Trying to pin down a rumour

[Alcuin]

The book of Job is traditionally considered the oldest book in the Bible, as Valandil mentioned. The rabbinic tradition, I believe, is that Moses heard it while living in Midian with his father-in-law, Jethro, who was “a priest of Midian”. The people in the book – Job, his three friends, who condemn him as wicked and unrepentant because of his afflictions despite his protests of innocence, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, and the young man who speaks at the end, Elihu – as well as Jethro and Moses, all acknowledge the God of Abraham.

Eliphaz was from Teman, the principal city of Edom: he seems to have been a descendant of Esau. Bildad is called “the Shuhite”, indicating that he was also descended from Abraham. Zophar was from Naamah, a town in nearby Canaan. Elihu is called a Buzite, a descendant of one of Abraham’s nephews, Buz. And the Midianites themselves are said to be descended from Abraham. (So Jethro was, too.)

If we search for an Akkadian connection, Abraham was from Ur, which was in the southernmost part of the Akkadian Empire; however, the traditional date for the birth of Abraham (from the rabbis’ counting “son of, son of, son of…”) is 1976 BC; the Akkadian Empire had come to an end more than a century earlier.

Moreover, if Eärniel is correct, and the Akkdians had no concept of a devil – they worshipped all sorts of gods, both good and evil – the story of Job makes no sense. Polytheistic gods – whether Roman, Greek, Egyptian or Akkadian – tend to be capricious, with little concern for morality or ethics, much less human suffering. The whole book of Job is all about the mystery of suffering – specifically, Job’s suffering despite his (human) righteousness – setting it apart from polytheistic stories. It is theologically complex, exploring and rejecting in turn each traditional explanation of suffering. Job is left to exercise his free will to choose between Good and Evil, chooses Good despite his pain, rejects Evil, and is rewarded with a Theophanic vision of God in a whirlwind (tornado).

Finally, there are some highly specific geographic markers in Job: Teman, Naamah, and the “Land of Uz”, which seems to be another, older name for Edom. The book also discusses hippopotami and crocodiles, which still inhabit the Nile and formerly inhabited the Jordan River.

None of these things would fit with a tale of Akkadian origins. There seems little reason to doubt that it is a story with its origins in Edom or Midian.