MacLeish extensively references the Book of Job from the Old Testament for the core storyline and some character names. The italicized lines in the printed version of J.B., voiced by Nickles, Zuss, and others, are excerpts from the King James Version, first published in 1611.

Collected Poems, 1917-1952 (1952) was MacLeish's second book to win the Pulitzer Prize. The poems in this collection showcase MacLeish's versatility, spanning from public to personal expressions and from political to intimate themes.

In Songs for Eve (1954), MacLeish draws inspiration from the biblical tale of Adam and Eve's Fall and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden, similar to how he uses the story of Job in J.B. In this work, Eve rejoices in leaving Eden because the awareness of mortality makes her feel truly alive.

The script for the Broadway play, performed in 1958, is available as J.B.: A Play in Verse, published by Samuel French, Inc. MacLeish and director Elia Kazan collaborated on several significant changes to enhance the play's dramatic impact and address philosophical concerns that Kazan found problematic in MacLeish's original text.

In the novel The Red Badge of Courage (1895), Stephen Crane's protagonist, Henry Fleming, witnesses horror and devastation as a soldier in the American Civil War, leading him to question how God can permit such evil to exist.