I'm looking for a quick and simple answer to this question.  "Why is
the book of Job in the bible?"  A friend posed the question to me and
wants me to figure out the answer.  I'm 90% sure it's not a riddle.  I
assume that a bible expert would know.

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Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 29 Jun 2005 10:26 PDT

The purpose of Job is to show that it is not enough to be obedience
without faith is not sufficient. Does this answer your question?

"Why is the book of Job in the Bible? What purpose does it serve? Is
it no more than a children?s Bible story about a man who fell under a
terrible curse from the devil?  No, the book of Job is of major
importance in revealing how the Law is to be approached on a personal
level.

It shows that keeping the Law by human effort alone is not the correct
approach to obedience.  Obedience without the right attitude and
perspective can never achieve salvation. Job was keeping the Law but
his attitude was wrong.  He was convinced he was in total control of
his salvation due to his perfect obedience to the Law.  His approach
was complete self-sufficiency. He thought all of his obedience had
earned him God?s approval and personal salvation.

The book of Job is to the Old Testament what the book of Galatians is
to the New Testament. In Galatians, Paul was addressing people who
thought their obedience to the Law was all that was necessary. Paul
warns them that their efforts alone were not earning them salvation. 
Salvation is not the salary paid by God for good works.  Salvation is
a gift given to those who have yielded themselves to God,
acknowledging their need for His help in their lives, as they obey His
law.

Job eventually understood he had left God out of the picture. Paul, in
Galatians,  shows that those who were relying only on physical works
were also leaving God out of the picture.  Like Job, they were trying
to earn salvation by their own righteousness.

We find that whether we go to Job, Proverbs, or Psalms, all of the
books within the Writings division, just like the Prophets division,
direct us back to the Law."

PAUL'S WRITINGS IN PERSPECTIVE
http://www.cgfnw.org/Lit/PaulsWritings/PaulsWritings.htm


tutuzdad-ga

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Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 29 Jun 2005 10:29 PDT

Let me rephrase my opening statement:

The purpose of Job is to show that obedience alone is not enough; that
obedience without faith is not sufficient.

Sorry for the confusion;
tutuzdad-ga

Is your question about the Old Testatment canon (i.e., the the actual
books included in it, vs those that were excluded)?

Yes, I would be interested to know why Job was included vs. excluded
but the question posed to me was just, why was it included in the
bible? ie;what purpose or what point is it trying to teach?

The book of Job was written by Moses. It was originally written in
Hebrew according to the style of poetry and language. The similarities
to the Pentateuch point to Moses being the writer, and he may have
learned about Job's trial  and life when the Izraelites came near to
UZ on the way to the poromised land in 1473 B.C.E. The discussion is
between the four, Job, Eliphaz, bildad and Zophar. When the three did
state true facts, the setting and application was wrong. Satan used
this tactic when he took Jesus along and said " If you are the son of
God, hurl yourself down, for it is written 'He will give his angels a
charge concerning you, and they will carry ou on their hands, that you
may at no time strike your foot against a stone". In other words,
protect him. But Jesus said to Satan " Again it is written, you must
not put Jehovah your God to the test" [Matthew 4; 5-7] The three
stated that God punishes the wicked [true] but they presented God as
having no  mercy [ false] They claimed that God had no delight in men
keeping integrity and no trust in servants of God. This denies the
many scriptural examples of God's love for and confidence in his
servants. God had so much trust in Job that he allowed Satan to hurt
Job both physically and personally, by killing his first family, but
did not allow Satan to kill Job. Job's integrity won him through and
his health was restored and he gained a new family. It is a perfect
example of the rewards to come for being faithful.

pugwashjw's comments are as extreme as they unsupportable. 

The Hebrew is a little odd, and it's been suggested that we are
actually reading a cognate dialect written with Hebrew letters. No
where does it say it was written by Moses, and to say it was is
decidely out from left field.

The formal term is 'theodicy', God's justice, or in this case God's
seeming injustice. If you carefully read the book, no completely
satisfactory answer is arrived at, but the question is fully debated.

The Jewish canon consists of the threefold divisions, going from
greatest to least significance, of the Torah (law), the Prophets, and
the Writings. Job is among the Writings, the literary works. The
Jewish Scriptures have the order of the books arranged quite
differently from that found in Christian Bibles.

The Catholics use the Old Testament canon found in the Septuagint (the
LXX), an ancient Jewish-composed Greek translation. The Greek Orthodox
have always used the LXX in an untranslated state, as well as the
Byzantine recension of the original Greek for the New Testament.

Protestants use the canon of the Masoretic text (the MT), i.e., the
Hebrew version. The LXX contains more books than the MT, some of which
do not exist in Hebrew. The MT attained its present form by the time
of the Jewish Council of Jamnia/Yavne shortly after AD 70 (this was
basically the Sanhedrin in exile from the destroyed Jerusalem).

Quoting scripture can never be "Extreme". Job 1;1 states that Job
feared God and because of that, turned aside from bad. This is exactly
what Jehovah* God [ name/title Exodus 3;13-15 & 6;3] wants from all of
us. It is our attitude to him that will determine our final outcome.
Not our knowledge of canons or mazoretic texts. this is simply 'head
knowledge' or data in a computer. no feeling. The Book of Job is
included in the Bible as an example of the rewards of humbleness. 70
C.E. was the beginning of the end for the Sanhedrin.

This is (part of) a quote from the Job intro in the Message Bible :
"Reading Job prayerfully and meditatively leads us to face the
questions that arise when our lives don't turn out the way we expect
them to."
"Every time we let Job give voice to our own questions.....we are
brought a step closer to the threshold of the voice and mystery of
God. Every time we persist with Job in rejecting the quick-fix counsel
of people who see and hear us but do not understand us, we deepen out
availability and openess to the revelation that comes only out of the
tempest......"
Hope this answers your question.

try this discussion of the Jewish Christian and ISlamic view of JOb

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/j/jo/job_(biblical_figure)1.htm