How Old Is The Bible?

Biblegems #165

Question: Since Genesis is the first book of the Bible and records the creation of the earth, does that also make it the oldest book of the Bible?

Actually, Genesis is not the oldest book of the Bible. Moses compiled the first five books of the Bible around 1400 B.C. The events in Genesis alone cover the roughly 4,300 years—from creation to the death of Abraham’s son, Joseph, in Egypt. Earth’s early history would have been handed down from Adam and Eve, who lived nearly a thousand years, to their descendants.

Older than the book of Moses by perhaps as much as 700 years is the book of Job. Job was a real person, as testified by the Lord God Himself:

         Ezek. 14:20 …as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, even if Noah, Daniel and Job were in it, they could save neither son nor daughter. They would save only themselves by their righteousness.

James, the Lord’s brother and first leader of the Jerusalem Church, also refers to Job as an historical person:

         James 5:11 As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

He lived in the region in Arabia called Uz, named after one of Adam’s great-grandsons (Gen. 10:23). Evidence from the book of Job itself indicates that he lived around the time of Abraham, just a few centuries after the Flood. Both he and his friends reminded each other of the Flood as God’s judgment upon mankind as if it were a relatively recent event in history (Job 12:15; 22:15-16; 26:10; 38:8, 11).

Job also lived at such an early stage of history that he saw dinosaurs, which he called “behemoth” (Job 40:15-23). He also interacted with (and was abused by) what appear to be Neanderthal tribes. They are described as those who lived in the wastelands, and who had a staggered way of walking that made them look as if they were drunk (Job 12:24-25). They were treated as outcasts and “…were forced to live in the dry stream beds, among the rocks and in holes in the ground. They brayed among the bushes and huddled in the undergrowth. A base and nameless brood, they were driven out of the land” (Job 30:6-8).

Job, probably written somewhere around 2100-2000 B.C., is the Bible’s oldest book, dating back a few hundred years after the great Flood. The most recent book of the Bible is Revelation, written around 95 A.D. That means the Bible is over 4,000 years old from the time the first book, Job, was composed. The book of Genesis, composed much later, contains material dating all the way back to Adam, to the dawn of human history and creation itself.

What a treasure! We have eyewitness accounts going back to the first humans, a trustworthy history that describes not only our origins but also God’s very plan and purpose for the human race!

         Ps. 19:7 The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple.

A Righteous Contradiction?

Biblegems #136

Question: Genesis 7:1 and Romans 3:10 seem to contradict each other. Noah is called “righteous” in Genesis, yet Romans says “no one is righteous.” Can man be righteous in God’s eyes or not?

To be fair to the question, it must also be pointed out that there are others in the Bible besides Noah whom God has described as “righteous,” including Job (Job 2:3) and Zechariah and Elizabeth (Lk. 1:6). In addition, the Bible also teaches that “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (Ja. 5:16b), and “He who does what is right is righteous, just as he [Jesus] is righteous” (1Jn. 3:7b).

In the light of these very specific examples of human righteousness, how can it be accurately said that “there is no one righteous, not even one” (Rom. 3:10)?

As is so often the case in apparent Bible contradictions, context is everything. The apostle Paul is arguing in Romans 3 that God alone is so purely righteous that He alone is qualified to judge the world (Rom. 3:1-6). In comparison to God, Paul is arguing “no one is righteous, not even one.”

The examples of Noah, Job, Zechariah and Elizabeth on the other hand are people God Himself elevates in comparison to other people as being righteous. In the case of Job, for example, “the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him…” (Job 2:3a). Likewise, God says of Noah and his family: “I have found you righteous in this generation” (Gen. 7:1a). And the same can be said of Zechariah and Elizabeth.

When Paul, a highly educated, biblically literate Jew, quoted from the Old Testament “no one is righteous,” he was not ignorant of the examples of righteous people in Scripture. He was making the point that even the most righteous among men, such as Noah and Job, are still unrighteous in comparison to God and in need of His saving grace that comes through faith alone. It is that salvation in Jesus Christ that gives us a righteousness we do not possess in ourselves:

         Rom. 3:22-23a “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…”

So the apostle John could accurately say, “He who does what is right is righteous, just as he [Jesus] is righteous” (1Jn.3:7).  John is talking to people who have been saved by faith in Jesus Christ (1 Jn. 3:2). As Christians, we are “in Him” (i.e., in Christ”), who is sinless (1Jn. 3:5). Consequently, “he who is doing what is right”[i] is acting out of the righteous nature of Jesus Christ who indwells those who believe in Him. Therefore, because we are “in Him,” our actions flow from Jesus’ righteousness, not our own.

