Job 1:1

If all are sinners, then how can Job be perfect?

PROBLEM: God declared that Job was “blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil” (1:1). Yet the Bible insists that “there is none righteous, no, not one,” for “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:10; Romans 3:23).

SOLUTION: God’s praise of Job was not absolute, as is clear from His later condemnation of him (in chap. 38) and from Job’s own confession, “I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6). Further, God only pronounced Job “blameless” before man, whereas Romans is speaking about no one, apart from Christ’s work, being blameless before God (cf. Romans 3:19).

Job 1:1; Job 1:1 — Was Job a real historical person?

PROBLEM: The first verse of the Book of Job introduces the main character as a historical figure who actually existed in the land of Uz. However, modern scholars have questioned the historicity of the man Job. Was Job a real historical person?

SOLUTION: Job was a person in human history. First of all, verse one of the book plainly asserts that Job actually existed. There are no literary indications that this statement should be understood any other way than as a statement of historical fact. There is every reason to accept it with the same assurance one would accept the historicity of any such statement in the Bible.

Second, the historicity of Job is attested by references in other parts of the Scripture. In Ezekiel 14:14; Ezekiel 14:20, God names Job along with Daniel and Noah as examples of righteousness. To question the historicity of Job, one would have to question the historicity of Daniel and Noah. Additionally, this would call into question the veracity of God, for He makes reference to these men (through Ezekiel) as real historical figures.

Finally, in James 5:11 we find a reference to Job in which Job is held to be an example of patience in the midst of tribulation. James makes a matter-of-fact reference to Job that assumes the historicity of both the man and the events recorded in the book that bears his name. There would have been no real force to James’ appeal if Job were merely a fictional character. For in that case, what actual comfort would his life be to real people?