chimaira

Hello all

I read that the Job prophet was Arab, can you inform me? I heard the same thing for Obadiah, thank you for your assistance

bye bye

Toto

Of course, Job was fictional. But he was said to come from Uz, which was probably in northern Arabia.

From bible.org

Job is also a figure in the Qur'ran. There are some comments on that here: The Image of Ayyub (Job) in the Qu'ran and Later Islam.

Scott M 74

Well, Job wasn't a prophet...he was just a very unlucky guy. And the book of Job is one of the oldest portions of the canon, so it may very well have been adapted from other cultures before the ancient Hebrews had any literature of their own. But Toto is right; story probably has no basis in reality.

Peter Kirby

When I was a sophomore in high school, I heard that there was some existing text that had a few lines about Job or similar figure, corresponding to the narration at the beginning and end of our book of Job. I never followed up on that to find out if it were true, and if true, what that citation would be.

RED DAVE

Possible Sumerian source

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of...umerian_source

RED DAVE

chimaira

thank you did everyone, and for Obadiah, I read that it was Arab or not-Jew, can you inform me? thank you

Salamander

I don't really know if Job was an Arab, A non-Semitic Sumerian, or perhaps an Assyrian (because of his involvement with Nineveh.)

Obviously the story of Job is mythology. The idea of a man surviving for three days in the stomach of a big fish is laughable. Like most mythological figures, he may not have been 100% fictional. There may have been a man, Arab, Sumerian, Elamite, or Assyrian, or perhaps an undifferentiated Amorite.

What actually happened to him is pure speculation. He may have suffered a ship wreck in the Persian Gulf and washed ashore a bit barmy and disoriented. Perhaps at the local pub he told his story over and over. Maybe a near miss attack by a shark was exaggerated into being swallowed by the big fish as staggering slurring Job expounded his story. Over generations the story could have been further embellished to include the mythological features of God and the impossible three days in the fish's gut. But this is only my speculation.

It seems to be part of a tradition of mythical heroes who die and resurrect in three days or the equivalent in Job with the fish barfing Job up being a resurrection metaphor. We find it in Osiris, Mithra, Jesus, and Apollonius. I have no idea why three days or the number three (Trinity) is so widespread in Bronze Age and early Iron Age peoples.

Like Job, I think Jesus may have actually existed. He may have been a religious reformer, charismatic speaker, and seriously tried to soften the cruel injustice prominent in the Old Testament. The possible claim by Jesus or his followers of being the King of the Jews got him nailed by the Romans for treason. After this his followers, shocked at first, later imagined a three day period of death leading to a miraculous resurrection. The theme was already common in the Middle East for virgin born god-men to die and resurrect in three days. The stories are so remarkably similar; I suspect that one of them, the oldest, led to the later ones such as Mithra, Jesus, and Apollonius.

Job may have been the three day hero of the early Semites and did not make a divine claim that would clash with Mosaic Monotheism.


Salamander

Peter Kirby

Salamander: You've confused Job with Jonah.

Amedeo

Could you eleborate a little more on this criterion of untruth? You see, you made me wonder whether there are other laughable ideas in the Bible, such as the gods, the talking serpent, the nephilim, and Noah's loaded ark. And is the story of the Garden of Eden an originally Hebrew story? Is the story of the creating Elohim an originally Hebrew story?

Boro Nut

That's got to be the most unimaginative name for a land ever. I wish I'd been at that meeting. "Good evening ladies and gentlemen. The first item on the agenda, if we're going to get a mention in the bible like those Ammonites and Trilobites we really need to come up with a catchy name for ourselves"

Boro Nut