In the opening chapter of this dissertation,
some solutions are offered for the problems arising
from the confused and contradictory traditions
relating to Job in talmudic-midrashic literature.
In successive chapters, the aggadic exegesis
of the Book of Job is analysed and evaluated in detail,
in order to demonstrate that it was profoundly
influenced by traditional views relating to the book's
authorship and historical setting.
The early tradition that Moses himself was
the author of the Book of Job suggested that it
shared a special relationship with the Pentateuch,
which is presupposed by the Rabbis' consistent use
of material from well-defined sections of the book
in their expositions and homilies on many aspects
of the creation of the world, the corruption of the
Generation of the Flood and their ultimate annihilation,
and the mythical monsters, to which only a passing
allusion is made in the Genesis account of the
creation,
The aggadic interpretation of the book was
influenced further by a tradition of high antiquity,
that Job was actually a contemporary of the bondage and the exodus. Consequently, numerous utterances by
Job and his companions were treated as allusions to
events and personalities involved in Israel's early
history as a nation.
In the final chapter, the aggadic content of
the Targum to Job is re-examined in order to show its
conformity with the rabbinic interpretation of the
book, and the antiquity of certain traditions preserved
in the extant text of the Targum, which may shed some
light on the question of the relationship between the
existing Targum and the ancient text current in the
First Century CE
