Proceeding to the inquiry as to the age of the author of this book, we meet vvith three opinions : —r. That he lived before Moses, or was, at least, his contemporary. 2. That he lived in the time of Solomon, or in the centuries next following. 3. That he lived shortly before, or during, or even after the Babylonian exile. The view of those who assert the book to have been written long after the Babylonian exile, can be supported, as Hirzel justly observes, neither by the riature of its language nor by reasons derived from its historical groundwork, and is therefore now generally re jected ; but, apart from this opinion, there is, in those remaining, a difference as to the date of no less than moo years.
We must, first, declare ourselves decidedly against the view of those who—as Le Clerc among earlier interpreters ; and among recent expositors, Bernstein, Gesenms, Umbreit, and De \Vette— place our book in the time of the Chaldman exile. They were led to this conclusion by their precon ceived opinion that the doctrine of Satan, who is introduced in the pi ologue, was of Chaldman origin ; which has also induced others, while con tending for a higher antiquity of the book, to pro nounce the prologue, at least the scene in ch. i. 6-12, to be spurious; or losing sight of the poetical character of the prologue as well as of the speeches, to assert that the Satan of this book was different from the Satan of later times; or finally, to assume with Stickel, that the author had lived in a place where he could be impressed with Babylonian opinions before they had spread among, the great body of his nation. But the assertion, that the doctrine of Satan originated among the Jews dur ing the Babylonian exile, and was derived generally from Babylonian suggestions, has been shown by several interpreters to be erroneous, and very re cently, by Hengstenberg (rEgypten una' a'ie Blither p. 164, sq.) This opinion was, however, suited to and supported by those who, headed by Bernstein, asserted that Job was a symbolic person age—a personification of the Jews suffering in the Exile—and who thus gave to our book a national reference and meaning ; in like manlier as some had before introduced a preposterous system of interpreting psalms containing personal lamenta tions, by converting them into national lamenta tions, and applying to them the principle of sym bolization. Now, in the book of Job there is certainly no trace of national reference ; and it would be absurd to assume an allegory running through an entire work, and still nowhere mani festing its presence. It is said by other interpreters, that, in the times of trouble, during the Babylonian exile, first originated the disheartening view of human life, and that then the problem of our book first engrossed the public mind; by which observa tion they, by way of compromise, rcfer its com position to that period, without contending for a symbolic exposition. But the sense of misery and of the nothingness of human life, is found among all nations, ancient and modern, cultivated and un cultivated : Noah, Jacob, Moses, complain, and as old as suffering must be the question of the seeming disparity in the distribution of good and evil, and how this disparity can be reconciled with God's justice. It is frequently under consideration in the Psalms.
Against those who refer the composition of Job to the time of the Babylonian exile, militate, first, the references to it in the O. T., which prove that it was before this period a generally known writing. Thus, in Ezek. xiv. 14-2o, are mentioned three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job,' as examples of righteousness. Mr. Bernstein, indeed, in defend ing his hypothesis, rejects this passage as spurious, but it bears every mark of genuineness. Further, in Jeremiah xx. 14, we find evidently imitated Job's cursing of the day of his birth (ch. iii.) Not only the sentiments but the words are often the same ; and that this coincidence is not accidental, or that the author did not imitate Jeremiah, ap. pears from the literary character of each. Jere. miah shows himself throughout dependent on ancient Nvritings, whereas our author is quite original and independent, as proved by Ktiper (see Yeremias librorum. sacrorum interpres atque °index, p. 164, sq.) There are also in the La mentations of Jeremiah many passages clearly alluding to our book, which must have eminently suited his taste and interested him (comp. xvi. with Lam. ii. ; and xix. 8 with Lam. iii. 9). In Isaiah the peculiar use of NZ'S (xl. 2) refers us to Job i. (comp. x. 17 ; xiv. 14); and the double received from God's hand alludes to the end of the history of Job, who is there considered as typi fying the future fate of the church. Is. lxi. 7, In their land they shall have the double,' alludes to the same point ; ch. li. 9 depends on Job xxvi. 13 ; and ch. xix. 5, almost literally agrees with Job xiv. I (see Kiiper, p. 166). Another ex ample of words borrowed from Job occurs in Ps. cvii. 42, where the second part of the verse agrees literally with Job v. 16. 2. A most decisive reason against assigning the composition of Job to the period of the Exile is derived from the lan guage, since it is free from those Chaldaisms which occur in the books written about that time. Eich
