The appendix to the Book of Job.
The appendix to the Book of Job.
§ 178. The appendix to the Booh of Job. This appendix begins: “For it is written that he will rise again,” etc. [
]. It is clear that it is apocryphal: (1) Because it is not contained in the Hebrew text but only in the Greek codices. (2) In QQ. in Gen., Jerome tries to show that what is contained in that appendix is false: that Job was of the seed of Esau, since he was of the seed of Uz, who was the son of Nahor, Abraham’s brother. (3) Bellarmine (loc. cit.) adds the following argument: “That appendix depends strongly on the authority of Genesis 36, where Jobab is listed among the descendants of Esau. The name 
, however, which is proper of Job himself, is far different from 
, which is contained in Genesis 36.” But we already have explained what conclusion we must reach concerning this matter.
§ 179. To these apocryphal writings, Bellarmine (loc. cit.) adds a brief preface that is prefixed to the Lamentations of Jeremiah, which reads: “It came to pass, after Israel had been captured and Jerusalem had been devastated, that Jeremiah sat weeping and lamenting this lamentation over Jerusalem and said ….” He proves that this preface is apocryphal from the fact that it does not appear in the Hebrew codices nor in all the Latin ones. Also, it is not touched on by the expositors. The first argument is strong and effective, but this reasoning will force Bellarmine to remove from the canon of the Old Testament all those books that our churches consider apocryphal, for none of them is found in the Hebrew codices.