Job: The Caves, The Clans, and The Ice
By Doug S. Grauman
November 1997
Last Revised, January 2004

Introduction

The stories found in the Old Testament book of Job have for years tempted Christians to dismiss their literal interpretation in favor of a more poetic one. Yet, apart from Genesis, Job, more than any other book, makes references to the Creation, the Fall, Cain and Adam, angelic sin, and about the judgment brought on by the Noahican Flood. In fact, his references to these events are so literal, it's indisputable that Job himself recognized each event as a literal, historic-event.

In my studies I have come to believe that the only time my Biblical interpretations are inconsistent with the flow of scripture is when I don't take the Bible literal enough. In applying this methodology to my study of the book of Job, I have concluded that the book itself was likely written within 300 years of the Genesis flood,(1) which would easily make it the oldest written book in the Bible, as well as the oldest man-recorded document in history. If the record of Job took place shortly after the flood - between 1,700 and 1,900 years after creation (4,300 years ago) - then we should hope to find evidence supporting the creation model of a post-flood environment in the book itself, and indeed, I believe we do.

The Bible is comprised of seven topical events of which all other sub-topics are derived from; 1) Creation, 2) The Fall, 3) The Flood, 4) The Dispersion at Babel, 5) Christ's Birth, 6) His Death and Resurrection, and 7) His Return. Of these seven events, Job routinely and literally refers to the first three. The fourth event, Babel, is referred to indirectly in numerous sections where Job is describing an environment consistent with the predictions made in creation science models of modern people groups.

In this paper I will highlight, what I believe to be, literal, geological and climatological observations experienced by Job himself, which are consistent with a Biblical, post-flood model; a Biblical Ice Age - referred to in secular geology as the Pleistocene Epoch. It would be odd for anyone other than Job himself, living long after such geologically tumultuous times, to write with such detailed, descriptions. Furthermore, I will highlight two Biblical examples, which I believe explain and confirm the creation model of earth's history. First, I believe Job lived in the mid-to-advanced stages of the Babelic Dispersion during the Pleistocene Epoch, which was a time marked by intense geological and climatological change. Second, I will point out that a book written some 1,300 years before Christ's birth (nearly 4,300 years ago) references a Creation-Fall-Flood account in perfect harmony with the modern Biblical account.

The Pleistocene Epoch; Gateway for the Dispersion

In the years following the flood, the earth was in a constant struggle to regain crustal equilibrium. The effects of this intense process resulted in violent earthquakes, frequent volcanism, and prolonged storms. As the volcanism caused the ocean waters to warm and the air to cool, snow began to amass in the northern and southern hemispheres and the foundations for an ice age were layed.(2)

The warming oceans increased the volume of evaporation and when this moisture evaporated into the cooler air, it fell as snow. With a cold, cloudy atmosphere, the rate of snowfall would have exceeded the rate of snowmelt. Thus, it condensed into thick, massive ice-layers, which slowly progressed across both poles stretching down to the lower latitudes. As this continued, ocean levels began to drop once again connecting the continents to create the appearance of one giant land mass.(3) Within 100 years after the flood the ocean levels would have been low enough to allow both man and animal migratory passing.

The dispersion at Babel in Genesis 11 would have taken place during these years of heavy snow accumulations in the northern latitudes. Very shortly after God confused the languages, such barriers would have forced people to clan up with others speaking the same language. No longer being able to communicate with the entire neighborhood, man would naturally begin to grow suspicious of other neighboring clans thus forcing him to move away and seek safe refuge elsewhere.

Life in the Great Ice Age

During this dispersion, all of Europe was gripped in a terrible series of ice storms, which forced the bans of nomads, who had migrated into that area from Babel, to survive in caves. While in search of viable areas to settle, these nomadic peoples dealt with numerous hardships; thieving rival clans, intense, hurricane-force storms, and a lack of natural resources as the earth continued its crustal struggle.