horn justly observes, ` Let him who is fit for such researches, only read, first, a writing, tainted with Arammisms, and next the book of Job : they will be found diverging as east and west.' There is no example of an independent, orig,inal work, com posed in pure language, after the Exile. Zecha riah indeed, though writing after the Exile, has few Chaldaisms ; but a closer inspection shews that this case is not analogous to that of our book. The comparative purity of Zechariah's language can be accounted for by his constant occupation with the sacred writings of the period before the Exile, on which he proves himself entirely de pendent. 3. Equally conclusive is the poetical character of the book. The Exile might produce a soft, moving poem, but could not give birth to such a rich, compact, animated, and warm composi. tion as ours, breathing youthful freshness through. out. Ewald, in acknowledging this, says justly, The high skill displayed in this book cannot be well expected from later centuries, when poetry had by degrees generally declined, and particularly in the higher art required by large compositions ; and language so concise and expressive as that oi our author is not found in writings of later times.' To the view which places the age of the book of Job in the time of the Babylonian exile, is most opposed that which assigns the composition of it to a period prior to Moses. In support of this latter view, only two arguments having- a sem blance of force can be adduced, and they will not bear the test of strict inquiry. It is said, 1. There is in the book of Job no direct reference to the Mosaic legislation ; and its descriptions and other statements are suited to the period of the patriarchs ; as, for instance, the great authority held by old men, the high age of Job, and fathers offering sacrifices for their families—which leads to the supposition that when our book was vvritten no sacerdotal order yet existed.' These points, however, are quite intelligible, if the design of the book, as stated above, is kept in view. The author intended not to rest the decision of the question at issue on particular passages of Scrip ture, but on religious consciousness and experi ence. This at once explains why lie places the scene without Palestine, why he places it in the patriarchal age, and why lie avoids the use of the name Jehovah ; of these three items the first suf ficiently accounts for no reference being made to the Mosaic legislation. It is indeed said, that for an author of a later period, who undertook to portray earlier times, it would hardly have been possible to perform his task, without occasionally forgetting his roll. But it is not easy to determine what, in such a case, is possible. What might be expected from our author in this respect may be inferred from his skill in the intentional use of the names of God—from the steadiness with which, among foreign scenery, he proceeds to develop his subject—from the able disposition of the speeches, and the nicely drawing of the characters of the in terlocutors, who are always represented speaking and acting in conformity with the part assigned to them. In the proper execution of his work he may have been assisted by witnessing, abioad the patriarchal life of nomades, which, in its essential features, is always the same. This supposition is rendered in some degree probable, from the de scriptions of Arabia being exactly agreeable to its natural condition, and being even more specific than those of Eg,ypt, though Hirzel is pleased to select the latter country, in determining where the author of our book lived and composed it. 2. The language of the book of Job seems strongly to support the opinion of its having, been written before 'gases.' It has been often said, that no writing of the O. T. may be more frequently illus trated from the Arabic than this book. Jerome observes (Praia/. in Dan.) jobum cum Arabica lingua plurimam habere societatem ;' and Schultens proved this so incontrovertibly that Gesenius was rather too late in denying the fact (see his Geschichte der Hebrdischen Sprache, p. 33). Now, from this character of its language we might be induced to infer, that the work was written in the remotest times, when the separation of the dialects had only begun, but had not yet been completed. This inference would, however, be safe only if the book were written in prose. It is solely from works of this class, that the general usage of the language prevailing at the time of the author can be seen. On the contrary, the selection of obsolete and mre words and forms, with the Hebrews, was a peculiar feature of the poetical style, and served to distin guish it from the usual, habitual way of writing,. This peculiarity belongs to our book more than to any other ; which ma-y be explained from its elevated character and general plan ; it rises above commonplace ideas more than any other Hebrew writing, and the plan of the author made it incum bent on him to impress on the language, as much as possible, an antique and foreign Character.