Job’s Tormenters, by William Blake, 1793.
Thought thunk today: The Book of Job is the oldest book in the Bible, one of the oldest books in the world.
What does it say about humanity that in the 8,000 years since, we haven’t managed to surpass it in terms of wisdom?
Update: Ori, tedious pedant that he is, pointed out that my numbers are off by slight margin of maybe 5,000 years.
I wish I were surprised. I’m always doing that with numbers. A counselor once told me that the problem wasn’t in my brain, but in my emotions. Somewhere along the line I developed a fear of numbers that blossomed into functional innumeracy.
But with education, support, and billions of tax dollars you can make a difference. Give today through the United Fund.
Or just buy one of my books. Or double that and buy three.
Why do you think it is the oldest?
I believe it’s the scholarly consensus. 6,000 BC is pretty early.
8,000 years ago is extremely early. But I haven’t heard of that theory (and it isn’t in Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Job#Composition).
600 BC makes a lot more sense, IMAO.
Oops. Oncoming dementia.
Here’s an Internet scholar of no-doubt profound wisdom who says the book is set in “the land of Uz, who was a grandson of Shem and a son of Aram (Genesis 10:22-23). This would confirm Job to be of post flood birth. While no one knows for sure, the most frequent opinion I’ve heard is that the Book of Job was probably written during the time of the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob).”
I’ve long assumed Job to be the earliest book in the canon, dating to before Moses. I checked a couple of sources in my computer Bible software.
Exploring the Old Testament by Shultz & Smith (Crossway Books, 2001) states, “Although Job had many children and was a wealthy herdsman like some of the patriarchs in Genesis, this kind of lifestyle existed during the time of King David and was still common in the remote areas of the ancient Near East up until the nineteenth or twentieth century A.D. Since wisdom literature in Israel was associated with the life and times of Solomon and Hezekiah, many believe the book of Job came from that period.” The footnote cites a reference of John E. Hartley, “Job,” International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. 2 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), pp. 1065, 1066.
Keil and Delizsch from the 1800’s, conclude Job was written at the time of Solomon or shortly thereafter based on refutation of earlier dates, the emphasis on wisdom under Solomon, and the expansion of knowledge and education in Israel at that time due to a greater interaction with other nations.
The book introduction from the ESV Bible simply states, “The unknown author was probably an Israelite writing sometime between 2000 and 500 B.C.”
So, it’s probably best to say, “We don’t know.”