Man lived a meager existence in great competition with the animal life. Storms raged that seemed to be continual. It is possible that for months in the most intense time of trial man did not even see the sun. He was not able to grow crops. The midden piles at the cave mouths indicate that he survived on what game he could kill and on the edible wild plants, wild grasses, and grains that he could gather.(4)

In addition to the violent weather, the dividing of the language compounded man's struggle. As I have previously stated, such an event would have caused tribes of migrating nomads to separate seeking shelter in caves and eating whatever food was available as they searched for a more permanent settlement that offered safe refuge from the bitter storms and marauding clans of desperate nomads willing to fight for whatever food and protection they could find.

Amazingly, the book of Job starts right out describing such an environment:

Job 1:14-19

"and a messenger came to Job and said, "The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, when the Sabeans raided them and took them away--indeed they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you! While he was still speaking, another also came and said, 'The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; and I alone have escaped to tell you!' While he was still speaking, another also came and said, 'The Chaldeans formed three bands, raided the camels and took them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!' While he was still speaking, another also came and said, 'Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, and suddenly a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you!'"

These series of unfortunate incidents experienced by Job are consistent with the findings learned in paleoanthropology.(5) Even the secular, scientific interpretation acknowledges a time when Nomadic clans pillaged for their survival. In the creation model, this time would have been during the 150 or so years that followed the dispersion at Babel. Desperate times create desperate acts and in a harsh, ice age environment that existed during Jobs life, neighboring clans were all too willing to fight to the death for the slightest of conveniences.

Job lived during the accumulation years of the ice age, which was undoubtedly the harshest environment outside of the Biblical Deluge, the earth has ever experienced. This was a time that experienced violent snowstorms in the north, and fierce, horizontal rains in the southern latitudes. This fact influenced several insertions throughout this book about this frozen land to the north:

6:16 - Which are dark because of the ice, And into which the snow vanishes. 9:30 - If I wash myself with snow water, And cleanse my hands with soap, 24:19 - As drought and heat consume the snow waters, So the grave consumes those who have sinned. 37:6 - For He says to the snow, 'Fall on the earth'; Likewise to the gentle rain and the heavy rain of His strength. 37:9 - From the chamber of the south comes the whirlwind, And cold from the scattering winds of the north. 38:22 - Have you entered the treasury of snow, Or have you seen the treasury of hail, 38:29 - From whose womb comes the ice? And the frost of heaven, who gives it birth? 38:30 - The waters harden like stone, And the surface of the deep is frozen.

It is quite evident that Job and his neighbors were well aware of the massive snow and ice fields in the northern latitudes. Verse 37:9 demonstrates their knowledge that the snow and ice influence the wind patterns and their temperature. Verse 38:30 provides us with a picture of a massive ice sheet in that the " ..the surface of the deep is frozen." This obviously covers a vast area. When these facts are recognized, the impact of the many references to snow, ice, freezing, hail, and storms in the book become significant.

In addition to the snow and ice, Job speaks of violent storms.

Job 1:19

"And suddenly a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you"

Job describes this catastrophe, which may overtake a wicked man.

Job 27:20-22

"Terrors overtake him like a flood; A tempest steals him away in the night. The east wind carries him away and he is gone. It sweeps him out of his place. It hurls against him and does not spare; He flees desperately from its power"

He then speaks of another powerful, earth reshaping force in Job 28:10:

"There are numerous places in Israel, particularly along the rugged edges of the Jordan Rift Valley, where powerful flows from the massive downpours have carved deep, juvenile canyons that have suffered little maturation in the minimal rainfall which the area now receives."(6) The reference to God damming up streams is well illustrated by the fact that the Jordan River has been dammed by a great landslide produced by God not long in the past and probably in Joshua's time (Jos. 3:14-17).

In Chapter 30, Job offers more examples of the environment which he lived. Job's counselors clearly are identified as the sons of people who had lived in caves in a time of extreme hardship. These were starving people, fleeing in all directions into the desolation, sleeping in caves, and willing to eat anything they could find.

Job 30:3-8

For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste. Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat. They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief; To dwell in the cliffs of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks. Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together. They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth.

