Proverbs
|

|
- Authorship
- Case for Solomon
- Reasons for:
- Superscription (1:1) credits the book to Solomon
- 10:1, 25:1 support Solomon as author
- Tradition
- Reasons against:
- Text clearly indicates that others contributed to collection (30:1,
31:1)
- According to 25:1, part of the collection was gathered by the men of
Hezekiah - Hezekiah ruled in Judah long after Solomon died
- 22:17-24:22 bears a striking resemblance to the Egyptian work
"The Teaching of Amen-em-opet" - the wise men of Israel were undoubtedly aware
of the sayings of the wise men of other nations and incorporated some of their sayings
into the Israelite wisdom tradition
- Some sayings occur more than once (e.g., 14:12=16:25, 21:9=25:24) -
seems to reflect that several people worked on the book and that our ideas of editing were
not applied
- Evidence suggests that although Solomon might have been responsibile
for part of the book as author or sponsor, a variety of authors and editors over a long
period of time were responsible for the final form of the book
- Nature of the Book
- Basically a collection of proverbs
- Proverb
- Registers a conclusion which has arisen through observation of
nature, animal behavior, or human conduct
- Aimed at embodying a truth with brevity so it could easily be
remembered
- Summarized many of the important observations and teachings of
Israelite wisdom for use in teaching others
- Literary structure
- No clearly discernible order
- 1-9 seems to be an introduction to the book and to the wisdom
tradition but even the material within that section shows no particular order
- Types of parallelism employed in proverbs
- Antithetic - the second line of the proverb is the opposite of the
first line (11:1) often creating a "this is better than this" structure (15:17)
- Synonymous - the second line repeats the basic point of the first
line in different words thus reinforcing the truth contained in the proverb (4:7)
- Progressive - the second line completes the truth of the first line -
the proverb can only be understood with both lines (14:7, 22:6) - a special form is the
numerical proverb in which several items are listed, another is added for completion, and
the commonality of the items is then provided (30:24-28,29-31)
- Other literary forms employed other than proverbs
- Allegory - an image is used which makes sense on a surface level but
also on a deeper level (e.g., 5:15-23)
- Didactic narrative - a story whose purpose is to instruct (e.g.,
7:6-23)
- Some Theological Points
- Beginning point of wisdom
- Fearing God (i.e., being committed to God in all areas of life) - see
1:7,2:5-6,9:10
- A good life (i.e, a life lived in harmony with God and the world) was
impossible apart from being committed to God
- Categorizing people
- Two classes
- Wise - also righteous
- Fools - also wicked
- Not much middle ground existed - some fools could still be educated
but most were beyond help
- Adultery and folly
- Adultery
- Acknowledged to be an enticing temptation - author of 7:6-23 seems to
have been quite familiar with the temptation
- Leads to death rather than life
- Adulteress treats sex as casually as a daily meal (30:20) - she feels
no guilt and keeps no promises - a future cannot be built upon her
- Adulteress is interested in destruction rather than in love and life
(6:25-35, 7:24-27) - she takes pleasure in the downfall of her victims
- Folly
- Although folly (i.e., living committed to self without knowledge of
God or the world) seems to offer a variety of self-indulgent pleasures, it also leads to
death - no ultimate satisfaction can be derived from commitment to self
- Metaphor of adultery dramatically expressed the temptation to pursue
folly instead of wisdom (9:1-18) - to compete with the enticing adulteress of folly,
wisdom also was portrayed as an alluring woman who required, however, strict discipline
and commitment (8:1-36)
- Wealth and poverty
- Wealth
- Associated with wisdom (18:11) - a wise man usually possessed wealth
- Assumed to indicate God's reward for a faithful life (22:4)
- Did not always or automaotically lead to happiness (15:16) nor did it
endure (23:4-5)
- Poverty
- Typically thought to be punishment for wickedness according to
Israel's theology (cf. Deut. 28:15-68)
- Wise men realized poverty was not always a punishment
- Poverty often was due to injustice rather than to God's disfavor
(13:23, 14:31, 17:5)
- God had created the rich and the poor (22:2) - neither one was
intrinsically better than the other
- Proper response to the poor was kindness and help (19:17, 22:22-23)
not disdain and condemnation
- How to get the good life
- Obey parents - parental advice was to be followed - parents employed
both words and blows to teach their children (13:24, 20:30)
- Self-control both in words (15:1, 17:28) and in actions (11:1,25)
- Subordination of passions both sexual (5:15-23) and material (16:32,
28:6)
- Diligence in work and life (30:24-28)
- Finding a good wife who can be a helpmate and partner (12:4, 18:22) -
because women could also be wise (31:10-31), a wise woman would seek a good husband
- Behavior that leads to destruction
- Falling prey to the adulteress (7:6-23)
- Drunkenness (20:1)
- Laziness (26:13-16)
- Gossip (6:16-19, 18:8)
- Not finding a good wife who can be a helpmate and partner (21:9,
25:24, 27:15-16) - women who were married to bad husbands would also find themselves in
trouble
- Ambivalence of life
- One rule or proverb would not work in every situation (26:4-5) - life
required perception, flexibility, and knowledge of the proper event or decision for the
proper time
- At times what was observed as effective behavior was not condoned as
proper behavior (17:8) - wise men did not engage in such unethical behavior but they
realized it existed and worked and was thus an enticing temptation to folly
- Even more perplexing was the observation that sometimes what seemed
to be the right thing to do was the wrong thing to do (14:12, 16:25) - everyone, even the
wise, would make mistakes, sometimes crucial mistakes
- Women
- A variety of proverbs paint a disparaging portrait of women (e.g.,
21:9,19; 25:24) - the women in such passages appear quite nasty, but the men are foolish
and weak - neither are models to follow
- The Book of Proverbs ends with a description of a model person who is
portrayed as a woman (31:10-31)
- The model woman can do everything well - she is a good business
person, investor, manager; is generous to the poor; and is even a teacher of wisdom
- Many people have argued that such a perfect woman has never existed -
no perfect man has existed either (with the exception to Christians of Jesus)
- The wisdom teachers encouraged everyone to be wise (male or female,
rich or poor) - wisdom was not to be confined to one special group
Much of the material for these notes came from James Crenshaw, Old
Testament Wisdom: An Introduction (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1981), pp.
66-99.
Artwork from a 14th century illuminated Bible. From the Bible
Picture Library Photo Art (c) Christian Computer Art,
1994-97