• Difference Between Wisdom Literature and Other Literature
• • No mention of salvation history or even history at all
  • Not concerned with miracles or the supernatural (with the exception of God speaking to Job from the whirlwind - Job 38:1-41:34)
  • Could have been written by the wise of almost any nation - other nations had wise men who made similar observations about the world and its inhabitants and who asked similar questions
• Who Were The Wise?
• • Probably began with the family
  • • Patriarch passed along advice accumulated from his experience and warnings against incorrect behavior
    • Chief threat to the family was sexual - an adulterer was dangerous because he or she demonstrated complete disregard for family solidarity - but the lure of adultery like the lure of an undisciplined life was real and so fathers and later wise men warned against both
  • Royal, professional wise men
  • • Both Egypt and Mesopotamia had a professional class of wise men who functioned within the royal court - this was primarily due to the complex system of writing in both of those nations
    • Although Hebrew was easier to work with than hieroglyphics or cuneiform, there probably was a class of wise men in Israel associated with the court
    • • Jeremiah criticized the wise men (Jer. 8:9, 9:23, 18:18)
      • Time was needed to master wisdom traditions
      • References to proverbs of Solomon, Lemuel (Prov. 31:1), and the men of Hezekiah (Prov. 25:1) imply royal interest in and sponsorship of wisdom
      • Proverbs concerning the king (e.g., Prov. 20:26, 21:1, 23:1-2) imply the passing on of specific court wisdom
  • Wisdom schools
  • • Although possible all along, wisdom schools probably developed after the fall of kingship to preserve the wisdom tradition
    • Agur (Prov. 30:1) and Sirach (Sir. Prologue, 50:27-29) provide some degree of evidence concerning the existence of such schools
    • Schools should not be thought of as modern educational institutions but as disciples studying with a recognized wise man - students and teachers might well have had other jobs for making a living
  • Levites may well have functioned within the royal, professional class of wise men and within wisdom schools
• Solomon as the Father of Wisdom
• • Three traditions
  • • Dream at Gibeon (1 Kings 3:4-15) - Solomon asked for wisdom and was given wisdom by God
    • Case of disputed parentage (1 Kings 3:16-28)
    • • Displayed wisdom which relies on maternal instinct rather than on the law - he knew how a mother's love would cause her to give the child to another rather than see the child die
      • Basic story occurred before Solomon's time and in different cultures - as many as 22 different variants have been found, the earliest of which is believed to be from India
    • Solomon's literary activity (1 Kings 4:29-34) - Solomon was credited with writing far more proverbs than we have in the Book of Proverbs - the majority of his proverbs have disappeared or, as some suggest, never existed
  • None of these traditions adequately support Solomon's position as father of Israelite wisdom especially when one considers the unwise decisions he made later in his reign (e.g., 1 Kings 11:1-13)
  • Other explanations for Solomon's association with wisdom
  • • Some have suggested that the era during which Solomon was king was conducive to the development of wisdom - perhaps the humanism of his age gave birth to a radically new understanding of God's activity among His people - while a nice and possible theory, the "Solomonic Enlightenment" cannot be proven
    • James Crenshaw suggests Solomon was associated with wisdom because of his great wealth - the wise man was supposed to have a good and blessed life, so since Solomon was phenomenally blessed he must have been incredibly wise
• Some Theological Points in Wisdom
• • Wisdom deriving from experience
  • • Practical knowledge of laws of life and of world based on experience
    • Rested on assumption there was an order at work in the world
    • Purpose was to know how to live
    • Resulted in:
    • • Preference of facts to theories - theories were to be challenged and rethought when they proved incorrect
      • Realization that world order and the world were too mysterious to be governed completely by laws
      • • The task of wisdom was never completed - a person could always learn more
        • The wise men were aware of their limits and were prepared to fail in their task - yet they never stopped searching
        • The wisdom of an infinite God could never be learned by finite humans
      • Playful element - it was a joyous experience to be involved in life and the search for wisdom even though the search could be frustrating at times
    • Starting point was the fear of God
  • Theological wisdom - as wisdom became a theological movement in Israel three things occurred
  • • Wisdom became personified
    • • A divine principle bestowed on the world at creation and present at creation (Prov. 8:22-31)
      • At times is hidden, while at other times wisdom extends an invitation to follow (Prov. 8:1-21)
    • Universal thrust
    • • Other nations possessed wisdom too and thus God was speaking to them even though they did not recognize Him
      • Wisdom provided a commonality between Israel and other nations as they discussed the world and how it worked
      • Israel believed its wisdom was superior to that of the other nations because Israel started in the right place with the fear of God
    • Diminished importance of cult
    • • Priests kept cult knowledge of how to worship God in the Temple and His laws but wisdom found God actively involved and accessible in all of life
      • Wisdom legitimated itself from creation rather than from religious cult or institutions
      • Cult was not needed to demonstrate God's actions

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