The Book of Job and Greco-Roman Book Culture in Early Christianity

Despite its variegated reception within Second Temple Judaism, the book of Job received little attention from early Christian authors. Extant Christian writings from the first and second centuries CE attest only a few scattered quotations from Greek Job, alongside a moderate interest in the moral character of the book’s central figure. From the evidence, early Christians treat the book of Job predominantly as a repository of moral maxims, while appealing to the character of Job as an ethical example. This chapter contextualizes this reception of Job by exploring the dynamics of contemporary textual practices within the ancient Mediterranean. In doing so, we will see that Christian engagements with “Job the text” and “Job the person” are representative of a broader participation of Christians within Greco-Roman book culture.