Was Job a real person? 

I like the way you answered that question. I struggled with Job until I heard a teacher say that he believed Job was a parable to illustrate how Satan handles The Church body, what God allows satan to do and the way we should respond. Seeing Job as The Church made it easier to take in and understand.

Thank you,JM and Greg. Nice discussion.🌹⭐🌹⭐

The book of Job does give the details correctly concerning scientific discoveries. Hidden treasures in the book of Job by Hugh Ross

Ok, so, if Job was a parable - how was it allowed to be included in the Books of the Bible when so many others were purposely not included? And I'm not talking about the supernatural extreme books, like Jasher or Tobin necessarily, but throughout Samuel & Kings, references to, "Are these things not also recorded in the chronicles of the..." & also Jeremiah's scribe, Bariel . . . so, where are those ??? And yes, I am also aware that at least once by fire, perhaps 3 times, all documents were destroyed & had to be re-written once again, plenty of room for error there - that's why during the reign of Jokim or Jehoachin to have found copies of scrolls during a repair project was so incredible & dramatic rejuvenation for the nation of Israel. Thought scholars taught that the setting of Job was most likely during the 400 years that Israel was in Egypt . . . after Abraham with Melchezedek, after Jacob & 12 sons sold Joseph off . . . basically if it was a learning story or larval, this makes sense. OR as a historical account; that Job was ONE who did NOT follow suit with Nimrod building the Tower of Babble, Job did not live amongst the "city dwellers" & therefore was not part of confusing the language to cause them to scatter, explained his being so blessed in comparison . . . so therefore the original Hebrew was left intact & Job was in the lineage from Noah . . . & also, still had the slightly longer lifespans after the flood for 2 or 3 generations, I mean, WOW, 10 adult children & then another 10, that poor grief stricken woman who was never even named for telling Job to "curse God & die"!!!

My opinion is, the core dialogue is based in ancient historical record and expanded out into play form.

James 5:11 Job is mentioned. thanks for the video. I would love to hear more on why we believe the entire bible, however you define that, was inspired by God. Where did that teaching come from and how was it modified over time.

Even if it is set during the era of the Patriarchs, it doesn't fit at all with the Pentateuch (despite what some chronological Bibles would suggest). It works best as a counterpoint to Proverbs.

The Book of Job and the Book of Judith face these same criticisms that they may not have really happened. But the question is does it need to have really happened for it to be scripture? If the answer is no, wouldn't that mean Job is scripture? Wouldn't it mean Judith is scripture, too?

Great answer. If Job is a sort of parable, it has a central point (even if we vary on what that point is) so pondering details truly is missing the point. If it's real in historical detail, it to me suggests something quite horrifying: that we can be nameless NPCs in someone else's life and our own lives are dispensible - God can give the OK for us to be horrifically killed just to teach someone else to have stronger faith, like we have no value at all except as someone else's property. In patriarchal times they *were* Job's property, so it makes sense in parable-land. Oh, and same with "If your ten kids die, it's fine as long as you get ten more to replace them; they're NPCs so they're interchangeable." (To be honest, I struggle that God killed David and Bathsheba's baby to teach David a lesson, but that's another story.)

Geez, I sure hope the story is made up. Can you imagine following a god who kills your kids and your livestock a all your hard work in life over a bet? Job sure didn't deserve what the story says happened. Restoring everything at the end doesn't make up for the loss. Really, a terrible story.