"They were driven forth from among men... " Here is a direct reference to the dispersion itself. They were forced "...to dwell in the cliffs of the valleys, in caves of the earth..." Why? Because these men of the generation before Job simply couldn't keep a roof over their heads, couldn't cultivate grain, and couldn't find food for their families.

Job describes in 15:18-19 the impossible farming conditions when the rain would wash their crops right out of the ground.

"What wise men have told, Not hiding anything received from their fathers, To whom alone the land was given, And no alien passed among them:"

Job 30:13-31

"They break up my path, They promote my calamity; They have no helper. They come as broad breakers; Under the ruinous storm they roll along. Terrors are turned upon me; They pursue my honor as the wind, And my prosperity has passed like a cloud. And now my soul is poured out because of my plight; The days of affliction take hold of me. My bones are pierced in me at night, And my gnawing pains take no rest. By great force my garment is disfigured; It binds me about as the collar of my coat. He has cast me into the mire, And I have become like dust and ashes. I cry out to You, but You do not answer me; I stand up, and You regard me. But You have become cruel to me; With the strength of Your hand You oppose me. You lift me up to the wind and cause me to ride on it; You spoil my success. For I know that You will bring me to death, And to the house appointed for all living. Surely He would not stretch out His hand against a heap of ruins, If they cry out when He destroys it. Have I not wept for him who was in trouble? Has not my soul grieved for the poor? But when I looked for good, evil came to me; And when I waited for light, then came darkness. My heart is in turmoil and cannot rest; Days of affliction confront me. I go about mourning, but not in the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry out for help. I am a brother of jackals, And a companion of ostriches. My skin grows black and falls from me; My bones burn with fever. My harp is turned to mourning, And my flute to the voice of those who weep.

Stormy weather, high winds, calamity and affliction were clearly the characteristics of the ice age environment these nomadic peoples lived in. Mankind in that area survived by tooth and toenail, living from the meat that he could kill, often not able to cook that well because wood was not easily available. Because of the absence of the sun's beneficial contribution and lack of well-rounded diets, which, as a result, lacked many vitamins, man was affected physically. Job confirms this when he describes his own appearance in v.18, "..By great force my garment is disfigured."

Their "garments" were disfigured by rickets and debilitating arthritis because of the cold caves in which they lived. Deprived of proper nourishment, their spine and skull were also deformed, leaving them stooped with distortions of the skull.(7)

Of course fossil records of these deformities provided fuel for imaginative archaeologists who saw in our ancestors evolutionary evidences which they graphically portray and mistakenly interpret. They miss the significance of the clear evidence of the interbreeding of the strains of modern man and Neanderthal man in the cave life of the northern Levant area and the evidence that this rapidly resulted in modern skeletons in their offspring. They ignore the fact that the archaeology of these caves records the fact that perfectly modern man and physically degraded Neanderthal man moved into these caves together. They not only cohabited them, but also interbreed too.(8)

Healthier diets would have been more common farther south far away from the grip of the ice catastrophe. These diets would have been absent of the physical problems suffered by man farther north. Here they were able to gather wild grains in an area where the ice age precipitation was predominately violent rainfall. The evidence of this became the evolutionary model for describing a stone-age scene where man now had evolved into a grain gathering stage before he finally got the idea of growing his own grain. Hand in hand with this fallacy went the "stone age" scenario of man's evolutionary development.

The Origins of Modern Peoples

It is plausible to believe God not only divided the languages based on their respective families, but also divided each family's perspectives too. In fact, before the division, it is likely that all the residents of Babel shared a similar, worldly perspective. This theory best explains why they all banded together to build the Tower under one ruler. Dividing their perspectives would compliment the division of languages as the best way to disperse the people.

Each family group became the start of a new people, which for many generations did not cross with any other family or people. Any physical differences that might have existed in the pre-Babel population were probably divided up among the different family groups - each one slightly different than the others.

