INTRODUCIION.

In reference to no part of the Scriptures have so many questions arisen as to the Book of Job. The time of its composition; the author; the country where the scene was laid; the question whether Job was a real person; the nature and design of the poem; have been points on which a great variety of opinion has been entertained among expositors, and on which different views sti!! prevail. It is important, in order to a correct understanding of the Book, that all the light should be thrown on these subjects which can be; and though amidst the variety of opinion which prevails among men of the highest distinction in learning absolute certainty cannot be hoped for, yet such advances have been made in the investigation that on some of these points we may arrive to a high degree of probability.

1. The question whether Job was a real person.

The first question which presents itself in the examination of the Book is, whether Job had a real existence. This has been doubted on such grounds as the following. (1.) The Book has been supposed by some to have every mark of an allegory. Allegories and parables, it is said, are not uncommon in the Scriptures where a case is supposed, and then the narrative proceeds as if it were real. Such an instance, it has been maintained, occurs here, in which the author of the poem designed to illustrate important truths, but instead of stating them in an abstract form, chose to present them in the more graphic and interesting form of a supposed case-in which we are led to sympathize with a sufferer; to see the ground of the difficulty in the question under discussion in a more affecting manner than could be presented in an abstract form; and where the argument has all to interest the mind which one has when occurring in real life. (2.) It has been maintained that some of the transactions in the Book must have been of this character, or are such as could not have actually occurred. Particularly it has been said that the account of the interview of Satan with JEHOVAH (ch. i

6-12, ii. 1-7) must be regarded merely as a supposed case, it being in the highest degree improbable that such an interview would occur, and such a conversation be held. (3.) The same conclusion has been drawn from the artificial character of the statements about the possessions of Job, both before and after his trials-statements which appear as if the case were merely supposed, and which would not be likely to occur in reality. Thus we have only round numbers mentioned in enumerating his possessions—as seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she-asses. So, also, there is something artificial in the manner in which the sacred numbers seven and three are used. He had seven thousand sheep, seven sons -both before and after his trials; his three friends came and sat down seven days and seven nights without saying a word to condole with him (ch. xi. 13); and both before and after his trials he had three daughters. The same artificial and parabolical appearance, it is said, is seen in the fact that after his recovery his possessions were exactly doubled, and he had again in his old age exactly the same number of seven sons and three daughters which he had before his afflictions. (4.) That the whole narration is allegorical or parabolical has been further argued from the conduct of the friends of Job Their sitting down seven days and seven nights without saying any thing, when they had come expressly to condole with him, it is said, is a wholly improbable circumstance, and looks as if the whole were a supposed case. (5.) The same thing has been inferred from the manner in which the Book is written. It is of the highest order of poetry. The speeches are most elaborate; are filled with accurate and carefully prepared argument; are arranged with great care; are expressed in the most sententious manner; embody the results of long and careful observation, and are wholly unlike what would be uttered in unpremeditated and extemporary debate. No men, it is said, talk in this manner; nor can it be supposed that beautiful poetry and sublime argument, such as abound in this book, ever fell in animated debate from the lips of men. See Eichhorn, Einleitung in das Alte Tes. V. Band. 129–131. From considerations such as these, the historical character of the Book has been doubted, and the whole has been regarded as a supposed case designed to illustrate the great question which the author of the poem proposed to examine.

It is important, therefore, to inquire what reasons there are for believing that such a person as Job lived, and how far the transac tions referred to in the Book are to be regarded as historically true.

(1.) The fact of his existence is expressly declared, and the narrative has all the appearance of being a simple record of an actual occurrence. The first two chapters of the Book, and a part

of the last chapter, are simple historical records The remainder of the Book is indeed poetic, but these portions have none of the characteristics of poetry. There are not to be found in the Bible more simple and plain historical statements than these; and there are none which, in themselves considered, might not be as properly set aside as allegorical. This fact should be regarded as decisive, unless there is some reason which does not appear on the face of the narrative for regarding it as allegorical.

(2.) The account of the existence of such a man is regarded as historically true by the inspired writers of the Scriptures. Thus in Ezekiel xiv. 14, God says, "Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it [the land], they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God." Comp. vs. 16, 20, of the same chapter. Here Job is referred to as a real character as distinctly as Noah and Daniel, and all the circumstances are just such as they would be on the supposition that he had a real existence. They are alike spoken of as real 'men;' as having souls' they should deliver but their own souls by their own righteousness;' as having sons and daughters-' they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, they only shall be delivered' (ver. 16), and are in all respects mentioned alike as real characters. Of the historic fact that there were such men as Noah and Daniel there can be no doubt, and it is evident that Ezekiel as certainly regarded Job as a real character as he did either of the others. A parallel passage, which will illustrate this, occurs in Jeremiah xv. 1: "Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be towards this people." Here Moses and Samuel are spoken of as real characters, and there is no doubt of their having existed. Yet they are mentioned in the same manner as Job is in the passage in Ezekiel. In either case it is incredible that a reference should have been made to a fictitious character. The appeal is one that could have been made only to a real character, and there can be no reasonable doubt that Ezekiel regarded Job as having really existed; or rather, since it is God who speaks and not Ezekiel, that he speaks of Job as having actually existed. The same thing is evident from a reference to Job by the Apostle James: "Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy" (ch. v. 11); that is, the happy issue to which the Lord brought all his trials, showing that he was pitiful to those in affliction, and of great mercy. There can be no doubt that there is reference here to the sufferings of a real man; as there is to the real compassion which the Lord shows to one in great trials. It is incredible that this sacred writer should have appealed in this instance to the case of one whom he regarded as

