The SNTS Seminar on Early Jewish Writings and the New Testament took as its subject for 1986 and 1987 the Testament of Job (hereafter T. Job). This testament is one of the less familiar writings among the pseudepigrapha, but deserves – for reasons indicated below – to be more widely known. Since the five papers read at the two meetings cover between them several of the most important issues that arise in the study of T. Job it seemed desirable to the conveners of the Seminar (Knibb and Van der Horst) that they should be published as a group rather than scattered amongst different journals. The volume will, it is hoped, provide a comprehensive introduction to the study of this writing and serve to make it more accessible to scholars. Matters of a bibliographical, text-critical, literary-critical, exegetical and theological nature are all discussed in this volume, and the contributors include the two scholars who have most recently produced translations of and commentaries on this work.

During the sessions of the Seminar it became increasingly clear that T. Job sheds light on several aspects of ancient Judaism and early Christianity. In the first place, it is a fascinating example of early post-biblical haggada which deserves to be studied closely for its haggadic procedures and as such invites comparison with other writings of a similar midrashic nature.