St. Thomas Aquinas an Inspiration Against Moses Maimonides for Historicity of Job

The problem of the historicity of Job appears to be an age-old consideration; for we find that at least as far back as the C13th AD the question was being hotly debated in the Schools. Thomas Aquinas [040] was one who had insisted that Job, and those who engaged in debate with him, were genuine historical persons. In this he was opposing himself to the likes of Moses Maimonides [050], who had expressed a contrary view. Aquinas referred, in the Prologue to his "Expositio" on Job, to what he deemed to be the clear references to Job in the Old and New Testaments (i.e. Ezekiel 14:14,20 & James 5:11). He also, in the course of his commentary, pointed to certain details of an historical nature in the text of Job itself that he believed to confirm this view; for example that very first verse of the Book of Job: "There was a man in the land of Uz by the name of Job, ..."(1:1), in which Job is described with respect to his native land and his name. These two items of information, Aquinas maintained, had been provided to show that this story is not a parable but a real occurrence [060]. Again, later on in the Book of Job, the young Elihu is introduced into the story as "Elihu, the son of Barachiel the Buzite, of the line of Ram" (32:2). From this precise information we learn about the young man's name, his origin, his native land, and his race.This Elihu, incidentally, is the only character in the Book of Job who is accorded a patronymic (a father's name). So, in the case of Job's father, for example, and the father of his wife, we must search elsewhere for the information. I think that we can find these detailed in the Book of Tobit. Biographical detail is one of the major differences between Tobit and Job. Whereas the Book of Tobit provides us with immense personal detail about the lives of its central characters, the Book of Job by comparison is significantly lacking in that regard. The author of Job does not offer even the tiniest clue as to the identity of Job's father, or mother, or who might have been their ancestors; nor are we told where Job was born, nor to which race he belonged.Similarly, we do not learn anything there about the family origins (tôlêdôt) of Job's wife. And it is probably due to the fact that the Book of Job provides no specific Israelite ancestry for its main character - plus the fact that Job himself is described as living in the "east", in the "land of Uz" (cf.1:1&3) - that commentators have invariably concluded that he must have been a non-Israelite, a 'gentile'. Thus Augustine of Hippo (354 AD) said of Job that: "He was neither a native of Israel nor a proselyte (that is, a newly admitted member of the people of Israel) ...", but an Edomite foreigner [070]. What I am here proposing, though, is that the Book of Tobit has already provided all such personal detail as is lacking from the Book of Job.According to this view, we would already know from the opening verses of Tobit all about Job's paternal ancestry, his tribe, his country and town of origin. In those verses we read about Tobias' father, that he was:... Tobit, the son of Tobiel, son of Ananiel, son of Aduel, son of Gabael, of the descendants of Asiel and the tribe of Naphtali .... And that he was "from Thisbe, which is to the south of Kedesh Naphtali in Galilee above Asor" (1:1-2).That already is comprehensive biographical information!Moreover, we would know from the Book of Tobit that Tobias's mother was "Anna", the wife of Tobit (1:9). We would know such similar details too about Tobias's own wife; that she was named "Sarah" and was "... the daughter of Raguel" (3:7) and "Edna" (7:2), who lived "at Ecbatana in Media" (3:7), and that she married Tobias (7:13).Hence if this reconstruction is correct, that Job is Tobias, there would be no need for the Book of Job to repeat all of this biographical information.

To be able to establish the genealogy and chronology of the young Elihu in the Book of Job would be another means of confirming the true era of the prophet Job.