What must have been the age, and what the nation, out of which such a book could grow? What general vogue of thinking could have environed such colossal thought? Genius may indeed be a mighty tree, growing from an unseen germ to be the one commanding object of the plain; but it is rooted in the same soil that nourishes the shrubs at its feet. A great work of literature both feeds its age and is fed by it. What the book returns, in transmuted and vitalized form, to its generation is what it has already gathered out of the hopes and needs and problems that surround it. Not that the highest literature is merely the echo of the people's surging thought, and no more; it is rather the utterance of those who, making the universal cause their own, stand nearest the light, and bring the people's inarticulate longings to expression. The poets of an age, when they let their open and genuine hearts speak, are its truest seers. In them we hear, not one man alone, but the vast body of the time, pervaded by a spirit of hope or doubt or inquiry; a spirit voiceless, until the Æolian strings of the poet's heart feel and answer to its breathings; a spirit unguided, until the seer's own disciplined and originative personality conducts it to its dimly sought rest. This is the truth to-day, and has been ever since we could first trace the connexion of literature with history; may we not say that something like it was equally a truth in the time of Job? And when this Book of Job comes home to the general spiritual need as freshly as if it had been written to meet the maladies of this Christian century, may we not say that its involution is equal to its evolution, and that there was a great heart of the people in that old time out of which the book grew and to which it thrilled responsive as it does to ours?
Formerly, in days when the book was commonly treated as a narrative of literal history, and the truth of a progress in the revelation and beliefs of the Old Testament had not been reached, its composition was assigned to the supposed age of the patriarch himself, and Moses was sometimes suggested as a possible author. But though the narrative of the Prologue and the Epilogue is in the general style of parts of the Book of Genesis, and though Job is represented as a patriarch, surrounded by his dependants, rich in pastures and flocks, offering sacrifice as the head of his family, and attaining patriarchal longevity, these constitute very insufficient grounds for assigning the book itself to such an early age. Indeed, a careful consideration of its contents brings to light unmistakable indications that it belongs to a far later and maturer stage of Israelite history. The antique, patriarchal colouring of the portrait of Job in chapters 1, 2, and 42, must be attributed to the skill of the author, who preserved the general features of the age that he was describing, aided no doubt by his own knowledge of the character of an Arab sheikh, which can hardly have differed materially from what it had been many centuries before.
Thus in considering the date of the book it must be borne in mind that there are two different questions, which need to be kept entirely distinct from each other: (1) What is the date at which the scene of the story is laid? (2) At what period was the poem containing it written?
1. The Story.-The scene of the story is laid in patriarchal times. The author has skilfully thrown the colours of this age over his composition and preserved its general features. Thus, though employing the Israelite name Jehovah himself, he allows the speakers in the book to use the Divine names peculiar to patriarchal times, as El, Eloah, Almighty. No doubt he betrays his own nationality, which he has no desire to conceal, by letting the name Jehovah escape two or three times from the mouth of Job, in current formulas into which the name entered. Again, like the great forefathers of Israel, Job is represented as rich in cattle and flocks. In like manner Job, the head of the family, is also its priest and offers sacrifice, although in another place he is made to say of God that “He leadeth priests away stripped.” Further, the sacrifice in use is the “burnt-offering,” as in ancient times, before the more developed ritual in Israel came into operation. The great age, too, to which Job attains is patriarchal, though Bildad speaks as if the age of men of his day was greatly reduced in comparison with former standards. The money referred to is the ancient kesitah; and the musical instruments named are the simple ones of primitive times. And, to mention no more, historical allusions of any directness are usually to the great events of the patriarchal world.
2. The Poem.-While all these indications combine to point to an early date for the events narrated, there are equally conclusive reasons for assigning a comparatively late date to the poem. The Jewish tradition embodied in the Talmud, that Moses wrote Job as well as “his own book,” is absolutely worthless. The whole passage in which the statement occurs is manifestly destitute of historical value, and the tradition may be safely disregarded.
