about which we have no experimental knowledge, yet which influence man at every turn. We believe that if any of

our readers were asked to give some Scriptural account of such subjects as `sin' `Satan' or `sons of God', that they

would be able to present a fairly comprehensive and true account. Nevertheless, as we approach these revealing

chapters, let us be well prepared to find depths that we have never sounded, and even if some of our discoveries on

these themes may at first sight appear rather far-fetched, such is our conviction that we should expect to find a key

in these two chapters, not only to Job's enigma but to the greater problem of the ages, that we must permit no

prejudice to rob us of gaining further light from our search. Now, as our space is not unlimited, and as we cannot

conceive of any reader who has followed this series thus far being unacquainted with the subject matter of the first

two chapters of Job, we shall not occupy space in detailing the structure nor of relating the story of Job's calamities.

The first subject to consider will be the statement made in Job 1:1, and repeated in 1:8 and in 2:3, that Job was a

`perfect' man:

`That man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil' (Job 1:1).

Two facts present themselves at once, as we read these words: (1) In the estimate of God the condition `perfect'

takes precedence of all else; (2) That the word `perfect' represents something other than uprightness, fearing God

and eschewing evil.

The word translated `perfect' is the Hebrew word tam, it occurs just seven times in Job, the `perfect' number.

The word occurs in other forms, tom (Job 4:6; 21:23), tummah (Job 2:3,9; 27:5; 31:6) where it is translated

`integrity', and tamim (Job 12:4; 36:4; 37:16) and tamam (Job 22:3). The basic meaning of tam is `completeness',

tamim is constantly employed of the Levitical sacrifices that were `without blemish'. This word is used of Noah and

of Jacob. Ezekiel has joined Noah, Daniel and Job together in `righteousness', but what is there common to Noah,

Jacob or Job? How were each of these men `perfect'?

`Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations' (Gen. 6:9).

It is evident that even as `just' and `perfect' do not mean the same thing, so, as two different words are used in

this same verse for `generations', both must be examined.

When we read `these are the generations of Noah', the word so translated is the Hebrew toledoth, a word derived

from yalad `to beget or to bear'. When we read that Noah was `perfect in his generations' the word so translated is

the Hebrew dor, a word that occurs in Genesis seven times. This word refers rather to one's contemporaries than to

one's ancestry or descendants, and the difference could be expressed by using `generations' to translate toledoth,

and `a generation' to translate dor. Noah was, in some particular, different from his contemporaries not only in his

righteousness, but in that he was `perfect'. The LXX here translates the word by the Greek teleios, a translation we

must keep in mind. While tamim, the word used in Genesis 6:9, is variously translated complete, upright and the

like, which accounts for thirty-seven occurrences, it is translated `without blemish' forty-four times and `without

spot' six times, or fifty times in all, to which, if we add such synonyms as `sound' `perfect' `complete' `undefiled'

and `whole' we leave only fifteen occurrences, out of eighty-seven, for other renderings. When we compare, for

example Numbers 29:26, `fourteen lambs of the first year without spot' with Numbers 29:32, `fourteen lambs of the

first year without blemish', we perceive that no essential difference is intended by the alternative renderings. Noah

was `without spot or blemish' in his generations. It is impossible to read the words `without blemish and without

spot' and not associate Noah and Job with the great purpose of redemption as described in the epistles of Paul.

Now the flood with which Noah is so closely related, is also definitely connected with the corruption of the

human race when `the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same

became mighty men'. `There were giants (nephilim "fallen ones") in the earth in those days' (Gen. 6:4). It appears

that Noah alone had been preserved intact and uncontaminated, where `all flesh had corrupted his way upon the

earth'. Jacob is said to be `a plain man' (Gen. 25:27), the word here being the Hebrew word tam which is used of

Job. Jacob was `perfect' or `without blemish'. The LXX has adopted a peculiar word here in Genesis 25:27 to

translate the Hebrew tam, it uses aplastos, something `unmoulded, unshapen' hence anything `in its natural state',