From this point, genetic drift would have taken over. Genetic drift occurs in small breeding populations, such as the families who were dispersed from Babel. Genetic drift can take a given character trait that is not really more advantageous than any other and make it the only character trait in the population - and simply based on the "luck of the draw."(9)

In the generations following Babel, different families probably developed unique combinations of physical characteristics. Some of these combinations were distinct enough to define what we have today come to call the "human races." Once particular traits were fixed into a particular family group, those traits may well have influenced where the family chose to live. For example, we know from studies in both biology and anthropology that dominantly tall and thin people are less tolerant to colder temperatures.(10) Yet very dark-skinned people would tend to avoid high latitude regions where there was not enough sunlight to penetrate the skin and allow Vitamin E production. Such a phenomenon would best explain why the human races ended up where they did.

So, we can begin to see how necessary the ice age was for the fulfillment of the Babelic Dispersion. As the ocean waters receded and the natural land bridges began to appear, both man and animal were able to migrate to the various regions of the world. It is precisely at this point in time that the remarkable book of Job offers us a glimpse of the post-flood economy.

Job's knowledge of Creation, the Fall, and the Flood

It is widely accepted in the Christian world today that Moses was the editor of the Book of Genesis. Furthermore, it is promoted that the Spirit of God spoke through Moses in writing the book much like the Spirit of God spoke to the Apostle John in writing the last book of the Bible - Revelation. However, what if the pre-flood patriarchs - Adam, Noah , etc.. - maintained journals? Consider this, since Adam lived 930 years, this meant Noah's father Lamech was 56 years old when Adam died. It is extremely likely that Adam and Lamech knew each other and because of this, it is quite likely that Noah was given the creation account from his dad who personally knew Adam.

The Bible tells us that Noah was given 120 years to warn the people of a coming global castastrophism and that the only way for salvation was through repentance. During these 120 years, Noah likely gathered and took with him many sacred documents that were handed down to him which recorded the Creation events and the Fall of Adam.

Once off the ark, Noah would have likely used these sacred documents to teach the generations to come about the wages of sin. Since Noah lived approximately 469 more years after the flood, this not only means that Noah outlived Job, but at his death, Abraham would have been approximately 61 years old. It is further likely that both Job and Abraham heard the flood story directly from Noah himself. This is especially likely with Job since Noah was alive during Job's entire life and both participated in the dispersion from Babel.

The way in which the Book of Job harmonizes with the Book of Genesis and references the Creation Week, the Fall of Man, and the Flood, further supports my argument that Job was himself either learning about these historical events from an eyewitness account, or, in the case of the Creation Week and the Fall, from documents that shared the same author.

Let's look at the references to the Creation Week, and the Fall of Man:

Job 31:33

"If I have covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding my iniquity in my bosom"

Job clearly knew of Adam and Eve's Fall.

Job 14:1-4

"Man who is born of woman is of few days, and full of trouble"

This passage in Job is similar in description to Genesis 3:16,

"To the woman He said: I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you."

And compare Job 34:15,

"All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust"

to Genesis 3:19

"In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return."

These two books were authored over 700 years apart yet their similarities support the premise that both Job and Moses shared access to very similar, if not identical, records of primeval history likely authored by the same source.

In Job 8:8-10 Bildad calls Job a hypocrite and tells him that he would discover many valuable things if he would inquire of the former age.

"For inquire, please, of the former age, And consider the things discovered by their fathers; For we were born yesterday, and know nothing, Because our days on earth are a shadow. Will they not teach you and tell you, And utter words from their heart?"

In contrast to the long lives that had been lived before the Noahic flood (which days are recorded in Genesis 5), Bildad says: " ...our days on earth are but a shadow." These people recognized that the lifespan of man no longer averaged over 900 years. Men were living much shorter lives in their own day. Contrasted with the former age, which was over and being forgotten, the lives which Job's contemporaries were living was as if of yesterday. One easily can detect that Job was living near the beginning of a new period of history. That prediluvian period of longevity was a thing of the past.

There are also a number of references in Job to days 5 and 6 of creation.

Consider Job 12:7-10

"But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you; And the birds of the air, and they will tell you; Or speak to the earth and it will teach you; And the fish of the sea will explain to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this, In whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?"

