Small tidbits and Sparks of wisdom

Job: Did He Live? When and Where?
The Talmud (Bava Basra 15a–16b) discusses the story of Job. According to one view, the entire account is a parable. There never was a Job. His story is an elaborate parable to set forth the essential messages of faith, Divine Providence, and reward and punishment. Although the Talmud seems to reject this view, Rav Saadiah Gaon and Rambam adopt this opinion. Most commentators, however, accept the saga of Job as a fact.
IT IS GENERALLY ACCEPTED THAT JOB WAS NOT JEWISH. Ramban and Rabbeinu Bachya write that Job and his friends, including Elihu, were all related to Abraham. Job was a descendant of Nahor, Abraham’s brother. Job was thus cognizant of the sanctity and faith of the Patriarch. Job recognized his Creator and served Him by performing the commandments that could be derived from human intelligence, such as belief in God, honesty, not harming others, and so on. Eliphaz, the greatest of the friends, descended from his namesake, Esau’s firstborn. Bildad descended from Shuah, a son of Abraham’s wife Keturah, and Zophar descended from Esau. Elihu, the one who was most sympathetic to Job, was also a descendant of Nahor. Apparently, the family of Abraham was more prone than any other to develop the morality and reverence for Hashem that characterized Job and his comrades.
THE SAGES (ibid.) OFFER MANY DIFFERENT OPINIONS ABOUT WHEN JOB LIVED, opinions that span over 1300 years. Commentators surmise that the subjects discussed in the Book are universal and applicable to many settings and periods. Therefore, based on Scriptural allusions, they set the story in various periods. Rambam sees this disparity as proof that the story is a parable, because if Job had been a historical figure, the Sages would surely have known when and where he lived.
Below we will follow Maharal (Chidushei Aggados, Bava Basra 15a), to explain why the Book was particularly relevant to those places and periods in which the various Sages place Job, as follows:
Rabbi Levi bar Lachma places Job in the time of Moses.
Rava says he lived in the time of the Meraglim, the Spies Moses sent to Eretz Yisrael.
Some say that he lived from the time Jacob’s family entered Egypt until they left.
Rabbi Yochanan and Rabbi Elazar say he was among those who left the Babylonian Exile.
Rabbi Eliezer says he lived in the time of the Judges.
Rabbi Yehoshua ben Karcha says he lived in the time of King Ahasuerus, the husband of Esther.
Rabbi Nassan says he lived in the time of the Queen of Sheba, who came to visit King Solomon.