It appears, therefore, that the book of Job was written, even according to the calculations of the orthodox, long before the time of Abraham, the founder of the Jewish nation, and hence could not have been the work of Moses or any other Hebrew. Mr. Smith thinks that it was produced _soon after the Flood_, by an Arabian. He finds in it many proofs of great antiquity. He sees in it (xxxi, 26, 28) proof that in Job's time idolatry was an offense under the laws, and punishable as such; and he is satisfied that all the parties to the great dialogue were free from the taint of idolatry. Mr. Smith says: "The Babylonians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Canaanites, Midianites, Ethiopians of Abyssinia, Syrians, and other contemporary nations, had sunk into gross idolatry long before the time of Moses." The Arabians were an important branch of the great Atlantean stock; they derived their descent from the people of Add. "And to this day the Arabians declare that _the father of Job was the founder of the great Arabian people_."[2] [1. Hale's "Chronology," vol. ii, p. 55. 2. Smith's "Sacred Annals," vol. i, p. 360.] {p. 279} Again, the same author says: "Job acted as high-priest in his own family; and, minute as are the descriptions of the different classes and usages of society in this book, we have not the slightest allusion to the existence of any priests or specially appointed ministers of religion, _a fact which shows the extreme antiquity of the period_, as priests were, in all probability, first appointed about the time of Abraham, and became general soon after."[1] He might have added that priests were known among the Egyptians and Babylonians and Phœnicians from the very beginning of their history. Dr. Magee says: "If, in short, there be on the whole, that genuine air of the antique which those distinguished scholars, Schultens, Lowth, and Michaelis, affirm in every respect to pervade the work, we can scarcely hesitate to pronounce, with Lowth and Sherlock, that _the book of Job is the oldest in the world now extant_."[2] Moreover, it is evident that this ancient hero, although he probably lived before Babylon and Assyria, before Troy was known, before Greece had a name, nevertheless dwelt in the midst of a high civilization. "The various arts, the most recondite sciences, the most remarkable productions of earth, in respect of animals, vegetables, and minerals, the classified arrangement of the stars of heaven, are all noticed." Not only did Job's people possess an alphabet, but books were written, characters were engraved; and some have even gone so far as to claim that the art of printing was known, because Job says, "Would that my words were printed in a book!" [1. Smith's "Sacred Annals," p. 364. 2. Magee "On the Atonement," vol. ii, p. 84.] {p. 280} The literary excellence of the work is of the highest order. Lowth says: