Editing Book of Job (section)

==Composition==
[[File:LB100fol165.JPG|thumb|Anonymous Byzantine illustration; the [[Incarnation (Christianity)|pre-incarnate]] Christ speaks to Job]]

===Authorship, language, texts===
The character Job appears in the 6th-century BCE [[Book of Ezekiel]] as an exemplary righteous man of antiquity, and the author of the Book of Job has apparently chosen this legendary hero for his [[parable]].{{sfn|Fokkelman|2012|p=20}} The language of the Book of Job, combining post-Babylonian [[Hebrew]] and [[Aramaic]] influences, indicates it was composed during the [[Persian period]] (540–330 BCE), with the poet using Hebrew in a learned, literary manner.<ref>{{cite book
 | title        = Job: A New Translation
 | translator   = Edward L. Greenstein
 | publisher    = Yale University Press
 | year         = 2019
 | isbn         = 9780300163766
 | page         = xxvii
 | url          = https://books.google.com/books?id=W8KmDwAAQBAJ&pg=PR27
 | quote        = Determining the time and place of the book's composition is bound up with the nature of the book's language. The Hebrew prose of the frame tale, notwithstanding many classic features, shows that it was composed in the post-Babylonian era (after 540 BC). The poetic core of the book is written in a highly literate and literary Hebrew, the eccentricities and occasional clumsiness of which suggest that Hebrew was a learned and not native language of the poet. The numerous words and grammatical shadings of Aramaic spread throughout the mainly Hebrew text of Job make a setting in the Persian era (approximately 540-330) fairly certain, for it was only in that period that Aramaic became a major language throughout the Levant. The poet depends on an audience that will pick up on subtle signs of Aramaic.
}}</ref> The anonymous author was almost certainly an [[Israelites|Israelite]]—although the story is set outside Israel, in southern [[Edom]] or northern Arabia—and alludes to places as far apart as [[Mesopotamia]] and Egypt.{{sfn|Seow|2013|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZOn3ZK2n0UUC&pg=PA24 24]}} Despite the Israelite origins, it appears that the Book of Job was composed in a time in which [[wisdom literature]] was common but not acceptable to Judean sensibilities (i.e., during the [[Babylonian exile]] and shortly thereafter).<ref>{{cite book |last=Kugel |first=James L. |year=2008 |title=How to Read the Bible: A guide to scripture, then and now |publisher=Free Press |isbn=978-0743235877}}</ref>

The speeches of Elihu differ in style from the rest of the book, and neither God nor Job appear to take any note of what he has said; as a result, it is widely believed that Elihu's speeches are a later addition by another author.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elihu |title=Elihu (Biblical figure) |publisher=Encyclopedia Brittanica |date=2009-10-20 |website=Encyclopedia Brittanica |access-date=2025-05-18}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Alter |first=Robert |year=2018 |title=The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary, Volume 3 |publisher=W. W. Nortion & Company |isbn=978-0393292497}}</ref>

The language of Job stands out for its conservative spelling and exceptionally large number of words and word forms not found elsewhere in the Bible.{{sfn|Seow|2013|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZOn3ZK2n0UUC&pg=PA17 17-20]}} Many later scholars, down to the 20th century, have looked for an [[Aramaic]], [[Arabic]], or [[Edomite language|Edomite]] origin, but a close analysis suggests that the foreign words and foreign-looking forms are literary affectations designed to lend authenticity to the book's distant setting and give it a foreign flavor.{{sfn|Seow|2013|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZOn3ZK2n0UUC&pg=PA24 24]}}{{sfn|Kugel|2012|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=iyjzHjnEJ8AC&dq=%22give+the+work+a+foreign+flavor%22&pg=PA641 641]}}

===Modern revisions===

Job exists in a number of forms: the Hebrew [[Masoretic Text]], which underlies many modern Bible translations; the Greek [[Septuagint]] made in Egypt in the last centuries BCE; and Aramaic and Hebrew manuscripts found among the [[Dead Sea Scrolls]].{{sfn|Seow|2013|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZOn3ZK2n0UUC&pg=PA1-16 1–16]}}

In the Latin [[Vulgate]], the [[New Revised Standard Version]], and in [[Protestant Bible]]s, it is placed after the [[Book of Esther]] as the first of the [[poetic books]].{{sfn|Hartley|1988|p=3}} In the Hebrew Bible, it is located within the [[Ketuvim]]. John Hartley notes that in [[Sephardic]] manuscripts, the texts are ordered as [[Psalms]], Job, and [[Book of Proverbs|Proverbs]], but in [[Ashkenazic]] texts, the order is Psalms, Proverbs, and then Job.{{sfn|Hartley|1988|p=3}} In the [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] [[Jerusalem Bible]], it is described as the first of the "wisdom books" and follows the two [[books of the Maccabees]].<ref>Jerusalem Bible (1966), ''Introduction to the Wisdom Books'', p. 723</ref>

===Job and the wisdom tradition===
Job, [[Ecclesiastes]], and the [[Book of Proverbs]] belong to the genre of wisdom literature, sharing a perspective that they themselves call the "way of wisdom".{{sfn|Farmer|1998|p=129}} ''Wisdom'' means both a way of thinking and a body of knowledge gained through such thinking, as well as the ability to apply it to life. In its Biblical application in wisdom literature, it is seen as attainable in part through human effort and in part as a gift from God, but never in its entirety—except by God.{{sfn|Farmer|1998|pp=129–30}}

The three books of wisdom literature share attitudes and assumptions but differ in their conclusions: Proverbs makes confident statements about the world and its workings that Job and Ecclesiastes flatly contradict.{{sfn|Farmer|1998|pp=130–31}} Wisdom literature from Sumeria and Babylonia can be dated to the third millennium BCE.{{sfn|Bullock|2007|p=84}} Several texts from ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt offer parallels to Job,{{sfn|Hartley|2008|p=346}} and while it is impossible to tell whether any of them influenced the author of Job, their existence suggests that the author was the recipient of a long tradition of reflection on the existence of inexplicable suffering.{{sfn|Hartley|2008|p=360}}