Job - actual account or allegory/parable

Richard Mulcahy said:

Hello all,

Does any of you support the notion that Job may be a parable/allegory and not an actual account?

The author of an article I read thinks it is unlikely. On the other hand another author has reason to think Job may be fictional.

The first author referenced Ezekiel 14: 12-20. Where Jerusalem was in such a bad way that even if Noah, Daniel and Job were in it, they could save only themselves by their righteousness. That they alone would be saved, but the land would be desolate.

The author goes on to mention that Noah and Daniel are unmistakenly historical. The bible does not treat them as fictional ever, and Job is listed with them with no distinction made at all. He says we therefore need to assume that Job is historical as well.

James 5: 10-11 here the author mentions that James refers to Job as one of the prophets. He put Job in the category with others in history who remained steadfast.

The second author just mentioned the possibility of a fictional Job but gave no reasons.

What is the answer? If Job is an actual account how do we know this? If you're open to the idea of an allegory/parable, please say why.

God bless...

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Tra Phull said:

So all these people who want me to have THE PATIENCE OF JOB - May be wanting me to have SUMPN WHAT AIN'T !

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Authorship, language, texts[edit]
Job appears in the 6th-century BCE book of Ezekiel as a man of antiquity renowned for his righteousness, and the author of the Book of Job has apparently chosen this legendary hero for his parable.[20] Rabbinic tradition ascribes it to Moses, but scholars generally agree that it was written between the 7th and 4th centuries BCE, with the 6th century BCE as the most likely period for various reasons.[21] The anonymous author was almost certainly an Israelite, although he has set his story outside Israel, in southern Edom or northern Arabia, and makes allusion to places as far apart as Mesopotamia and Egypt.[22]

The language of Job stands out for its conservative spelling and for its exceptionally large number of words and forms not found elsewhere in the Bible.[23] The 12th century Jewish scholar Ibn Ezra concluded that the book must have been written in some other language and translated into Hebrew,[24] and many later scholars down to the 20th century looked for an Aramaic, Arabic or Edomite original, but a close analysis suggests that the foreign words and foreign-looking forms are literary affectations designed to lend authenticity to the book's distant setting.[25]

Job exists in a number of forms: the Hebrew Masoretic Text, which underlies many modern Bible translations; the Greek Septuagint made in Egypt in the last centuries BCE; and Aramaic and Hebrew manuscripts found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.[26]

Job and the wisdom tradition[edit]
Job, Ecclesiastes and the Book of Proverbs belong to the genre of wisdom literature, sharing a perspective that they themselves call the "way of wisdom".[27] Wisdom means both a way of thinking and a body of knowledge gained through such thinking, as well as the ability to apply it to life. It is attainable in part through human effort and in part as a gift from God, but never in its entirety – except by God.[28] The three books share attitudes and assumptions but differ in their conclusions: Proverbs makes confident statements about the world and its workings that are flatly contradicted by Job and Ecclesiastes.[29] Wisdom literature from Sumeria and Babylonia can be dated to the second millennium BCE.[30] Several texts from ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt offer parallels to Job,[31] and while it is impossible to tell whether the author of Job was influenced by any of them, their existence suggests that he was the recipient of a long tradition of reflection on the existence of inexplicable suffering.[32]

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Based on resonances with Second Isaiah (for example, Job 9:8, Isa 44:24), Lamentations (Job 19:7-8, Lam 3:7-9), and Jeremiah (Job 3:3, Job 3:10-11, Jer 20:14-18), which are all exilic texts, one can imagine that the biblical text of Job developed from traditional materials during the period of the Exile. This makes sense contextually, because the themes of Job and the bitterness of the poetic dialogues would have resonated with readers of that time. Moreover, the reference to raiding Chaldeans in the Transjordan (Job 1:15-17) would make sense only during the relatively brief period of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. This would place the poetic dialogues somewhere in the sixth or fifth centuries B.C.E., produced by scribes attempting to explore the theological and ethical ramifications of the experience of exile and the destruction of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. Possible editing and further compositional work, including Elihu's speeches, would have a fourth-to-third century date. The book also appears in the Dead Sea Scrolls, so the latest date of compositional work in the proto-Masoretic version would be 200 B.C.E.

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