Was the Bible Right?
Setting: patriarchal age · Written: debated·Science in the Bible·Claim

Is Job the Oldest Book in the Bible?

Scripture: Job 1:1–5; Job 42:16

William Blake's painting of Job and his family, from his Book of Job illustrations
William Blake's painting of Job and his family, from his Book of Job illustrations · Photo: William Blake · Public domain · Source

The claim

Job is often called the oldest book in the Bible. The date matters for science claims: if Job is very old, its descriptions of nature come centuries before the Greeks; if it is later, they are contemporary with them.

What the text and science say

The story's setting looks ancient: Job's wealth is counted in livestock, he offers sacrifices for his family himself, there is no temple, Law or king, and he lives 140 more years. A Talmudic tradition (Bava Batra 14b–15a) credits Moses with writing it, and many conservative scholars hold it is the oldest book. Most academic scholars date its writing to roughly the 6th–4th century BCE, pointing to its late Hebrew with Aramaic influence, the heavenly accuser ("the satan") also found in Zechariah 3, and its kinship with wisdom books like Ecclesiastes. The same Talmud passage even records a rabbi's view that Job was a parable. The theme itself is older: Babylonian poems about a righteous sufferer, like Ludlul bēl nēmeqi, date to roughly 1300–1000 BCE.

Sources

  1. David J. A. Clines, Job 1–20 (Word Biblical Commentary 17), Word Books (1989)
  2. Marvin H. Pope, Job (Anchor Bible 15), Doubleday (3rd ed.) (1973)
  3. W. G. Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom Literature, Oxford University Press (1960)

Verdict history

  • DebatedInitial verdict.