Compared to other people, one person might be considered more righteous than another. But compared to God…? Not so much!

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[i]  The Greek in 1Jn. 3:7 is a present active participle

Elihu 2

Biblegems #27

Question: “Does God not mention Elihu in the last chapter for the same reason that the author did not mention him (because he was too young to be worth mentioning)?” (see Biblegems #24)

The reference to this question is Job 42:7: After the LORD had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.

Where Scripture is silent, we can only surmise so much. That being said, there are some things we can know for certain that will help answers the reader’s question.

First, there is the nature of God Himself. God is not petty, nor is He confined to the changing tides of cultural norms. The fact that Jewish men in biblical times carried no real status as adults with authority until they reached their thirtieth birthday doe not mean that God was restricted by such expectations. He is omnipotent, and no human restrictions pertain to Him. Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him (Ps. 115:3).

Second, the nature of the book of Job also tells us that it was not intended to give us a biography of the characters involved, but to relate to mankind the lesson Job learned in his experience. In much the same way as the book of Acts does not give us the closing story on the lives of the apostles—because that is not important to the purpose of the book—so too the book of Job relates only what is important, from God’s point of view, for advancing the message of the book.

A third consideration is the very fact of Elihu’s odd appearance and disappearance from the account. It would seem that he did not stick it out to the end with Job and the other three. Whatever else might be said about the counsel Job received from his other three friends, they apparently cared enough about Job to visit with him throughout his ordeal. Elihu seems to have been more concerned with expressing his opinions than showing genuine compassion for Job himself. It appears that Elihu was not around long enough to benefit with the others from what God wanted to accomplish. It is important to keep in view that God used the relationship between Job and his three friends to bring reconciliation—not only with God but with each other:

So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to

my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for

yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I

will accept his prayer and not deal with you according

to your folly. You have not spoken of me what is right,

as my servant Job has. (Job 42:8)

That reconciliation would not have been available to Elihu if he had left the scene after expressing his opinion.

Who Is Elihu?

Biblegms #24

But Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, became very angry with Job for justifying himself rather than God. Now Elihu had waited before speaking to Job because they were older than he. So Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite said: “I am young in years, and you are old; that is why I was fearful, not daring to tell you what I know (Job 32:2-6).

In the book of Job there is in chapter thirty-two a sudden and jarring introduction to the reader of a man named Elihu, who has apparently been on the scene the whole time with Job and his three other friends. The question is, who is this man Elihu, and why was he never introduced with the others?

In modern day literature it is considered a major gaff to have a character in a story seemingly appear out of nowhere, especially when that character is presented as having been on the scene for some time. A couple of things need to be kept in mind here, however. One, if Job were a modern work of fiction, then this criticism would certainly be legitimate. But Job is neither modern nor fictional¹. And even if it were fictional, modern rules of story construction did not apply in ancient Israel.

Second, the book of Job does adhere to ancient Near Eastern forms of literature, and contains several literary types, including poetry, Wisdom literature style, prose, history and others. Chapter 32:1-5, where Elihu is first encountered, is actually an intentional break from dialogue with a Hebrew poetic style. This was used to alert the reader that a change in content was about to take place.² It might be loosely compared to the literary device often used in modern fiction where a space of several lines between paragraphs indicates a change in scene is about to take place. That poetic style is lost, for the most part, in translation.

As to why Elihu was never introduced with the other “counselors” at the beginning, the answer lies in the text itself. Verse six quotes Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite as saying “…I am young in years, and you are old; that is why I was fearful, not daring to tell you what I know.” In Job’s day the community elders, as distinguished by age—not title—were treated with great respect and deference.

Not only so, but until a Hebrew male reached the age of thirty he was not considered mature enough to speak with authority, particularly in the presence of elders. In fact, his presence among elders would not even be recognized unless something drew attention to him—as was the case here—where he offered his un-asked for opinion. Elihu, by admitting his youth, draws attention to the fact that under normal circumstances his presence would not even be acknowledged.

¹ Intorduction to The Old Testament, R. K. Harrison. Eerdmans pub, 1969. pg. 1032

² Ibid, pg. 1030