(1) By various incidental allusions the writer betrays his own position and date. The facts that probable indications of a knowledge of the Law occur in the book, and that the writer habitually uses in his own person the covenant name Jehovah, show that he is removed by some distance of time from the date assigned to his hero. So while he makes Job himself, as head of the household, offer sacrifices, yet he suffers a mention of priests to escape his lips in Job_12:19, and, as we have said, the covenant name Jehovah is not quite rigidly excluded from his speeches. Again, the mention of Ophir in Job_22:24; Job_28:16 is hardly consistent with a date earlier than Solomon's day. The references to serfdom and forced labour in Job_24:9 may be thought to imply a time after the Israelites had reduced the Canaanites to a state of servitude; nor does the allusion to the “unclean” in Job_36:14 favour an early date, while the notices of the administration of justice in the gate, and the references to legal procedure scattered throughout the book imply an acquaintance with a somewhat advanced state of civilization and settled society. The reference to the temptation to worship the heavenly bodies is best illustrated from 2Ki_17:16; 2Ki_21:3; 2Ki_12:5, etc., and the mention of “the Satan” finds its only parallel in Zec_3:1-2; 1Ch_21:1, both late passages.
(2) Further, the evidence of language is in favour of a relatively late date. On this it will be sufficient to cite Dr. Driver, who says: “The syntax is extremely idiomatic; but the vocabulary contains a very noticeable admixture of Aramaic words, and (in a minor degree) of words explicable only from the Arabic. This is an indication of a date more or less contemporary with II Isaiah; though it appears that the author came more definitely within the range of Aramaizing influences than the author of Isa_40:1-31; Isa_41:1-29; Isa_42:1-25; Isa_43:1-28; Isa_44:1-28; Isa_45:1-25; Isa_46:1-13; Isa_47:1-15; Isa_48:1-22; Isa_49:1-26; Isa_50:1-11; Isa_51:1-23; Isa_52:1-15; Isa_53:1-12; Isa_54:1-17; Isa_55:1-13; Isa_56:1-12; Isa_57:1-21; Isa_58:1-14; Isa_59:1-21; Isa_60:1-22; Isa_61:1-11; Isa_62:1-12; Isa_63:1-19; Isa_64:1-12; Isa_65:1-25; Isa_66:1-24, and perhaps had his home in proximity to Aramaic-and Arabic-speaking peoples.”
(3) The character of the question discussed perhaps points to the same period. The problem which pressed so heavily upon Job was the difficulty of reconciling his calamities with the orthodox doctrine of retribution. The simple teaching of early days concerning earthly prosperity as the reward of faithful service of God and suffering as the penalty of sin has broken down, and there is nothing to set in its place. This fact of itself probably indicates a comparatively late date, and best suits a time when calamity was overtaking God's people, and God's ancient promises might seem to be failing. The same kind of question is discussed in Psa_49:1-20; Psa_73:1-28, both of which are probably late; and we see from Ezekiel and Jeremiah how heavily the very same problem weighed on the minds of devout Israelites during the closing years of the kingdom and at the date of the Babylonian Captivity; and it is hard to resist the conclusion that the Book of Job belongs to the same general period.
3. The Author.-As to the author of the book we are in complete ignorance. He has been supposed to be Job himself, Elihu, Moses, Solomon, Heman the Ezrahite, author of Psa_88:1-18, Isaiah, Hezekiah, author of the hymn Isa_38:1-22, Baruch the friend of Jeremiah, and who not? There are some minds that cannot put up with uncertainty, and are under the necessity of deluding themselves into quietude by fixing on some known name. There are others to whom it is a comfort to think that in this omniscient age a few things still remain mysterious. Uncertainty is to them more suggestive than exact knowledge. No literature has so many great anonymous works as that of Israel. The religious life of this people was at certain periods very intense, and at these periods the spiritual energy of the nation expressed itself almost impersonally, through men who forgot themselves and were speedily forgotten in name by others.1 [Note: A. B. Davidson.]
