James speaks of Job, linking him with `the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of

suffering affliction, and of patience', and saying further `Behold, we count them happy which endure':

`Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of

tender mercy' (James 5:10,11).

Job is here linked with `the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord', and we are urged to consider `the

end of the Lord' and not to dwell too long or exclusively upon the patient endurance of Job. A comparison of

Jeremiah 15:1 with Ezekiel 14:14,20, will show that any refusal to accept Job as an historic personage, would rob

both Moses and Samuel of their individuality.

The teaching of the book of Job comes to us in a strange form. No revelation from heaven meets us until the

experiences of men have been plumbed to their utmost depths. This relation of human experience with Divine

revelation, is sufficient title for the book of Job to become the inspired introduction to all Scripture. Human

experience must of necessity be excluded from the opening chapter of the book of Genesis, but the challenge of the

Almighty to Job `Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? ... Who shut up the sea with doors?'

with which revelation takes the place of human wisdom, perfectly prepares the mind for the clear revelation from

heaven with which Moses was inspired to open the book of Genesis:

`In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth' (Gen. 1:1).

With this great truth thus established, yea, even forced upon us by the record of the book of Job, the purpose of

the ages begins to unfold. It is this preparatory purpose, this foreshadowing of the problem of the ages, this

adumbration even of the pathway which the chosen nation would tread, that makes the book of Job so supremely

important. The following, culled from a letter of Bishop Mandell Creighton, Bishop of London (1897-1901) seems

a fitting conclusion to this opening article:

`Yes, the Book of Job stirs one deeply. The dramatic skill with which it works out its problem is quite amazing,

and the majesty of the picture is overpowering.  The blundering friends who agonize the sufferer by

commonplace moralities that suffering is the punishment of sin ... the well meant mediation of an impartial

bystander, who suggests to Job that his impatience has shown that he needed chastening and that God's justice is

vindicated in the chastisement; Job's silence before this, in which he feels some grain of truth; all lead up to a

great revelation of God's glory as the purpose of the world - a purpose in which man bears his part in a

mysterious way which God only can explain ... It is all so ancient and yet so modern. There are few mightier

works in all literature'.

The references to Job both in Ezekiel and in James are sufficient evidence that he was not a fictitious character.

Whether the name `Job' was given to him prophetically, as Methuselah's name was given to him by his father

Enoch, or whether the name was given to him as a result of his typical experiences, we have no certain means of

ascertaining, although the note added to the Septuagint version suggests a change of name. `Jobab who is called

Usually, when anyone of importance is introduced into the annals of Scripture, something more than his bare

name is called for and given. He is nearly always called `... the son of ...'. Thus: `Now there was a certain man of

Ramathaim-zophim, of mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of

Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephrathite' (1 Sam. 1:1). Job is said to have been `the greatest of all the men of the east'

(Job 1:3) yet no hint of his pedigree is given. This omission makes the suggestion reasonable that the name `Job'

was given to this great man in connection with his typical character. It has been assumed by some that Job was the

son of Issachar (Gen. 46:13) and that he went down to Egypt with his father and the other members of Jacob's

family, but no explanation is given of his leaving Egypt, and becoming the greatest of all the men of the East in so

brief a period. Job, the son of Issachar is elsewhere called `Jashub' (Num. 26:24 and 1 Chron. 7:1). Young's

concordance differentiates between `Job' the son of Issachar, and `Job' of the land of Uz, giving the meaning of the

former, `Turning back' so making the name a contraction of Jashub, and of the latter, `hated'. The English reader,