Table of Contents
For Review and Further StudyIntroduction to the Wisdom LiteratureThere is a perceived deep social need, and apparently a big publishers market, for advice on how to be a good person and how to get the most out of life. Self-help volumes frequently top the best-seller lists. Seminars on self-improvement and how to achieve success draw big crowds, such as Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People." Dear Abby, Ann Landers, Heloise and other syndicated newspaper columnists dole out practical, no-nonsense advice for life's problem situations. And, of course, dads and moms love to give advice--most frequently, it seems, when it's not wanted.
Every community finds ways to transmit its accumulated knowledge, sometimes through storytelling, or through institutions of learning. In the old days, elders and sages passed on wisdom around the campfire or the kitchen table. [Figure: Hagar the Horrible cartoon] Parents taught their children by word and example. In the Hebrew tradition, no less than any other, parents were concerned to instruct the next generation how to cope with life and be decent citizens. Where and how such instruction took place in Hebrew culture, we are not sure. But a great deal of its content was eventually written down. Today scholars call it wisdom literature. The books containing wisdom took shape in the hope that they would provide direction to those who sought to live moral and productive lives. They were textbooks of a sort to those who were looking for help in how to live life: how to think, how to cope, indeed, how to succeed. The ones who studied and compiled cultural wisdom and wrote the books are the wise men, the sages of Israel. They gleaned the insights of their society, studied the traditions of wisdom of surrounding cultures, and thought deeply about the relationship of the divine and the world of wisdom (see Blenkinsopp 1995 for a study of the sage). ProverbsAdvertisers work hard and do plenty of market research to find just the right phrasing to impress their product on our minds. Sayings such as "It's the Real Thing" and "Just Do It!" have immediate associations for most of us. Likewise, insights into human behavior and prudent practice can frequently be distilled into short memorable sayings called maxims and aphorisms. Maxims in Ben Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac, such as "a penny saved is a penny earned," have been American cultural artifacts for centuries.
The book of Proverbs was "Life's Little Instruction Book" for the Israelites, a treasury of short sayings for living a long life. A proverb, much like a Ben Franklin maxim, is a short, memorable saying that encapsulates a truth about life. Proverbs are typically framed as matter of fact statements of the way things are. But really they are lessons about the way you should be. For example, the proverb "One wise-of-heart keeps commandments; a muttering fool comes to ruin" (10:8) consists of declarative statements, not commands. Nonetheless, the command is obvious: Be a wise and moral person! Although such declarative statements comprise the bulk of proverbs, there are other types of statements in the book, including riddles, allegories, taunts, and autobiographical sketches (see 24:30-32). Just as do many English maxims, biblical proverbs frequently contain a play on words or alliteration, at least in the original Hebrew. Most biblical proverbs take the form of couplets containing parallel members, called the A- and B-lines. See, for example, Proverbs 16:1.
Proverbs from Around the World
PrologueThe first collection within the book of Proverbs is chapters 1-9. It consists of poems and vignettes and serves as an introduction or prologue to the rest of the book. Chapters 10-31 consist of various subcollections that contain mostly just single-sentence proverbs in linear sequence, one after another in seemingly random order. The proverbial material of the first collection develops recognizable themes over chunks of text; we could call them "brief essays." The topics of these essays include a justification for studying wisdom, characterizations of wisdom and folly, and the role of wisdom in creating the world. Of all the collections the prologue contains the most variety, and, compared
to the remainder of the book, it contains more references to God. This had led
some scholars, including McKane (1965) and
Whybray (1965), to date the prologue later
than the rest of the book and to say it was composed to form an introduction
to the proverb collections of chapters 10-31. They operate on the assumption
that early wisdom was secular, and only later was wisdom incorporated within
a religious worldview.
2 For learning wisdom and discipline, Note all the words referring to education: learning, understanding, instructing, teaching. The book of Proverbs is introduced as a textbook in wisdom. This paragraph is especially helpful because, as it recommends the book, it provides a number of terms which are at least partially synonymous with wisdom, enabling us to get a sense of the scope of this foundational notion. Here is a partial list of associations with wisdom: discipline, instruction, understanding, shrewdness, knowledge, discretion, learning, skill. The prologue is framed as the instructions of parents to their son.
Wisdom is the knowledge of the right way to live, and they give him guidance.
"Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and do not reject your mother's teaching."
