ish it sharply from the writings of the author of the main body of
the book. Elihu and his contributions are also completely ignored in the
rest of the book and at points where, if they were original, certain
references would be almost inevitable. These speeches, in fact, are simply
a fuller development of the argument of Eliphaz found in the fifth
chapter. They also incorporate many suggestions drawn from the speeches of
Jehovah in chapters 38 and 39.

II. Dates of the Different Parts. The classic Hebrew style and the
absence of Aramaic words indicate that the prose story is the oldest
section of the book. It also reasserts in modified form the dogma current
far down into the Persian period, that if the righteous but patiently
bear affliction they will surely in the end be richly rewarded. It
contains a message well adapted to the needs and beliefs of the Jewish
people during the calamities of the Babylonian period. Its conception
of Satan as the prosecuting attorney of heaven, and of Jehovah as a
transcendental ruler surrounded by a hierarchy of angels, is closely akin
to that which first appears in the second chapter of Zechariah. The
references to Job in Ezekiel 14:14,20, as one of the three heroes of
popular tradition famous for their piety, implies the existence during the
exile of a story closely akin to if not identical with the one found in
the prologue and epilogue of the book of Job. Such a story was probably
current long before the days of Ezekiel, but in its present form it was
not committed to writing until the latter part of the Babylonian or the
beginning of the Persian period.

The first part of this story was evidently used by the author as an
introduction to the great dramatic poem. He thereby deliberately protested
against the solution of the problem of innocent suffering suggested by the
ancient story. The poem itself cannot be dated earlier than the middle of
the Persian period. In it the great ethical and social standards of the
pre-exilic prophets are fully accepted. Its marvelous breadth of vision
also implies an advanced stage in Israel's thinking. The problem of
suffering with which it deals is not merely that of the nation but of the
individual or of a class within the Judean community. It is precisely the
problem that confronted the author of Malachi and to which he refers in
3:13-16. It is the same problem that bulks largely in the psalms of this
period and finds its noblest solution in Isa