Job 15:7 mentions the first two men who ever lived.

"Are you the first man who was born? Or were you made before the hills?"

"Are you the first man who was born?" This refers directly to Cain as Adam was created not born. "Or were you made before the hills?" This of course refers to Adam. Notice that the words here certainly imply that Eliphaz too recognized that Adam had been made before the hills!(11)

Job 26:7-13 also mentions the creation and contributes to our knowledge of the way that God stretched out the north over the empty place and bound up the waters in His thick cloud. I conclude that the latter statement is an allusion to the canopy of water vapor, which existed above the atmosphere before the Noahic flood.

"He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth on nothing. He binds up the water in His thick clouds, Yet the clouds are not broken under it. He covers the face of His throne, And spreads His cloud over it. He drew a circular horizon on the face of the waters, At the boundary of light and darkness. The pillars of heaven tremble, And are astonished at His rebuke. He stirs up the sea with His power, And by His understanding He breaks up the storm. By His Spirit He adorned the heavens; His hand pierced the fleeing serpent."

The expression, "He drew a circular horizon on the face of the waters, At the boundary of light and darkness," in verse 10 would refer to the act of establishing sea level in the third solar day of creation. Verse 13 appears to refer to His activity of arranging the heavens on the fourth day when "By His Spirit He adorned the heavens; His hand pierced the fleeing serpent."

A comparable passage would be Genesis 1:2-9.

"The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day. Then God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day. Then God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear"; and it was so."

And again, consider Elihu's testimony in

Job 33:4

"The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the almighty gives me life."

And contrast it to

Genesis 2:7

"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being."

How would Elihu know this story? What's the mathematical probablility of a "Creation lie" being passed down through the entire patriarchal age, surviving a global flood, and us talking about it today? The number would be greater than 10⁵⁰, a statistical impossibility.12 This story was real, it happened, it is was recent enough to be a recorded fact that even 1176 years after creation man had documented-proof he was created in the image of God and therefore accountable to Him.

The Flood and its Aftermath!

Consider the references the Book of Job makes to the Noahican Flood:

In Job 12:15, Job spoke literally about the geological disaster that had literally "overturned the earth," eroding away the pre-flood mountains and depositing their debris to form new mountains after the flood.

"If He withholds the waters, they dry up; If He sends them out, they overwhelm the earth"

Job's friend, Eliphaz said in Job 22:15,16

"Will you keep the old way which wicked men have trod? Who were cut down before their time, whose foundations were swept away by a flood."

How did Eliphaz know the specific reasons God brought the flood on man? Because, as I've stated previously, Noah lived 349 more years after the flood which meant he was alive and well not only when the book of Job was written, but he also lived through the Dispersion at Babel, and likely 50-60 more years after the birth of Abraham. Noah was 950 when he died - approximately 2,006 years after creation.

Job 26:10 Referring to God's promise after the flood, Job said:

"He drew a circular horizon on the fact of the waters, At the boundary of light and darkness."

God Himself recalls this promise in Job 38:8

"Or who shut in the sea with doors, when it burst forth and issued from the womb?"

And again in 38:10

"When I fixed my limit for it, And set bars and doors."

And finally in 38:11

"When I said, This far you may come, but no farther, And here you proud waves must stop."

Conclusion

If the Flood and the Dispersion from Babel happened when, and in the way the Bible said they did - and I believe they did, then their effects would have lead to environmental-changing impacts. Any man living during these times and witnessing these events could not have experienced them without recording their descriptions and the ever-changing impacts they had on his life. The reason this book so routinely refers to such climatological violence is because Job is that man and this book is a collection of his eyewitness trials. The evidence in this book cannot be denied.

The beauty of scripture is that this is just one very small example of how the Bible routinely confirms and interprets itself. In this particular case, Job, living long before Moses ever edited the Book of Genesis, not only gives us the exact same account of the Creation, the Fall, and the Flood that Moses recorded, but he offers us a visual tutorial of what life was like in the days of the caveman.