Who wrote the Book of Job and how did they know about the conversation between God and Satan?

I’m very interested in this question! My first instinct is to say one of the prophets wrote it, but that still leaves some grey spots.

The Book of Job does not specifically name its author. The most likely candidates are Job, Elihu, Moses and Solomon.

source: http://www.gotquestions.org/Book-of-Job.html

From what I understand it was scholars or translators. And the conversation with God and Satan was not real. But a good way to tell the story in the point of view.

I believe the Jewish belief (by decree of the Talmud) is that it was written by Moses.
As far as how they knew about the conversation…
How did the author of Genesis know about the Creation? How did the author of Exodus know about Mount Sinai? This, as with most religious concepts, must be accepted by a leap of faith.

I declare this a Great Question… Congrats: You’ve been the first.

That said, no clue. The quick religious cop out is, “it’s not real”, but you ask them a question about Family Guy and they’re an authority. My point being, “for discussion’s sake, according to religion, how did X come about?”... even if you don’t believe, you could still learn, even just by following the progress made in this topic.

Use the force.

The story is, God himself told someone the story of Job so it could be written down. Thus giving the nickname for the Bible of “Word of God”. As the Great Wizard of Oz said….“Don’t pay any attention to the man behind the curtain!”...... You might ruin it for everone..

As lefteh says, the Talmudic tradition attributes Job to Moses. There is some evidence or this attribution in similar word choice and imagery between Job and passages of Moses’ Pentateuch, e.g. “He struck Job down with a SORE BOIL from the SOLE OF HIS FOOT to the CROWN OF HIS HEAD.” (Job 2:7) compared with “The Lord will smite thee . . . with a SORE BOIL . . . from the SOLE OF THY FOOT to the CROWN OF THY HEAD.” (Deut. 28:35) or “Lying in bed I wonder, When will it be day? Risen I think, How slowly evening comes!” (Job 7:4) compared with “In the morning thou shalt say: Would that it were evening! and in the evening thou shalt say: Would that it were morn!” (Deut. 28:67). Some scholars also argue that the passages involving Elihu are a later addition by a different author.

As for how the author would be privy to the heavenly dialog, it’s worth noting that the Jews themselves take the story of Job to be a parable, not an historical episode. The Talmud unequivocally states “Job never was and never existed, but is only a parable.” (Tr. Baba Bathra 15a).

Moses wrote the book of Job,—all biblical books I believe are inspired by God, God is the truth

the bible is a work of fiction – not to be taken literally under any circumstances. Doing so would lead to an incredibly hostile, uncaring, insensitive world where everyone thought their point of view was the only correct one… Obviously, as a society we should avoid this at all costs if we care about our future whatsoever. So, the only thing that we know for certain is that none of the characters in that book could have writen it.

@Maverick – Saw you coming a mile away. Check my earlier post… Just roll with it, or keep on rolling :)

@lovelocke studying the origins of the bible, as a literary work, is important. As is studying the effects of religion on society. But these are questions that religious people often have a hard time confronting and being honest about. Trying to say that one of the characters in the book wrote one of the chapters is as ridiculous as saying that Princess Leia wrote Attack of the Clones.

@maverick wait a minute. Your telling me Leia didn’t write attack of the clones! My world is upside down! I joke I joke.

@Maverick – thanks for holding to an absolute truth yourself by saying that the bible is a work of fiction. if you’re allowed to tell everyone else that it’s completely fiction, why am I a pompous fool for telling everyone that it’s true.

I’ll tell you—my point of view allows for people to end up in hell and yours tells everyone they’re right as long as they don’t believe the bible is true.

wow, so divisive. I guess that’s also a Chistian value? The absolute truth that I hold is that absolute truth is provable and will stand up to scientific analysis under the scientific method. Now, if you have new evidence that proves that the events of the bible are historically accurate, I’d love to discuss them with you but, so far as I’m aware, no such evidence has ever withstood scientific scrutiny.

Who wrote revenge of the sith? Hopefully not Anakin cause he got jacked up!

Maverick, the fact that you are talking about this things shows that the events of the Bible are historical facts and are accurate. Scientific scrutiny is only the best of human intellect and knowledge. Awesome are their works indeed. And to humans all around the world they are almost awefully convinced that scientific knowledge is immortal like some Christians who believe that soul is immortal. But this knowledge cannot stand in the face of the supreme awesomeness of God Himself who chose to reveal Himself not only in Nature and Creation, but chose to reveal Himself through His Word of life. Scientific analysis is beyond the common man’s knowledge and it is beyond the scientist’s own knowledge. For there are things a scientist discovers that he/she cannot comprehend or fathom. This indeed is amazing to know. It amazes me and this is why I embraces science. If you embraces science, well and good, like you obviously do. True science does not stop with the simple formular “A or B, whereas B cannot be A,” but it goes above and beyond. Nature testifies of God and reveals a science that fascinates humans. The Bible testifies of God and reveals a science that not only fascinates humans, but it fascinates the beings of unseen worlds and angels who dwell in the light of God’s excellency. The Bible also testifies that nature is beautiful and that nature testifies of God who created it. Not only does nature testifies of God, nature worships and praises God. When humans are most likely to be slow to give glory to God, creation is quick to give glory due to Him.
Therefore, how do you determine that science tests the Bible, when the Bible testifies of science and points to the One who is above all sciences?

the One who is above all sciences

Argument void based on this statement.

Awesome Answer Wei2! and i agree with Lefteh, that statement covers it all quite well, “the ONE who is above all sciences”. Until you have an encounter with HIM, you’ll continue to reduce HIM and HIS magnificence to simple explanations of science. I long for the day when His word will be proven true to all those who fail to believe as YET. I have faith that EVERY knee shall bow and EVERY tounge shall confess that HE is Lord!

I think you missed my point. Big-time.

Yeah science is definitely what holds truth. Kind of like when scientist drained blood because they thought it would cure people, or when they used to x-ray pregnant women to help the baby only to realize it gave them cancer, or how about when scientists thought shock treatment and straight jackets were the best way to cure depression. Yeah, science is totally perfect. Honestly, you can disagree or “not believe” what the bible has to say about “God”, but its kind of a ridiculous statement to say you know for a FACT nothing in it is believable. First of all you DONT. Second of all any thinking person knows that you cannot hold “history” to scientific theory. The bible is a “history book”. You are perfectly free to believe it is a wrong or twisted history, but none the less it is composed of ancient manuscripts found all over the world, written in different times throughout thousands of years, and authored by dozens of different people. ANY OTHER manuscripts found this way would be labeled historical. Science is something that can be reproduced and is observable and all people know that you can neither reproduce nor observe the past, so you need to make your argument about philosophy or history, but not science. And if you are bound and determined to make it about science then, please go ahead and explain how evolution or your view of creation and history is observable and reproducible. I would truly love to know.