a fictitious character; and if the views of Ezekiel and James are to be relied on, there can be no doubt that Job had a real existence. Ezekiel mentions him just as he does Noah and Daniel, and James mentions him just as he does Elijah (ch. v. 17); and so far as this historical record goes there is the same evidence of the actual existence of the one as of the other.

In

(3.) The specifications of places and names in the Book are not such as would occur in an allegory. Had it been merely a 'supposed case,' to illustrate some great truth, these specifications would have been unnecessary, and would not have occurred. the acknowledged parables of the Scripture, there are seldom any very minute specifications of names and places. Thus, in the parable of the prodigal son, neither the name of the father, nor of the sons, nor of the place where the scene was laid, is mentioned. So of the nobleman who went to receive a kingdom; the unjust steward; the two virgins, and of numerous others. But here we have distinct specifications of a great number of things, which are in no way necessary to illustrate the main truth in the poem. Thus we have not only the name of the sufferer, but the place of his residence mentioned, as if it were well known. We have the names of his friends, and the places of their residence mentionedEliphaz the Temanite," and "Bildad the Shuhite," and "Zophar the Naamathite," and Elihu "the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the kindred of Ram." Why are the places of residence of these persons mentioned unless it be meant to intimate that they were real persons, and not allegorical characters? In like manner we have express mention of the Sabeans and the Chaldeansspecifications wholly unnecessary if not improbable if the work is an allegory. The single word 'robbers' would have answered all the purpose, and would have been such as an inspired writer would have used unless the transaction were real, for an inspired writer would not have charged this offence on any class of men, thus holding them up to lasting reproach, unless an event of this kind had actually occurred. When the Saviour, in the parable of the good Samaritan, mentions a robbery that occurred between Jerusalem and Jericho, the word 'thieves,' or more properly robbers, is the only word used. No names are mentioned, nor is any class of men referred to, who would by such a mention of the name be held up to infamy. Thus also we have the particular statement respecting the feasting of the sons and daughters of Job; his sending for and admonishing them; his offering up special sacrifices on their behalf; the account of the destruction of the oxen, the sheep, the camels, and the house where the sons and daughters of Job wereall statements of circumstances which would not be likely to occur in an allegory. They are such particular statements as we expect to

find respecting the real transactions, and they bear on the face of them the simple impression of truth. This is not the kind of information which we look for in a parable. parable. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, almost the only one spoken by the Saviour where a name is mentioned, we have not that of the rich man; and though the name Lazarus is mentioned, yet that is all. We have no account of his family, of his place of residence, of his genealogy, of the time when he lived; and the name itself is so common that it would be impossible even to suspect whom the Şaviour had in his eye, if he had any real individual at all. Far different is this in the account of Job. It is true that in a romance, or in an extended allegory like the Pilgrim's Progress, we expect a detailed statement of names and places; but there is no evidence that there is any such extended fictitious narrative in the Bible, and unless the Book of Job be one there is no such extended allegory.

(4.) The objections urged against this view are not such as to destroy the positive proof of the reality of the existence of Job. The objections which have been urged against the historical truth of the narrative, and which have already been in part alluded to, are principally the following.

The first is, the account of the interview between God and Satan in chs. 1 and 2. It is alleged that this is so improbable a transaction as to throw an air of fiction over all the historical statements of the book. In reply to this, it may be observed, first, that even if this were not to be regarded as a literal transaction, it does not prove that no such man as Job lived, and that the transactions in regard to him were not real. He might have had an existence, and been stripped of his possessions, and subjected to these long and painful trials of his fidelity, even if this were a poetic ornament, or merely a figurative representation. But, secondly, it is impossible to prove that no such transaction occurred. The existence of such a being as Satan is everywhere recognized in the Scriptures; the account which is here given of his character accords entirely with the uniform representation of him; he exerts no power over Job which is not expressly conceded to him; and it is impossible to prove that he does not even now perform the same things in the trial of good men, which it is said that he did in the case of Job. And even if it be admitted that there is somewhat of poetic statement in the form in which he is introduced, still this does not render the main account improbable and absurd. The Bible, from the necessity of the case, abounds with representations of this sort; and when it is said that God 'speaks' to men, that he conversed with Adam, that he spake to the serpent (Gen. iii.), we are not necessarily to suppose that all this is strictly literal, nor does