other of which we would presume is historical. Think with me. Notice two things. Noah and
00:05:36.280 | Daniel are unmistakably historical. The Bible does not treat them as fictional ever. And
00:05:43.200 | Job is listed with them with no distinction made at all. And that would be really strange
00:05:50.040 | if Job were not like them, historical. And here's the second thing to observe. Ezekiel
00:05:56.440 | entertains the hypothetical possibility that Noah and Daniel and Job might be, quote, "in
00:06:04.400 | the land." Like if they were in the land, if they came into the land, you know, came
00:06:09.040 | back from where they are. I mean, one of them is contemporary. It is a real stretch to think
00:06:16.000 | he is saying Noah and Daniel, the historical persons, might be in the land as real people,
00:06:22.120 | but Job has to be thought of as in the land in a totally different way. In other words,
00:06:28.400 | it just seems to me that we would need very strong reasons to think Job is fictional if
00:06:36.880 | we're going to take Ezekiel 14, 14 in such a unnatural way. Two historical figures, one
00:06:44.000 | fictional functioning in the same way, I doubt it. Here's the last point. In James 5, in
00:06:51.520 | the New Testament, James 5, verses 10 and 11, James says this, "As an example of suffering
00:06:57.580 | and patience, brothers, take the prophets." That's important. "Take the prophets." Think
00:07:03.240 | about the prophets. "Who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed
00:07:08.040 | who remain steadfast." You've heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the
00:07:13.000 | purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. Now again, there are those who
00:07:18.360 | say, "This proves nothing about Job's historical reality. He's just being used as a fictional
00:07:23.640 | character the way we might use Shakespeare's Hamlet as an example of tragic indecision,
00:07:29.200 | say, and Job's being used as an example of perseverance." Really? I mean, James says,
00:07:35.880 | "Take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed
00:07:43.320 | who remain steadfast." You've heard of the steadfastness of Job. He's not speaking about
00:07:47.720 | Job in a vacuum. He's treating Job like one of the prophets. He's putting him in the category
00:07:54.480 | with others in history who remain steadfast. So I would say that we have at least these
00:08:02.720 | three lines of evidence that Job is historical, internal similarity to some of the other historical
00:08:11.360 | works, the treatment of Job in Ezekiel and the treatment of Job in James. And then Laurie
00:08:18.920 | asks, "So do I think it matters?" Of course fiction can teach real flesh and blood truth.
00:08:28.000 | The parables of Jesus do that. It's not wrong to write fiction to communicate truth. So
00:08:36.520 | it's not as though the theology of Job would have to be sacrificed if the book were inspired
00:08:44.000 | fiction. But I would say it matters for other reasons. Given the way Ezekiel and James treat
00:08:53.040 | the book and the person of Job, the readiness to treat the book and the man as fictional
00:09:03.200 | signifies a kind of mindset, a kind of soul inclination which leans more easily toward
00:09:13.680 | critical trends than I think is healthy. And that would be a concern to me.
00:09:19.760 | That's a good word, and a good soft warning, too, about exegetical biases, Pastor John.
00:09:25.600 | Thank you. Well, for everything you need to know about this podcast, go to desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:09:33.400 | Well, do human technologies threaten God's sovereign reign over humanity? And isn't this
00:09:39.440 | the main takeaway for why God confused human language in Genesis 11? It is a really great
00:09:45.840 | question and it's next time on Monday. I'm your host Tony Reinke. Have a great weekend.
00:09:49.880 | We'll see you then.
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