On the Authorship of Job

St. Gregory the Dialogist ca. 540-604

It would certainly be a vain enterprise to ask who wrote the Book of Job, since in any case the Author of the book is believed, in the Faith, to be the Holy Spirit. He, therefore, wrote this book, who dictated what was to be written. He wrote it, who is both the Inspirer of him who did the work of writing, and who transmitted to us, by the word of the one writing, the facts that were to be presented. If we were to read the words of some great man in a letter we had received, but were to question by what pen the letter had been set down in writing, it would surely be ridiculous to know the author of the letter and to recognize its meaning, and at the same time to try to discover by what sort of pen those words had been inscribed. But when we know the thing itself and hold firmly that the Holy Spirit is its Author, and yet we inquire after its writer, what else are we doing but questioning about the pen which inscribed the words we read? (Moral Teaching from Job Preface 1.2)