Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 14b–16b
- Language
- Hebrew and Aramaic
- Composed
- c. AD 500 (earlier traditions)
- Oldest surviving copy
- Medieval manuscripts
- Status
- Rabbinic
Moses wrote Job; other sages date Job variously; one calls him a parable.
Ancient Mysteries & Interpretations
When Was Job Written?
Job names no author and no date. Its story is set in an undated, patriarchal-feeling world. Jewish tradition attributed it to Moses; Ezekiel (early 6th century BC) knew a proverbial righteous Job. Many scholars date the poem to the 6th–4th centuries BC on grounds of language and theme; others argue for earlier stages. Qumran fragments show Hebrew Job was being copied by the 2nd–1st century BC.
Author: unknown · Composition: debated (often 6th–4th century BC) · Earliest copies: Qumran
1 What Scripture says
"Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness" (Ezekiel 14:14).
2 What evidence we might expect
- An author's name or colophon; a datable historical reference; early copies.
3 What ancient sources survive
4 What discoveries exist
Qumran Hebrew fragments (2Q15, 4Q99–101; 4Q101 in paleo-Hebrew script) and Aramaic translations (4Q157, 11Q10).
5 How interpretations compare
Traditional reading
Mosaic or patriarchal
Written by Moses or in the patriarchal age, as the setting suggests.
Scholarly reconstruction
Exilic or Persian period
The poem reflects 6th–4th century language and questions (ha-satan as in Zechariah; Aramaisms).
Scholarly reconstruction
Growth in stages
An older prose tale, a poetic dialogue, later additions (Job 28, Elihu).
6 The strongest supported reconstruction
A righteous-Job tradition existed by Ezekiel's time; the present book's date is unknown, with a 1st-millennium composition widely held.
7 What remains possible or unknown
- Who wrote Job.
- Whether the prose frame is older than the poem.
- When Elihu and Job 28 joined the book.
What the evidence shows
- Ezekiel names Job as a righteous man.
- Moses wrote Job.
- The poem dates to the 6th–4th century BC.
Where this connects
- Lesson: How Job Came to Us →Job 1–42