NOTICE
My friend Nathan sends me a quote every day. The quotes he sends are largely attributed to Western philosophers who said great things in short sentences. I read these quotes and struggle to determine whether what the quote is communicating is intelligence, cleverness, brilliance, or wisdom. I overheard him saying, “I need to start an App where people subscribe with 500Shs per quote“. But I think as the brother plans to do that, he needs to understand that there are several quote Apps on Google-Play and he can only contribute to what is already there.
I thought about him today as I wrote this introduction to the book of Proverbs, and now want to ask him what he intends to communicate in the various quotes he sends. Is it intelligence, cleverness, or wisdom? Is there a difference or not? For the book of Proverbs too is filled with quotations whose quality we must investigate.
TITLE
In the Hebrew Bible, the title is ‘The Proverbs’ and they attribute these proverbs to King Solomon, the son of David. The Hebrew translated as Proverbs is ‘Mashal’. This word can be best translated as a sententious synthetic or antithetic pithy statement/saying that expresses wisdom. The modern proverbial saying might be reduced to a maxim, but to for the Hebrew ‘Mashal’, it is always a principal that covers many cases. It is a comparison or a generalization (Psalms 143:7).
Our English versions do not translate from the Hebrew but instead from the Greek translation of the Hebrew which uses Paroimiae Salomontos (literally translated as ‘proverbs or parables of Solomon’.). The titles seem to imply Solomon as the author of all the proverbs in the book, but is this so?
AUTHORSHIP
The book itself mentions Solomon as the author and a collector/compiler of its contents (1:1; 10:1), including the proverbs copied by Hezekiah’s men (25:1). The question to ask about the authorship of Solomon is whether he wrote all the proverbs or wrote a few and compiled more from other sources.
There are also two batches of sayings from a group called “the wise” (22:17–24:22; 24:23–34). The ‘wise men’ were not just restricted to the Sopherims (Hebrew Scribes) but the Jews had a general classification of wise men and the term was the ‘Hakhamim’. These were the sages and wise men of the community both documented and undocumented.
These Hakhamim formed a recognised order even in the times of Isaiah and Jeremiah. It must be noted, however, that in the book of Proverbs, the Hakhamim consist of more gentiles than those with Jewish origins. In other words, the proverbs in this section were those that God inspired from other nations.
The Book of Proverbs also contains the “oracles” from Agur (30:1–33). Agur ben jakeh (Agur son of Jakeh) was not a Jew but had a compilation of wisdom sayings that the Jews adopted in their library. The name means a brave pursuit and collection of wisdom. Lemuel is another contributing author of the book of Proverbs. The name ‘Lemuel’ translated means “towards (lemo) God (el).”
The school of thought that likes to attribute complete authorship of the book to only Solomon argues that Agur and Lemuel were other names of Solomon. However, this is not true since both Proverbs 30:1 for Agur and Proverbs 31:1 identify the two as separate individuals and indicate their parents and origins as well.
In Proverbs 31:1–9, we are told that the wisdom of Lemuel is inspired by the instructions of his mother. For female wisdom here to be recognized, is largely antagonistic to an androcentric community like that of the Jews. Such could be accommodated by those who worshipped female gods like the Ishmaelite tribes in Babylonia but not the Jews.
The wisdom about the excellent wife that ends the book (31:10–31) is evidence enough that some proverbs in the book of Proverbs are is wisdom borrowed from other nations as the Lord inspired them.
Last weekend, I was teaching at the fellowship and I pointed out that in almost every cult, there is a revelation of God and we do well to investigate it and emulate it as the Christian church. Claude Mariottini wrote:
“Wisdom literature was widely known in the Ancient Near East and Israel did not develop its wisdom tradition in a cultural vacuum. It is evident that Israel borrowed some of its wisdom traditions from neighbouring countries. One good example is the inclusion of Egyptian proverbs found in the “Instructions of Amen-em-Opet” into Proverbs 22:17-24:34”.
OUTLINE
A quick and simplistic outline would look like this:
- Proverbs 1-9 what is wisdom
- Proverbs 10-29 the wise sayings of Solomon,
- Proverbs 30-31 the wise sayings of Agur and Lemuel.
However, we could reduce the entire book into two parts:
- Proverbs 1-9:18 is the Praise of Wisdom. Here, wisdom is distinguished from all other forms of knowledge. It is first presented as a supra understanding and then personified. Wisdom is a created god and it was created before all things and all were created in reference to it (Proverbs 8:22-33). So the first part of Proverbs seeks to define wisdom.
- Proverbs 10-31 is Proverbs as Literature. It matters that we understand that poetic-proverbial instruction was born in the east and it has always been in the oral tradition long before it was even written. Hebrew poetry has always had its Parallelism (thought structure/construction) before it was even documented. Hebrew poetry is different from what most of us know as Poetry. While our poetry frequently is organized according to the similarity of sounds, Hebrew poetry is based upon the similarity of thoughts arranged in parallel statements. Throughout the chapters of Proverbs, what is rhymed is not phonology but ideology and this serves as the starting point in justifying the canonization of the book.
There are five types of Parallelism in the book of Proverbs and these are:
- Emblematic Parallelism: A proverb exhibits emblematic parallelism when the concrete emblem (illustration, type) serves to express, in tangible form, the wisdom principal of the second line. An example is Proverbs 25:23, “As a north wind brings rain, so a sly tongue brings angry looks“.
- Synthetic Parallelism: A proverb has the second line emphasizing the thought of the first line in the same proverb. An example is Proverbs 21:13, “He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be answered“.
- Antithetical Parallelism: Here, two ideas are contrasted with one another: An Example is Proverbs 10:1, “when words are many, sin is not absent but he who holds his tongue is wise”.
- Numerical Parallelism: A proverb uses numbers to structure a thought. An example is Proverbs 30:21-23, “Under three things the earth quakes, And under four, it cannot bear up: Under a slave when he becomes king, And a fool when he is satisfied with food, Under an unloved woman when she gets a husband, And a maidservant when she supplants her mistress”.
- Synonymous Parallelism: A proverb in both its first and second line is saying the same thing in different words. The second line might repeat the first line in a different style. An example is Proverbs 11:25, “A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed“.
Next, I will say a few things about its canonicity and theological use as we attempt a distinctive definition of wisdom and how that fits in the entire theology of the word of God.
God bless you I invoke TRUTH, REASON and FAITH (2Tim 2:7)
Pr. I. T M WHITE
The Gospel Hawker
iTiS Well of Worship Fellowship (John 4:24)
iTiS Well of Worship Fellowship (John 4:24) 