Moralia in Job 42

1. Who is the writer of the book of Job. — It is often asked among many, who is held to be the writer of the book of blessed Job. And some indeed suppose Moses, others some one or other of the prophets, to have been the writer of this work. For because in the book of Genesis (Gen. xxxvi, 33) it is described that Jobab descended from the stock of Esau, and succeeded to the kingdom after Balak the son of Beor, they have believed this blessed Job to have existed long before the times of Moses — not knowing indeed the manner of the sacred eloquence, which in its earlier parts is wont to touch briefly on things that will follow long afterward, when it is eager to hasten on to enumerate other things more subtly. Whence there also Jobab is recorded to have been before kings existed in Israel.

By no means, therefore, is he known to have existed before the Law, who is signified to have been in the time of the Israelite judges. And while certain persons consider this less cautiously, they think Moses to be the writer of his deeds, as of one set long before; so that, namely, he who was able to bring forth the precepts of the Law for our instruction should himself be believed also to have handed down to us, out of the history of a Gentile man, examples of virtue. But some, as has been said, judge some one or other of the prophets to be the writer of this work: asserting that no one could know words of God so mystical, save one whose mind the spirit of prophecy raised up to things above. 2. The author is the Holy Spirit.

— But who wrote these things is a very superfluous question, since nonetheless the author of the book is faithfully believed to be the Holy Spirit. He therefore wrote these things, who dictated the things to be written. He wrote them, who both existed as the inspirer in that man's work, and through the voice of the writer transmitted to us his deeds to be imitated. If, having received the letters of some great man, we read his words, but were to ask with what pen they had been written, it would surely be ridiculous to know the author of the letters and to recognize their sense, but to inquire with what sort of pen their words had been impressed.

When, therefore, we know the matter, and hold the Holy Spirit to be the author of that matter, in seeking the writer, what else do we do but, while reading the letters, inquire about the pen? 3. By whose inspiration Job described his own contests. — Yet we can more truly conjecture that this same blessed Job, who sustained the contests of a spiritual combat, also narrated the deeds of his own consummated victory. Nor ought it to move anyone that in the same book it is said: Job said; or, this and that Job endured. For it is the custom of Sacred Scripture that those who write should so speak of themselves in it as though of others. For hence it is that Moses says: Moses was a man exceedingly meek above all men who dwelt on the earth (Num. xii, 3).

Hence John says: That disciple whom Jesus loved (John xix, 26). Hence Luke says: That two of the disciples were walking on the way, Cleophas and another (Luke xxiv, 13) — which other, since he so studiously kept silent, he showed, as some say, to have been himself. The writers therefore of the sacred eloquence, because they are moved by the impulse of the Holy Spirit, so bring forth testimony concerning themselves in it as though concerning others. Therefore the Holy Spirit spoke through Moses about Moses; the Holy Spirit spoke through John about John. Paul too, that he was not speaking of himself, intimates when he says: Do you seek a proof of Him who speaks in me, Christ (II Cor. xiii, 3)?

Hence it is that the angel who is described to have appeared to Moses is mentioned now as an angel, now as the Lord: an angel indeed, because of this, that he served by speaking outwardly; but he is called the Lord, because, presiding within, he ministered the efficacy of speaking. When, therefore, one speaking is governed by the inner one, he is named both an angel through service, and the Lord through inspiration. Hence David says: Attend, O my people, to my law; incline your ear to the words of my mouth (Ps. lxxvii, 1). For it is not the law of David, nor the people of David, but, assuming the person of Him from whom he was speaking, he speaks by the authority of Him with whose inspiration he was filled. We discern this to be done daily in the Church, if we look attentively.

For the reader, standing in the midst of the people, cries out: I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob (Exod. iii, 6). And that he himself is God, he assuredly does not truly say; nor yet, through that which he says, does he desert the rule of truth; because to Him to whom he furnishes ministry by reading, he holds forth His dominion by voice. And so the writers of the sacred eloquence, because, filled with the Holy Spirit, they are drawn above themselves, become as it were outside themselves; and so they bring forth opinions concerning themselves as though concerning others. Whence also blessed Job, breathed upon by the Holy Spirit, was able to write his own deeds — which were indeed the gifts of the supernal inspiration — as though not his own: because those things he spoke were another's, in that a man spoke the things which are of God;

and by that same measure another spoke the things which were his, in that the Holy Spirit spoke the things which are of man.