Publisher's Synopsis
The version of Job found in the Septuagint, Masoretic text, and Peshitta, all appear to be copies of a standardized version of the Book of Job that was circulating in Judea under Greek rule, and during the Hasmonean and Herodian dynasties. Fragments of it have been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, written in Phoenician, Hebrew, and Aramaic, dated to between 330 BC and 44 AD. The Phoenician texts appear to be the oldest, generally dated to between 330 and 140 BC, while the Hebrew and Aramaic fragments date to later times, generally dated to between 140 BC and 44 AD. Unlike most of the books in the Septuagint, the Septuagint's translation of Job appears to have been made from a Phoenician version of Job, as it uses transliterations of words based on their Canaanite spelling instead of their Aramaic spelling.
Nevertheless, the surviving Hebrew translation of Job includes many Aramaic loanwords, which indicates the Phoenician script version of Job was translated from an Aramaic text. One of the more obvious pieces of evidence of the Aramaic source text is the name of Elihu, whose name is Aramaic for 'God is Yhủ, ' the Aramaic form of Yahweh. Elihu is considered by some scholars to be the author of the Book of Job, however, others believe that his speech in chapters 32 through 37 was added later. He is notable in that he was not mentioned at all previously in this book, and disappears after the Lord starts speaking to the other three kings in chapter 38. In the Book of Job, Elihu takes the contrary view to the three kings that are berating Job, and ultimately the Lord punishes them. This is the exact opposite outcome from the Testament of Job, where Elihu is the one berating Job, and punished by the Lord. The Testament of Job contains the Song of Eliphaz, which appears to have been composed before 1800 BC, and claims to have been written by Nahor, the brother of Abraham, and father of Elihu, which seems to be an attempt by the author of the Testament of Job to give it priority over the Book of Job. If Elihu produced the redacted version of Job, adding himself and his opinion to the story, then it was likely when the book was translated into Aramaic.
The Aramaic translation of Job was likely produced sometime between 747 and 656 BC, during the Nubian 25th Dynasty of Egypt, as Egypt is not mentioned, however, Kush is. At the time, the Empire of Kush, based in modern Sudan, ruled Egypt, and so the land of Egypt would have been included in any reference to Kush. During this era, the Neo-Assyrian Empire conquered the Kingdom of Samaria in 720 BC, and relocated the Israelite population. The Assyrians then attacked the Kingdom of Judah and laid siege to Jerusalem in 701 BC, but the Kushites attacked the Assyrians in support of Judah, and the Assyrians withdrew. This Assyrian invasion of Judah was during the reign of King Hezekiah, who initiated the first major overhaul of the religion of Judah, destroying the statue of Ba'al that Solomon had placed in the Temple in Jerusalem, along with Moses' bronze serpent statue, in favor of promoting the god Yhủh. Hezekiah was one of the better-documented kings of Judah, partly because Judah was pulled into the imperial intrigue of the Neo-Assyrian and Kushite Empires, and partly because he was a prolific builder. The Siloam Tunnel and part of the Broad Wall he built in Jerusalem still exist. Sennacherib's Prism, a document discovered in the ruins of Nineveh, and dating back to the siege of Jerusalem confirms the siege from the Assyrian perspective, and names Hezekiah as the king of Judah.
