The manners, customs, inetitntione, and general mode of life described in the book are euch as belong eepecialJy to the times which are commonly called "patria.rcha.l." 'fhe pa.store.I descriptions have the genuine air of the wild, free, vigorous life of the desert. The city life ( eh. xxix.) is exactly that of the earliest settled communities, with councils of grey- bearded elders, judges in the gate (eh. xxix. 7), the chieftain at once judge and warrior (eh. xxix. 25), yet with written indictments (eh. xxxi. 35) and settled forms of legal procedure (eh. ix. 33; xvii. 3; xxxi. 28). The civilization, if such it may be called, is of the primitive type, with rock- inscriptions (eh. ix. 24), mining such as was practised by the Egyptians in the Sinaitic peninsula from B.C. 2000, great buildings, ruined sepulchres, tombs watched over by sculptured fignres of the dead (eh. x:xi. 32). The historical allusions touch nothing of a recent date, but only such ancient things as the Pyramids (eh. iii. 14), the apostasy of Nimrod (eh. ix. 9), the Flood ( eh. xxii. 16), the destruction of the "cities of the plain" ( eh. xviii. 15), and ·the like; they include no mention-not the faintest hint-of any of the great events of Israelite history, not even of the Exodns, the passage of the Red Sea, or the giving of the Law on Sinai, much less of the conquest of Canaan, or of the stirring times of the judges and the first great kings of Israel. It is inconceivable, as has been often said, that a writer of a late date, say of the time of Captivity, or of Josiah, or even of Solomon, should, in a long work like the Book of Job, intentionally and successfnlly avoid all reference to historical- occurrences, and to changes in religions forms or doctrines of a date posterior to that of the events which form the subject of his narrative. It is a legitimate conclusion from these facts, that the Book of Job is probably more ancient than any other composition in the Bible, excepting, perhaps, the Pentateuch, or portions of it. It must almost certainly ha,e been written before the promulgation of the Law.1 How long before is doubtful. Job's term of life (two hundred to two hundred and filty years) would seem to place him in the period between Eber and Abraham, or at any rate in that between Eber and Jacob, who lived only a hundred and forty-seven years, and after whom the term of human life seems to have rapidly shortened (Dent. xxxi. 2; Ps. xc. 10). The book, however, was not w1-itten until after Job's death (eh. xiii. 17), and may have been written some considerable time after. On the whole, therefore, it seems most reasonable to place the composition towards the close of the patriarchal period, not very lo.ng before the Exodus. The only tradition which has come down to us with respect to the author- ship of the Book of Job ascribes it to Moses. Aben Ezra (about A.D. 1150) declares this to be the general opinion of "the sages of blessed memory." 1 In the Talmud it is laid down as undoubted, "Moses wrote his own book " (i.e. the Penta.tench)," the section about Balaam, and Job." 8 The testimony i. p. 1099. 1 • Diotionary of the Bible.' vol. 1 'Commentarius in Jobum,' ii. 11. •' D11,ba Bathm,' p. H, l• Complll'e Ephrem Syrus, 'Jobi Librum Moysee soripait.' :ni lNTRODUOTION TO
me.y not possess muoh critical value, but it is the only tradition that we have. Ape.rt from this, we float upon a sea of conjecture. The most ingenious of the conjectures put forward is that of Dr. Mill and Professor Lee,1 who think that Job himBelf put the discourses into a written form, and that Moses, having become acquainted with this work while he was in Midian, deter-. mined to oommunicate it to his countrymen, aB analogous to the trial of their faith in Egypt ; and, in order to render it intelligible to them, added the opening and concluding sections, which, it is remarked, are altogether in the style of the Pentateuch. 1 A. far less probable theory assigns the author-. ship of the bulk of the book to Elihu. 8 Those who reject these views, ifeli allow the antiquity of the composition, can only suggest some unknown Palestinian a.uthor, some a.V71p 'll"0Avrpo1ros, who, like the old hero of Ithaca, DoM«iv a.v6pl,.,..,,,, nw 1£0-.-•11 1<111 v&ov fyvo,, DoMo. i• IJ·r' iv 'lf"OJ'T't' .,.,1.9• ., 6A')'E<i fw 1<11r11 lluµ.bv, 'Ap1'6JA-EIIOS lfUXflll , • •
and who, " ha.ving broken free from the narrow littleness of the peculiar people, divorced himself from them outwardly as well aB in~ardly," and h.&ving "travelled away into the world, lived long, perhaps all his life, in exile."' Such vague fancies a.re of little value; and the theory of Dr. Mill and Professor Lee, though unproved, is probably the nearest approach t.o the truth that can be made at the present day.