(1:8). Though perhaps self-evident,
it bears mentioning: Wisdom is something that can be taught and that can be learned.
The son has a choice to make. Will he choose the practice of wisdom,
or will he be a fool? It's up to him. Wisdom, unlike intelligence, is neither
genetically determined nor a matter of divine endowment. It can, indeed must, be acquired.
The fear of YHWH is the beginning of knowledge; wisdom and discipline fools despise. (1:7) The phrase "wisdom and discipline" is also found in 2a and functions as a way to bind verses 2-7 together as the thematic introduction to the proverbs. Literary analysts call this an inclusion, a device used to bind a literary unit together by repeating a word or phrase at the beginning and the end. Placed before the actual instructions, the "fear of Yahweh" statement serves as the basic postulate of the book. It conditions all that follows and serves as a reminder that even though wisdom's instruction has to do with matters of personal behavior, family responsibility, business ethics, and community loyalty, it is grounded in fear of God. What is the intent of the phrase "fear of Yahweh"? The notion may have originated in that edge-of-death fear that Israelites felt in the presence of God, such as when they were gathered at Mount Sinai after the exodus. But in a wisdom context fear is not to be understood as terror or fright. It refers to the deep awe and reverence for God one must have in order to live properly. One must always be aware that there is a God and that he holds persons responsible for their actions. Knowing that Yahweh keeps account of behavior is a marvelous motivator to wise and proper action. The truth that "the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom" is well-nigh universal
in wisdom literature, found additionally in Proverbs 9:10 near the conclusion of the
prologue, in Job 28:28, in
Psalm 111:10 (a wisdom psalm), and in
apocryphal Sirach 1:14.
There are a couple of further observations we can make about these personifications. Wisdom is a female!--a remarkable concession for a patriarchal society (see Newsom 1989). In part this was linguistically natural because the Hebrew word for wisdom, hochmah, is gramatically feminine in gender. Still, this literary personification develops the notion above and beyond the demands of grammar. The personification of foolishness as a mistress or prostitute has features in common with prophetic literature, especially Hosea, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, which characterizes the covenant unfaithfulness of Israel as whoring after other divine pretenders, such as Baal. Possibly related to the positive portrayal of female figures in the prologue is the concluding chapter of the book. The poem in praise of the ideal woman (31:10-31) may be the flip-side of the wisdom personification of the prologue.
A virtuous wife, who can find? This passage contains perhaps the most profuse positive valuation of women
in the Hebrew Bible, at least women in their role as wives. The description
recalls the positive picture of wisdom, personified as a woman, in chapters 8-9.
There is the hint that the industrious wife is the incarnation of Lady Wisdom.
All the ideal qualities of Lady Wisdom are read into the ideal wife. Or, if the
prologue was, in fact, composed after chapters 10-31, perhaps the virtuous wife
was the model for Ideal Wisdom! In either case, this poetic conclusion to the
book of Proverbs concretizes the virtues of wisdom and recommends it practice.
Yahweh founded the earth by wisdom, This association of wisdom with creation, combined with the priestly notion that
God created the world by the word of his mouth ("And God said, 'Let there be”'")
ascribes a powerful role to wisdom. Some have suggested that this is the closest
Yahweh comes to having a consort, or female companion, in the orthodox tradition
(see Lang 1986). Creation by word and wisdom was
picked up by the Christian writer John who intentionally conjoined Jesus of Nazareth
with creation, word, and wisdom when he started his gospel by saying,
"In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God."
Pragmatic WisdomFolk wisdom often sounds contradictory, taken in the abstract. Take "Look before you leap" and consider it alongside the equally well-known "He who hesitates is lost." Both are correct, in the right context. Likewise, the proverbial advice of Proverbs is specific to particular situations and should not be applied indiscriminately. The collector of Proverbs recognized this and wryly makes his point.
Don't answer a fool according to his folly,
This underscores the pragmatic character of proverbial wisdom. It must be
applied situationally. It is also pragmatic in the broader sense, because
those who follow the wise counsel of wisdom will profit from it and enjoy
success in life.
Wise men store up knowledge, Retribution theology maintains that God uncompromisingly and unfailingly punishes the wicked for their evil deeds, and rewards the righteous with long life and prosperity. The book of Proverbs affirms retribution theology as strongly as Deuteronomy. It maintains the strict correlation between the practice of wisdom and earthly reward, contrasted with the foolish life that leads inexorably to tragedy and ruin.
