on the isle of Cyprus and produced, probably, one hundred years
earlier than the book?

No Israelite writer of the fifth century B.C., in which we
venture to place the author of the Book of Job, would ever pic-
ture his God in human form. The author of Job is careful to
present the Almighty as a Voice speaking from the bright heart of
the storm; he relies on our imagination to grasp some sense of
the personality from which the words of the Voice emanate.

Most skillfully, the author makes us aware of the immense
difference between God and man; aware, also, of our own limited
capacity to interpret the Voice. Pointing to the difference be-
tween Himself and Job, the Almighty indulges in gentle irony.
He challenges Job to change places with Him, declaring that, if
Job can make good the exchange, God Himself will sing praise
to Job.

Not all these votive heads, adorning statues of heroic dimen-
sions, represented gods in the sacred places of the ancient world.
Some of them probably served to depict faithful worshipers in a
constant attitude of adoration pleasing to their patron deities.
The object was to secure a blessing for those who placed them
there. The features of such statuary express the confident pride--
like that of Job himself--of those who, boasting a clean record of
service to the gods, expect to receive divine favor. With this
attitude the author of the Book of Job takes issue.

There is no knowing whether the author traveled far and
wide; but, even if he resided mainly in a single center of ancient
culture, he could not fail to be aware of such statuary. Art of
this kind was widespread as early as the sixth century B.C. and
probably, to judge by cruder seated figures recently found in
pre-Israelite shrines at Hazor in Galilee, six or seven centuries
before that. The remains of such statues bear mute witness to
the widespread traffic in ideas and to their confluence. For in-
stance, a female head from Cyprus, of the late sixth century B.C.
(now in the Worcester Art Museum, in Massachusetts), shows
ornamentation of Akkadian (Assyro-Babylonian), Egyptian, even
of Greek tastes, and perhaps also, in headgear and posture, traces
of influence from the Palestinian coastlands.

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