Job (biblical figure)
Job is the central figure of the Book of Job in the Bible. In Islam, Job is also considered a prophet.
Job is presented as a good and prosperous family man who is suddenly beset with horrendous disasters that take away all he holds dear—a scenario intended to test Job's faith in God. Struggling mightily to understand this situation, Job reflects on his despair but consistently remains devout.
The language of the Book of Job, combining post-Babylonian Hebrew and Aramaic influences, indicates it was composed during the Persian period, with the poet using Hebrew in a learned, literary manner.
In the Hebrew Book of Job
The Hebrew Book of Job is part of Ketuvim of the Hebrew Bible. Not much is known about Job based on the Masoretic Text.The characters in the Book of Job consist of Job, his wife, his three friends, a man named Elihu, God, and angels.
It begins with an introduction to Job's character—he is described as a blessed man who lives righteously in the Land of Uz. The Lord's praise of Job prompts an angel with the title of "satan" to suggest that Job served God simply because God protected him. God removes Job's protection and gives permission to the angel to take his wealth, his children, and his physical health. Despite his difficult circumstances, he does not curse God, but rather curses the day of his birth. And although he anguishes over his plight, he stops short of accusing God of injustice. Job's miserable earthly condition is simply God's will.
In the following, Job debates with three friends concerning his condition. They argue whether it was justified, and they debate solutions to his problems. Job ultimately condemns all their counsel, beliefs, and critiques of him as false. God then appears to Job and his friends out of a whirlwind. God rebukes the three friends and gives them instruction for the remission of sin, followed by Job being restored to an even better condition than his former wealthy state. Job is blessed to have seven sons, as well as three daughters, named Jemimah, Keziah, and Keren-happuch. His daughters were said to be the most beautiful women in the land.
In the Greek Old Testament Book of Job
The Septuagint, 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.In other religious texts
Judaism
- He is mentioned in the Book of Ezekiel.
- He is cited as someone "who held fast to all the ways of justice" in the deuterocanonical Book of Sirach.
Christianity
- He is praised for his perseverance in the Christian Epistle of James.
- He is the protagonist of a pseudepigraphal book called the Testament of Job.
Mormonism
- He is mentioned in the Doctrine and Covenants, one of the four sacred texts of the [Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints].
Islam
- He is discussed as a prophet in the Quran by the name of Ayūb.
And Job, when he called to his Lord, "Indeed, adversity has touched me, and you are the Most Merciful of the merciful."
— Quran, sura 21, ayah 83
Baháʼí
- In the writings of the Baháʼí Faith: A lengthy tablet was written by Bahá'u'lláh, the first part of which is focused on Job. The Tablet is often referred to as the Tablet of Patience or the Tablet of Job.
Job in Judaism
According to a minority view, Job never existed. In this view, Job was a literary creation by a prophet who used this form of writing to convey a divine message. On the other hand, the Talmud goes to great lengths trying to ascertain when Job actually lived, citing many opinions and interpretations by the leading sages.
Job is further mentioned in the Talmud as follows:
- Job's resignation to his fate.
- When Job was prosperous, anyone who associated with him even to buy from him or sell to him, was blessed.
- Job's reward for being generous.
- David, Job and Ezekiel described the Torah's length without putting a number to it.
- Job was in fact one of three advisors that Pharaoh consulted, prior to taking action against the increasingly multiplying Israelites in the Book of Exodus. As described in the Talmud: Balaam urged Pharaoh to kill the Hebrew new-born boys; Jethro opposed this decree; and Job, though personally opposed to the decree, kept silent and did not protest it. It is for Job's silence that God subsequently punishes him with his bitter afflictions. However, the Book of Job itself contains no indication of this, and to the prophet Ezekiel, Yahweh refers to Job as a righteous man of the same calibre as Noah and Daniel.
Christian views
Job's declaration, "I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth", is considered by some Christians to be a proto-Christian reference to Christ as the Redeemer, and is the basis of several Christian hymns, as well as the opening scene of Part III of Handel's Messiah. Jewish biblical commentators and scholars contest this by stating that Job "insists on a divine hearing in his lifetime".
Feast Days
He is commemorated by the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod in their Calendar of Saints on May 9, by the Roman Catholic Church on May 10, and by the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic churches on May 6.He is also commemorated by the Armenian Apostolic Church on May 6 and December 26, and by the Coptic Orthodox Church on April 27 and August 29. The Armenian Apostolic Church commemorates Job along with John the Baptist on the Thursday after the third Sunday of the Feast of the Assumption.
Islamic views and Quranic account
In the Qur'an, Job 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 despair, or mention of discussions with friends. Some Muslim commentators 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.
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. The covered cave in the southeastern Turkish province of Urfa is one of the claimants.
Palestine
In Palestinian folk tradition, Job's place of trial is Al-Jura, or Al-Joura, a village outside the town of Al-Majdal. It was there God rewarded him with a fountain of youth that removed whatever illnesses he had, and gave him back his youth.To the northwest of the depopulated Palestinian village of Dayr Ayyub is an area which, according to the village belief, contained the tomb of the prophet Ayyub, the biblical Job.
In the area of Tabgha, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, a few sites are associated by local tradition with the life of Ayyub. A small grotto near the base of what is known to Christians as the Mount of Beatitudes, or Mount Eremos, is known as Mghraret Ayub. Two of the towers built in the Byzantine period to collect the water of the Heptapegon springs are named in Arabic Tannur Ayub and Hammam Ayyub. Hammam Ayyub was initially called "the Leper's Bath", but the leper was later identified with Job; the nearby spring, now a waterfall, is known as Ain Ayub, "Job's Spring".