The righetous will never be removed,
This basic theological perspective of this proverbs mentality will be challenged
and refined in other biblical literature, including the book of Job.
The book of Proverbs looks a great deal like the instruction literature that has survived from ancient Egypt. The Maxims of Ptahhotpe and The Teaching for Merikare are major Egyptian writings that contain advice and instruction of a father to his son (see Simpson 1972). They give practical advice on how to behave and act in business with different classes of people. Much has to do with being a good and effective public servant. So also the book of Proverbs is addressed to the son. The analogy with Egyptian instruction literature suggests that this material may be the court wisdom that was used to train the next generation for effective public service. The Instruction of Amenemope has the most direct bearing on the book of Proverbs. Written in thirty chapters and probably dating to 1200 B.C.E., it has close parallels to many verses in Proverbs 22:17-24:22.
Comparison of Proverbs and the Instruction of Amenemope
Bryce (1979) studied the parallels between biblical and
Egyptian wisdom literatures, and notes that there are varying degrees of dependence,
from direct literary borrowing to "thought" borrowing, which is barely recognizable
because it has been so seamlessly integrated. While there are differences in wording,
Israelite parallels with Egyptian Instruction sayings seems quite direct here in
Proverbs. This could be direct literary borrowing, or it could signal that there
was a common Middle Eastern wisdom culture with universal insights of which both
literatures partook.
Outline of Proverbs
The book of Proverbs is an anthology, a collection of seven collections. Each of the seven consists of a set of short sayings. Only the first collection (chapters 1-9) and the last (chapter 31) have longer subunits with thematic continuity (for example, chapter 31 contains a poem about the ideal wife, 31:10-31). Each collection of sayings is easily identifiable because it is introduced with its own title.
Although it has these seven collections, the book as a whole does not demonstrate any kind of logical movement or plot. Though we begin by examining the prologue, it will make the most sense for us to treat the book somewhat topically rather than strictly sequentially. Job
Within wisdom literature we begin to see a growing theological sophistication
in later books, and the recognition that easy answers will not suffice. The book
of Job is a frontal assault on the glib retribution categories of traditional
wisdom, as represented by the book of Proverbs. The book of Job investigates
the nature of the moral order of the universe by examining the microcosm of the
man Job. There is an obvious misfit between the world of doctrine and the world
of experience. Doctrine says reward follows a moral life. But reality, in
the case of Job, does not uphold that doctrine.
Yahweh first gives the adversary permission to remove all of Job's wealth and family, and then his physical health. Job is reduced to being a suffering outcast. Three friends appear at his side to give him counsel: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. In conversation with Job they attempt to make sense out of his plight.
But neither Job nor his friends resolve the conundrum of Job's suffering. Elihu, another counselor-friend appears, but does not seem to further the argument. Finally, Yahweh comes to Job in a terrifying theophany and commands Job's attention. He never answers Job's questions directly. Instead, he questions Job in a most intimidating way, seemingly belittling Job because he presumed to question the wisdom of God, who, after all, created the world. But in the end he vindicates Job. Yahweh reprimands Job's friends and requites Job with a new family and even greater wealth. The story line is relatively simple. The theological argumentation is not necessarily so.
EliphazHe observes that no one is ever completely sinless.
Think about it. What innocent ever perished? Everyone can expect at least a little suffering in life. Job is relatively innocent, so he will not suffer permanently. He should be patient; his suffering will soon be over. BildadHe applies the theology of retribution relentlessly. He claims that Job's children must have been notable sinners to be treated so brutally by God. No doubt they died justifiably.
Can God get justice wrong? Can Shadday distort rightness? If your children sinned against him, he delivered them over to the consequences of their violation. (8:3-4) Since Job is still alive, claims Bildad, he must not be too bad a sinner. ZopharHe claims that Job must be suffering for his own sin. Even though he does not admit it publicly, he must be a sinner.
You say, 'My principles are pure,Job should honestly face his sin and ask God for mercy. ElihuElihu speaks (chapters 32-37) after Job's other three friends have had their say. He says that suffering is the way God communicates with human beings. It is the way God reveals that we are sinners and that he considers sin a serious offense.
