Question about Job

[StrikeToWin]

Don't know if this is really a debate topic or not but I guess people will have a different opinion on the subject.  What are your thoughts as to when Job actually lived?  I have gotten a few different thoughts on this and wanted to know what others thought and why.

[Shammu]

I myself believed Job lived during Abraham's time.  Several facts lead me to believe this.............

1. Job lived more then 140 years. Job 42:16 After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, even four generations. - This was not a uncommon life span during Abraham's time.

2. The economy of Job's time was measured in livestock Job 1:3 His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.

3. Like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Job was the priest of his family Job 1:5 And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.

4. The main reason I think this is because of the absents of any reference to the nation Israel, or the Mosiac Law this suggest a pre-Mosaic date.

Wait for it.............................. 



This means Job lived, before 1500 B.C. as historical facts go..............

[Soldier4Christ]

There are two people listed in Genesis that some scholars think that one or the other is the same as the one of the Book of Job. The one is also called Job and the other is Jobab. If either one is true then it puts him sometime shortly after Noah and just before the birth of Joseph.

Personally I lean more to the Job of Genesis 46:13 and this is primarily based on the names of other people mentioned in the book of Job and the names of locations mentioned.

According to James Ushher's "The Annals The World" that would place him around the mid 1600's BC.

[StrikeToWin]

The reason I am asking is that we had a sermon on Job last Sunday and I happen to be reading through Genesis in my daily study and ran accross the name Eliphaz and Teman, both descendants of Esau.  In Job one of the friends that come and visit Job is Eliphaz the Temanite and began to wonder if maybe this was the same person or maybe a descendant.  I have heard the theory that Job was pre-flood because of the lifespan going back to around 120 years and Job was obviously older than 120 when he died.  It has now got me really thinking about chronology of the Bible so if anyone has any suggestions where I might be able to study more of this I am open to suggestions.  Thanks for the answers.

[Soldier4Christ]

The names Eliphaz and Teman are reasons that others have come up with the same conclusion you did about the Eliphaz the Temanite in Job. In Genesis chapter 36 we that Teman was the son of Eliphaz so the Eliphaz in Job clearly is not the same one mentioned in Gen 36. Eliphaz and Teman were both post-flood so it is also clear here that the book of Job is about a post-flood period. Yes, Job lived 140 years. It was not uncommon for individuals shortly after the flood to live around 140 yrs old. The further the time after the flood the shorter the lifespan with mankinds maximum lifespan to eventually be 120 yrs. (Gen 6:3 which is God telling what it will be eventually) Jacob lived 147 yrs but Joseph lived only 110 yrs. Later in the sixth chapter of Exodus we see three different individuals to reach just over 130 yrs.

Even with Job living 140 years we can see by the genealogy given starting with Shem, Ham and Japheth (the sons of Noah) down to Eliphaz and Teman that Job was not pre-flood.

Another thing to note is that many of the lands that are mentioned in the book of Job are named after people that did not exist until after the flood such as the land that Job himself came from which is the land of Uz. The land of Uz was named after Uz the son of Dishan (Gen 36:28 )