METHODIST REVIEW. MAY, 1890. ART. I.-THE INTEGRITY OF THE BOOK OF JOB.* THE Book of Job, viewed from a purely literary stand-point, is, beyond controversy, the greatest work of art in the Old Testament. This is admitted on every side, by men of all shades of belief. Renan regards it "as the ideal of a Semitic poem." + Thomas Carlyle says, that this book "is one of the grandest things written by man," and "that there is nothing written of equal literary merit." It would not be difficult to furnish the reader with many similar citations, showing the appreciation of the most eminent critics; but the best way to convince one's self of the beauty and symmetry of the book is to read it with care. Yet in spite of the many eulogies pronounced upon the Book of Job, the higher critics have divided and subdivided this grand old poem into sections and fragments in the most arbitrary manner, labeling this as "genuine," that as an interpolation, and the other as "of later origin," or " from an inferior poet," and so forth ad libitum. It is my purpose in this article to show how little agreement there is among these critics, though they claim that their conclusions are founded upon scientific principles; and from this difference of opinions to show how little reliance can be placed upon their criticisms. In the second place, we hope to show how much reason there is for regarding the Book of Job as the product, not only of one age, but of one pen; not the We call the special attention of our readers to this article, which is the third in the series of articles on Old Testament books.-EDITOR. Le Livre de Job, Preface, i. 21-FIFTH SERIES, VOL. VI. patchwork of ages, but the masterpiece of a master-mind, writ ing under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Every careful reader of the Book of Job must have observed the artistic composition of the book, and the extreme fondness of the author for the triadic division. The style and this threefold partition cannot be accidental, but must be the result of a well-prepared plan. We would call especial attention to this triadic division, which is a marked feature of the book, for it can be traced out in every section of Job, even in those portions which have been unceremoniously rejected by the critics. The book naturally divides itself into three parts: I. The prologue, or introduction, chapters i, ii. II. The controversy, iii-xlii, 6. III. The epilogue, or conclusion, xlii, 7–17. The second part, or the controversy, forming the body of the book, may be again divided into three sections: (1.) Job's discussion with the three friends, iii-xxxi. (2.) The speeches of Elihu, xxxii-xxxvii. (3.) The solemn words of Jehovah (with only one short interruption, xl, 3–5), xxxviii-xli, 34. The first part of the controversy, or the discussion between Job on the one side and Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar on the other, is once more divided into three cycles or series: (a) First series, iii-xiv; (b) Second series, xv-xxi; (e) Third series, xxii-xxxi. The same threefold division may be again discovered in many chapters throughout the book. Therefore we empha size that it is not accidental, but the result of a plan closely and minutely followed. The rationalistic critics reject this most natural division, and dissect the book according to the taste of the individual critic -for scarcely any two of them fully agree-into larger or smaller sections. Not only are they not satisfied with rejecting as spurions or as interpolations some of the main sections of this grandest of all poems, but they skillfully apply their scalpel to chapters and paragraphs and even verses. Magnus,† for instance, not only rejects the prologue, epilogue, a portion of chapter xxviii, the speeches of Elihu, the description of the *See especially Zockler's Analysis of the Book of Job in Lange's Bibel- Werk, and also Baur. Das Buch Hob, p. 612, f. + Philolog-historischer Commentar über das Buch Hiob. 1851. behemoth and leviathan, but also arbitrarily assigns many passages generally regarded as Job's to the three friends, and, vice versâ, verses generally attributed to one of the friends are by this critic ascribed to the pen of Job. He goes still further, for he declares eleven verses or parts of verses to be glosses.* Ewald, the great Hebrew scholar, is almost as reckless in his conclusions; for he rejects, supplies deficiencies, and suggests emendations somewhat after the manner of a school teacher in a class in composition. Thus the Book of Job, according to these critics, is a compilation, not only from different pens, but of different ages and countries. Few of the critics go as far as Magnus, but he has his followers, and even some like Studer, a Swiss Protestant theologian, who accepts nothing as an integral part of the original poem except chapters iii-xxvii, 7, and xxix-xxxi; all the rest, according to him, being later interpolations, even the prologue and epilogue proceeding from different authors. The portions generally rejected by one or more of these critics for as already stated there is no general agreement in regard to any of these rejected portions-are the following, which we shall discuss in their regular order: 1. The prologue. 2. A portion of Job's discourse included in xxvii, 11-xxviii. 3. The whole of Elihu's speeches, xxxii-xxxvii. 4. The descriptions of the behemoth and of the leviathan, xl, 15-xli, 34, or in the Hebrew Bible, where the division of chapters is a little different, xl, 15-xli, 26. 5. The epilogue. Taking these portions in the order above given we first come to THE PROLOGUE. Among those who regard the prologue as the product of a later hand we find Stuhlman and Bernstein, and, of course, the ultra-rationalist, Knobel. Heiligstedt and his followers are less radical, for they reject only that portion of the prologue which refers to Satan and the heavenly assembly (i, 6-12, and ii, 1–7). We must not forget that some of the most pronounced rationalists, like Renan, accept the prologue as a veritable part of the ancient poem.‡ * See Delitzsch, Das Buch Hiob. Leipzig, 1876, p. 35. Das Buch Hiob. Bremen, 1881. Le Livre de Job, p. xlvii, f. |