He opens their understanding by discipline, and orders them to turn away from wickedness. If they listen and obey, they will end up with good days and pleasant years. (36:10-11) All four speakers maintain the theology of retribution in some way. Their approach is very much "top down." In other words, they hold a basic belief in retribution, and they try to square Job's experience with the theological principles they hold, rather than developing a theology out of human experience. JobJob has no potent response to his calamity. He argues with his friends and attacks their counterarguments. But ultimately he remains confounded. He just does not know how to handle his predicament.Yet there are certain claims he maintains throughout, certain points he will not relinquish. He never gives in and admits personal guilt in the measure that would call forth such suffering. He often calls on God to reveal himself and state why he is afflicting Job so. He challenges God in what amounts to a lawsuit, much in the manner of the covenant lawsuit popular with the prophets, even though he recognizes that if God actually appeared he would be powerless to respond. This sentiment is amazingly prescient of what would soon happen. YahwehYahweh does not choose to respond to the arguments of Job and his friends, all of which have to do in some way with the theology of retribution. He quite ignores that business, curiously neither affirming retribution nor denying it. By God's bracketing the big question of retribution, the book is saying retribution is not the real issue. God does not conduct affairs on a strictly cause-and-effect basis.Yet God does address Job's urgent plea that he at least show himself. He appeared in a storm theophany (chapters 38-41), but instead of answering Job's questions, he put Job on trial.
Who is this confusing the issue Yahweh continues in this same vein, badgering the witness, and impressing upon Job that he really knows nothing about how God created the world and runs it. Job finally admits that he spoke presumptuously in demanding that God justify his actions.
YHWH said to Job: By now Job seems properly contrite and put in his place. One might have expected Yahweh at this point to coddle Job, or at least lay off him. Just the opposite happens. God launches into a second discourse designed further to impress Job with his omnipotence. He describes in great detail his creation and the harnessing of Behemoth and Leviathan. These creatures have been likened to the hippopotamus and crocodile, respectively, but the overblown language of their description suggests that God is really referring to the mythic monsters of chaos that he tamed and holds at bay. Through the whole encounter God is absolutely overpowering. One might wonder why God felt he needed to react in such an intimidating way. Yet God does give Job satisfaction of sorts, first, in the very fact of his appearing, and second, by putting the issue of suffering in perspective. The important outcome is that God ultimately affirmed Job, in fact had never abandoned him, even though it had seemed so at the time to Job.
Job wanted to know why. But God would not tell him why. This effectively
marginalizes the theology of retribution. The real issue is trust“will we
simply trust God and "leave the driving to him"? Job becomes the model of
the one who suffers, with all the self-doubt, indignation, impatience,
and spiritual agony typical of those in great crisis.
Outline of Job
The book of Job consists of a poetic core surrounded by a prose narrative framework. The prose framework relates the story of Job, including the tragedy that strikes him and his family. The poetic core contains the theological heart of the book, including the dialogues of Job and his friends, and the appearance of Yahweh himself. In the cycles of dialogue each of Job's friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, speaks in his turn, and Job responds to each. The narrative conclusion of the book seems artificial and unsatisfying to many readers--though, perhaps, not for retribution theologians. In the end, Job's fortunes are restored. He was given sons and daughters to replace those he lost, and his former material wealth was doubled. Although Job was reduced to humble acceptance of the power of God, he was vindicated and was told to pray for his three friends who were in the wrong. Yet the ending is far from satisfying. In one grand narrative stroke what we thought was the lesson of the book to this point seems to be undone. The lesson of the book seemed to be that there is no direct and necessary correlation between righteousness and material well-being. Do we now, at the last, see Job rewarded for being in the right? If so, the theology of retribution seems to be upheld after all: Job is in the end rewarded for his uprightness. It almost seems the profound lesson of the theophany (38-41) is deconstructed by the triteness of the "and they lived happily ever after" conclusion. How can we deal with this? Literary approaches to the book abound, and many seem quite able to live with the moral ambiguity of the book. Whedbee (1977) interprets the book using categories of comedy and irony. Westermann (1977) reads it as if it were a biblical lament. Habel (1985) reads Job as an allegory of the people of Israel in the postexilic period experiencing suffering and alienation from God.
