It is iniposnible, however, to believe that the book dates from a very early or even a moderately early period in the history of Israel. Davidson asserts that the features of a much later time may be perceived ' beneath this patriarchal disguise ' ; that ' the autlior is a true Israelite, and betrays himself to be so at every turn, however wide his sympathy be with the life of other peoples, and however great his power of reanimating the past ' ; and he urges that no careful reader should be deceived by the 'thin antique colour of the book.' Other critics would demur to such decided phrase- ology, and it is certain that the book has to be searched verj- carefully before any traces of the law can be tliscovered in it, and these are not of a pronounced kind. In ^¥ 24* we read of the taking of ' pledges ' (see Ex 22™), and in 22-' of vows, while in 24'^ mention is made of the removal of ' land- marks' (see Dt 19"). The adoration of sun and moon is spoken of in Si-' as an iniquity to be punished by the judge ; so also adultery in 3P. These, however, must be considered slight and doubtful references, and it is not upon them that the ease turns for holding, in Davidson's words, that the book is ' the genuine outcome of the religious thought and life of Israel, the product of a religious knowledge and experience possible among no other people.' We should rather turn to the e\'idence that tlie book presupposes an advanced state of society, a knowledge of natural history and human life, a wide and varied ex- perience impossible to a primitive inhabitant of an unsettled country bordering on the desert, who must have lived a nomadic life. Critics have pointed out that passages such as 12"'^', with its mention of counsellors and kings, priests and princes, spoiled and overthrown and captive, im- plies a knowledge of the history of nations, if not actuallj' of the political changes brought about by great military empires like Assyria and Babylon. Disorder and misery must have been familiar features in the life of the author of this book : not merely personal sutVering, but such as the psalmist describes when he says, ' If the foundations be destroj-ed, what shall the righteous do?'
Perhai)3 no conclusive argument can be dra^vn from the language. It is true that this is peculiar and striking. The book contains an unusually large pro[)ortion of Aramaic words, and of Sirof Xfyintva explicable only by the help of Arabic. But it has been argued by some that this is a mark of early date, by others that it is a mark of the Solomonic period as one of wide culture and extended intercourse, by others that it proves a date more or less contemporary with Deutero- Isaiah (Driver), only that the author of Job was brought even more within Aramaizing influences than the prophet. Dillmann does not lay stress upon the 'Aramaisms' as a mark of date, but noids that the language generally points to the period of the later Heb. in the 7th or 6th cent. B.C. Cornill thinks the ' Aramieo- Arabic ' cast of the language supports the very late date he adopts {Einleitunrj, p. xxxii). The literary form and char- acter of tlie poem certainly point, at least, to the maturity of Jewish literature. It is true that a poem of genius and power often characterizes the dawn of a nation's history ; and in Dante, the
first great WTiter in the vernacular of his country, is found a master of llnliaii who has never since been surpas.scd. This illustration alone is sulfi- cient proof that the concentrated vigour and in- tensity of expression characteristic of .some pas- sages in Job does not necessarily imply a lata date in the history of a national literature. The originality of the author of Job is one of his most striking characteristics, but it is not the origin, ality of an early writer. His knowledge, his illustrations, his references, and, to some extent, his style, appear to imply an atlvanced and not a m-imitive period of literature and life.
The strongest argument, however, and perhaps the only one which is really conclusive, is drawn from the subject-matter. The theme here dis- cu.ssed and the manner of its discussion necessitate a long previous history. The problems of human life are doubtless old, but they could not be raised in the manner displayed in Job, without a previous religious history, and one of considerable duration, in which the doctrine of the three friends had come to be the current and orthodox explanation of the facts cf life. The history of the OT shows that only at a comparatively late period were these maxims questioned ; and when we find them not only questioned but discussed in the thorough manner of the Bk. o) Job, we may be sure that it was not composed till at least the closing period of the monarchy. Other features of religious doc- trine— the doctrine of God, the way in which Satan is mentioned, and the spiritual doctrine of man, for example — point, likewise, to a compara- tively late date. In saying this, we do not include the passages which have often been thought to imply a doctrine of immortality, since the meaning of these is by no means certain.