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[Note: This is one of a series listed under the heading: Wordie Post." It was originally posted on the Word Press blog entitled "Our Daily Bread," found at rtippett97@wordpress.com. The changes at Word Press are similar to those on Twitter and Facebook, where I was posting to an empty space. That was because I began and maintained that blog as one of their free offerings. When their force to change to a paid blog website did not move me, they cancelled their "Reader," so posting on Word Press has become like a caged animal at the zoo, where only workers occasionally toss the animals a bite to eat. Word Press [et al] is like what I imagine life was like in the satellite countries of the Soviet Union: meager, bleak, spiritless. So, I am transferring those forty articles here.]
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The Book of Job is a mystery. Some believe it was orated by Moses and later put down on a scroll. Still, nobody knows who Job was, in relation to any of the other Biblical figures, such as pre-Moses Abraham, Noah, et al.
In Job 1:6 is written (literally from the Hebrew): “and there was a day , and when came the sons elohim , to present themselves under Yahweh ; and came also the adversary among them .” In this, the Hebrew word [transliterated] is “haś·śā·ṭān,” from “satan,” which Christian-English translations call “Satan.” Hebrew sites refer to this as a capitalized identification [“the Adversary”], where the meaning of “satan” means “adversary,” but also “accuser” and “withstand.”
In Job 2:1 is written (literally from the Hebrew): “and again there was a day , when the sons of elohim came to present themselves under Yahweh ; and came also the adversary among them , to present himself under Yahweh .” Here, an additional segment of words is presented, which says “the adversary” was not only “among the sons of elohim,” but like all of those angels “under Yahweh” and had to present himself as such. The preposition “’al-“ typically translates as “upon, above, over,” but there are twelve times it is found in Scripture translated as “under.” [NAS Translations] To say “under Yahweh” sound more accurate than “before Yahweh,” as most translations state.
This says three things that are important. First, it says Yahweh created the elohim, which are the angels who were deployed in the Creation. Thirty-two times in Genesis 1 is “elohim” written, with no direct mention of “Yahweh.” Genesis 1:1 begins by stating “In the beginning created elohim,” which infers “Yahweh” first “created elohim,” who then carried out His plan for Creation. Second, it says Yahweh created a necessary “angel” [“el”] that would be the one to test the products of the Creation, as a ‘devil’s advocate’ to make sure everything was made to specs and no shortcuts were taken or rules broken. Third, it says one of the “elohim” stood out “among them,” as something of a leader, whose purpose was to question Yahweh’s decisions; and, this would later lead to a rebellion among the elohim, at which point the “adversary” and his elohim followers would be cast within the depths of the earth and no longer allowed to attend meetings where “the sons of elohim would present themselves under Yahweh.”
The story of the angel rebellion is told in the apocryphal Book of Enoch. Adam was 622 years old when Enoch was born, making Enoch represent a sixth generation Patriarch. Adam would die at age 930, when Enoch was 308. Fifty-seven years later, Enoch would ascend to heaven without dying. Before Enoch ascended, he made trips to the heavenly realm, at which points he accessed what can be called the Akashic Record, which is a record kept of all things at all times, past, present, and future. One can assume that the angel rebellion was after the creation of man, because it was Yahweh’s order that “elohim” serve man, that angered the lead angel [one like Satan]. That anger was because the rules established for “elohim” was to submit only to Yahweh. For the fallen angels to submit to man – animals they had created in their image [at Yahweh’s command] – was not following the rules. Still, one can assume that Enoch was shown this separation in the “elohim” as having taken place prior to his birth. That means the story of Job took place prior to this fall, making him somehow related to that holy line of men.
In Job 2:3, Yahweh said to “the adversary,” “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears elohim and turns away from evil. He still persists in his integrity, although you incited me against him, to destroy him for no reason.” For Yahweh to say, “There is no one like him on the earth,” that means there were no humans that were “blameless and upright,” and it means Job was aware of “elohim,” enough to turn away from them because he knew they brought evil with them. Because Adam’s lineage included Seth, when Adam was one hundred thirty, and then Seth led to the lines of Enosh, Kenan, Mahalaleel, Jared and then Enoch, who were all upright and blameless as Patriarchs of Adam, this says Job was Adam. It would mean the story of Job referred to some time between the loss of Cain (banished) and Abel (murdered) and the birth of Seth.
When one knows that the reason the “adversary” would lead a rebellion against Yahweh and His good “elohim,” because he could not go against his honor to serve only Yahweh, this is seen in the character of “the adversary” in Job. When he tells Yahweh, “Skin for skin! All that people have they will give to save their lives. But stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face” (Job 2:4-5), that speaks of his lack of respect experienced by himself, when dealing with humans.
Further, in Job 1:10, where “the adversary” told Yahweh in the first meeting of the “elohim under Yahweh,” “Have you not put a fence around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.” That speaks of Job being in a protected environment. The word translated as “fence” can also say “hedge,” which can be seen as a statement about the “enclosure” that is called a “garden.” The Hebrew word “gan” (written in Genesis 2:8) means both. Thus, a growth typically found in ornamental gardens is walls of shrubbery, which are “hedges.” They “hedge” against penetration into an enclosure, because of the thickness of their limbs [as thickets].
While this is completely impossible to verify, I feel it is worth sharing what I saw emerging from the text of Job. In Job 42, the last section, we are told “after this, Job lived one hundred forty years.” Seeing how we do not know how long Job suffered, and how long he lived prior as “blameless and upright,” when he had ten children [seven sons and three daughters], simply by seeing him live that long after says Job was a member of the Patriarch lineage, being of divine origin. Still, the numbers do not add up; and, there are other names and places that further make it impossible to fully understand who Job was. It is a mystery, certainly.
As one last element, the name “Job” (while uncertain) is believed to mean “Returning.” [Abarim Publications] This says a soul that had once been in Heaven would be “Returning” after surviving a challenge by the “adversary.” For the sin of listening to his wife and eating forbidden fruit [a plan Yahweh knew would take place … like showing a child you are putting the tasty cookies in the cookie jar that is on the table in front of him or her, and then saying, “Don’t eat the cookies” … Well, what do you think will happen?], after 930 years of not only being blameless and upright, Adam raised Seth to be the same, and doted grandfatherly with all the other Patriarch Saints [“Yahweh elohim“]. I get the feel Adam ended up “Returning” to Yahweh, having served his time well.