CHAPTER VIII.
DATE AND PLACE OF COMPOSITION.
We have seen (Chap. VII.) that the unity of authorship of
the Book of Job is not beyond dispute, but we shall not at
present assume the results of analysis. Let us endeavour to
treat of the date and place of composition on the hypothesis
that the book is a whole as it stands (on the Elihu-portion
however, comp. Chap. XII.) It is at any rate probable
that the greater part of it at least proceeds from the same
period. Can that period be the patriarchal? The author
has sometimes received credit for his faithful picture of this
early age. This is at any rate plausible. For instance, he
avoids the use of the sacred name Jehovah, revealed to Moses
according to Ex. vi. 3. Then, too, the great age ascribed to
Job in the Epilogue (xlii. 16) agrees with the notices of the
patriarchs. The uncoined piece of silver (Heb. kesita) which
each kinsman of Job gave him after his recovery (xlii. II), is
only mentioned again in Gen. xxxiii. 19 (Josh. xxiv. 32). The
musical instruments referred to in xxi. 12, xxx. 31, are also
mentioned in Gen. iv. 21, xxxi. 27. There is no protest
against idolatry either in the Book of Job[1] or in Genesis.
Job himself offers sacrifices to the one true God, like the
patriarchs, and the kind of sacrifice offered is the burnt-offering
(i. 5, xlii. 8), there is no mention of guilt-or sin-offerings.
The settled life of Job, too, as described in the Prologue is
not inconsistent with the story of Jacob's life in the vale of
- ↑ The absence of such a protest is characteristic of the Wisdom-literature in general. The reference to star-worship in Job xxxi. 26 suggests a date subsequent to the origination of the title 'Jehovah (God) of Hosts.' See appendix to Isa. i. in my commentary.
