If, however, we all see things the same, how do differences of opinion such as those between Job and his companions arise? Job answers that they arise from the different purpose each has in putting forward his arguments and the different means they are prepared to employ. By distancing God from the unfairness we see around us, Job's purpose had been to maintain the absolute truth of His Perfection. However, his companions, by maintaining that He administers individual fate and is therefore in one way or another responsible for this unfairness, were prepared to compromise His Perfection, in particular in their explanations of how, even under His direct Providence, the righteous still have to suffer. Did they really believe this? Had they hoped thereby to find favor with God or were they motivated by a fear of His retribution, were they to say what they really believed?