Wisdom Literature

1
Wisdom Literature

• Wise Service to a Wise God

2
Definitions of Wisdom Literature

• Wisdom literature is often said to be humanistic,
  international, non-historical, focused on
  happiness
• concerned with man and his world and the
  potentiality of the human individual
• announces the joyous news that God trusts people
  to steer their own lives (according to
  Brueggemann)

3
Definitions

• Others asset that the distinctive belief is in
  the sufficiency of human virtue to achieve
  well-being in this life apart from divine
  assistance (Crenshaw)
• however Pro 36-7, 2122, 2826
• because of human limitations, the righteous
  commit their ways to the Lord for success
  (161-3)
• Job found no resolution to his suffering and the
  why be good? question

4
Non-Historical nature

• a noted absence of the historical nature of
  Israelite faith elsewhere
• no promises to the patriarchs
• no exodus from Egypt or Sinai
• no promise to David
• Solomon may have looked at the wisdom of the
  Egyptians said
• lets integrate the best of this wisdom
• Hebrew addition Wisdom begins with the fear of
  the LORD (17)

5
Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil?

• Gen 217
• what is so wrong about good and evil?
• Gen 36 to be desired to make one wise
• Having knowledge of good and evil is associated
  with wisdom
• I Kings 39 Solomons request for knowledge!
• Early conceptions of wisdoms danger
• developing skill at living w/o God
• crafty like the serpent (Gen 31)

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Biblical Wisdom

• Conflates the inductive knowledge of the world
  with a fear of the Lord.
• wisdom that reveres Yahwehs word and character
• follows the path of righteous behavior
• results in life in all its dimensions
• folly values autonomy and follows the path
  characterized by wicked behavior
• results in death in all its manifestations

7
Search for Order

• basic to wisdom is a search for order
• a deed-destiny nexus
• God implanted wisdom in creation
• orderly patterns of law and justice
• can be observed by the wise
• the goal isnt eudaemonism
• a system of ethics of doing good to obtain
  pleasure
• happiness depends here upon faith in God who
  upholds justice
• God allows the righteous to suffer sometimes (Job)

8
The Wooing of Creation

• Creation itself is primordial revelation
• woos people to trust and inquiry
• one can trust this immanent revelation
• yet the natural world is inscrutable
• all is under Gods sovereignty
• God cannot be manipulated with knowledge
• knowledge itself can become our downfall

9
Distinction of Tone

• Wisdom literature is distinctive in tone
• no thou shalts or thou shalt nots
• no thus saith the Lord
• but Listen to my advice, my son.
• Yet the father commands his son to listen!
  (18) and do not yield (110)
• his sayings are to be considered instruction,
  commandments like the law of Moses
• Listening is urgent, matter of life and death

10
Israels Sages

• Israels sages were teachers
• not law-givers, preachers or prophets
• yet they speak with authority
• they claim inspiration (26)
• their counsel is a matter of decree and not to be
  evaluated (Pro 12-6)
• Lady Wisdom speaks prophetically in 120-33

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Emphasis in OT Wisdom

• Wisdom speaks of a world that has been shaped and
  is being governed by an all-wise creator God.
• Pro 319 states that Yahweh by wisdom founded the
  earth
• Pro 47 says he has imbedded wisdom in the world,
  and humans are challenged to seek it diligently
• Read Pro 822-31

12
Wisdoms Inductive Approach

• Wisdoms sages functioned on the basis of
  observation
• found evidence of Gods power and purpose in the
  rhythms of nature
• urged followers to incorporate that order into
  their own lives
• there would always still be matters one cannot
  understand
• 66-11 observe the ant and its work ethic and
  how it is applied to the sluggard

13
Skill for Living

• Wisdom has a moral component skill for living
  rightly
• wisdom is skill in living according to Yahwehs
  moral order
• the beginning of wisdom is the fear of Yahweh
  (Pro 910)
• deep reverence for the Lord that promps one to
  follow his way
• wisdom places trust not merely in the order
  observed in the world but in the God who ordered
  the world (Pro 35)

14
Linkages of Cause and Effect

• Wisdom links together acts and consequences
• Pro 2628 He who digs a pit will fall into it,
  and he who rolls a stone, it will come back on
  him.
• Job questions this in his case
• my experience of calamity cannot be traced to
  stones Ive been rolling
• dogma of retribution is too rigid

15
Jobs Complain

• Jobs calamity is proof positive of personal sin
• Job assumes validity of the retribution formula
  generally
• but he cannot reconcile his own innocence with
  his calamity
• some aspects of experience that transcend human
  understanding
• cannot be forced into retribution formula

16
Element of Mystery

• Some sages appreciated the element of mystery
• prompted consideration of theodicy
• the attempt to understand why bad things happen
  to good people
• in a world governed by an all-powerful and
  all-loving God
• Pro 2024 Mans steps are ordained by the Lord.
  How then can man understand his way?

17
Moral Education

• Modern education focuses on what you should know
  or do
• Wisdom education focuses on how you should be
• character formation is at the heart of true
  wisdom
• Wisdom is a configuration of the soul it is
  moral character. And fostering moral character is
  at all times the greatest goal of education.
  (Michael Fox)

18
Wisdom Mind and Heart

• Wisdom appeals to the mind
• to know wisdom is more a matter of a loving heart
  or than mere intellect
• 122 312 46 817, 36 98 121 1324
  159 1717 198
• Proverbs calls for child-like faith who upholds
  the moral order (822-31)
• Job questions whether there is moral order at
  all! (922)

19
Types of Inspiration

• OT wisdom differs from other types of literature
  by distinctive inspiration
• God appeared to Moses in theophany (Torah)
• to prophets in dreams and visions
• Israels sages observed creation and reflected
  upon it.
• Pro 2430-34 (a sluggards field)
• I applied my heart to what I observed and
  learned a lesson from what I saw.

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Inspiration in Observation

• Qohelet observes cycles of creation (13-11)
• finds it all a chasing after the wind
• or a vexation of spirit
• Job based his reflections on his experience of
  misery
• he found no resolution until
• the Lord made him see the chaos bounded by the
  cosmos within the creation (38-41)