Wisdom Revealed

The Message of Biblical Wisdom Literature—Then and Now

Robert P. Vande Kappelle

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781498217484
• eBook ISBN: 9781498217491
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

Humans, seeking to understand the nature of reality, have learned to discern life's patterns and to respond to life's vicissitudes by acting wisely, doing what brings happiness and success. The Bible is a record of that journey. It represents the inspired attempt to become wise at the deepest level, living harmoniously with one's community, the earth, and the Creator. Through their inspirational teachings, the sages of the biblical wisdom tradition offer time-honored advice about some of life's most difficult concerns, including the problem of pain, the suffering of the innocent, the nature of evil, the justice of God, and the pervasiveness of death. Wisdom Revealed, a survey of biblical wisdom literature, offers perspective on topics that arise as one follows the text, always with an eye on the big picture, namely, daily living. Those who read this literature will be exposed to a set of core values necessary for vital citizenship and effective leadership at all levels of life. They will also obtain time-honored advice about how to deal with life's uncertainties in a holistic and pragmatic manner, focusing on what it means to be human in the presence of God.

Part I

Beginnings

Conventional Wisdom

Chapter 1

The Book of Proverbs: A Quest for Practical Knowledge

Overview: The book of Proverbs is an anthology of traditional morality consisting of collections of instructions and aphorisms designed to inculcate trust in one’s teachers and parents. Young people are asked to choose between two ways to live, following the advice of Lady Wisdom or Lady Folly. In Proverbs, the energetic search for wisdom is more important than learning specific things or acting wisely. The quest for wisdom brings prosperity and happiness because it orients one toward God and reveals the real structure of the world. Proverbs reflects two fundamental assumptions: that the universe is basically harmonious and that it has a moral structure characterized by retribution, whereby the good and just are rewarded and the bad or evil are punished.

Assigned Reading: Proverbs 1–5; 8–9; 10–13; 29–30; 31:10–31

Central Theme: The “fear of the Lord” is the beginning of wisdom.

Outline to Proverbs

I. Prologue 1:1–7

II. The Value of Wisdom 1:8—9:18

III. The Content of Wisdom 10:1—31:9

A. First Collection of the Proverbs of Solomon 10:1—22:16

B. Sayings of the Sages I 22:17—24:22

C. Sayings of the Sages II 24:23–34

D. Second Collection of the Proverbs of Solomon 25:1—29:27

E. Sayings of Agur 30:1–33

F. Sayings of Lemuel 31:1–9

IV. Epilogue: Lady Wisdom as Wife 31:10–31

Contextual Analysis

In its broadest sense, wisdom denotes expertise or skill. Among the sages, however, wisdom came to denote expertise in life based on careful observation of God’s created and moral order. Thus wisdom focused on practical success in everyday life, a goal at the heart of Proverbs (1:2–4). As previously noted, Israelite wisdom developed over a long time within the broader international wisdom traditions from Mesopotamia and Egypt. Despite formal attribution to Solomon (1:1), Proverbs explicitly identifies various other individuals or groups responsible for large portions of the book: anonymous sages (22:17; 24:23), Agur (30:1), Lemuel (31:1), and the scribes of Hezekiah (25:1). Ascribing Solomonic authorship to Proverbs gives the book the status of official teaching and credits the king with comprehensive wisdom.

There is a possibility that the real royal authority behind the Proverbs is Hezekiah. Collections of proverbs could well have been compiled during the time of his religious reform, and it is equally possible that they received proper authority by their association with Solomon. While we do not have enough information to reconstruct this historical period, the book of Proverbs attests to both Hezekiah’s influence (25:1) and Solomon’s reputation (1:1; 10:1; 25:1).

The book of Proverbs is an anthology or, more accurately, an anthology of anthologies.10 Within the collections of proverbs the arrangement is often random. Sometimes proverbs are grouped according to theme or vocabulary; proverbs with a similar form, such as numerical sayings (Prov. 30:15–31), also occur in proximity. Because the book is an anthology, it contains repetitions (see 21:9 and 25:24). The individual proverbs are impossible to date with precision, since they lack reference to specific historical events, although those having to do with kings surely come from the monarchical period. Since there is little evidence of Greek influence or thought, scholars generally believe the collection itself was compiled during the Persian period, probably in the fifth or fourth century BC. While the book of Proverbs comes from an urban setting in the postexilic period, many sayings originate from diverse places years earlier, including the family farm (10:5; 14:4), home (13:24), city (11:10), and the royal court (25:2–7).

While the purpose of the book of Proverbs is to instruct youth in the life of wisdom, a secondary function is to entertain the audience by providing vignettes of humanity in all its foibles, flaws, and charms (see Prov. 27:14). The proverbs fall into two general categories: those that express some insight about human experience and those that have a religious dimension. Yet the two categories are not entirely separate. The religious dimension is for the most part one of divine justice in which God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked. We must recall that the authors of the proverbs, like the ancient Israelites in general, did not have a fully developed belief in life after death, especially not in an afterlife where there was bliss for some and damnation for others. The reward for righteous behavior was in the present rather than in an eternal future.

While most of the proverbs depict the lives of the wealthy elite, especially in the royal court, the book of Proverbs testifies to some of the ideals of the prophets concerning social justice. Special attention is given to the poor and the needy, as well as to the rights of widows and orphans. Not surprisingly, the social world of Proverbs is essentially patriarchal, though the mother’s status in the family is acknowledged occasionally (1:8; 10:1). The book ends with a famous acrostic poem celebrating the qualities of an ideal Israelite woman, though the ultimate reference is probably Lady Wisdom herself. Nevertheless, the values of the authors are for the most part conventional and patriarchal. The addressee of the book is also a male, as is indicated by nearly two dozen addresses to “my son” and by the advice to stay away from the “strange woman.”

Like wisdom, the term “proverb” is difficult to define. The Hebrew word mashal has three meanings. (1) The root meaning derives from the verb “to be like” and points to the idea of “likeness” or “comparison.” As a comparison, it usually consists of two parts in some kind of poetic construction. The sentence (see 10:2), the purest form of the proverb, is distinct from the instruction (22:17–29), which is a much longer unit, sometimes almost a short essay. Sentence and instruction alike, however, are expressed in poetic form, the two parts being either compared or contrasted in parallel balance. There are three major types of parallelism. The simplest is called synonymous parallelism, where the second half of the line repeats the thought of the first with a slight variation (4:11). Antithetic parallelism contrast ideas (10:7) while the third type, synthetic parallelism, advances an idea and moves it toward a new concept (16:31). It is important to appreciate the prominence of poetry in the Bible. The Israelite elite, whether scribes, priests, prophets, kings, or sages, did not casually choose to express themselves in poetic form. Their very perception of reality was poetic. The modern word of science and logic does not always grasp, much less appreciate, the perspective of the ancient world. We insist on precision because we tend to perceive reality scientifically. Ancient Israel did not. Its encounter with reality was aesthetic and, therefore, it expressed itself in artistic thought patterns and literary forms. This does not minimize the validity of its...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part I: Beginnings
• Part II: Unconventional Wisdom
• Part III: Wisdom in a Hellenistic World
• Part IV: Liturgical Wisdom
• Part V: New Testament Wisdom
• Appendix: Chronological Timeline
• Bibliography