Job Unravelled
The oldest part of the Scriptures we call the Bible is the book of Job. We know it's old because the language it was written in is called "Paleo Hebrew". It's a version of Hebrew that's older than the ancient Hebrew that most of the Old Testament was written in. This and some expressions in Syriac and Arabic point to a time around 1900-1700 bc. Now this in itself is hugely interesting, because it points to a time before the events detailing the rise of Israel as a special people with a special relationship with God. It predates the covenant with Abraham and the law of Moses. But it points to a time when there was an understanding that God was in charge and God valued goodness. The book deals with the age old question of suffering. It's a dramatised debate about it. In that regard it's just like some of the early philosophical discourses we find where the issues are discussed as dialogue. In this way the writer could put unacceptable views into the fiction