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 CHAPTER VII.

THE TRADITIONAL BASIS AND THE PURPOSE OF JOB.

I.

Did Job really live?

This is widely different, remarks Umbreit, from the question whether Job actually said and did all that is related of him in our book. It is scarcely necessary, he adds, in the present day to disprove the latter, but we have no reason to doubt the former (the theory as to the historical existence of a sort of Arabian king Priam, named Job). In truth, we have no positive evidence either for affirming or denying it, unless the 'holy places,' each reputed to be Job's grave, may be mentioned in this connection. The allusion in Ezek. xiv. 14 to 'Noah, Daniel, and Job,' proves no more than that a tradition of some sort existed respecting the righteous Job during the Babylonian Exile: we cannot tell how much Ezekiel knew besides Job's righteousness. In later times, Jewish students do appear to have believed that 'Job existed;' but the force of the argument is weakened by the uncritical character of the times, and the extreme form in which this belief was held by them. How early doubts arose, we know not. The authors of Tobit and Susanna may very likely have been only half-believers, since they evidently imitate the story of Job in their romantic compositions. At any rate, the often-quoted saying of Rabbi Resh Lakish, 'Job existed not, and was not created, but he is (only) a parable,' shows that even before the Talmud great freedom