There was a man in the land of\u00a0Uz whose name was\u00a0Job, and that man was\u00a0blameless and upright, one who\u00a0feared God and\u00a0turned away from evil\u201d \u00a0(Job 1:1 ESV).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t quite \u201cOnce upon a time\u201d or\u00a0\u201cA long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,\u201d but it\u2019s curiously vague. \u00a0We learn nothing about the specific town in which Job lived, nor about his lineage. \u00a0Was he a Hebrew, an Israelite? \u00a0A pagan? \u00a0When<\/em> did he live? \u00a0We aren\u2019t told. \u00a0We can\u2019t even determine where \u201cthe land of Uz\u201d might have been located.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
And are we really to believe that Satan mingles freely in heaven with \u201cthe sons of God\u201d and places bets with the Supreme Being about whether this or that mortal will remain faithful even if subjected to exceptional stress as part of the wager?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The most eloquent passages and fundamental truths expressed in the book of Job will remain intact even if we conclude that it\u2019s more like the plainly fictitious New Testament parables of Jesus than like a modern academic biography.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of course, things are very different where Jesus is concerned.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
During the four years that my wife and I lived in Cairo, we counted among our friends an American Lutheran minister who pastored the non-denominational expatriate chapel near our apartment. \u00a0I\u2019m quite confident that he was a serious believer. \u00a0But it would have been difficult to prove that from his Easter sermons, which we attended annually. \u00a0In those sermons \u2014 at least, as I remember them \u2014 there were many references to the return of spring, with its beautiful sunny weather and its lovely flowers, but the resurrection of Jesus was conspicuous by its absence.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I think that he perhaps didn\u2019t want to offend some in his very disparate congregation, but I always felt empty at the end of his remarks. \u00a0To me, on that most important of all Christian holidays, there was little that was distinctively Christian in his message. \u00a0Pretty flowers and clear blue skies are very, very nice, but \u201cif in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable\u201d (1 Corinthians 15:19).<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Responding in a friendly and positive way to some comments that I recently made here about the importance of scriptural historicity, Tom Hobson, a Presbyterian pastor, kindly called my attention to a series of three relevant and thoughtful articles that he published in The Presbyterian Outlook back in 2009. \u00a0In turn, having read […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1453,6300,56,3841,1369,6297,6288,6291,4705,1366,6294],"class_list":["post-79785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bible","tag-book-of-job","tag-book-of-mormon","tag-historicity","tag-jesus","tag-job","tag-literal","tag-metaphor","tag-parable","tag-resurrection","tag-symbol"],"yoast_head":"\n
"Historicity: Does it matter?"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\" Responding in a friendly and positive way to some comments that I recently made here about the importance of scriptural historicity, Tom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/11\/historicity-does-it-matter.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Historicity: Does it matter?"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\" Responding in a friendly and positive way to some comments that I recently made here about the importance of scriptural historicity, Tom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/11\/historicity-does-it-matter.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-11-01T22:25:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-11-01T22:46:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/12\/800px-Anastasis_at_Chora.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/11\/historicity-does-it-matter.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/11\/historicity-does-it-matter.html\",\"name\":\"\\\"Historicity: Does it matter?\\\"\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-11-01T22:25:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-11-01T22:46:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\"},\"description\":\" Responding in a friendly and positive way to some comments that I recently made here about the importance of scriptural historicity, Tom\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/11\/historicity-does-it-matter.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/11\/historicity-does-it-matter.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/11\/historicity-does-it-matter.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"“Historicity: Does it matter?”\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/\",\"name\":\"Sic et Non\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\",\"name\":\"Dan Peterson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dan Peterson\"},\"description\":\"\\\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\\\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"Historicity: Does it matter?\"","description":" Responding in a friendly and positive way to some comments that I recently made here about the importance of scriptural historicity, Tom","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/11\/historicity-does-it-matter.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"Historicity: Does it matter?\"","og_description":" Responding in a friendly and positive way to some comments that I recently made here about the importance of scriptural historicity, Tom","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/11\/historicity-does-it-matter.html","og_site_name":"Sic et Non","article_published_time":"2019-11-01T22:25:59+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-11-01T22:46:53+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/12\/800px-Anastasis_at_Chora.jpg"}],"author":"Dan Peterson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan Peterson","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/11\/historicity-does-it-matter.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/11\/historicity-does-it-matter.html","name":"\"Historicity: Does it matter?\"","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-11-01T22:25:59+00:00","dateModified":"2019-11-01T22:46:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045"},"description":" Responding in a friendly and positive way to some comments that I recently made here about the importance of scriptural historicity, Tom","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/11\/historicity-does-it-matter.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/11\/historicity-does-it-matter.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/11\/historicity-does-it-matter.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"“Historicity: Does it matter?”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/","name":"Sic et Non","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045","name":"Dan Peterson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dan Peterson"},"description":"\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79785\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Chora's](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/12\/800px-Anastasis_at_Chora.jpg\")
<\/a>