"[F]rom all the evidence that can be collected the book of Job does not belong to the Bible.
I have seen the opinion of two Hebrew commentators, Abenezra and
Spinoza, upon this subject; they both say that the book of Job
carries no internal evidence of being an Hebrew book; that the genius
of the composition, and the drama of the piece, are not Hebrew; that
it has been translated from another language into Hebrew, and that
the author of the book was a Gentile; that the character represented
under the name of Satan (which is the first and only time this name
is mentioned in the Bible) does not correspond to any Hebrew idea; and that the two
convocations which the Deity is supposed to have made of those whom
the poem calls sons of God, and the familiarity which this supposed
Satan is stated to have with the Deity, are in the same case.
-- Thomas Paine "The Age of Reason" (1795)
[In a later work Paine notes that in "the
Bible" (by which he always means the Old Testament alone) the word
Satan occurs also in 1 Chron. xxi. 1, and remarks that the action
there ascribed to Satan is in 2 Sam. xxiv. 1, attributed to Jehovah
("Essay on Dreams"). In these places, however, and in Ps. cix. 6,
Satan means "adversary," and is so translated (A.S. version) in 2
Sam. xix. 22, and 1 Kings v. 4, xi. 25. As a proper name, with the
article, Satan appears in the Old Testament only in Job and in Zech.
iii. 1, 2. But the authenticity of the passage in Zechariah has been
questioned, and it may be that in finding the proper name of Satan in
Job alone, Paine was following some opinion met with in one of the
authorities whose comments are condensed in his paragraph. --
Editor.]
Note the numerous references to astronomical constellations.
Job 9:9
"He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and the constellations of the south."
Job 38:31-33
"Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades?
Can you loose the cords of Orion?
Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons
or lead out the Bear with its cubs?
Do you know the laws of the heavens?"
The constellation in conjunction with Virgo, now known as Bootes, was in
ancient times called Arcturus (the foster father). He is represented as holding in leash
two hunting dogs and driving Ursa Major, the Great Bear, around the north pole. This
suggests that the original occupation of the celestial foster father of the Sun God was
that of a bear driver, whose sons (Job 38:2) are the dogs Asterion and Chara.
—Larry M. Wright Christianity, Astrology and Myth
