Who Wrote the Book of Job?

The authorship of Job has been debated for centuries among both Jewish and Christian scholars. Traditional views within Judaism hold that the book of Job is of Mosaic origin, an ancient tradition that appears in the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Baba Bathra 15 a-b. The problem with this view is that there is no such claim to authorship found in the book of Job. The book does not identify its author. Yet from the book’s manner and viewpoint, it would seem that the author was not Job.

From the earliest discussions and OT canonical lists, the book of Job has been included and its canonicity upheld. Over time, in printed Hebrew Bibles, Job was placed between Psalms and Proverbs in order of decreasing [scroll] length (Babylonian Talmud, Ber. 57b). A quotation of Jb 5:13 by the apostle Paul in 1Co 3:19 is “introduced by a formula that indicates that Job was canonical Scripture in the first century AD” (Robert L. Alden, Job, NAC [Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1993], 25). No evidence exists that the canonicity of the book of Job was questioned or disputed in Judaism or Christianity.