4 GRACE JOURNAL
the 5th century A. D., and our manuscripts of it come from a still later
period. The tradition may have some value however. It may not be
that the data on authorship was correctly remembered by the Jews
but that they came to the conclusion of early authorship from various
factors that we too can observe.
That there was an ancient worthy by the name of Job is sure a
from Ezekiel 14:14, 20, which mentions him along with Noah and Daniel.
The reference is similar to that in Jeremiah 15:1, which uses Moses and
Samuel as ancient types of righteousness. It used to be remarked that
the verses in Ezekiel mean little because Daniel is one of the trio, and
the book of Daniel is now regularly placed in the second century B. C.
We are, of course, not willing to concede the late date of Daniel. A
newly discovered Targum, a Targum of Job, interestingly, argues that
the Aramaic of Daniel does not reflect the language of the second cen-
tury B. C. in Palestine as has been so widely believed. It is claimed
that this Targum of Job was translated about 100 B. C. and shows a later
stage of Aramaic than Ezra or Daniel. In any case, this passage in
Ezekiel is no longer held to be against the early date of Job, for the
reference to Daniel is now differently understood. It is now said that
the Daniel of Ezekiel refers not to the canonical Daniel, but to the Daniel
mentioned in the Ugaritic Texts as an ancient wise man, the father of
the hero, Aqhat. Here again, we may enter a disclaimer. The Daniel
of Ugarit is quite different from the righteous man of Ezekiel 14. Ac-
tually Ezekiel does not appeal to these men because they were ancient,
but because they were righteous. But in any case, the verses do assure
us that Ezekiel, about 600 B. C., did know the story of Job.
The only other external evidence for the antiquity of the book
would come from cross references and allusions in other Biblical books.
Proverb 3:11 is one such passage, with the wording quite similar to
Job 5:27. Job says, “Despise not the chastening of the Almighty.”
Proverbs says, “My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord.” The
wording of the two passages is identical in Hebrew, except that Job has
the divine name, Shaddai, which it very frequently uses, and Proverbs
uses the more common name, the Tetragram. It also adds a charac-
teristic proverbial touch, “my son.” The force of such a parallel is
debatable, because it is hard to know which book quoted the other,
granted that there was some verbal dependence. The whole chapter is
an encomium of wisdom in terms of a search for wisdom in places which
only God knows. The conclusion is that “the fear of the Lord that is
wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.” This conclusion is
quite like Proverbs 1:7; 9:10; 15:33 and Psalm 111:10. Again the question
is, did Job build a beautiful poem on the subject of wisdom as defined in
Proverbs and use it in his context? Or did Proverbs and the Psalms take
a theme already developed in Job and allude to it In various verses? We
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