Job (person)

Job was the protaganist of the book of Job. In the Quran he is known as Ayub and is considered a prophet in Islam. He lived in the land of Uz which is an area that scholars can only speculate as to the location. He was extremly wealthly according to the currency of his day. He was declared to be the greatest man among the people of the East.

Was Job a real person?

\nMost Jews hold that Job was not a real historical figure. For instance, Rabbi Simeon ben Laquish said that Job never existed (Midrash Genesis Rabbah LXVII; Talmud Bavli, Bava Batra 15a.) In this view Job was a literary creation by a prophet who used this form of writing to convey a divine message. In this view, the narrative is a parable, written under divine inspiration in order to teach theological truths, but was never meant to be taken as literally true in a historical sense. Many Christians would agree. Other Christians believe that Job was a real historical figure. Such literalist beliefs accept the narrative statements in the book which treat Job as an actual person; this belief is also based on the references to Job in the Book of Ezekiel and in the Epistle of James. Independent verification of Job's historicity is lacking, though that is perhaps unsurprising when one considers that almost no citizen of the ancient world has left any trace by which his existence might be proven today. Job is mentioned in the book of Ezekiel (xiv. 14, 20) in the company of Noah and Daniel as among the three most righteous men. The book of Job is referred to in the Epistle to Hebrews 12:5; and in the First Epistle to the Corinthians 3:19.