Investigation: Was Job Jobab?

Readers have always wanted to know when Job lived. The book seems to set him in a patriarchal world: wealth in flocks, a father offering sacrifices, a long life, an archaic coin (42:11). Uz and Teman point to Edom. Genesis 36 lists Edomite kings "before there reigned any king over the children of Israel," including "Jobab the son of Zerah of Bozrah" (36:33). The names are similar: Iyyov and Yovav.

The Greek translators, or someone soon after, made the connection explicit. At the end of Greek Job (42:17a–e) we read: "And it is written that he will rise again with those whom the Lord raises up. This man is described in the Syriac book as living in the land of Ausitis, on the borders of Idumea and Arabia; formerly his name was Jobab. He took an Arabian wife and had a son named Ennon. His father was Zare, a son of the sons of Esau, and his mother was Bosorra, so that he was the fifth from Abraham." It then lists the kings of Edom: Balak son of Beor, then Jobab "who is called Job," then Asom, Adad and Ennon. It ends with Job's friends: Eliphaz king of the Temanites, Baldad ruler of the Sauchaeans, Sophar king of the Minaeans.

The library's Church Slavonic and Sahidic Coptic Bibles contain this appendix. (Our digital copy of Giguet's French leaves those verses blank, a gap in the data.)

"The Syriac book"

The appendix says it comes from "the Syriac book," probably meaning an Aramaic source or translation. No such book is known today. The appendix itself is in Greek.

Aristeas the Exegete

A fragment of a Hellenistic Jewish writer, Aristeas "On the Jews" (perhaps 2nd century BC), preserved by Alexander Polyhistor and quoted by Eusebius (Preparation for the Gospel 9.25), also identifies Job with Jobab, a son of Esau. The identification was current among Greek-speaking Jews before the New Testament period.

The Testament of Job

This later Greek work (1st century BC to 1st century AD) opens: "The book of the words of Job, who is called Jobab." It makes him a king of Egypt who destroyed an idol's temple and was attacked by Satan in revenge. It is a separate composition, not part of the biblical book.

The rabbis

The Babylonian Talmud (Bava Batra 15a–b) records many views: Job lived in the days of Moses; of the spies; of the judges; of Ahasuerus; of Jacob (and married Dinah); he was a gentile prophet; and one sage said "Job never existed and was never created, but was a parable (mashal)." The rabbis treated the question as open.

What the identification shows

The Jobab appendix is valuable evidence of how ancient Jewish readers located Job in biblical history, by linking two Edomite clues (Uz and Teman) to Genesis 36. Annette Yoshiko Reed (2001) studied it as an example of Hellenistic Jewish interpretation. It does not show that the historical Job and Genesis's Jobab were the same person: there is no independent source for either, and the identification depends on a similar name and region.

Uz and Edom

Lamentations 4:21 links Uz with Edom; Teman is Edomite; Eliphaz is an Edomite name. Jeremiah 25:20 lists Uz separately from Edom (25:21). Genesis has three Uzes (Aramean, Nahorite, Horite-Edomite). The Edom connection is a reasonable reading of the clues, not a proven location.

Greek ages

The same Greek ending changes Job's age: after his trial he lives 170 years, 240 in all (Giguet) or 248 (the Slavonic and Coptic in the library). The Hebrew says 140 more years. The numbers belong to the Greek tradition's own chronology.