"Job never existed; the story is a parable." --Talmud Baba Bathra 15a The ending is the writer's somewhat clumsy way of affirming the ultimate justice of God. Heaven was not an option at this stage of biblical religion as the place where rewards and punishments with be meted out. Everyone, whether good or bad, went to the same underworld, called sheol. Job's reward had to come during his lifetime. The writer responsible for the final shape of the book was willing, it seems, to live with the tension of the freedom and sovereignty of God as expressed in the theophany, the validity, at least at some level, of the theology of retribution, and the reality of righteous suffering. Wisdom Literature in the Hebrew BibleWisdom Literature was treated as the orphan of Israelite theology when the study of theology was dominated by a salvation-history paradigm. The salvation-history approach located the central theological importance of the Hebrew Bible in the historical material of the Torah and the Prophets, which portrayed God directing historical events in order to provide salvation for his chosen people. Since wisdom literature did not directly deal with such matters, and in fact seemed untheological when defined in those terms, it was sidelined as being of lesser importance.The salvation-history approach no longer dominates the study of biblical theology. One of the results is that wisdom literature is now more appreciated in its own right, and as a reinforcement of other biblical traditions. In fact, many important points of contact with the Torah and the Prophets can now be recognized. Common interests are found in their creation theologies (compare Proverbs 8:22-31 and Job 28:20-28 with Genesis 1-2), and in their concern with education and the importance of instilling values in the hearts of Israel's youth (compare Proverbs 1-9 with Deuteronomy 6:20-25). Furthermore, wisdom literature's concern with faithfulness in worship activities, including offering sacrifices, making vows, and praying, shows its commonality with the formal religious regulations of the Torah (see Perdue 1977). The influence of prophetic theology is evident in wisdom literature's strong connection with the Solomonic tradition. Solomon, of course, is prominent in the book of Kings. Traditional wisdom, especially that expressed in Proverbs, correlates blessing with moral behavior. This theology of retribution has important points of contact with the Torah and the Prophets, especially with the Deuteronomic tradition. Wisdom literature rests on a basic belief in the goodness of God's created order. This is one of its premises that gets it into certain theological binds, especially with the issue called theodicy. Literally, theodicy means "the justice of God" and is a label applied to the problem of reconciling the belief that God is a good god who controls the world he created and the fact of suffering and injustice in the natural world. In Israel's case, the issue of theodicy was occasioned most pointedly by the conflict between the Torah--Prophets worldview of a God-given order and the plight of the postexilic community, which suffered at the hands of unrighteous pagans. This issue is perhaps behind the theological discussion carried on in the book of Job. Certainly within the various books of the wisdom literature, and then more broadly between Torah-Prophets and the wisdom literature, there is a lively theological conversation, perhaps even an argument going on, between theologies in conflict. How, then, should we construe this wonder of wisdom literature? Many things could be said. For one, it represents Israel's literary and theological attempt to get behind the phenomena of reality to the underlying truth. It asks the question why. Wisdom literature approaches reality without dependence on divine revelation, a priesthood, or a theology of history. It uses reason, everyday experience, and the power of deduction in its attempt to discern how the power of God manifests itself in the world of human affairs. A further observation is this. Proverbs and Job represent an inner-canonical dialogue on the theology of retribution. The book of Proverbs affirms it unreflectively and somewhat naively. Not to be too hard on Proverbs, this may be a function of its role in providing straightforward moral instruction. On the other hand, the book of Job is a frontal attack on overly-simplistic retribution theology. It shows that the principle of retribution is not the only, or even the most important, factor at work in divineÇhuman relations. The theological dialogue on this issue continues in the book of Ecclesiastes, which we will examine in the next chapter. Ecclesiastes deflects attention away from retribution by deconstructing it. The reality of death levels all rewards and punishments anyway. Retribution is not the real issue; how you live life is.
The body of wisdom literature attests to a lively theological tradition of dialogue
and development within the Hebrew Bible. Upon examination, the wisdom literature reveals
a spiritual and intellectual tradition within Israel that was not afraid to ask
bold and ultimate questions, that tried to make sense out of the diversity of evidences,
and that resisted dogmatism in favor of intellectual honesty. The legitimacy of such
theological discussion is affirmed by the very fact that these contrary voices were
all included in the canon of Scripture. This recognition should encourage continuing
the conversation.
Names and Terms to Remember
Personification Proverb Retribution / Retribution theology Satan Theodicy Wisdom Wisdom literature Study QuestionsQuestions for Review
Questions for Reflection and Discussion
BibliographyWisdom Literature in General
Proverbs
Job
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