Abstract
It has been suggested that the books of Job and of Deutero-Isaiah (Isaiah 40–55) have a variety of similarities in their linguistic features and common subject-matter and because of this, it has been argued that there is literary dependence or influence of one book upon the other. Although such an author-oriented approach, by which scholars explain similarities by the theory of literary references, has some value, there is no specific reason to understand those similarities by a sort of direct literary dependence. However, these two books are likely to include the common scribal mindset of the Persian period. Here I put forward shared ideas of God’s universal control and freedom which are distinct from the Mosaic covenant and apocalyptic ideas. With these comparisons between Job/Deutero-Isaiah and other concepts in the Hebrew Bible, I propose the dating of the two books and argue that these cultural ideas about God’s control and freedom reflect the Persian scribal idea on the formation of the two books.
Kwon, Jiseong James